What you people are completely missing in 'zumg you can also get overpowered in chapter 1 in gothic' is that unlike in Archolos, in Gothic that is simply neither encouraged nor supported, and if anything it's effectively discouraged because important things that allow you to spiral out of control are chapter locked. You won't find any remotely effective armour before joining any faction, and without effective armour you'll get one-hit-killed by everything; you won't get access to any higher-tier trainers; and you won't get access to some of the top-tier abilities (like brewing stat-increasing potions) not only until you reach a later chapter, but also not unless you join only one specific faction. That means you have to wait with steamrolling the entire big map until you progress through the main quest and hulk up, and killing trolls and whatever in chapter 1 there is truly the domain of turbo-autists only because you have to whack them for half an hour. Meanwhile in Archolos none of that is true. You can get master alchemy already from the alchemist in the hut outside the starter town. Better gear (INCLUDING ARMOUR) is much easier to come by and not locked by faction membership. It's generally A LOT easier to become a demigod in Archolos than in Gothic, and I'd expect someone making a game like this who appears to understand what made Gothic Gothic NOT wander into such a painfully glaring pitfall. If you think this is a 'minor gripe' then this is just another bout of reality bending.
Also Jinn you're very cute with your 'zomg roxor such a bad contrarian hating poor modders!!!' when if you'd take off your butthurt fanboy glasses you'd maybe remember that I was initially very positive about Archolos despite being sceptical about it before playing, but I eventually grew to dislike it when the bad things kept piling up and pissing me off to an increasing degree.
Your weird obsession over a minor design difference has stopped you from enjoying something greater than the sum of it's parts. You're the odd duck out for approaching a game series about role playing and immersion in this whacky "vacuum" playstyle that nobody who loves Gothic would do.
As Marvin, some kid from a backwater town who's had barely any life experience, most players innately understand brute forcing the game with exploits and rushing skeletons for XP would be immersion breaking and thus not do it.
Actually I commend the devs for creating a more immersive and freeform world than the originals which as you point out arbitrarily restrict your progress via the main quest.
Stop being weird and just use your imagination while engaging with the experience in good faith man. Most experiences in life require some suspension of disbelief.
