User reviews

Wowwwwww It's the king of all RPG'S, the best game ever created with plenty adventure and action . When I played this game i was touched somewhere in my heart, i started to play this game permanently until i was tired or hungry . The story is very amazing and captivating which surprises you in every turn.The world is constantly changing, throughout the game sudden events will change the world and entire relationships between several groups. NPCs have daily habits, sleeps at night, gets up in the morning, goes to work, and talks to other NPCs. Monster AI, Monsters cooperate with each other and figure things out. If a monster finds a better weapon it will use it.In the game you will pass a lot of different riddles that will take you to places where you can find stronger weapons or you can improve your equipment. If someone's not interested in the more difficult riddles, it is possible to go throughout the game and only solve the easier ones.

CONS:

• Outdated graphics (understandable since game is from 2001)
• Clunky controls (you get used to it, but feels very weird at start)
• No crafting shortcuts (ex. if you want to grill 50 meat you have to go through "grilling" animation 50 times)
• Navigating through menu can be annoying

PROS:

• Great story
• Absolutely immersive
• Perfect map size (memorable world - quality>quantity approach)
• No annoying cinematics
• You can climb almost everything
• Actions have cons
• Minimal loading screens (there are almost none)
• Fighting animation improves / changes as you improve abilities (ex. at start you hold one handed sword with two hands, but after you learn ability you swing it better, and hold it with one hand)
• You learn abilities through teachers (as opposed through "magical" UI like in other RPG's *cough* skyrim *cough*)
• There are no "invisible walls" that you cannot go through, but instead map boundaries are defined by smartly placed enemies that will kill you (if you cannot kill something it means you are not ready for it, and you should go other way and get stronger)
• Map is an actual physical object that you have to buy, and some dangerous areas are left hidden in map because dangerous beasts live there so person giving you map doesn't know what is there (that section can be "unlocked" when you meet strong NPC who has been there - he draws it on your map)
• One of the only games where NPCs actually help you out a lot, to the point where you actually wish to help them, same applies in reverse, some will bully you around and you will want to take revenge later (oh boy does it feel satisfying)
• All of the side quests are carefully thought out, and are equally interesting as main quest
• You can transform into different beasts making it possible to avoid certain enemies / enter secret locations (great for speedrunners / 2nd playhtough)
• Enemies can get mad at you and stop talking to you
• Actions have consequences!
• Night and day cycle - guards have shifts, their own routine
• You can do parkour (when you unlock "acrobatics" you can dash around and jump from building to building)
• When you craft items you have to physically do whole process (ex. heating sword, hitting it with hammer, dropping it in water, and sharpening it)
• Lockpicking is very interesting - mini memory game
• Chest items are not random but carefully put in depending on how hard it is to reach it
• NPC's react when you walk into their house / pull out weapon in middle of city
• Animals don't attack you immediately, but give you warning first / chance to go back

List goes on and on, but sadly my fingers started to hurt :P It's a game that literally comes once in a 10 years (alongside Gothic 2, which is also amazing)

Would recommend it to anybody! Just note that it is necessary to look for mods online because it is still 2001 game and needs some additional work to make it run on modern system (Windows 7, 8, or 10). Thankfully there are some YouTubers who made this process trivial.

I first saw the game in an Internet cafe, back when that was the only way for me to play online games. I had only noticed the player character had a funny jump. I then got my hands on a pirated copy and that was it, no more social life for a couple of weeks. It was the first time I got really immersed in a video game. For the first time, I was able to explore a pretty big world, I had to figure out what to do next and to git gud, because you start out really underpowered. (Of course, this was nothing compared to Gothic II, which had a bigger world and improved graphics and mechanics; Gothic III continued the trend, but it was pretty much the only game I wasn't able to finish because of bugs.) Immersion in video games has advanced tremendously, but in 2001, you could hardly do better than Gothic.