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Immersive addiction

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game after reading a titilating review of it in the free "Computer Source" magazine. The idea behind this game seems to be a focus on exploration, combat, and talking to NPC's. You make choices in all of this that affect the path you take to complete, or fail, your quests (of which their are a few main ones and TONS of side ones). This is a role-playing game where you "get your hands" dirty more than your accounting skills, so if you like twiddling with numbers and clicking your character around you will be dissappointed. The controls are radically different than current crop of popular games, RPG or otherwise, and may seem cludgy at first. You hold down a key (CTRL by default) to begin targetting, and then tap an arrow key to swing or block. In order to physically dodge you need to let the target key up. After so many inpersonal RPG's (i.e. overhead view, clicking on objects) this style of combat was refreshing and rewardingly fun once I got used to it. There are definitely some glitches in the game engine in various areas that you'd see if you play this, but aren't really worth mentioning. The biggest two glitches (both dumb sounding) are the highlight color used in the menus (hard to see on my laptop's screen) and the fact that "new game" is selected by default even when in game or after you've died ... I've accidentally hit that so many times I lost count.

Anyway, definitely worth a look if you're bored of current RPG's or if you want to try something different. Oh yah, one last thing that I just adored was that all NPC's actually TALK to you (i.e. they have voices). So, sometimes you DO have to read stuff on the screen, but for the most part when you're in a dialog you can just lean back and listen.

OK, but not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: April 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I think the other reviews here sum it up pretty well. It is somewhat immersive. The character is difficult to control (it would be nice to be able to toggle between run and walk mode, rather than having to hold down the shift key). There is a lot of detail. However, a couple of things that I didn't see anyone else mention are how absolutely dreadful the voice acting is. It stinks to high heaven. It is the main reason I say the game is only somewhat immersive - because anytime you talk to someone, it seems like some bad high school play performed by Texans... slowly. Also, there is too much foliage that gets in the way and blocks your view of your character. These may not be big problems, but they were annoying enough to me to give it a mediocre score.

Gothic 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: August 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The price is right, and the game play is excellent. It is very hard at first so save often, but you will be swept away, and play for hours and hours.

Terrible, get Morrowind instead

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 38
Date: August 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Plainly put, this game sucked. If I could give it 0 stars I would. The load times were horrible. The interface is impractical. The combat system is awful. You have to push 2 or 3 different buttons just to do a simple attack. If you haven't played the first game the storyline is very confusing. It is incredably difficult, the first time I played it, I walked down the road (after working through about a half hour of load screens) and got slaughtered by 2 goblins. Not just killed or defeated, SLAUGHTERED! I don't think I even hit them once. That is how terrible the controls are.
Overall, it isn't worth $2.
Morrowind on the other hand, is the same style of game, has far better graphics, better controls, better storyline, better everything (even better load times).

A few glaring and sometimes annoying errors, but fun all aro

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: March 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Its a fun game, the Artificial Intelligence is excellent, they go home at night, have a schedule, drawing your weapon close to one causes them to draw their own weapon and command you to put yours away. On the downside, there is ALOT of 'modern' swear words, something you probably wouldn't hear in Dark Age-Medieval times. But the graphics are great, alot better than I expected after playing Morrowind. The controls are my biggest complaint, if your attacked by a group of enemies, you are going to die, its very hard to fight more than one enemy efficently. You can forge your own weapons, thats very limited though, you can't forge every weapon, and you can't forge armor. The game isn't very glitchy, and pretty stable. As I mentioned above, the Graphics are great, not very high end, but look good none the less, the Envirorment must have has an IMMENSE ammount of work done on it, the people involed are very dovoted to making everything look believable and different. In the end, the swearing does cause me to take a star off, not because it offends me, but because it doesn't seem right to have in a Medieval Fantasy game, and the controls another star, but if your looking for an interesting RPG to play, this is it. Weather you like it or not is up to your style of play.

The greateds RPG game I've ever played.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've played morrowind and dungeon siege. Gothic II is not so complicated as Morrowind which requres your character to build strength of how many thing can he/she carry..etc. I love 1st person view in this game (you can switch to 3rd if u want); anyway, the graphic is just very good compared to other games at that time. Combat is great. The story is great! I wish I've played Gothic before I've played Gothic II.

great game, just inconsistant at times

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 16
Date: April 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Gothic II is so good, that I am willing to hunt down a copy of the original. However there are some inconsistancies and also some quests aren't very rewarding.
I have not had the fortune to be able to play Gothic(1), however I am ordering a used(hopefully only slightly) copy. I wouldn't buy a new copy unless you can get it for next to nothing(won't happen here on this site). In Gothic 2 as in 1, You start out a weakling with no experience(well, actually you HAD experience but a deamon of some sort gave you brain damage or something and weakened you physically) One thing that bothers me is that sometimes the "good" thing to do is not going to gain you much of anything(even prestege). For instance, the farmer's clothes you toil hard for, and also pay for in the fields, does nothing to gain entrance into the city. Buying wine for the farmers isn't work at all, and costs you more than not doing it so I don't understand the significance. You can easily enter the City in your underware(or whatever that outfit is) bypassing the farm altogether and get a writ or bribe the guard(as documented in the manual, no spoilers here) The " evil favor" is easily corrected and you get a very nice wheapon(better than the farm clothes)+ some big money! I'll say no more. The combat is also laggy, as it involves holding down the left mouse button and hitting the "W" key multible times. The S/A/D keys are your guard, and slash right/left respectively but they hardly work, unless you let go of a target. The arrow keys also work, but it is easier on the arms to use the SAD and mouse. The good thing is, you can take down virtually any beast with a quick "W" tap and some dodging rather than letting it go by chance as in Baldur's Gate or something. Most beginning monsters can be taken down for fish and experience easily(but you pretty much tear up your keyboard doing it).Get a Saitek keyboard/keypad combo, thier indistructable. Go hunting with a partner for free XP. thier are two in town who would willingly go with you on an expedition in the wilds . NPC's are rather Drakonian which means they all hate your guts and this makes it hard to stay alive(even in dialogue). Once you even slightly offend someone he/she/it instantly attacks you and you instantly die(usually without attacking or being able to.) Even self-defense is frowned upon which sucks in real life as well as in this game. If the bar drunkard attacks and you fight back, everyone in the area will bash you until you die horribly. It does not make sense that your "heroic" character who fought a deamon recently and was very expericenced should all of a sudden become a noob. You'd think killing a "Sleeper" would make him wise. Although being a weenie is a good start in RPG gaming terms it doesn't tie up with his previous experience and plottwise it makes no sense. You should play a new charater. A deamon can of course distroy muscle fibers making one physically weak, but the PC is also dumb, foolish and his dialogue choices limited which sucks. Not to mention he can't fight back in town which is unacceptable. Even the Ultima series let you defend if another attacks you! By the way, Ultima is exactally what this feels like, particularly Ultima 1(with good graphics). Your quest is for gold and kicking tookus, not for virtue.(which is always a good start). I have a feeling that by Gothic III you will have to answer to Innos for your misdameners and senslessly beating people up, and like Ultima IV, you'll have to prove yourself in a benevolent way(but that is just a hunch). The best thing about this game is the guilds. You can start over at anytime with a new charater and it is the funest part trying to get a regular job and making it to the top. Mercenaries are hard to join and as mentioned above is inconsistant as you get killed instantly if you don't level up to 5 or someting. By that time, you've already joined the Milita becasue it is impossible to travel the dangerous lands if you are anything but level 5 which you can't get to without gaining EXP in town(by getting a job and joining the Milita). Mercenaries are funner as you can stab people in the back without consequence and of course stealing will not keep you from being elite in your class. Figthing rats is not going to get you to LVL 5 to become one, however. Insidently, if you don't join the thieves guild you die! You cannot fullfilll the quest to kill the thieves unless you are a very high level, I don't see how this is easier in joining the ranks(as mentioned by the Guard Captain) than just getting a job hunting wolves. The music is beautiful, no complaints there. It always sets the mood wheather the spanish gitar in town or the chimes in the monestary or the obo and flute of the wilderness, it always sets the mood and is not loud or obnoxious as in other games. The V/O talent is pretty good even the PC gets a voice, and a good one Many of the different NPCs speak in various American accents, Anywhere from NYC, New York to OKC, Oklahoma and a few Minnasodans, Texans and others making it a diverse and cosmopoloten world. But they in no way detract from the Gothic setting and although don't seem appropriate it oddly enough works well in this game.
The graphics are better than most modern games, not because of cutting edge tech, but in the quality of the drawings. Much like Ultima 9 very detailed by the artists rather than just depending on 3D modeling as in most other games. I would even compare Gothic 2 to Morrowind. In richness and detale, it is second to none! The sound is the same, great! Very detailed ambience which is very important and most games also lack. The monster lurking noises come through as many as 7.1 speakers but only if you have it. You can usually catch a firebug or a lurker behind you in the exact position hiding in the trees, couldn't ask for more than that! Gameplay is the best part and the most important part as mentioned above I explaned it. You can also cook, forge swords, and other fun things as well, just as in Ultima. The game is very addictive and I just can't get away, despite the laggy controls and inconsistant quests, I would recommend it to anyone but play the first for familairity with some of the characters. Lee especially. Gothic 2 is avalable here from J&R, but Gothic 1 is only availble from separate sellers. It is worth it to pick up a copy of both games! I wouldn't pay 79 bux for the new one though. I want to rate this over all 5 stars but this editor doesn't allow it!

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This has to be one of the best RPG's I have ever played. The graphics are amazing and the storyline is fabulous. Highly reccomend this.

One of the best RPG ever - at a great price

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I will echo what others have said that Gothic 2 (and Gothic 1) is really unlike anything else out there - for better or for worse. Take a bit of time to read all the reviews for Gothic 1, Gothic 2, and also Gothic 2 Gold and it is literally smack-in-your-face obvious that those who can get over the beyond-description frustration of the bugs, the akward control, and the extreme realism (in this case, the absolute wimpiness of your character in the beginning - a fly, albeit a good-sized one, will kill him) and actually finish the game, will have their whole perspective on gaming changed forever. On the other hand, those that cannot will despise this game more than their mother-in-law (anyone notice that you can get woman-Hitler by rearranging the letters?)

At any rate, it is absolutely true that the gamer must goes through his/her own trials before this game can be enjoyed. Yes, combat is hideous in the beginning, but get use to it and you will have Conan peeing in his leather breeches. Once you use to the control (and level up accordingly), the fighting movement is almost comparable to those sleek fighting game that's only available to console gamers. The cool thing is that you can defeat much stronger enemy based on your wit and dexterity rather than by character level. For instance, one of the ways to kill a giant troll in the game is by circle-strafing it rather that hacking it head on, because no matter what level you are at, this troll will just tear up your behind if you take it head on. By the way, enemies, especially those smaller than you, will also circle-strafe you, as they have impeccable AI. This is why the Gothic nuts love the challenge so much.

Beside the good story (Gothic 1 has a better story though), one of the best thing about Gothic, to echo another reviewer, is that it's so immersive it literally gets under your skin. It won't be long before you automatically save game before combat without thinking - because the anxiety is almost too real. It won't be long before you learn to dread the dark and fear the night - and the night is long in the Gothic world (a day is a little over an hour long - that means about 30 minutes of darkness - and if you are out in the wood - you tread very carefully, if at all). Those who did not play or finish Gothic will think I'm off my rocker. Those that did will probably lol and remember their own fear of dying mixing in with the adrenaline rush before combat. For me, once I got over the frustration, it's simply too awsome to stop playing. (Pro: I worked hard at work so I can go home and play Gothic again. Con: I don't do anything at home beside paying Gothic ...again. By the way, Gothic 3 is a very decent game (and very pretty graphically), but it tried too hard to please everybody; therefore, as the Righteous Brothers (if you remember who that is) would said, it "lost that loving feeling" that Gothic fanatics ecperienced in Gothic 1 and 2.

Another quirk with Gothic (both 1 and 2) is that it may not play on Windows XP if you have anti-virus running, as I have experienced. And also remember to clean up any spyware. Other than that, Gothic is more than a game, it's an experience to be felt, for those who knows that patient really meant: if first you don't succeed, reload, reload, reload... and keep on reloading the damn thing till you do. And just like my Drill Instructor used too say, "If it didn't hurt, you didn't do it right."
PS. in case you want to know, best RPGs ever (that I played): Gothic 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate series, Morrowind (not Oblivion, which is like Gothic 3 - it tried to please everybody, and Deus-Ex 1. Honorable mention: Daggerfall, Neverwinter Nights and its Hordes of the Underdark expansion, Vampires Masquerade - Bloodlines, and also Star Wars Knight of the Republic series.

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: April 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

That is one of my favorite games of all times. Great, deep storyline with solid quests, pretty good voice acting and best music I heard in any game ever. You dont notice when the time is passing by when playing it (happens only with best games <(O_O)> ). Get a new version called "Gothic 2 - Night of the Raven" with even more NPCs and quests.It is still better than most rpg games released in the last years ... get it ... install it ... have fun ... travel to a beautifull world of Gothic ... if only for few moments ...

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