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Among the Best RPG's EVER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 93 / 98
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'll keep this short... cause the time it takes me to type this will take time away from playing Gothic II Gold!
This RPG is among the best I've played (over 20 years of gaming).
This new release of a 3 year old game is far better than most recent games, the story, the exploration, the character development... even the graphics, all great, all well done.

If you played Gothic II there is almost 30 hours (!) of additional content, including a new land, expanded dialog of well-known characters, new items, new spells, improved visuals... and tougher gameplay to keep it a challenge, certainly worth the price.

The bad... you can't use old saves, you must start a new games, still, so much is new and fresh from the older version, starting over is a joy.

Replay value is very high, so many choices for characters, friends, enemies and career paths that each game will be a challenge and does not get old or typical.
So, for less than 20 bucks you can get about 150 hours (or more) of quality gameplay, a bargain for sure.

Note on install/start

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 38 / 41
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have not played this game through yet, but I'd like to warn buyers that the installation instructions neglect to specify that ALL four CDs have to be installed for Gothic II Gold to run at all. The WISE installation runs you through installing 3 of the disks, but does not prompt for the installation of CD 4, which is the "Night of the Raven" add-on: the game will not start without the add-on installed which has to be run seperately. (You get a message something like "Insert original CD?" when you try to launch without CD 4 installed.) The box manual mentions nothing about this nor does the the JoWooD website tech support section (which advises you to unload services and update your device drivers): it's only noted by a user in one of the English user forums for Gothic 2. Once you do install CD 4, you will have another Gothic II icon on your desktop and the original icon will be dead. The second (blue) icon will finally launch the game. Other users on the JoWooD forum note that the game with the NOTR add-on is significantly different than the original Gothic II.

Update: after a few days with this, I have to reluctantly report that this is possibly one of the most frustrating games I have ever run on my system. The game makes heavy use of a virtual memory "database" and no matter how I adjusted the pagefile size, it inevitably crashed W2K after an hour or so (and I have RAM to burn). There is a patch available that fixes the problem on some XP systems, but it had no effect on mine. If you have a dedicated game pc, you may be used to dealing with these kind of issues, but I've played heavy-duty, multi-use-pc-friendly RPGs (ElderScrolls, Baldur's Gate)for too many years to have any patience for reconfiguring an OS (and, if you believe JoWood, your BIOS, services, video, audio and CD FlashBIOS and drivers)for a single app.

Gothic II: Gold is Gothic II: Complete

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 35 / 49
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As the original gothic II had plot holes and dialogue holes(as in the American version) this one has those dialoge and holes filled. Right off the bat(not just Raven) you meet new NPCs not in the original(II). Lester is more useful and most of the blanked out areas are now filled with incodents. Your bow-arrow friend from Gothic 1 helps you(as you are weak) fight off the gobs in the camp on your first trek to town. He also points you to your other friend Lester(in Original II and I) with another "Option" for begging the guards. Most missing dialogue in the original(as in II) is filled with V/O and some german subtitles(which is okay by me). This IS the german version with english V/O translations. It is not sensored or (Cut) and is better than (II non Raven exp). The cow who gets eaten in the intro is sensored(I don't know if this was originally intended but paranah really does "Bite"). Raven fills in the gap of the anceints history and gives you a plot dealing with these supieror peoples(compared to common locals in the present).
CAUTION the box says including "Original game" It means (with : colon) Original II. No Gothic 1. Don't listen to the review saying Gothic 1 is included, it, in fact, is not.
CAUTION!!! as mentioned below, this does contain STARFORCE. I don't like it, but it is not slow on a typical modern PC. I still don't approve of such things, but it's livable for Gothic II GOld. don't use Windows 98(or SE) it will crash often.
PC1 XPPro 2ghz, 1gig ram, Radeon 9800 XT(Asus)-runs well.
PC2 Win 98 SE 1.4 ghz 256 mb ram, Nvidia PNY Ti 500 Starforce cache slows system and taxes OS mem.

You must give this game a try.. I am sure you won't regret

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Personally, the Gothic series (gothic 1, gothic 2, and the gothic 2 addon NOTR) is by far the best games I have ever played, and I really played a lot of games. This is the only game that kept me playing almost 30 hours straight. I was attrackted by its environement, storyline, music, graphics, you name it. Everything about this game is awesome. I played each game at least 5 times. It was disappointing that the Gothic 2 addon was delayed for so long. At that time, I couldn't wait so I bought the german version eventhough I don't know german at all. Using some pathces, it was ok to sue the german version trying to read subtitle fasgt while hearing strange language :)I have ordered this late coming Gothic 2 gold nevertheless to play it yet again now in english for both hearing and subtitles :)

One of the top 5 games I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: March 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Make no mistake about it, this game has more than a few bugs and sudden desktop crashes. It is also one of the most immersive and totally enjoyable games I have ever played. I am 59 years old and have played literally hundreds, if not thousands of video games since the 70's. This game has it all as far as role-playing games go. One bit of advice about this game is save often save often, save often. Oh and one more thing, be sure to save often.

Discovering Interface is Half the Fun!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: February 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I haven't played all the way through the game yet, but am having a pretty good time so far. Gothic 2 plays like all RPG's should play in my opinion. Lots of quests, lots of loot and a non-linear game design.

My only gripe is this. As someone who never played the Gothic series before, I felt a little out of the loop in regards to the storyline. Discovery is half the fun in these games though, so that's a minor gripe. My major gripe is the lack of documentation that came with my copy of the game. All that came with it was a Quick Start Manual that is all of 16 pages long... and only 8 of those pages contain info helpful to playing the game. Only the most rudamentary interface commands are given. The rest you will have to figure out yourself (fan-sites were helpful to me). Also, the interface itself takes alot of getting used to as it's not very intuitive.

For the money, Gothic 2 is a huge bargain. Many hours of RPG goodness with just a dash of interface frustration. If you're into RPG's, this is a must buy.

Best RPG yet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: March 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Gothic 2 is the only RPG I have ever replayed; with the Add-on included in this Gold version enhancing and expanding the original game fantastically. I live in the UK where this version has still not been released (why?), so to get a copy I had to order it to be sent to a friend in the States, who kindly posted it on to me.

Gothic 2 has a living world where things happen around you and people get on with their lives - go to work, then the pub, maybe cook some food and then home to bed, for example - as do the animals, with prey getting chased by predators. Quests are interesting and much more than just take this package to so-and-so. With some faction quests you even get to see and play the other side if you replay the game and say, join the guards instead of the merceneries. The Add-on has some brilliant new areas, quests and creatures with the whole thing being wonderfully integrated into the original game.

The Gothic games are the only games where I have gone and practised my swordplay in the fields, as fighting is more than button bashing. Fighting is actually fun in these games, not something I can say about any others (although I have high hopes for Oblivion...).

British gaming magazines have criticised Gothic 2 for:
-you not being able to choose your appearance. Who cares when you look believable and your armour and weapons can change? Anyway, playing in first person is more immersive than third person and then it doesn't really matter what you look like.
-the voices not being very good. OK, you get to recognize some of the actors' voices playing different parts and the final "things" (I don't want to give any kind of spoiler away!) voices are a bit pants, especially for what they are, but it doesn't matter because the rest of the game is so good.
-not having enough stats/skills to raise and personalise your character. OK, so there's not a vast range of skills and stats, but enough to make you have to choose where to spend your points and to have to specialise, so what more do you want? Having 50 different skills to choose between instead of 15, say, does not make a better game.

Ultimately, if you like RPGs, you should buy this game and have many hours of pure fun. Maybe you too will decide it's too scary to go out at night and instead find a nice bed you can sleep the night away in, or a bench to sit on and admire the view whilst waiting for dawn and some light to see what's coming next ....

excellent RPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: December 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is just a well-designed non-linear RPG with lots to explore, interesting and varied quests, plenty of items to play with and not overly easy. Only the voice acting prevents me from giving it 5 stars.

Great fun (and probably over 100 hours for most players)!

one caveat if you buy it...there's some important info in the readme file.

Gothic 2, Night of the Raven

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, I would recommend playing Gothic 1 first, just so you'll become familiar with the world and gameplay, and then play Gothic 2. The Night of the Raven expansion not only adds on a whole new area of the world, but toughens up most of the monsters/creatures also. Yes, you do have to start the whole game over again, but the new characters make it more fun. Yes, the game freezes or crashes sometimes, so frequent saves are highly recommended, but the the game itself is just so much fun to play, that it's worth it. It does start out slow, you have to take your time and choose your battles wisely at first; if you come across something you haven't seen before and want to engage it, save first, that way if you get whacked quickly, you can reload at the same spot and retreat. As far as the controls being clunky; I say HA! BALDERDASH! Just go to OPTIONS then CONTROLS and you can configure which keys you want use to perform the actions you want them to, it's very simple. Overall, this is my favorite game, I've replayed it many times using one of the three character choices (mercenary, mage, or paladin) and I always have fun. Don't expect to start solving quests right off the bat; as in real life you have to take baby steps first before you learn how to run. To help make the game a bit more fun (and easier) search online for one of the walkthroughs that are available and print it out, they really help if you get stuck. And remember, it's just a game! HAVE FUN!

Not love at first sight but I still love this game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is more of a long comment since there are plenty of reviews here.

I bought this game last year, played it, got frustrated by it and went back to playing the hell out of morrowind. Then naturally I bought Oblivion, loved it, played the hell out of it and realized that it actually had a lot in common with this game. So I decided to give it another shot, downloaded a walktrough and proceeded to play the hell out of this game too.

Basically I can't explain it but I'm addicted to this game. I hate dying so easily but I just keep comming back for more. Maybe it's that moment when you can finally use that super strong weapon and dominate, or maybe it's the fact that you get to bully enemies that could beat you with one punch before but this game has the most satisfying leveling system I've seen. And that's good too because leveling up is hard. I hated the voices at first but eventually got used to them and now relate to the characters better. The graphics are good enough but the engine seems to trash the hard drive quite a lot on some locations.

You can either play Gothic 2 by only installing the first 3 discs or play Gothic 2 NOTR by installing the 4th disc afterwards. Unfortunately you can't do both and the saves aren't interchangeable. NOTR is harder but is in my opinion a more polished experienced. If you find that you can't progress further I suggest you download an FAQ for suggestions on getting some easy XPs or tips on using the terrain to get an edge in combat.

Be warned that this is not an easy series to get into and the game engine seems to be slugish no matter where I play it. But if you give it some time it may just grow on you a lot more than you think it will.

Just think, I've already heard that Gothic 3 shares a lot of this game's technical shortcommings and I don't even care. I'm getting it really soon. Definitely a good hardcore action RPG and I hope Jowood one day considers releasing a compilation for the XBOX. Of course they'll have to optimize the engine first but I think most of those Oblivion fans would like it too when they're looking for something else to play.

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