Gothic 1 Remake

So first of all, I would rate this game at around 8.5/10. I would recommend it to not only people who played the original Gothic but also to anyone who likes a good RPG with unique world and progression system. I absolutely love how they changed the world in the remake, while still preserving what was set in the original game. The overall layout of the map was unchanged, which makes it much easier for old players to find their way in. But there are some new locations and most of the existing ones were modified to better fit the new look of the game or fit better logically, so it manages to keep being interesting even if you played the original. For the new player, I feel like the changes make it easier to find your way in the game, but it still can feel pretty overwhelming if you won't get access to any map in the beginning of the game. Just like in the original, the music fits the setting very well and I love it. It's not exactly the same, since they modernized some of the tracks and also added some new ones, but they seem very fitting to the overall game atmosphere. I'm not going to go deep into the plot and lore of the game, but I liked how they tried to expand some of the plot threads and they seem like good addition to what was shown in the original. Another thing that is worth to mention is that I really like how they changed the picklocking mechanic, although I have some gripes with it. Overall I liked it, but I feel like there are still some aspects that they didn't manage to fix about them. My main issue is that the difficulty rating on the locks is something that feels like very randomized and not very acccurate. There is some kind of pattern that sometimes syncs two lock parts together, which seems to be the main issue. The highier the level of lockpicking, the less likely it is that you will encounter them, but they still appear even on the hightest level of lockpicking. The main indicator that these locks are way to hard to solve is that the players have created a lot of different apps to automatically solve these locks, so that says a lot about this situation. I think that if they added some visual way to display how each lock parts are connected to each other in game, it would make it much easier to manage and it might even solve the issue with some locks, since I wouldn't have to take out my notepad or any of the user created lock solvers apps. One way to display it would be if selecting one lock part, would highlight all other lock parts that are connected to it and show how they are related to it (in which way they would move). This wouldn't even have to be something that is automatically displayed on each new lock, but could require to first move the lock part to display the connection between other lock parts or it could even be added as part of the lockpicking skill. When it comes to gameplay and especially fighting, I liked how they tried to change the systems that were used in the original, but I also feel like they came up short in some terms. My main grip is that they tried to make changes, but at the same time it feels like they tried to be faithful to the original a little too much and they also didn't take into account some of the things that were present in the Gothic 2 or some of the mods that came along for both of these games. Starting with fighting, I played as a mage and since I was playing this game close to the release (last time I opened the game was about 12th of June), I didn't manage to experience the changes that they managed to add in the further updates/patches. During my playthorugh I felt like while there were a lot of different spells that we could use, a lot of them weren't as powerful or took way too long to cast, which caused them to not be even usable in usual fights. Most of the time I was forced to use either the frost arrow or flame arrow runes, which are the very first runes that you can get and use in the game, since they are very fast to cast and don't use much mana, which can't be said about any other spell in the game (apart from some of the endgame ones). It really felt like nobody even considered that players might try to play mage-only playthrough without using weapons (or at least with barely using them). Good luck beating stone golem that is almost invulnerable to magic without a melee weapon or any summon. Potions and collectible plants are a great example why I think that they made a mistake by not taking into account how it was implemented in Gothic 2 and some of the mods that were developed for both of the original games. I really missed some quality-of-life features that were added in these regarding both how potions work and how plants could be used. In the remake, potions restore a static value each time, which is the same as it worked in the original Gothic 1. During an endgame, even if you have the best potions available, you still have to drink a lot of them to restore full health to your character. If you won't use them much through a whole game then you might have enough of them, but otherwise I hope that you have a big reserve of money to stock up on them. As a mage, I had to non-stop restore my mana, which caused me to use a lot of items and potions to restore it from the start of the game. I really wish that they added that the potion would restore either the static value or the percentage value of health/mana if it would be highier than a set static value. I hoped that my potion shortage would be resolved though alchemy, but once again I was mistaken. Alchemy doesn't only require you to have an adequate plant and the flask to create a potion, but also usually some additional items, that you would mostly find by buying them through vendors, which are also pricey if you try to buy them in bulk. Sometimes if you don't have most of the ingredients for the potions, it's cheapier to buy potions directly, which also seems strange and very expensive. When it comes to collectible plants, I was happy that they added a way for these plants to respawn in the world in the places where we already collected them, but the plants don't restore much health/mana on their own and you can't easily convert them into potions/soups. Most of the plants don't even have any useful receipes that they could be used in, so they just sit in your inventory. Some of the plants can be used for cooking soupes, but these recipes usually require you to also use some rare ingredients. In the remake they have also added the system for simulating economy for the merchants. For example if you would sell a lot of the same item to a vendor, he starts to lower the price for the item and if you want to buy items in bulk, they would start to set their prices highier and highier the more you buy. While I really liked this system, it makes it painful to buy and sell anything in bulk, which also makes it almost impossible to sell your hunter trophies. I also have an issue with inventory, since while it works, the sorting mechanic seems pretty weird (sometimes it appears to be random) and the fact that the same weapons don't stack is an atrocity and it makes it painful to sometimes find some items in it. There are also some bugs when it comes to how NPCs detect that the player has commited any type of crime. This causes them to become angry and attack player, which can break a lot of things and softlock player. from progressing. I once had an issue with whole tavern attacking me, because a day earlier I stole some items when no one was around. At the time it was fine, but later on I couldn't enter the tavern, because they would attack me . Overall I would still recommend this game, since it's well made and you can feel like they understood the original game very well. Most of the issues that I mentioned are parts that could be patched out later on in the future updates and I really hope that they will work on this and will use it as a base for the Gothic 2 Remake that might happen in the future.

Absolutely goated remake! Hopefully they will make Gothic II & III too!

Najwierniejsze odwzorowanie oryginału wśród remaków

Nettes Remake für alle die Gothic damals nicht erlebt haben. Gute Grafik, schöne Welt. Sowohl Story als auch Gameplay sind aber nur mittelmaß und das Spiel hat grade im Endteil einige Bugs. Trotzdem zu empfehlen.

Love it! Now I'll wait for Gothic 2 Remake.

Ahhhhh, Gothic!!! What journey. Gothic 2 in particular, was a special game for me, as it was for so many others, it was my "Elder Scrolls". A european-made, janky, some might say euro-jank heh, special game. It introduced me to open worlds and player-agency at scale. And the reason why like this review so far, and many others, nostalgia is at the centre is because this Gothic remake really does nail it. It's all there. The charm, the progression system, the story, the atmosphere, the freedom of choice and consequence, even the jankiness, it's all there, and it works in this remake. This remake is extremely faithful to the classic, and Alkimia Interactive have done an amazing job here. Even with its retained jankiness, nothing was ultimately game breaking. As an (extreme) example, I finished the game without finishing one of the mail sub-plots - The Free the ore Mine with Gorn one. To be clear, I completed it, just the game got to the end thinking I hadn't. This is known to break often, even in the original, and I think these are the kinds of issues that Alkimia needs to fix up before moving onto their next project. While it doesn't really have a negative impact (save for loss on XP and such), for new players it will seem very jarring. As an aside, I need to give a special shout to Gothic's unqiue progression system because it was ahead of its time back then to the point that it the game itself never got too popular because people just didn't get it - And yet today it's a breath of fresh air people look for. Lest I go deep into it, I almost don't want to spoil this, I'll just say you start the game with your hero not knowing how to even hold a sword straight. And by the end, if you so choose, you'll be wielding it with flurries and combos like an absolute master. This system spreads throughout a LOT of mechanics in Gothic. It wasn't until 2012's Skyrim with the level-as-you-use-it that I recall seeing something SIMILAR, but not the same. THQNordic, thanks for choosing this franchise for a revive. Thanks for giving both old and new players another chance to experience this. Thank you for bringing this back from the dead, but actually doing right by it - It was a surprise. Alkimia Interactive, thank you for remaining faithful to Piranha Byte's original work. Thank you for all the work poured into this piece of art. And thank you for actually entertaining and achieving the prospect of a Gothic series revival. There is a big opportunity here to improve the series (and will all know it could really use some extra work especially between entries and towards the end!). THQNordic, as soon as this one's fixed up as best as it can be - Greenlight Gothic 2! We're counting on you. Having said all that... ======== The one big negative - Unreal Engine ======== The engine is that one thing that will haunt you throughout the game. The prone to glitchiness, the consistent input delays (On the Load Last Save screen after death, I managed to hit the enter key up to 10 times before it actioned.... But this happens throughout the game in multiple interactions, it will have you pull your hair, seriously). I understand, it's not lost on me that it's things like Unreal that have allowed for this limited-budget project to not only remake the original Gothic, but potentially kickstart the whole series of remakes - I understand that, and I am thankful for it, but... ♥♥♥♥ Unreal. It is a bane to the player's goodwill, and that is all.

Отличный ремейк. Та самая Готика по духу. Почти 60 часов на первое прохождение пролетели незаметно. Конечно, есть баги и патчи периодически приносят еще больше багов, но время, когда игра работает "как надо", полностью перевешивает все минусы. Жду ремейк Готики 2

[h2] Gothic Remake is not a bad game. That is what makes it so frustrating. [/h2] After finishing the game, I kept coming back to one question: [b]what exactly is this remake trying to be?[/b] A remake does not have to be a carbon copy of the original. Gothic Remake has every right to its own ideas, changes, and interpretations. My problem is not that the game is different from Gothic 1. My problem is that it often feels [b]different without a clear reason, while at the same time remaining extremely conservative where it could have genuinely improved upon the original.[/b] The original Gothic was a game where its story, world, mechanics, visuals, and progression formed a surprisingly cohesive whole. Its limitations were often visible, but its individual elements supported one another. The remake had the opportunity to use modern technology and more than twenty years of design experience to expand unfinished ideas, fix old problems, and make the original concept work even better. Instead, I often encountered the same pattern: [b]Something that worked was changed, without a clearly better solution replacing it. Something that was problematic in the original was preserved almost unchanged. And new elements were added without considering their consequences.[/b] This problem appears everywhere. The story is a good example. The remake changes major elements of the original plot, but these changes often create new logical problems instead of solving old ones. [spoiler]The Orcs are no longer guardians who once summoned the Sleeper and were betrayed by him. Instead, they apparently want to awaken the very demon who already destroyed them once. This change also undermines the logic behind the Brotherhood of the Sleeper and the Sleeper’s manipulation of Y’Berion. The Focus Stones receive an entirely new origin, but the new explanation is not properly developed. The Sleeper’s appearance is revealed far too early, undermining the mystery surrounding the main antagonist. Baal Lukor’s later breakdown loses much of its impact because the game tells us from the beginning that something is wrong with him. Xardas loses much of his mystery by becoming a walking exposition machine. Tarrok’s story is resolved through a forced confrontation instead of using the character as an opportunity to expand an unfinished storyline.[/spoiler] The problem is not change itself. [b]The problem is changing something without properly considering what that change does to everything around it.[/b] The same applies to the world. Gothic 1 was a single, hostile, cohesive colony. Its locations were different because they used the same world in different ways. In the remake, the Mining Valley often feels like a collection of separate attractions: deserts, beaches, swamps, snow, lava, and other dramatically different environments placed extremely close to one another. Diversity is not automatically good worldbuilding. A world becomes believable when its elements support one another. The remake also frequently confuses [b]detail with design.[/b] The game contains many beautifully crafted models, but a detailed model is not automatically a well-designed one. Some huts in the Old Camp are so full of gaps that it is difficult to imagine anyone actually living inside them. Xardas’s new tower looks more like a monumental fantasy or sci-fi structure than a place built by a hermit who wants to isolate himself from the world. The Temple of the Sleeper sometimes resembles architecture from completely different fantasy and science-fiction settings rather than an ancient, mysterious place belonging to Gothic’s world. The same problem appears in the visual direction. The original Gothic was dirty, harsh, muted, and atmospheric. Its limited colour palette helped create a single cohesive world. Individual colour accents had meaning. The blue ore lamps in the Brotherhood of the Sleeper created a sense of something alien and mystical. The red ore in the Temple of the Sleeper created completely different associations. In the remake, many locations are more colourful, more saturated, and more visually spectacular. But spectacle is not the same thing as atmosphere. The Brotherhood of the Sleeper should feel unsettling, damp, fanatical, and unnatural. Instead, its saturated greenery and warm campfires often make it feel more like a beautiful fantasy environment. [b]The artist’s job is not simply to make everything look impressive. The artist’s job is to create emotions that support the game.[/b] The same problem affects gameplay design. Exploration is often poorly rewarded. A chest hidden behind difficult enemies or placed at the end of a dangerous route can contain the same kind of random loot as a chest standing next to the road: a torch, some beer, and a few pieces of ore. The remake also had the opportunity to improve systems that had already been refined in later Gothic games and community projects. Instead, many of the original problems remain. The progression system retains old limitations, including the 100-point skill cap. The new climbing mechanic replaces the natural climbing and jumping possibilities of the original instead of expanding them. Both systems could have coexisted, giving the player more options. The Orc language is another example of wasted potential. It was presented as an important new system, but in practice the player does not really learn the language. They simply speak to the right characters and unlock another level of proficiency. There are no meaningful puzzles, discoveries, or decisions based on understanding the language. [b]The system exists, but it never truly becomes part of the gameplay.[/b] The same applies to the world’s reaction to the player. [spoiler]After the Sleeper’s failed summoning, Y’Berion’s death, and the Brotherhood learning that their god is actually a demon, the entire camp should be fundamentally changed.[/spoiler] Instead, it largely freezes in place and stops reacting to the rest of the game. A world should not exist only until the quest associated with it is completed. And this is perhaps the biggest problem I have with Gothic Remake. The game contains a tremendous amount of work. The locations are larger. The models are more detailed. The systems are more complex. There is more content. But [b]more content does not automatically mean a better game. A larger location does not automatically mean a better world. A more detailed model does not automatically mean better design. A new mechanic does not automatically mean progress.[/b] Gothic Remake had the potential to be the definitive version of Gothic 1. Instead, it often feels like a game caught between three different identities. It is not a faithful remake, because it changes elements that worked and had a clear purpose. It is not a true expansion, because it often leaves old problems untouched and fails to develop its new ideas. And it is not quite a fully independent reinterpretation, because many of its changes lack a clear artistic or design philosophy. [b]My biggest problem with Gothic Remake is not that it is different from Gothic 1. It is that it is different without a clear rationale, while at the same time remaining extremely conservative where meaningful improvement was needed.[/b] It changes things that did not necessarily need changing, while failing to sufficiently develop the things that could have been improved. There is a lot of talent and hard work visible in this game. That is precisely why the wasted potential is so frustrating. [b]The remake is not a failure because it tried to be different. It is disappointing because, so often, its changes do not lead to progress.[/b]

Świetnie oddaje klimat oryginału. Jako fan serii świetnie się bawiłem. Wydaje mi się również ,że powinna się spodobać nowym graczom. Zdecydowanie będę wracał co jakiś czas jak w przypadku drugiej części

Solid story with a hint of humor. Captivating atmosphere. Gritty, believable characters. I was positively surprised about excellent graphics. Tough but fair game mechanics. Bugs every now and then but not annoyingly often, and there tend to be workarounds. I started with the original Gothic 2 and never played the original part 1 until now. It was worth it.