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Gothic Gothic is fun

Zanzoken

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
3,558
My first Piranha game was ELEX, which was a train wreck but also highly enjoyable. Definitely a flawed gem.

Now I'm playing Gothic and while the same could be said for it, I am finding it to be much more gem than flaw. Not that it doesn't have issues, but I guess it's easier to have patience with a 20 year-old game.

I have been a huge Morrowind fag ever since I was a lad. In terms of storytelling and worldbuilding, it is god tier... and Gothic sucks at these. But in terms of core gameplay? It's not even close... Gothic shits all over Morrowind.

Anyway, I just switched allegiances from the Guards to the Mercs and am off to make contact with Xardas. Hoping to wrap things up before too much longer so I can move on to Gothic 2 and see what all the fuss is about there.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
My first Piranha game was ELEX, which was a train wreck but also highly enjoyable. Definitely a flawed gem.

Now I'm playing Gothic and while the same could be said for it, I am finding it to be much more gem than flaw. Not that it doesn't have issues, but I guess it's easier to have patience with a 20 year-old game.

I have been a huge Morrowind fag ever since I was a lad. In terms of storytelling and worldbuilding, it is god tier... and Gothic sucks at these. But in terms of core gameplay? It's not even close... Gothic shits all over Morrowind.

Anyway, I just switched allegiances from the Guards to the Mercs and am off to make contact with Xardas. Hoping to wrap things up before too much longer so I can move on to Gothic 2 and see what all the fuss is about there.

If you are liking Gothic 1 (as you should), you 'll fucking love Gothic 2. The game is just a straight upgrade in every way.

I personally never understood all the rave about Morrowind lore. Mind you, I was a 11 year old when I played it, it was fun, but never felt compelled to read all those books. OTOH, while Gothics plot and worldbuilding may be trite, I always felt that it went amazingly well with the game itself - the game has that perfect blend of eurojank and silly, kitchy wordl/plot/characters which blend together flawlessly. Shame theres literally no way any of that is gonna work in the remake.

Heck, you 'll see in the opening scene of Gothic 2 - Xardas literally switches the voice actor mid dialogue - new dialogue options were added with NotR expansion, and they couldnt get the same voice actor. Probably nostalgia glasses, but its one of those little things that make me love Gothic so much.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
Even with lore and world building Gothic succeeds with flying colors, because it's keeping it simple and real. You're in a prison colony trying to survive, you don't need to learn the history of the world since its birth.

Especially not from npcs puking huge loredumps on your face. The characters in gothic say the things they want to say to you, another inmate, according to what they need. There's a "to the point" approach in Gothic that works very well.
 
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Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
2,155
Location
Germany
Of course, Gothic is better just look at their development teams

Morrowind virgins
w55G3PW.jpg

rVEqkUYveMr9tM3RKcSex73D6r0LcpNXRZPOPTLAdDShvgD3pdHFt8fK76QvKgTU7eqsBPCw1SOG-NGbS1WBbL5ibbjyPPx4eeOVUFc6


Gothic Chads

phenomediaannualreport1999.jpg

Tom_Puzki___PB__PHENOMEDIA.png


In all seriousness Gothic is something completely different to Morrowind. Morrowind was made in the tradition of PNP dice-rolling RPG and it offers a huge depth. Gothic was made as a continuation of immersive games like Underworld and by that time modern action 3rd Person action games like Tomb Raider. Its simplicity is part of its core design and it allows the player to fully immerse themselves into a world that feels like it wasn't just made as a playground for the player but instead a living breathing world.
 
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Chk991

Novice
Joined
Sep 6, 2020
Messages
20
I never did beat Gothic 2, but Gothic 1 is fantastic in my eyes. In a lot of games the hobo phase where your character pretty much can't handle anything by himself lasts at most ten minutes, in Gothic you can spend a good portion of the game relying on others or trying to cheese fights in your advantage. Eventually you get to the point where you can kick ass and then explore every nook and cranny of the prison colony.
 

Communist

Prospernaut
Possibly Retarded
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
47
Gothic and Morrowind were my first RPGs. There were constant discussions in my community about which game is better. These were rival games, each of them had something that was lacking in the other. But in general, Gothic was superior to Morrowind. The world of Gothic is a living world with living characters. Morrowind is a dead world, but an interesting world, playing it is like traveling through Hell with Virgil. Elder Skrols was able to defeat the Gothic franchise only thanks to the organizing and visionary genius of Todd Howard. Gothic was stuck in an outdated technology stage and it killed her. You don't like Todd, but his method worked. And if you make games not like Todd Howard, then you can only get Elex and Cyberpunk.
 

Shadenuat

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
11,955
Location
Russia
I added morrowind to my gothic

WzTIajA.jpg


it is odd to see vrut trees in gothic but it is cute. it does make searching for loot and enemies difficult though, didn't even notice wolves coming for me in the forest pit until weed-dude rushed them. And Gothic games are already creepy enough. But hey, grafixwhoring.

As for Morrowind/Gothic, I think it says a lot that in Gothic you can lead scavenger creatures to corpses to make them lose you and attack them, and in Morrowind even mods don't do it as well, which makes you question what was Bethesda even doing. I guess they were busy adding all the egg mines.

I was inspired by Morgannin playthrough on utub where he whacks whole Chapter 1 with spiked club without ever raising stats to become fire mage. I think I will try Paladins though. I played mage and mercenary. I have very vague memories of G2 because while I did 2 pls of it I don't think I ever explored it much and never liked it as much as G1. All the little busywork quests, and some "kill dragons lol" plot were nearly not as tight and exciting as prisoner survival, getting friends and all that in G1. I literally don't remember anything except first city and monastery and that in the end you whack dragon. But the playthrough shows so many little details and nuance in quests and locations and level design that I decided to give game another, final go and try and beat everything, and preferably melee. Utuber made it all look super easy with exploiting strafing but I died 7 times on first 2 beetles.
 
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Hag

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,647
Location
Breizh
Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Gothic and Morrowind were my first RPGs. There were constant discussions in my community about which game is better. These were rival games, each of them had something that was lacking in the other. But in general, Gothic was superior to Morrowind. The world of Gothic is a living world with living characters. Morrowind is a dead world, but an interesting world, playing it is like traveling through Hell with Virgil. Elder Skrols was able to defeat the Gothic franchise only thanks to the organizing and visionary genius of Todd Howard. Gothic was stuck in an outdated technology stage and it killed her. You don't like Todd, but his method worked. And if you make games not like Todd Howard, then you can only get Elex and Cyberpunk.
Modding has been a huge boon for Morrowind. Firing the construction set was a game designer wannabe dream, you could create your own islands, make new objects with imported 3D models. It really improved the (re)playability of the game and made its popularity last (and the community has been able to fix the mountains of bugs itself, without relying on developers goodwill).

Nice comparison with Dante btw.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
590
Location
Australia
When you get around to Gothic 2, try to get the Gold Edition that contains the expansion "Night of the Raven" (available on GoG). I bought the game at release and finished it before the expansion was available. For years I don't think it was even translated from German, so I never ended up playing it!

Its probably possible to enjoy Gothic 3 now with the expansion and fan patches, but I don't think Gothic 4 was ever worth even setting on fire. The first game in the Risen series was very similar to Gothic, before it went full YAAAAAAARRRRRRR.
 

Sarkile

Magister
Patron
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Messages
1,380
I haven't played Gothic in 16-17 years, does it run without issues from GoG? Are there any alternatives to the control game's controls in the years since I played it?
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
Gothic was made as a continuation of immersive games like Underworld and by that time modern action 3rd Person action games like Tomb Raider.
I know this is gonna bunch some panties, but when I first laid eyes on Gothic it reminded me of...

Ultima_IX_-_Ascension_Coverart.png
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
Of course, Gothic is better just look at their development teams

Morrowind virgins
w55G3PW.jpg

rVEqkUYveMr9tM3RKcSex73D6r0LcpNXRZPOPTLAdDShvgD3pdHFt8fK76QvKgTU7eqsBPCw1SOG-NGbS1WBbL5ibbjyPPx4eeOVUFc6


Gothic Chads
Tom_Puzki___PB__PHENOMEDIA.png


In all seriousness Gothic is something completely different to Morrowind. Morrowind was made in the tradition of PNP dice-rolling RPG and it offers a huge depth. Gothic was made as a continuation of immersive games like Underworld and by that time modern action 3rd Person action games like Tomb Raider. Its simplicity is part of its core design and it allows the player to fully immerse themselves into a world that feels like it wasn't just made as a playground for the player but instead a living breathing world.

All I see is GOD TODD HOWARD vs. a bunch of Slav-squatting WHO'S WHOS!

Todd Howard on Gothic, PC Gamer: "Yeah, Gothic did this, Gothic did that. Well you know what? Good for Gothic. I'm glad Gothic did all that. You know what I did? I created The Elder Scrolls, maybe you heard? When people tell me, "Oh daddy, Gothic has such good combat" or "oh daddy, Gothic has such nice world" you know what I think? Bullshit. That's right. BullSHIT. You know what bullshit is, don't you? Hm? I said you know what bullshit is, right? Hey faggot, I'm talking to you. That's what Gothic is: bullSHIT. And where did it get them? Don't bust out your cloth map because I know where it got them. Wan... wanna know? Nowhere. All this praise for Gothic and I made a game that according to people like you was lesser in almost every way and yet more people will remember it in twenty years while those jobbers are six feet under the soil of Tamriel when Oblivion devours the fucking industry and becomes MY bitch. I'm the daddy now. Asking me my thoughts on "Gothic." Pathetic. Should be asking me if I'd like The Elder Scrolls to be joined by Super Mario Bros. or Zelda. Fuckin' dweebs. Fuckin' cocksuckers. Yeah you."
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
I think the Risen series is stronger than Gothic series. Risen II is tons of fun.
Just finished Risen 2 a few weeks ago. It's amongst one of the weakest titles from PB. Will try Risen 3 eventually to see how far it can decline as a series.

I played Risen 2 and 3 just last year (having put it off because 2 was such a disappointment and I never bothered to even look at 3... then I was bored, had a week off, and hey...), and for what it's worth -- 3 was actually pretty fun. It's a minor step in incline over Risen 2, though nowhere near as good as Gothic 1/2, Risen 1, or even Elex, but it does some stuff right and is closer to Elex than the other games (well, world is much smaller, but you get the idea.) It's really clear that Risen 2 should have been a totally separate game; 3 on the other hand is kind of a weird frankenstein's monster of pieces put together. Some neat ideas (magic melee spells that have a secondary projectile use; Calador is a cool area; the pirate ship combat wasn't awful like say pillars of eternity 2).

It had some nice ideas, and was surprisingly fun all things considered. It scratched that PB itch for me, and I played it through twice.

Also, parrot flight is a very fun spell.
 

Smerlus

Educated
Joined
Mar 29, 2020
Messages
133
You guys can grab your pitchforks or whatever you guys grab around here but I've only finished the atrocity that is Arcania Gothic 4 despite beating Risen 1-3 and Elex.

Gothic 1 I was really into and got probably 75-80% done with and my HDD took a shit. Tried to start over but didn't have it in me.

Bought Gothic 2 when I had an outdated shitty computer, never got it to run right.

about 50% into Gothic 3 and the game would crash pretty much at a specific area around a main quest I had to do. Never found a way to fix it.

I can probably get them all to run now but just never went back to them.

But I'll agree that the games are fun. There's a moment in PB games where you go from getting stomped by warthogs to making a build, getting equipment and experience with the gameplay just click together and you start fucking up everything in your path.

Plus always liked the quest design and the way classes are picked.
 
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680x0

Learned
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
Messages
128
Which Piranha Bytes game do I start with? Mods and such?
 

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