Gothic II
Description official descriptions
The demon known as The Sleeper has been banished and the magical barrier around the prison mining colony on the isle of Khorinis destroyed. The nameless hero who accomplished this, however, had to pay a high price: he lies buried under a pile of rocks.
Shortly afterwards he is revived by the renegade mage Xardas. A new threat is rising: evil armies, led by dragons, are gathering in the old mine valley. Someone has to take the news to the people of Khorinis and help them in defeating this menace. But the people have their own problems: the war against the orcs is still raging on the mainland, and the king has sent his paladins to Khorinis to make sure that the mining of the magical ore continues, now that the prisoners have fled the mine. Many of the former prisoners have now become mercenaries, hired by the farmers on the island, who refuse to obey the king and his minions any longer. Violent conflict seems inevitable.
Gothic II is a 3D action role-playing game that uses a refined version of the previous game's engine and controls. The world is many times larger than in the first game: the mine valley (which has changed a lot in the meantime) is still accessible, but is only a relatively small part of the game now. As in the original game, the player can join one of three different factions, with the choice influencing the player character's abilities, opening up different quests and changing the details of the story. The available factions are the city militia, the mercenaries and the fire mages.
Aside from significantly expanding the environments and adding many new weapons, armor, and monster types, the sequel plays very similarly to the preceding installment. Combat and magic are action-based; melee fights are based on combinations of attack moves and directional arrows. Non-playable characters follow a daily schedule, and many objects are usable.
Spellings
- Готика II - Russian spelling
- 哥特王朝II - Chinese spelling (simplified)
- 救世英豪 II - Chinese spelling (traditional)
Groups +
- Fantasy creatures: Dragons
- Fantasy creatures: Orcs
- Game Engine: zEngine / ZenGine
- Gameplay feature: Alchemy
- Gameplay feature: Brothels
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Skill distribution
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Training
- Gameplay feature: Day / night cycle
- Gameplay feature: Drowning
- Gameplay feature: Goldsmithing
- Gameplay feature: Hunting
- Gameplay feature: Survival cooking
- Gothic series
- Green Pepper releases
- Middleware: Bink Video
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Credits (Windows version)
221 People (178 developers, 43 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 36 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 102 ratings with 7 reviews)
The Good
All the good things from Gothic 1 are still present: a tight storyline with many optional side quests, an (almost) realistic world to explore with many unique characters to interact and challenging enemies to fight.
The Bad
Although Gothic 2 looks exactly like Gothic 1 and the same graphics engine was used I had to upgrade my 3D-Adapter and RAM (512 MB is a must!) to get it running with acceptable performance - and even then some areas are reduced to slide shows. Some magazine reviews claim the game's world to be three times as large as in Gothic 1. I only found a part of the original playground and one new area of the same size, so twice as large would be more fitting. The last chapter of the game is a bit disappointing: a rather small and hastily designed dungeon with a quite weak final enemy and undeveloped storyline.
The Bottom Line
If You liked Gothic 1 You would love the sequel as well. The mechanics and environment are almost 1:1 with some enhancements. The Gothic series offers a unique type of role playing and virtual world.
Windows · by Wimp (65) · 2003
The Good
Graphics are really nice, especially if you can afford to set viewing distance to 300%. This setting is actually necessary if there's any atmosphere and sense of realism to be found during your wanderings. It's still never superior than the earlier released Morrowind but at least it's equal which is something.
Music, though repetitive, is quite enchanting; in particular, the track you hear during the countryside scenes is good enough to add a feeling of unreality to your travels. But again, even this track is pretty short and keeps repeating itself.
The Bad
All the audiovisual sorcery this game offers comes off as unworthy when you realize how utterly lame the ingame dialogs are -- by the point you reach Khorinis, the first town.
Granted, I'm the old school RPG fan, seemingly unlike the previous reviewers of this game. When playing a role-playing game, I still look for conversations that are actually worth reading because they are colorful, realistic and makes the NPCs feel closer to the player. Think Ultima 7, Ultima Underworld, Bloodnet etc.
What I get in Gothic 2 instead are simplistic, superficial and uninspired one-liners, two-liners, three-liners (complete with mostly horrible, overacted voiceovers); reading and/or listening to these you can picture their writer yawning about while making them up.
The Bottom Line
What a shame. Could have been an overall classic if only their creators were either inspired or gifted enough to add conversation texts that are not an insult to the players' intelligence/attention span/imagination.
Windows · by András Gregorik (59) · 2004
Challenging, beautiful, open-ended, smart, long; class gaming
The Good
The game begins where Gothic 2 ended, with a recap of events in the first game for beginners. The enigmatic Xardas the necromancer is the first character you meet, one of a plethora of colorful people who will play parts in the surprisingly long main quest.
The dialogue and interaction with NPCs really stand out immediately. All the dialogue is voice acted and there's loads of it, thousands of lines; in the first main game area, the city of Khorinis, you'll find dozens of characters with their own personalities and unique branching conversations, and every one of them is involved in at least one quest or job which you can take up or turn down. This isn't just for show, either; unlike linear 'RPG's like Neverwinter Nights, the things you say to people will really have a big effect on how the game plays.
The NPCs aren't just believable when you're interacting with them, though; they each have schedules which they will attend to, carrying out conversations with one another, sleeping, eating, working, et cetera. They react realistically when they encounter hostile NPCs or wild animals, sound the alarm if they see you committing a crime, and refuse to talk to you if they don't like you. The priest in Khorinis preaches to a crowd of citizens that gathers, and if you want you can stick around and listen to his lengthy prose as well. It's overall among the most lifelike, immersive game worlds yet brought to a computer screen.
The main quest is pretty slow to pick up; you have to gain several levels and complete a load of odd jobs before you'll be powerful enough to start on the road to the second chapter. This is a blessing and a curse, because while it introduces the open-endedness of the game world well, it's also pretty slow-paced.
The graphics are beautiful. Textures are of low detail in some areas, but this is more than made up for by the excellent character animation, lifelike creatures which inhabit the world, and most of all the verdant world itself in which you can see for miles around if you turn the view distance up high enough. Other fancy effects such as particles blowing in the wind, leaves falling off of trees and (semi-) reflective water are thrown in for good measure, but it's the artwork and level design that really stands out.
Sound is excellent, the best in any RPG I have played. Hitting a creature makes a meaty thunk or a bony crack, feet crunch on pine needles, swords clash off of each other with sharp retorts, and trolls let out fearful battle cries with vivid clarity. The voice acting also stands out; it is flawed because the foreign actors don't always get English inflection right, but all of the actors have character and most are skilled, which really brings the characters to life.
Gothic 2's nonlinearity really stands out. It manages to have a complex main plot and lifelike characters while still allowing you to do pretty much anything you want in the game world. There's a vast world to explore, over a hundred side quests to take care of, creatures to kill (and skin), plants to collect (and turn into potions), swords to forge, dungeons to loot, books to read, et cetera.
The Bad
Gothic 2's difficulty level is very steep for beginners. It actually gets easier in the last third of the game, as some of the creatures are pushovers and a wise player will have saved up enough gold to buy anything by then, but before then, novices will have a hard time getting by.
As mentioned, the voice acting's inflection is off at points. This is rarely a problem, but when it is it damages the immersion.
There are also a handful of glitches in the scripting, messing some quests up if you approach them the wrong way. This is an unfortunate issue, although it never, to my knowledge, gets in the way of the crucial quest.
It also bears noting that Gothic 2 does not manage to evoke the spooky, mysterious atmosphere of Gothic. Since you're playing in a more civilized area, the game just doesn't have that same dark, creepy mood to it. It's a small step down from the first game, but still superior to most others.
The Bottom Line
While Gothic 2 certainly isn't a game for everyone, it is one hell of an RPG. It's slow to pick up, very difficult at the beginning, and marred a little bit by glitches, but is otherwise a largely flawless gaming experience.
Windows · by ShadowShrike (277) · 2005
Trivia
Awards
- 4Players
- 2002– #2 Best PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- 2002– Best PC Role-Playing Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- GameStar (Germany)
- February 13, 2003 - Best RPG in 2002 (Readers' Vote)
- Steam Awards
- 2017 — The 'No Apologies' Award — Nominated
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Related Sites +
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GameFaqs Files
Walkthroughs, guides and maps for Gothic 2 -
Gothic II Cheats
Neoseeker hosts this page which has cheats and tips -
Gothic II Survival Guide
Jim Wahl's file includes tech and support info plus valuable tips. -
Gothic Two Full Guide
by Patrick E. Bryant -
Gothic@RPGDot
Comprehensive Gothic Site for Gothic 1 and 2 including news, commentaries, designer diaries, screenshots and forums -
World of Gothic
Very good German fan-site for Gothic and Gothic II
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Felix Knoke.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Monkeyhead, Havoc Crow, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger.
Game added December 3, 2002. Last modified April 1, 2024.