Gothic

The Good
Well, while I don't share some people's enthusiasm for the game, I enjoyed it. The game itself was fun. I think the plot and storyline was well thought out, and I enjoyed how your reputation proceeded you whenever you met someone new. The NPCs' reactions to your character, while sometimes utterly redundant, were a fairly good spice to throw into the mixture. I like the freedom aspect, and how your character can own and defend his own property.

The Bad
While I'm sure that this will be remedied in Gothic 2, I didn't like how you couldn't create your own character. A couple of cheats to change your character's voice pitch, and a fairly vast selection of weapons and armor were the only ways to customize him. I wasn't too impressed with the graphics, because they were a bit choppy. I have a 1.6 GHz Pentium 4, 256 MB of SDRAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 2 Card, so I know that it wasn't my computer. In any case, the controls were a little tough to learn, but once you get used to them, they're not bad. Besides all that, the game itself is pretty good, though it's tough to level up and become more powerful, not to mention the time I had scoring money to buy new equipment.

The Bottom Line
I like this game. I realize I had more bad than good to say about it, but I really don't think it's a bad game. I would say it is definitely worth the twenty dollar purchase, and I don't think anyone will be disappointed when they play it. It does almost exactly what you would expect from a game of its genre.

The Good
"Gothic" came as quite a surprise, when it was released. No one had ever heard about that small German developer called Piranha Bytes, who actually build an own engine for their first product, delivering quite spectacular 3D environments, that still look impressive even today.

The game takes place in some sort of magical prison, a colony, where the bad boys of medieval fantasy kingdom get arrested. A vast area is separated from the rest of the land by a gleaming magical barrier, preventing all life forms from leaving. The people inside the colony are mining ore for the outside world, which is therefor sending food and other important goods.

For reasons, that remain unclear, our predetermined male hero is thrown into the colony at the beginning of the game. He soon finds out, that there are three different factions. First the old camp, where people more or less came to terms with the situation inside the colony. Second the new camp, where people long for freedom, seeking ways to destroy the barrier and preferring to live from plain farming, instead of doing any business with the outside world. Last the swamp camp, consisting mainly of spiritual fools, who smoke too much weed and believe in the return of a god-like being, they call "the sleeper". All of these factions are eying each other suspiciously and you eventually have to choose, which one to join. In typical RPG style, they all have strict hierarchies, inviting you to work your way up by doing missions for them.

"Gothic" features magic and many strange creatures, but it isn't your typical fantasy setting with elves and dwarfs and such. People are living spartan lives in provisional shacks, there's no luxury, no opulence to be found. Folks are ruthless and brutal, their speech not polite and eloquent, but harsh and often filled with insults. All in all, the medieval setting of the game is quite convincingly portrayed, without the usual fairy tale glamour. Many details make the world feel quite real, for example some of your interactions with the environment. It's quite cool, to be able to hunt down some animals, join a campfire, roast the fresh meat over the flames, eat your meal and see your energy refill. Things like day/night-cycles, dynamic weather changes and lots of other stuff, that makes virtual worlds feel more authentic, are included as a matter of course.

You will spend most of your time not in the camps, but out in the wilderness. Rarely you meet a human soul there: people seek shelter in the camps, which are like bastions against the untamed nature – fortifications and heavily armed guards are protecting the residents. All kinds of hungry beasts, monsters and other foes populate different areas of the world, often even attacking and killing each other. Theoretically the vast game world is completely open and you can go where you want, but practically you will be killed immediately, once you make a single wrong step. Since "Gothic" is a role-playing-game, you have to become stronger, before you can explore the world as you like. Many enemies are simply too tough for you and in the beginnings you will often find yourself trying to sneak past them or, if that fails, running for your life.

The role-playing system, that works in "Gothic", is kept very simple, making the game very intuitive to play, but still quite hard to master. You can basically become a sword fighter or an archer, invest points into magic or thievery skills and learn some other things as well. The number of skills and attributes is certainly not overwhelming, but proves to be enough. What makes "Gothic" great, is the way it lets you feel the impact, every time you invest experience points. Concentrating just on the most essential skills, the RPG system is incredibly effective and precisely balanced. You're slowly evolving from a poor loser, struggling for survival at the wrong end of the food chain, to an almost ridiculously mighty super-warrior.

Especially in the early stages, the game is really hard, however. During my first trips into the wilderness, I didn't feel very heroic. In fact, I had no choice but to behave like a coward, trying not to attract any attention, making a safe file for every successful step. Sometimes I could kill enemies with a bow from a safe position, sometimes I was running down hills with several dinosaur-like creatures behind my back, eager for a piece of human flesh. I died very often and it got quite frustrating at times. Seeing certain enemies, I thought, I'd never be able to beat them, but I was wrong. It doesn't happen fast, but through constant, arduous self-improvement you eventually become powerful enough to defeat those beasts, which killed you with a single bite before. It's a very rewarding feeling, that actually makes up for all the troubles, you had to experience before.

As cruel and unforgiving the world of "Gothic" may be, it also is beautiful. The wonderful landscapes will surely not leave you unimpressed, the vastness of the world and its huge majestic mountain ranges make you almost feel small and insignificant. Every mountain can be climbed, every house can be entered, every lake can be swum. It never even bothered me, that the vastness of the world also implicated a lot of walking around. Wandering through the country on foot is part of the experience, which is dangerous and uncomfortable, yet great. The exploration of the world is pure joy and you feel amazed, when you're finally strong enough, to venture into new areas. I especially liked conquering mountain tops. I never found any precious extra items there, but it was great fun, an hazardous challenge, rewarding me with incredible views. This is what this game is basically about: overcoming nature.

Other than for example in the "Elder Scrolls" series, you won't discover new dungeons with every step in "Gothic", but those to be there are huge and often brilliant. Especially the old mine, one of the most well-designed dungeons I've ever seen, is full of atmosphere. Over wooden footbridges, not appearing very secure, you descend into the mountain. Your mission is to kill minecrawlers, scary monsters, coming out of their dens every now and then to scarf down some of the poor workers, which are digging for ore everywhere. To eradicate those minecrawlers, you have to kill their queen, which gives birth to the species. "Gothic" has strong elements of horror and this is a sequence, that serves as a good example. From dim light to shocking sound effects the designers use every trick to create an intense atmosphere.

The Bad
The game starts to lose its appeal somewhere near the last third, when it is unable to bring anything new to the table. I don't know it for sure, but there must be some kind of unwritten law, which says, that every RPG has to take at least 30 hours of the player's lifetime. I wonder, when people will finally stop counting the hours and seeing more playing time as more "value" for their money. This annoying trend has already harmed quite a couple of games, maybe even ruined some.

No one is so stupid to take the number of pages into account, when judging a book. Maybe this is a reason, why most good authors knows, when to stop, while game designers often don't have this competence. "Gothic" is a typical case: at some point you have seen everything, heard everything and done everything interesting, but still the game refuses to come to an end. Of course, you have no idea, that the interesting parts are over and continue playing, only to get the feeling of having wasted your time in the end.

You'll come to a point in the game, where it all gets tiresome and the motivation sinks. You won't discover anything new, as the world is ultimately explored and the final dungeons just repeat what has been done before, only with less style. You won't discover any new enemies and the old ones won't intimidate you anymore, as you've already slayed hundreds of them. It's as well a problem of the balance, which is close to perfect in the earlier stages, but gets lost in the end. Being the almighty super-warrior, the game suddenly becomes uninteresting.

The game's appeal lies almost entirely in the tough struggle for survival, it presents. That appeal is lost towards the end, while the flaws become more apparent. Many things in "Gothic" could have been better fleshed out. There's the storyline, which starts quite promising, but gradually moves into the boredom of generic fantasy trash (and finally dissolves into one of those endings, which rather care for advertising the sequel than a proper conclusion). When the characters then turn out to be flat and uninteresting and the world is devoid of any history, intrigues or other cool things, you can't immerse yourself as deeply in the game as you can in other roleplaying titles. Many classical RPG virtues are completely missing out here, even the non-linearity is only a cheap fake. You can join one of the three factions in the beginning, but these strands are reunited pretty soon. The rest of the game is linear and leaves you no choices, neither are there any interesting side quests to fulfill. Don't get me wrong: the qualities of the game do make up for these shortcomings, but I imagine, it could have been even better, if these parts were more polished.

The Bottom Line
Let the final third aside and you've got a more than impressive first game from a then totally unknown developer, that spawned against all odds a quite popular series. In its essence, "Gothic" is about the human struggle against nature, which is temptingly beautiful, but also cruel and unforgiving. The world is fantastic, yet believable, the rules are simple, yet survival is tough. To describe "Gothic" in a single sentence: a very atmospheric and intense experience.

The Good
You played Ultima IX: Ascension, liked its style and atmosphere, but were disappointed with its lack of true RPG elements. You were fond of the role-playing in Elder Scrolls games, but thought they were too big and random. You even heard about King's Field, but wanted something more sophisticated and social. And here comes a modest game made by a virtually unknown German developer, and miraculously fulfills your wishes.

Already the beginning of Gothic gives you an idea about the game's serious intentions. Set in an austere, semi-realistic medieval world, it casts you into the role of a convict, who was thrown into a prison colony surrounded by a huge magical barrier. You start the game shortly after getting beaten up by local thugs, without inventory, without weapons, without money, in a hostile world where dangerous beasts lurk at every corner and where you have to play by the strict and harsh rules of the prisoner society. Instead of being on a "grand quest", you must first and foremost survive.

There are three camps in the prison colony - large town-like locations with many inhabitants and complex social systems, plus plenty of wilderness areas and a few dungeons. The Old Camp is the most conservative one, with a strict hierarchy of ranks, guards bullying simple people, and a corrupted Ore Baron as a ruler. The New Camp is more rural and plain, its leaders being less arrogant and more willing to help. The Swamp Camp is populated by scholars and religious fanatics, and is a colorful contrast to the other two. Everything in the game is hand-crafted, and although its world cannot compare to the gigantic spaces of Elder Scrolls in size, it feels more immersive because nothing in it is randomized.

Your primary goal is to join one of the camps, otherwise you'll be wandering the wilderness forever, penniless and weak. Each camp has its own unique structure and appeal, and you'll have a hard time to decide which one you should join after getting acquainted with the people's philosophy and performing their quests. The fantastic non-linearity of the game (especially in its first part) makes it possible to carefully navigate your way through the camps, choosing any quests you like, and in the end of the first chapter join the camp you liked most.

Unlike most RPGs, where you immediately embark on an "epic journey" and travel to distant lands, in Gothic you will have to care first of all for your social career. It is very interesting and rewarding (not to mention realistic) to talk to various people, get small assignments, establish connections, and finally make people trust you - all that in such an unusual place as a prison colony. You don't expect anybody to treat you nicely, but if you prove yourself loyal and strong, you will evoke respect in the prisoners, and it is through respect that you'll be able to dedicate yourself to more important matters in the second part of the game. You'll find friends willing to help you in all the three camps, rewarding you for your hard work.

The whole point of traditional role-playing is to train your character and watch how he turns from a wimp into a mighty warrior. Well, Gothic has everything to satisfy your needs, and the idea of getting stronger fits the concept and the story of the game like a glove. You start the game as a nobody. You don't dare attack a small group of scavengers. A wolf can kill you in one hit. You are totally broke, have no armor, and your weapons are pitiful. Near the end of the game you are able to take out an entire orc village, complete with dozens of huge warriors armed with strong two-handed weapons. You can kill demons in two hits, and a pack of wolves can't even scratch you, no matter how hard they try. You have to work hard to get better equipment, earn more money, gain higher levels. Every battle counts, every wild animal is a challenge, every area is potential death.

This leads to some frighteningly realistic experiences of the kind I highly value in games. I remember the horror I had when I strayed from the path between the Old and the New Camp early in the game and was attacked by three vicious snappers. I was killed before I even noticed what was going on, seeing only the dead body on the ground and the wild dinosaur-like beast ferociously circling it. In the next chapter, I took the three animals out with three hits.

I wouldn't go into so much detail if I weren't genuinely excited by the feeling of growth and achievement this game provides. Nothing can compare to the feeling of satisfaction when you are finally able to defeat the foes and to explore a new, unknown area, and Gothic strikes the perfect balance there. You can't just go somewhere and start gathering experience by killing tons of weak monsters. You have to explore every corner of the world, avoiding dangers, finding hidden treasures, and fighting what you can handle. Money is generally hard to get. You'll be better off learning various hunting skills and selling animal pelts, or stealing things.

Leveling up alone won't do the trick: every time you level up, you only get a HP upgrade, but if you want to really become stronger, you should learn different skills from various people. You can just upgrade your strength, dexterity, or magic points, or you can advance in circles of magic, learn to be a silent assassin, or master various kinds of weapons. You can choose to play the game as one of the three general classes - warrior, ranger, or mage. It is well possible to combine various combat styles, and to be a fighter who occasionally uses magic, or a mage who likes fighting with a crossbow.

The combat of Gothic was often criticized for its "awkwardness", but in my opinion it is excellently designed and not awkward at all. The fact you can't use "quick items" and the enemies don't wait for you while you are drinking a health potion doesn't make the combat system bad, on the contrary. It might be uncomfortable to fight several enemies who team up and attack from different sides, but it is certainly more rewarding than to hack them to death by merely clicking on them. The battles in the game are furious, you'll die a lot, but this is all part of RPG enjoyment. You can perform different strikes and parry, or use ranged attacks. Bows and crossbows serve you very well in the game, especially in the beginning when your only chance to hit an enemy is to do it from the distance. Then, of course, there is magic. The magic system is fairly simple, but an interesting touch is the necessity to equip spell runes or scrolls as weapons: you can't cast spells while wielding a sword or a crossbow.

The world of Gothic is not as marvelously interactive as in Ultima IX, but there is still a lot to do. You can climb, jump, and swim; although you can't manipulate all the objects, you can do nice things such as hunting animals and getting their pelts or claws, roasting meet, making weapons from ore, etc.

Of course, Gothic wouldn't be the same without its fantastic graphics. Done in 3D, with full camera rotation, viewed from over-the-shoulder perspective, game's world is truly magnificent. Particularly stunning is the beauty of the nature: just climb on any mountain or tower and look down, and you would simply want to stay there for a while and enjoy. Beautiful light and weather effects bring the world to life. At the same time, everything seems to be very simple in Gothic: no exotic plants, animals, no unusual landscapes, no strange and extravagant buildings. It is, in fact, a fairly small and bleak region of a supposedly vast medieval world, but one crafted with care and love.

I would also like to mention the excellent sound effects. Visit the Swamp Camp at night and listen to the surrounding sounds, or fight some harpies in one of the towers and hear their beastly screams. The music is not overused in the game, the soundtrack seems to serve only as background, but if you listen to it carefully, you'll discover its quality and its importance as an addition to the atmosphere.

A word about version differences: from what I heard, the English version doesn't have the rock concert, censors a scene with nudity, and apparently doesn't translate the script very well. That is a pity, so if you know German, get the original version.

The Bad
Gothic is not without flaws. There are some bugs, mostly of the visual kind - you might get stuck in the graphics, fall down through the floor, walk through things; characters tend to stand right inside you when talking. CG cutscenes are of surprisingly low quality and almost look worse than in-game graphics. It would have been better to make the whole game entirely with the engine and not bother with the videos.

The plot of Gothic starts in an original and promising way, but gradually regains more and more cliches and throws itself back into the past. It is as if the developers were afraid to be original till the end. The more you play, the more corny stuff gets in your way, until you begin hearing once again about being the only hope and even fulfilling a stupid "ancient prophecy".

This descent into the trivial affects the gameplay as well. Once you finally become cool and powerful, you are sent on a generic quest that leaves little room for experimentation, securely guiding you to the final destination. In a way, that wasn't too bad because it allowed me to release the stress accumulated during my pauper times by marching forward and feverishly hacking big monsters in a temple. It's just that the first part was so unusually good that these activities seemed disappointing.

The Bottom Line
Gothic is a remarkable achievement. Brought to us by a small company no one has ever heard of, without any experience in game-making, it was able to find its way into the elite of modern RPGs and establish a loyal fan community that appreciated its uncompromising gameplay and beautifully crafted world. A bright future lies ahead of this title, and here's hoping more games will learn from it.