Gothic 1 is a role-playing game developed by the
German-based Piranha Bytes, released in 2001. Over the years, it’s become a cult classic among RPG
fans, especially in Eastern Europe. The game was quite ahead of its time and served as a massive
point of inspiration for the Witcher series by CD Projekt Red. Since The Witcher games are some
of my favourite RPGs of all time, I was curious to see if I could still get something worthwhile
out of this 23-year-old game. And after 25 hours of gameplay, I bring you my 2024 review of
Gothic from a first-time player perspective. Since the game is from 2001, we need to download
some fan made patches to get the game to run on modern hardware. This used to be quite a bit
of a hassle but in 2022 the game received Steam Workshop support and now it only takes
a couple of clicks to get the game running. I tried to stay as close to the vanilla game
as possible to get the authentic experience. The only additional mod I downloaded was a
DirectX 11 upgrade which enhances performance and the graphics. And with that out of the way,
let’s delve into the backstory of the Gothic. The Kingdom of Myrtana is at war with the Orcs.
King Rhobar II requires magical ore from the mines of the Isle of Khoronis to forge weapons
for his troops. Regardless of the severity of their crimes, criminals are forced to mine this
ore. To ensure the prisoners cannot escape, the king enlisted the most powerful mages of
the empire – six from the Circle of Fire and six from the Circle of Water – to create a magical
barrier around the mine. But something disturbed the ritual and the barrier grew way larger
than expected: the mages were also trapped. In the chaos, the prisoners mount an uprising,
overpowering and killing all the guards. Khoronis falls under the control of the convicts,
and while humans can enter the barrier, they are unable to leave. With no alternative,
the king is forced to negotiate with the convicts as he still requires the ore for his war
efforts. He strikes a deal with the prisoners: they continue to provide him with ore, and
in return, he promises to send supplies from the outside world, including materials, food,
alcohol, and even women. You play as the Nameless Hero and you’re sentenced to the Valley of Mines.
We don't know if you committed a crime or not but to the king everybody’s fair game. Before being
thrown through the barrier, you receive a letter from a fire mage, tasking you with delivering it
to the High Magician of Fire, who is located in the Old Camp, one of the three factions in the
game. After that, down into the water we go. These cutscenes are a little bit funnier than
I expected. I think it adds to the charm of the game to be honest. This is where we meet Diego,
and when I listened to his voice, it sounded very familiar to me. It reminded me of a certain character from The Witcher series. After a quick Google search, my suspicion was
confirmed: Diego is voiced by William Roberts, who also voiced Vesemir in The Witcher games. Diego, much like Vesemir did for Geralt, plays a mentor-like role. After providing us with
some pointers, the open world is ours to explore. If you can get used to the controls that is.
You see, the game has a very unusual control scheme. It features a dedicated action key
that doesn't do anything on its own. Instead, you have to press a second key simultaneously
to perform the desired action. For example, to open a chest, you have to walk up to the chest,
hold the action key, and press forward to open it. The same goes for opening doors, talking to NPC’s,
trading etcetera. This took a while to adjust to, but after some time, it became quite intuitive.
The same wasn’t true for the combat system for me; it almost made me quit the game entirely. For
combat, you have to unsheathe your weapon using the spacebar or whatever key you’ve bound for
it. To swing your weapon, you have to hold the action button and press W A S or D to swing in that
direction, which locks you into place while doing so. I was so used to modern combat systems where
you can freely move between swings that I kept trying to play the game that way. Additionally,
strafing from left to right has a unique key as well; I bound them to Q and E. However, if you use
these too much, you’ll lose track of your enemy and become vulnerable to attacks, resulting in
me dying a lot. Although it took me way longer to get used to the combat system, eventually it also
clicked and I started having a lot more fun. Okay, let's return to where we left off. After
exploring for a bit, the first landmark we see is the old camp in the centre of the map. As
I made my way toward it, I got pranked by one of the guards stationed at the bridge. It sets the tone nicely for the way people treat newcomers in the colony. This became especially clear when I
refused to pay one of the guards for protection. Not long after, I get approached by a
character named ‘Grim’ who asks me to retrieve an amulet. Turns out it was a trap. He
lured me out of the camp, only to mug me. Yeah, you really start this game as an absolute
nobody. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual ‘chosen one’ trope we see in a lot of
our media. To get a little stronger, I thought it would be a good idea to challenge someone in
the arena. How hard could a one-on-one fight be? Okay, I guess I've got to be the errand boy for
the first couple of hours. There are multiple NPCs in the old camp that will give you quests
that involve very little fighting. Completing these quests will reward you with experience
and some ore, which is this game’s currency. What I absolutely love about this game
is the sense of progression you feel, both in your character's stats and skills, as well
as in exploration. Let’s start with the stats and skills. There are two ways to earn experience:
one is by completing quests and the other is by killing enemies. When you level up, you get
10 skill points. Fairly straightforward so far, right? What’s cool about Gothic is that
you can’t just spend these points whenever, like in most RPGs. In Gothic, you need to find
someone who's willing to train you. It’s a really elegant solution to an otherwise very gamey
system. There are three base stats you can spend these points on: strength, dexterity and mana.
Strength increases your damage with melee weapons, dexterity enhances your proficiency with ranged
weapons, and mana allows you to cast more powerful spells. In addition to that, there are also
more specific combat skills you can train, such as one-handed, two-handed, bows, crossbows,
and different tiers of magic. And yet again, Piranha Bytes do something I haven’t seen
before. When you start using a one-handed weapon, your character doesn’t know what to do with it. He
will hold the weapon in both hands very clumsily. But after training your one-handed skill, your
character will learn the right technique and will actually hold the weapon correctly. If you train
that skill once more, you’ll become a master, which allows you to perform combos that are
very effective at stun locking an enemy. The jump in proficiency is again visualized in the
animations, such a cool touch. The final couple of skills are Sneaking, Pickpocket, Acrobatics and
Animal trophies. I haven’t done much sneaking or pickpocketing so I can’t really comment on that. I
did make sure to get all the hunting skills early on so I could sell the animal trophies for ore,
which I desperately needed. A little later I also put some points into Acrobatics which allowed me
to jump further. This came in clutch when one of the quests required me to get hold of a certain
artifact that was out of reach. The game tells you to use the telekinesis spell but I didn’t
have enough mana for it, a bit of an oversight if you ask me. You aren't supposed to jump that gap
but by using all my Call of Duty 2 strafe jumping knowledge and the help of the acrobatics
skill I was able to make the jump anyways. I mainly used bows as a backup weapon or to snipe
higher-level enemies from a distance. However, as the game progressed, I found myself relying
on them less and less. Magic, on the other hand, is hard to come by in the early game, so
I primarily focused on a melee build. Yet, in the late game, there are plenty of cool
spells to try out. For example, I transformed into a meat bug to pass under this closed gate
— really cool stuff. The final part of character progression is armour. It is very hard to find
early on and is absolutely necessary to take on anything stronger than a scavenger or a mole rat.
Once you get a good set of armour your character instantly feels more powerful. The primary method
of acquiring armour is by joining one of the three factions. Let me tell you what they’re all about.
The first faction you encounter is the Old Camp, which is the wealthiest among the three.
This is because of their trade deal with the King and their control over the old mine, the
primary source of ore in the colony. The camp is structured with an outer ring and a central
castle. The Old Camp maintains a strict hierarchy. At the bottom are the diggers, who form the bulk
of the workforce and live in wooden shacks in the outer ring. Above them are the shadows, they
consist of more notable figures such as traders, scouts, thieves, and assassins, also residing
in the outer ring. Next up are the guards, the backbone of the camp's main army. Clad in
armour taken from the royal guards killed during the revolt, they now live within the castle walls.
Highly trained and formidable, they often exploit and abuse lower-ranking camp members. After that,
we have the fire mages, who also reside within the castle walls. They advise the camp’s leader
and provide magical abilities. And finally, we have the ore barons, the highest-ranking group
within the Old Camp, led by a man named Gomez. They were the instigators of the revolt and the
ones who established the trade deal with the King. The second faction, known as the New Camp, formed
when a group of people broke away from the Old Camp due to their discontent with Gomez's
leadership. They left to establish their own community, settling in the far west of the colony.
Later, they stumbled upon another ore mine located a bit to the south. Among the members of the New
Camp were a couple of water mages who discovered a method to destroy the barrier. They believed
that a substantial source of magical power could shatter it. Following this discovery, the group
has been accumulating all the ore extracted from the Free Mine, aiming to use it to destroy the
barrier in the future. Such a big amount of ore attracted a lot of thieves and bandits to the
camp, so the water magicians made a deal with a man named Lee and his mercenaries to keep
the peace. Unlike the old camp, the New Camp lacks a strict hierarchy, yet exploitation still
persists. The rogues put newcomers to work in the rice fields located in front of the camp to ensure
a steady food supply. Then there are the diggers, they’re treated a lot more fairly here in
comparison to the old camp. The rogues, mercenaries and water mages leave
each other alone for the most part. The third and final faction is the Sect Camp,
led by Y'berion. He received a vision from an entity known as the Sleeper, which led him
to an old temple located in the swamp. Here, he and his followers pray to their newfound deity
for liberation. To commune with the Sleeper, they cultivate and use a drug called swampweed.
Additionally, they rely on selling this drug to the other two camps as their primary source of
income. Yeah, this faction is literally getting stoned all day in the swamp. Their ranks consist
of novices, the lowest class within the camp, who primarily handle the camp's workload while
also praying to the Sleeper and training to ascend to the ranks of templars or gurus. Templars,
the camp's elite warriors, are tasked with guarding the camp and the Old Mine. There, they
provide swampweed and protection to the diggers and guards in exchange for the minecrawlers'
glands needed for certain potions. And finally, there are the gurus, who serve as the spiritual
and magical masters of the camp, possessing the ability to communicate most easily with their god.
Overall, I really like the way the different factions are executed, they all feel
unique and believable. Personally, I joined the Old Camp in my playthrough. However,
it's disappointing that after chapter 1, there are barely any faction-specific quests, so in the
long run, your choice doesn’t really matter. Alright, let's revisit my point about progression.
My first point was about the stats and skills, and the second crucial aspect is the world and
exploration. From the moment you start the game, the open world is fully explorable. However,
strategically placed enemies populate the map, blocking most of the routes. These enemies have
a static power level and do not respawn when killed. You can probably see where I’m going
with this. At first, there's only a limited amount of exploration possible because basically
everything kills you in one hit. But after you level up a bit and acquire some armour, those
wolves that once blocked your path are now easy to defeat. Slowly but surely, you can extend the
range of exploration in this very organic way. This type of design also prevents over-levelling,
as it's impossible to farm mobs for experience. You might think the world will feel lifeless after
a while, but the developers thought of a solution: every new chapter will introduce new enemies to
the map. These enemies spawn at logical locations; for instance, wolves spawn in the forest,
and molerats spawn in caves. Remembering areas where you've encountered mobs will come
in handy in later quests as well. For example, in one quest where I needed to kill a shadow
beast, I recalled its habitat from a previous session and knew exactly where to go. That
felt super rewarding because it was knowledge I naturally acquired through gameplay, rather
than through a quest marker. One quality-of-life feature I really enjoyed was the absence of an
equip load mechanic. In most games, I find it to be a nuisance that doesn’t add anything to the
gameplay. I also really like the barrier as an in-universe boundary for the player space. When
you have a barrier that can be explained by the story, there's no need for invisible walls or
massive mountains. The final comment I want to make about the exploration aspect of the game is
the awesome use of verticality and hidden areas. The game is filled with climbable ledges, caves,
and hidden rooms, which are just the cherry on top of an already super rewarding part of the game.
Next up is my absolute favourite part of the whole experience, it’s atmosphere and immersion. I want to start off by mentioning the awesome
soundtrack by Kai Rosenkranz. You've been listening to it throughout this entire review, and I must say, the track you're currently hearing
is my absolute favourite among all the songs. The tracks, in general, strike a perfect balance
between atmospheric and epic, excellent stuff. Then there’s the weather system; it's really quite
basic, but it adds a ton of ambiance to the game. I’ve seen fog, rain, and even some lightning on
occasion. What I love about the game is that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Animals will
hunt and sleep depending on the time of day, whether you’re there or not. The same applies
to NPCs—they go to bed, have some breakfast, wash themselves, go to work and much more. It
really makes you feel like you are part of an ecosystem. As a player, you also take part in
many of these activities, which truly immerses you into the world. This feeling is enhanced by
the fact that there are barely any HUD elements on screen at all times. At most, you'll only see
an NPC's name and health bar, along with your own health bar, that’s it. This minimalism extends
to the map and the absence of quest markers. The map you carry is very basic, leaving you to
fill in the gaps yourself. Similarly, quests are presented with only a short description in your
journal, without giant exclamation marks telling you where to go. It's actually really refreshing
in this day and age. Oh, and one more thing I want to mention before moving on is how NPCs react
to your behaviour. If you draw your sword, they become anxious, and if you knock somebody
out, they will try and avoid further conflict in the future. Details like that are just perfect.
So far, I've been really positive about this game, but Gothic was a cult classic for a
reason. To appreciate everything I've spent the last 16 minutes talking about,
you'll have to put up with a lot of bugs, jank, and questionable design. There will be NPCs
randomly standing on tables, NPCs getting stuck, and lots of backtracking. While nothing
game-breaking, it can be quite annoying. Sometimes, the game can even be unintentionally
funny. For example, the voice acting—it's all over the place. Some of the voice talent does a
great job, while others are so bad it’s hilarious. One minor annoyance for me was how loud
the harpy enemies are. Everything's fine, and then suddenly, your ears start bleeding. There are two more things I want to mention before I move on to my verdict of the game. Firstly,
the inventory system is just really clunky; in the late game, you'll be sifting through heaps
of items to find what you need. Combined with the unusual control scheme, it's quite a mess.
And finally, I think the story isn’t as strong as the game’s setting and factions.
The early game is amazing but once you get about halfway into the game the story becomes
very linear and quite bland. It boils down to a lot of backtracking and fetch quests with the
occasional dungeon. It's not bad by any means, but it does bog down the experience.
And that brings me to the main question of this video: Does Gothic hold up in 2024? For
me, it’s a resounding yes. It was fantastic to check out a game from 2001 and see where CDPR
took their inspiration from. It’s remarkable how this small team of German developers managed
to innovate so much in a single game. While the game isn't perfect by any means, beneath a hefty
amount of jank lies a title that was ambitious and daring – and that’s always worth celebrating in
my book. I can understand why this game is beloved by such a hardcore fanbase, and it’s wonderful to
see it still being supported to this day. I’m now officially a fan of Gothic and my fingers are
crossed with you all for the upcoming remake! And that wraps up the video, I hope you
enjoyed this one. What did you think of this slightly different format? Let me
know in the comments down below. Liking the video and subscribing to my channel would
tremendously support me and ensure you don't miss any future uploads. All right that’s it
from me, I’ll catch you in the next one, peace!
