I lost my ID
The main character of Gothic never reveals his name to the player. He does have one, and he knows it unlike those BS characters with amnesia, but whenever he's trying to introduce himself, someone interrupts. How rude!
You are sentenced to life in prison colony, for unknown crimes. A prison colony which, as we learn from a cut-scene, is surrounded by a magical barrier, which turned out to cover a much wider area than planned, and the ritual mages got trapped inside aswell. Not only that, but recently there has been an uprising, and now the prisoners run that place. It is an unfortunate turn of events, especially now, when orcs are pressing very hard on the kingdom and the colony was a very important source of rune ore. Nothing that once enters the barrier will ever exit it, so reclaiming the colony would mean loosing many lives.
And so the king is forced to trade with the filthy prisoners, unable to crush them. As the intro shows us, the prisoners are getting anything they want, including female slaves. Yes, the ore is that precious, and yes, unlike other games, in Gothic males and females are not equal.
At any rate : At some point the prisoners split into three factions. Each with their own hierarchy, each with their own camp, each with their own type of magic. The old camp is located in the centre of the colony, in the old castle used by the guards. It's home to Fire Mages. Ruled by Gomez, the old camp is what you would call fundamentalists
The new camp, set up in the mountains, are mercenary types. Their mages mastered the water element. Led by Lee, they want nothing more than to break free from this cursed place.
The last camp is mysterious. They reside in the dangerous swamps, and are true fanatics. The magic they command.. well, that you'll have to discover on your own!
As you can see there is no "We have to save the world!" plot
I require five units of muck, stat.
Gothic is filled with quests, and all sorts of them. Starting from bread and butter "bring me five rocks", through long escort quests to ones that even mentioning would be an unforgivable spoiler. Regardless, i haven't found a single quest to be too boring, even though some insulted my position as the ruler of the universe. The side quests are ALL optional, and some offer multiple ways of solving them. More often than not you'll be asked to do, for example : three things out of four. This is always the case with faction joining quests. You're to build yourself some reputation with important society members, the more you get the better, but you don't have to do tasks for all of them.. and sometimes you may not be able to. Which, no matter how wrong it sounds, is a good thing.
You can join only one faction, and your choice is final. Each one gives you differend quests, and progresses the storyline in a sometimes slightly, sometimes completely differend way. I assure you that if you beat the game once, and enjoyed it, you will enjoy two more rides (with differend factions, using differend weapons and magic, solving differend quests)
What's up with this ceiling?
Even though quite a few years have passed, Gothic's locations still present themselves very nicely. The world itself isn't too big, but you have complete freedom and can go wherever you like - if you can handle whatever may lurk in there. That's right! You can go to orc lands straight of the bat, but prepare yourself to be slaughtered.
A big, stone castle, a giant obsidian tower, deep, crawler infested mines, undead-filled tombs, dense forests.. Gothic has it all! And since you can climb, even mountains can hold some secrets, and more often than not - will.
Left side, many whelps!
The time has come to talk about combat, enemies and in general ; fun. In Gothic you are in total control of your character when it comes to combat. You decide whether or not you want to swing from the right side, or perhaps left one, or maybe do a left, left, right, spin combo. There are also parry and dodge mechanics. Ofcourse at first you will have no abilities whatsoever, and any spectacular moves will be out of your reach, but a few training sessions and killing.. or self-defending yourself with a sword if you prefer.. will be much easier.
You can practice your abilities on the arena in the old camp, and it is recommended that you do so. Regardless of what path you may choose, it's always good to have at least basic skills in melee combat, if only to survive long enough to get something more fitting your taste.
Speaking of combat, since it's a convict colony we're talking about, you will have to fight for every right. At the same time any crimes that you (or anyone else) commit and get caught will be punished by the guards. Unlike in some other RPG's, the guards will NOT hunt you relentlessly and kill for stealing an apple. Most NPC's in the cities will not deal a killing blow to you, and while fighting someone within walls, you too will not kill anyone automatically. Once the opponent falls unconcious you will have to finish him off, should you want to.
Beware however, as punishment for murder is death. Naturally animals, beasts, bandits, orcs, undead and others will not just knock you out!
Speaking of which, this game hosts my favourite type of orcs. Big, mean, strong. With emphasis on big, mean and strong. In D&D, or Tolkien books or any other world for that matter you would rather name them trolls, as they are much bigger than you. Worry not, there are trolls in Gothic too, and they are an enemy to behold.
The variety of spells isn't breath-taking, but each and every one of them has its uses, and i couldn't complain at the possibilities that i've had. Weaker spells are still useful late in the game, as the stronger the spell, the more mana it consumes, and using Meteor Swarm to kill a single skeleton isn't the brightest of ideas.
The only thing that Gothic magic system lacks, are defensive spells, that would help you fighting hostile sorcerers. Here magic is mainly a tool to deal damage.
Call me mr Cargo
There many differend weapons that you can use, each with its own quality and damage. The damage is the only thing that is listed, aside from name, so you will have no problems choosing which sword, axe or bow to use.
There is an equal number of misc items, potions, food, herbs and other, but there are ony a few avaliable armors. Each one very hard to get. The only easily obtainable armor are some rugs, that don't protect from anything more dangerous than a ladybug, and since there are no ladybugs in Gothic..The easiest way to get better armor is to join / advance in a faction.
That's quite a lot to carry on your own, but do not worry! Our unnamed character has pockets bigger than a street salesman. Ten swords? No problem. Five hundred potions and ten swords? No problem. A 1:1 replica of Boeing 747? No problem. The backpack can hold it all and then some. While i understand the reasons behind this - in full set of plate you wouldn't normaly be able to carry much more than your sword - i must say that i don't like it too much.
Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits
Sneaking around can be a big part of the game, as some monsters, and all humanoids, can be caugh with their pants down. If you manage a sneak attack with a ranged weapon, you will most likely kill your foe in one attack, or at least take a huge chunk of hp out. Sneak melee attacks are simply deadly, but very hard to pull off, and impossible against anything that can smell you. But sneaking isnt just a way of taking out foes easier, or avoiding combat altogether..
In camps it will allow you to enter people's shacks and steal from them. In Gothic, unlike other RPG's, people do not want you entering their homes, and will keep an eye on you, should they decide not to just kick you out. Your only chance of getting to their valuables is to sneak in when they either : sleep, aren't inside or turned the other way. If you wish for the burglary to be a complete success however, you will also need to learn how to pick locks. Lockpicking isn't done automatically. You'll have to do the hard work of cracking the combination. There are only two possible moves, left or right, but the sequences can be as long as it gets. Cheapest of chests may open after just one wrist move, while i've seen one that took around twenty hits. Should you guess incorrectly, you will have to start again, and there is a chance (based on your skill in lockpicking) that your pick will break. The combinations are pre-set, so on your second play you might know exactly what to do.
Stay tuned for part 2
