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[Vieo]

I never knew this game existed until like a week ago. I tried to track it down, but it was sold out every where. Then I found a copy of the gold edition at CompUSA. It was listed for $19.99 on their website, but they only charged me $9.99 for it. Maybe it was a glitch.

Anyway, I've been playing this game like crazy and almost couldn't put it down. It's like Morrowind, but a lot better in every aspect except character customization(which appears to be totally absent) and I'm guessing mods(Morrowind is unparalleled in mods). The game world is really fleshed out; for some reason it reminds me a lot of Ultima IX(the good parts ).


Given how awesome this game is, I don't know how in the world it could have passed under my nose without my noticing. I usually never miss a good CRPG.

 

[MattKeil]

A lot of people (like me) have trouble dealing with the godawful (and non-remappable) control scheme. If you can get past that, there's a whole lot of greatness to be had. Gothic 3 is on the way, and rumor has it they're out to give Oblivion a run for its money in the visuals department.

 

[Xenon]

Yes, prob the best action RPG I've ever played. Its like Morrowindwith in its open ended play but scaled down(map size), with a much better combat engine, and some personality. The gold version includes Night of the Raven add on which has eluded the US for a few years now(Thanks ATARI). $9.99 is a fucking steal for both! Many fans of the game had to import the add on from europe and have custom voice and subtitle packs installed to play it.

Looks like I'm hitting comp USA tomorrow.

lot of people (like me) have trouble dealing with the godawful (and non-remappable) control scheme.

Playing without "gothic 1 control" makes it managable. Though after you play the game enough the control sceme does make sense. One thing that bothers people is no hot key for potions. But the creaters didn't think it made sense to be able to heal in the middle of a fight. If you want to you have to open your inventory and grab it. A bitch, yes. But doable.

 

[Blackace]

So this is considered an ARPG? and Morrowind? ha...

Anyways.. the controls are bad and I never felt they made sense..but the game is awesome and character development is off the chain.. I lve making whatever kind of character I want.. it is so rewarding later in the game when you are kicking ass as a mage, or a fighter because you made your character that.

 

[pj]

Here are my thoughts on the game:

I just finished up gothic 2.

I was told by quite a few people that it was like morrowind, but better.






WRONG, the only things that are better is the: program stability, music and world design.

The combat is fucking disgusting. Morrowind's may have been boring but it wasn't so clunky and counterintuitive that every single battle could end in death.

Another big problem is that certain things require very specific actions that are easy to miss, which leads to frustration (ie You get a book from some guy that proves some other dude innocent, and you're supposed to show it to the boss, but the option isn't there when you talk to him. The thing I missed was that you have to READ the book before you talk to him. Why the fuck do I have to read the book? I already know what it says. The other one I can remember is lockpicking. I didn't learn lockpicking until about 45 minutes before I beat the game because I didn't know how to make the carpenter trust me.).

The difficulty is absurd early in the game. For the first maybe.. 10 hours of the game, if you see more than one enemy, even if it's the weakest bastards in the game, you HAVE to inch towards one and lure it to you, kill it, then repeat until you've killed the group. You can't use arrows or magic on them because that will alert the whole fucking group. The valley of the mines is the worst offender in this regard. Most of the time it's impossible to pick off an orc since there are so many of them grouped together and they have VERY GOOD EYES.

Adding to the frustration of the enemy difficulty is the bad collision detection and animation system. I won't go into detail because I'm started to get bored typing this, but the main problem is the very liberal range on enemy melee attacks and the fact that you can't start running while you're changing weapons, and you can't draw a weapon while backing up.

Balance is another big issue in this game. The beginning is incredibly hard, but the end is ridiculously easy. Once you get the paladin runes you can take down orcs in 2-3 hits (I killed ALL of the ones around the valley of the mines castle), from very far away and it just becomes a matter of not running out of mana.

The last problem I have is that there's not enough item variation and nothing you get feels like an actual reward.

The game's not all bad, though. The quests are quite varied and generally good, the music is excellent, sound effects are pretty good, the story is quite compelling, the fact that there's no load screen when you teleport is awesome, and the amount of choices you get is very good, so good that I could replay the game and probably have a totally different experience, but I won't because of all the problems.

I know I spent more time complaining about the bad than praising the good, I guess that's a side effect of spending so much time on the internet, but don't get me wrong, it's a very good game. I'd give it an 8 or 8.5..


P.S. I know no one cares since this game is so old, but I wanted to vent
P.P.S. I just remembered another problem.. YOU CAN'T PLAY AFTER THE CREDITS. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THAT? The world didn't blow up, the majority of NPCs didn't talk about the thing I defeated, why couldn't I go back and wrap up the side quests?

Btw, you can add support for potion hotkeys by adding a line to the config file. It's somewhre on this site. Also, I'm pretty sure you can remap the controls, but that doesn't fix the clunky responsiveness.

 

[Xenon]

So this is considered an ARPG? and Morrowind? ha...

What else would it fall in? Its not a standard rpg. Sword hits are not based on a % like Morrowind. You swing and if lands you get a hit. Unless its blocked with a shield or something to that effect. Fireballs are shot and have to be aimed. Its more Zelda than Morrowind as far as combat is concerned. I compaired it to morrowind due to it immersive world.

I lve making whatever kind of character I want.. it is so rewarding later in the game when you are kicking ass as a mage, or a fighter because you made your character that.

Yeah I cant wait to get the Night of the Raven pack to run through the game again as a mage. I went through the first time as militia.

Btw, you can add support for potion hotkeys by adding a line to the config file. It's somewhre on this site. Also, I'm pretty sure you can remap the controls, but that doesn't fix the clunky responsiveness.

Yeah I know. I did it the first play through. I kind of regret it though. Some of my victories felt cheap. Next play through I'm doing as the designers intented, no potion hot keys.

 

[Korranator]

So it the expanison any good?

 

[LAMBO]

I loved gothic 2.

Spoiler

Spoiler

I love it when you first see the second part of the world(I think it was called the valley). Walking up to that castle in the middle of a seige, and realizing that the game world has just doubled in size was fantastic.

 

[Blackace]

What else would it fall in? Its not a standard rpg. Sword hits are not based on a % like Morrowind. You swing and if lands you get a hit. Unless its blocked with a shield or something to that effect. Fireballs are shot and have to be aimed. Its more Zelda than Morrowind as far as combat is concerned. I compaired it to morrowind due to it immersive world.

Well not to be a stickler.. but old PC RPGs were always made like this minus the 3D 3rd person view..

 

[Monk]

My favourite past was how the world was so seamless and how much it freed the exploration aspect of the adventure. Just for fun i decided to traverse mountain from the start and i ended up in the entrance to the valley fighting orcs(but never could kill one, but i can close). On that note it is one of the few rpg's that required skill in combat. That had a big impact on the difficulty of the game and lead to a lot of complaints on the difficulty of the game.

 

[Blackace]

My favourite past was how the world was so seamless and how much it freed the exploration aspect of the adventure. Just for fun i decided to traverse mountain from the start and i ended up in the entrance to the valley fighting orcs(but never could kill one, but i can close). On that note it is one of the few rpg's that required skill in combat. That had a big impact on the difficulty of the game and lead to a lot of complaints on the difficulty of the game.

RPGs that let you get killed or allow you to kill things you are not suppose to by luck or some other method.. (hit and runs) are awesome..

but the controls still sucked

 

[Monk]

RPGs that let you get killed or allow you to kill things you are not suppose to by luck or some other method.. (hit and runs) are awesome..

but the controls still sucked

If you thought the control sucked i hate to think what you thought of gothic one, even i found it to be horrendous. And i have to say the art is pretty good for a pc rpg from the euros. I just got a game called gooka:the mystery of janataris, the name should have been a clear warning sign, but the back looked bearable. But how wrong was i, the art is just SO bad, so little polygons but insane textures and they couldnt even get the middle split in the hair right >_<. People complain about a mish mash of textures but this game has texures from early psx level to late ps2 levels.

 

[Blackace]

If you thought the control sucked i hate to think what you thought of gothic one, even i found it to be horrendous. And i have to say the art is pretty good for a pc rpg from the euros. I just got a game called gooka:the mystery of janataris, the name should have been a clear warning sign, but the back looked bearable. But how wrong was i, the art is just SO bad, so little polygons but insane textures and they couldnt even get the middle split in the hair right >_<. People complain about a mish mash of textures but this game has texures from early psx level to late ps2 levels.

Art is pretty nice in Gothic II... and to answer your question about the first one they were pretty much unuseable for me.. GII sucked.. but I could use them..

 

[-SD-]

Whoah!!! It's very heart warming to see Gothic getting the much deserved love around these parts of the internets

Gothic games are truly unparalleled action/adventure/RPG games. The absolute best in the business. I think you already guessed that I'm waiting for Gothic 3 like the second coming of the (cyber)messiah

 

[antispin]

I loved this game. Can't wait for Gothic III.