[Cryofax]

I love a good old school CRPG and have played most, but the Gothic series evaded me. Perhaps I was scared off by complaints about the control scheme. I finally tried it out and what a contrast to some of the newer "dumbed down" RPGs they put out now. Very refreshing and I'm having a great time.

On my newer computer it runs at 1280x720 (720p, any bigger and the font is too small) with 16x antialiasing and 16x anistropic filtering and looks as good as it can. With the FPS patch it's solid and smooth at 60fps.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I programmed my gamepad (Logitech with profiler) for use with it. The keyboard/mouse combo before was annoying and this makes a huge difference.

[.†.MikeL.†.]

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I programmed my gamepad (Logitech with profiler) for use with it. The keyboard/mouse combo before was annoying and this makes a huge difference.

The first Gothic I played was Gothic 2 and what got me in love with it from the first second were the controls and the incredible atmosphere. (Personally I didn't find Gothic 1 to have as great atmosphere as Gothic 2)

[Cryofax]

The first Gothic I played was Gothic 2 and what got me in love with it from the first second were the controls and the incredible atmosphere. (Personally I didn't find Gothic 1 to have as great atmosphere as Gothic 2)

This gives me something to look forward to

[.†.MikeL.†.]

This gives me something to look forward to

Make sure that you play Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven installed (about 5 times harder than the original Gothic 2 and about two times better than it overally ).
I'm actually jelous of you that you have to look forward to such an epic game, honest! >_>

[Bastardo]

Make sure that you play Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven installed (about 5 times harder than the original Gothic 2 and about two times better than it overally ).

I think it's better to play the original Gothic II first, or at least I'm glad I did.

[Cryofax]

Make sure that you play Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven installed (about 5 times harder than the original Gothic 2 and about two times better than it overally ).
I'm actually jelous of you that you have to look forward to such an epic game, honest! >_>

I know what you mean. I turn people on to old school RPGs and once they get past the initial shock of how different it is, they love it. And I'm always jealous that they're experiencing it for the first time! lol Games likes Ultima 6-9, System Shock 2, Dungeon Lords, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind etc.

[MisterQwerty]

The first Gothic I played was Gothic 2 and what got me in love with it from the first second were the controls and the incredible atmosphere. (Personally I didn't find Gothic 1 to have as great atmosphere as Gothic 2)

THANK YOU!

Gothic 1 had a pretty good atmosphere for what it was trying to do, but that made it pretty bad. The atmosphere worked, but it was kinda bland. Compare even the grassiest area in Gothic 1 to almost anywhere in Khorinis. Khorinis is vibrant and lush, but Gothic 1 has a dull tone to it.

[Nisarg]

Compare even the grassiest area in Gothic 1 to almost anywhere in Khorinis. Khorinis is vibrant and lush, but Gothic 1 has a dull tone to it.

Which was definitely intended. After all we're in a prison colony where tons of things have gone wrong, there are so many conflicts, so naturally the grass, etc was better off duller than before. In G2, the Valley of Mines looks much more gloomy than Gothic because there's an all out war there. But the main part of Khorinis was much calmer than G1, so some vibrancy brought out that feeling. Jharkendar naturally conveyed a different feel, with the carefree pirates having the sunny beach, then there was the canyon, the dark and gloomy swamp, where the bandits were, and then one more area, somewhat hilly (I think) which was just plain mysterious. In both G1 and G2, the environment was textured according to the feel PB wanted to convey there, and this is helped along by the music.

Contrast this with G3, where only Varant and Nordmar convey the right feel, but not the Midlands, in which everything is bright and happy.

[UR1Z13L]

I'm actually jelous of you that you have to look forward to such an epic game, honest! >_>

Man, I sure wish I could play those games for the first time again :}
About the controls - I never had any problems with them I used my own custom scheme and it works great.
About the atmosphere - I think Gothic 1 is better it is so moody and the music is just so superb

[CrashMorraKan]

to me Gothic 1 was the best! and it's still the BEST in the series.
i started playing gothic 1 in 2002 and gothic 2 in 2006 after like 6 times my friend finished the game.
so i played gothic 2 for year then bought the NOTR played it until 2008 when the patch 1.72 was released for gothic 3 hah.

[andorian22]

what scared me, as many others are the initials "RPG" ick!
which kept mefrom playing Gothic sooner. If they emphasized
action/adventure it would help. G2 even said it was a hybrid

[.†.MikeL.†.]

Which was definitely intended. After all we're in a prison colony where tons of things have gone wrong, there are so many conflicts, so naturally the grass, etc was better off duller than before. In G2, the Valley of Mines looks much more gloomy than Gothic because there's an all out war there. But the main part of Khorinis was much calmer than G1, so some vibrancy brought out that feeling.

I don't agree with the "definitely intended" part, it's just that the graphics were worse back then, grass is needed in such an inviroment.
Fact is that all gothic fans (or at least the majority) think that the atmosphere is better in the Gothic they played first, people that played Gothic 1 first claim that gothic 1 has better atmosphere and is a better game overally the people that started with Gothic 2 say the opposite. I started with Gothic 2 original, finished it about 10 times then a friend (love you John) brought me Gothic 1 from some 3 years old magazine, I finished Gothic 1 once and then found NotR, finished G2: NotR twice and retired from the Gothic series (played Gothic 3 Xardas' ending but it was way too dissapointing for a game that I waited 2 years impatiently). In the end G2 with NotR was my fav of the series and one of the best games I've ever played, maybe the best (hard to tell). I will try Arcania too once I update my rig.

P.S.
G3: FG was a joke, played for a few mins and unistalled it.

[Stalagmite]

Gothic 1 was a badass game back in 2001. I have a hard time playing it now because the 3D graphics are so terrible by todays standards but the atmosphere is definitely spot on awesome. It's a prison colony so don't trust anyone. :salute: (you'll find friends later as you progress but you're quite naked at first).

It's more rewarding being a sneaky rat at first (stealing bullying lockpicking etc.) then you can work your way up to being an ultimate fighter or mage.

[Nisarg]

I don't agree with the "definitely intended" part, it's just that the graphics were worse back then, grass is needed in such an inviroment.

The blurry look of the textures was due to the graphics being worse back then. But they could still have made the grass much greener (crank up the saturation in some decent image editing programme) than the one in Khorinis, because they weren't technologically hindered by that. The grass wasn't so saturated (by colour) because it would clash with they wanted to convey. The only significant differences which can be seen when comparing G1 to G2 is that G2 allowed more high res texturs, and consequently the textures in G2 were more detailed.

Fact is that all gothic fans (or at least the majority) think that the atmosphere is better in the Gothic they played first, people that played Gothic 1 first claim that gothic 1 has better atmosphere and is a better game overally the people that started with Gothic 2 say the opposite.

G2 Vanilla was my first Gothic game. After that I played G3, followed some time later by G2NotR. G1 is actually my most recent game of the Gothic series, and I have only played it once, about a month or so ago. That was followed by an NotR playthrough, which allowed me to compare the two games.

[Cryofax]

Several hours in and I'm loving the game. It reminds me very much of Ultima 9 : Ascension, another game I quite enjoyed. The biggest thing is the amount of work and care put into the NPCs, their dialogue, their reactions, etc. It's amazing to me that 10 years later most computer RPGs don't approach the same level of detail in this area that Gothic does. Before this game I finished TwoWorlds 2. I had a lot of fun, but the NPCs are not much more than walking tape recorders . The level of immersion is so much greater in Gothic, even though the graphics are very dated. The biggest gripe with the game is the control scheme. You can certainly tweak it and find something quite comfortable, but it's still somewhat "loose" and there's a tendency to get stuck on scenery for both yourself and the NPCs (Mud was trying to follow me and ended up stuck on top of a table in a hut for instance). But this is a small price to pay for a game this fun! The gradual and rewarding progression in skills is also perfectly balanced. This is how an RPG should be done, not the level-scaling crap in Oblivion for instance.

[MisterQwerty]

Mud was trying to follow me and ended up stuck on top of a table in a hut for instance

Is that such a bad thing?

This is how an RPG should be done, not the level-scaling crap in Oblivion for instance.

You are now my favorite person in the world.

[Stalagmite]

Yes, randomly generated loot, monsters, and well...worlds needs to die a horrible horrible death. Another reason to play the Gothic games.

[Fnord]

Randomly generated loot & monsters can work, but it has to be in a game that supports it, and in which it does not turn out to be a horribly balanced/silly mess. Morrowind did it quite well, in my opinion, Oblivion was worse (while both had a system that scaled with your level, it was far more obvious in Oblivion, and thus not as good). Daggerfall, also did the scaling rather well, but it had plenty of other flaws.

Fact is that all gothic fans (or at least the majority) think that the atmosphere is better in the Gothic they played first, people that played Gothic 1 first claim that gothic 1 has better atmosphere and is a better game overally the people that started with Gothic 2 say the opposite.

I played Gothic 2 first, and I still think that Gothic 1 has the better atmosphere. Gothic 1 had a more unique feel to it, which I really liked. Both 1 & 2 are excellent games though.

I think it's better to play the original Gothic II first, or at least I'm glad I did.

I think it, in the end, should be up to the person playing, and how confident he/she feels with games like this. NoTR is hard, really hard, but it is also embedded in the game itself, so you can't simply play through G2 and then move straight to NoTR, you have to play through at least parts of G2 again in order to reach the NoTR section. I for one went straight for NoTR, and never played much of vanilla G2 (my first Gothic experience was with vanilla G2, but I never got very far into it). Actually finishing G2 with NoTR gives you a great sense of satisfaction, you know that you are good at these types of games if you can do it (without cheating).

[Buccaneer]

I don't agree that they intended to make the VoM more "dull" because that's the environment, esp. in comparison to Khorinis being "brighter". A better comparison would be between the Vom and Khorinis in G2. G1 was blurry and dull because all such games looked like that back then, in order to maximize performance (i.e., non-3D objects, simple blocky textures and palettes). If Khorinis was in G1, it would still look like the rest of G1.

[Cryofax]

Is that such a bad thing?

(regarding mud getting stuck on a table in a hut)...

Actually it was a nice unexpected bonus until he somehow worked himself free after several days lol. I'm planning to knock him into a pit of minecrawlers.