Okay, it's time to cast resurrection on this thread while it's still freshly dead.
So, I recently found this
video, and it got me into a mood for talking about how awesome
Gothic is and how much I love it. Most of you probably never heard of it, which is understandable, because it had virtually no marketing west of Germany. Still, it is disheartening to see how little recognition it got compared to (spoiler because of the unpopular opinion)
The Elder Scrolls series. So I figured there is no harm in spreading awareness of that forgotten gem of action-RPGs. Who knows, maybe someone will read this post, tries Gothic out and ends up loving it as much as I do.
I don't really want to reiterate what the video says, so I'll just give you a basic overview. Gothic is a third-person open-world fantasy action-RPG created and released in 2001 by a small German studio Piranha Bytes. It tells the story of a convict in a penal colony enveloped by a magical barrier that makes it impossible to escape. Your goal is to make a place for yourself in the harsh society of inmates and eventually find a way to escape, which may or may not involve learning a couple of dark secrets regarding the barrier. The inhabitants of the colony are divided into three distinct factions, each with its own settlement, societal structure, economy and outlook. Each of them also offers different opportunities for progression, which makes aligning with one of them the most important choice in the game. (The sequel, while not set in prison anymore, keeps the three faction system and makes them even more distinct.) I'm not going to talk about immersive design, because the video explains it better than I ever could, but if you happened to play Witcher 3, know that the immersive design choices of that game were, as the developers openly admit, heavily inspired by Gothic. Both Gothic and Gothic 2 are not easy by any means (especially at the beginning), but the progression is incredibly satisfying as you gradually become strong enough to take on enemies that could previously one-shot you.
One thing that is, admittedly, somewhat problematic are the controls, which are rather antiquated and clunky. They get pretty handy once you get a hang of them, though. Just don't use the mouse.
That would be it for now. If you have questions, go ahead. If you feel insulted by my opinion on TES, by all means, come at me. I'm ready to argue.
If, by any chance, you got convinced by this post and want to try out Gothic, a word of caution: if you start looking for more information, you may come across people trying to recommend you to play Gothic 2 with the Night of the Raven expansion. DON'T. While otherwise excellent, the expansion cranks the difficulty up to a ridiculous degree, making it nearly impossible to complete without thoroughly planning out your character progression beforehand. That's because it was originally intended for veterans who already completed the base game and were looking for further challenge. Securing a copy of the base game without the expansion might prove problematic, though, so I would strongly recommend completing the first game before moving on to the second, to get a hang of how things work.
Oh, and both games are only available on PC, so if you only have a console, then well, PC master race, I guess.
Also, the main theme of the first Gothic, just for fun:
