Games to know: Gothic
Roleplayers come in many flavors.
Some swear by the elegant wackiness that is Final Fantasy, others insist on the rules and regulations laid out in Dungeons & Dragons and brought onto the screen in games such as Neverwinter Nights. Then there are the Germans – and their obsession with an unnamed hero in the Gothic series.
Even though Gothic II (widely hailed as the best installment of the series) sold more than 100 000 copies, the games are barely known outside of Europe. This is one of the reasons I included Gothic in my Games to know category.
Gothic is a somewhat frugal game. The player can’t customize his or her character – no green-eyed elves with silver hair here. We all start with the same nameless hero. There is no class selection either – if you want to play a mage, you will have to make the correct decisions in the storyline in order to join a faction of wizards. If you prefer a hunter/ranger type, spend the learning points you get when you level on dexterity and your archer skill. If you want to get lots of loot such as shiny armor and big swords with gems on them, go play Diablo. In Gothic, gear is rare, so rare that upgrading your equipment is, when it happens, something you tweet about.
Gothic is also difficult for casual players. The combat system is accurately described with “a steep learning curve.” Don’t even get me started on the inventory and its non-existing filter or sort functionality. So why should you know or try Gothic? The answer is simple: Immersion. All dialog is voiced. The in-game music is both appropriate and beautiful. The stories are dramatic. You will experience excitement, grief, joy and blood lust – or you will throw the mouse against your screen and uninstall after 15 minutes. I suggest you download a trial version first.
Please note: I recommend you try either Gothic 2, which was released in 2002 and is now sold for as little as 5 Euro, or you choose Risen, of which you can download a trial. Stay away, far away from Gothic 3 (2006), which killed the series like George Clooney killed Batman. Since the disaster of Gothic 3 (a bug is a bug is a bug), Developer and Publisher had a divorce, and each are releasing successors of Gothic. Risen is one of them, a game very much in the spirit of Gothic. Risen has been localized into EFIGS, or should I say EFIS, and into Russian. The other Gothic successor will be Arcania: A Gothic Tale.
