My weekend with Gothic II

I just thought I'd share my thoughts on the last few days I've spent on Gothic II.

From the outset, you're treated to pre-rendered cutscene and then thrust into the plot of the game. There is no character creation or customization, all of this is handled within the game. It makes sense to be given an open character to define, but I would have prefered some kind of customization, at least superficially, especially seeing that the unnamed hero, which you play, has his hair tied in a bun. Not cool.

One of the first game tasks is rudimentary but it sets the tone of gameplay in that there are a number of ways in which it can be accomplished. I'll be prudent by not going into details but I found that you can steal, you can quest, you can murder like a homicidal maniac, and you can buy your way to completion in three different ways. Much of the game's problems have alternate solutions, which is important because most characters can be killed. (Note I said most. ) Depending on where you are and who you're aligned with, there are places where you can "duel" other people for XP. This is non-lethal combat although there are concessions for the maniacal player to force his opponent to "take his killing." The kill animation is magnificently bloodthirsty, and its a shame that other combats are lethal and that non-lethal means aren't used more often.

Which brings us to the other important game mode you'll be introduced to early in the game - combat. Combat is, honestly, streets ahead of Morrowind and just about any other action-RPG out there. Why? Because it actually requires some thought of action by the player rather than merely a reflexive response. You can string hits together, you can dodge and you can block, and so can your enemies. Its not mindless action because you have to watch the screen carefully for visual cues, both from your character and from enemies, and what you can do combat-wise is still limitted by your aptitude. It never descends into button mashing, if it does you'll get cut down pretty quickly, and at high levels combat is gracefull and pleasing to the eye.

I also liked the way skills jump in aptitude. Unlike other games where skills go up incrementally, in Gothic there are times when you're stuck with a three strike combo, you'll go to a trainer, and suddenly you'll be able to do a four strike combo. Unfortunately, the same applies with non-combat skills. With Forging, all one needs to do is learn the basic forging skills and much later in the game you'll be able to learn how to create the best weapons, without any prerequisite. Unlike Aracanum where each new skill in the magic or tech tree was dependant on the skill you learned before it, Gothic II allows too much freedom and not enough reward for people who want to concentrate on certain career paths. Why would I waste five learning points on learning to make a sword that does 50 points of damage when I can go to a merchant and buy a sword that does 55? It makes sense that a warrior who knows how to forge and take care of weapons would have better equipment and armour than a warrior that doesn't. Unfortunately this does not apply in the game.

The game does have some oddities though. As tight as the game is graphically, there are a number of "quirks." Clipping problems dictate that most objects can be pushed through if you try hard enough, the upside of this being that I've never become stuck on anything. I've also fallen through floors into some wild blue abyss beneath the world for no apparent reason.

Although every character in the game speaks there are times when you wish they didn't. I'll be interested to hear what North American opinions about the voices but they were a little too modern for my tastes. The unnamed hero also suffers from Trentitis (Trentitis - n. derived from the charcter Trent in the game Freelancer, a condition where trying to sound like a macho, lovable rogue succeeds only in you sounding like a twat.) The "Hey You" comments are distracting, but there are other, much more disarming gems to be found.

Despite anything else I've liked or disliked about the game, it succeeds, in my mind, through the use of some neat ambient features. If you kill a wolf, you can take the skin off the wolf to sell and you can tear a hunk of meat off and eat it. You can go to a stove and cook said meat to make fried meat for an extra HP boost. There are hookah's you can sit down at, just for the ambience. Likewise, you can sit in armchairs or on benches for the same reason. I remember one instance where I was levelling in the woods one night and came across a hunter's camp. I chatted to the hunter for a while, recieved a quest, and then sat down on a bench and looked at the fire for a few minutes, real time. I'd forgotten about quests and levels momentarily and enjoyed the abstraction of being out in the woods, in front of beautiful fire, knowing that I was safe. Unfortunately, you can only sleep in beds. You can't set up camps in the woods and I couldn't sleep until morning at the hunter's camp. This is indicative of the game as a whole - it goes in the right direction but stops too soon before it gets to the prize. The game is "third base" when its just a sweet whisper and affectionate nuzzle away from going all the way.

I think I might have gone on to long so allow me to close this comment on Gothic II by giving the finger to JoWood or whoever decided that this game shouldn't get a synchronous world-wide release. It was released here in Australia this last week, in small numbers I assume because a lot retailers already have it on backorder (it has Atari branding by the way.) It was also at the budget price of $50 AUD ($20-$25 US.) The game really deserves better than that. Its a quality title. Put in the marketplace today its competetive, I'd say superior, with anything thats coming out within the month. More telling is that if it were released in October with HotU and ToEE, that wouldn't change.

 

I just upgraded my PC, which ended up being a complete refit. I have my original case and video card. And since I wanted to get a fairly newish game to put it through the paces, Gothic II looked pretty good. After coughing up twice as much as I wanted to spend on my upgrade, a "budget" title was a lot easier to justify, so I don't necessarily agree that Infogrames are doing it an injustice with the AU$50 price tag.

However, from my brief playtime it's shaping up to be a game that I would have been happy to pay $90 for. There have been a few things that have made me think to myself "That's pretty fucking cool."

The feeling of being part of a world as opposed to a game is pretty strong. Walking along, I was confronted by a dodgy looking character who told me people were out to get me and I should come with him. Sensing his intent I decided I'd say "Sure, I'll come with!" and then calmly walk in the opposite direction. My intuition proved correct as he decided I was going to get away so he drew his weapon and pursued me. He beat me within an inch of my life, I beat him to death. On searching him I found a picture of myself, and a few gold pieces.

Since I was in pretty bad shape, I headed back "home" to rest for the night, before I went to see who he was taking me to. I woke up and returned to find his corpse gone, and didn't really bat an eyelid. However, when I charged into the bandit lair, I spotted two more bandits, and the corpse of the first one at their feet. This impressed me. It's nothing that special, but it fed my imagination on a couple of levels. A guy who at first just seemed like a generic minion has people who care that I've killed him. They could be brothers, best mates. Maybe he only had one more day until retirement. The important part is, it made me feel that this lowly bandit actually had a place in the world, an existence that reached beyond simply being there for me to kill.

Not only that, the bandit leader, who was now lying dead with his comrade/brother carried a note and 30 gold. On reading the note, I found it was a bounty message indicating payment of 30 gold pieces to keep an eye out for me as I trudged down the mountain. It's fairly trivial, but it's completely consistent, and it's only the poor quality of other recent RPG releases that make this a shining light.

It's also made me wonder about the repercussions of leaving a body lying around. I've decided I'm going to have to come up with a calling card to leave on corpses. I just have to find something that seems right. The "Healing Plant Killer" just doesn't jibe.

Later in my adventure, I had just killed a bloodfly, and turned my attention to a rat that was wandering around. It began to scamper toward me and I drew my weapon, only to see it run past me and start gnawing on the bloodfly. Once again, nothing too special, but a further reinforcement that there is some kind of food chain, an ecosystem here. Laws of nature and behavioural patterns.

I haven't really seen much more of the game to comment, but having these few seemingly trivial features has added to the game incredibly. The feel of actually existing in and exploring a living game world not only helps me immerse myself in the game, it makes me consider RPing. What is my role in this world? How do I want this world to perceive me? The bottom line - How do I live my life?

 

Section8, your bandit and rat examples sound pretty cool. 8)

 

There were a lot of things I left out in my rant and Section8's mention of the food chain is pretty important. Rats like carrion and will give up a chase to stop and eat, wolves like sheep, all humans hate all monsters. If you draw a group of beasts towards a group of farmers they will help you out and kill what they can. Also, if an unnamed non-plot character, say a farmer, dies in battle with a beast out in the woods, when you come back to the area some days later the other farmers will have buried the body and you see a grave marked "the unknown soldier."

 

Hmmm.. I presume the link is www.gothic2.com? If it is; I'll check it out as it seems like a possible winner. I like real worlds that aren't real worlds.

 

I seem to recall that you did not like the original Gothic, Volourn. Gothic II is, really, more of the same. Which is just perfect as far as I'm concerned, but you may be disappointed.

 

That was a pretty good summary, EEVIAC.

It's one of my favourite games with simply the most immersive world-simulation that exists in a 3D RPG and this really helps draw the player in and want to roleplay.

It's a pity that Piranha Bytes intent is to simplify the RP mechanics (although at least it's what they're aiming for rather than just poor implementation). If there was a little more complexity in the factions, if balance wasn't artificially assisted by severely resticting the availability and numbers of different armours etc, if there was better weapon diversity (and shields!) and characters didn't devolve to basic combat archetypes, it would achieve another level.

 

I agree. Shields would help balance one/two-handed weapons (no dual-wield please Pirahna Bytes) - I don't see why anyone would choose two-handed weapons, the only real difference is at end game. For a game that defines itself by combat somewhat, there's precious little that you can do to customize the sort of combatter (?) you'll be. I really wanted to be agile fighter with great defense with moderate punch, but that was defined more by the way I played the game rather than the way I built my character.

I'm a little dissapointed that you mention that PB are trying to simplify the roleplay mechanics - I would have thought that what the game needed was more complexity. I would have loved to have played a diplomat/emissary in that world. I would have loved to have some more complex cave systems that I could map and sell to various factions. The game-world is definately the highlight of the game for me and not the game story.

It seemed that after the third chapter the devs decided it was time to push the game towards a close. Up until that point I'd settled my panic attacks at feeling lost in a large world and started enjoying setting my own goals (proudly naming save games "first Shadowbeast kill" or "eat shit and die orc,") but then the role-simulation dissipated. Rather than having a save the world from evil story I would have preferred to have really deep factions in the end game, having the goal to be "the most powerfull or most influentual person in the New World" rather than being a stock hero archetype. Why can't I impeach Lee and lead the mercenaries on a grubby overthrow of Khorinis?

I've been waiting for a game like that since Pirates! - maybe people really want to be heroes...

 

I didn't like the original Gothic? That's funny since I've never played the original Gothic. Maybe, you are thinking of somehting else...

 

Could be, could be... though I do remember someone who is a regular at both BIS and Mistress' Lair saying that. I really thought it was you.

Gothic I and II are fantastic games, once you get the hang of the controls.