Incline Gothic turns 15 years

[Sigourn]

installed
awful controls
lol nope.jpg
uninstalled

What were they thinking when they made the game?

 

[Kahr]

Untermensch. Please don't reproduce.

 

[Doktor Best]

They made the controls clunky so only those with patience get to enjoy one of the best rpgs ever created. Fucking ADHD kids are not worthy to bathe in its glory.

Also you can install system pack and play it with keyboard+mouse like any other third person actionrpg.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I always wonder why no crpg developer ever took inspiration from the way the faction system were handled in both gothic titles. Its like miles ahead of everything else ever done in that regard. In Gothic when i joined a faction and finally wore their armor (something that the game made you want from the first time you set foot in any settlement) and walked through their camp, i felt like i am actually a part of their society. I talked to people and the ones who liked me congratulated me and felt happy for me, and the ones who hated my guts muttered some words of how i will fuck up anyways or something. Even in other camps relationships with certain people changed for me.

Its by itself just a minor "fluff" form of reactivity, but it breathes so much life into those settlements that it makes you actually feel at home. I dont know when i ever felt anything that clear and strong in any videogame.

But you can't be Archmage, Master Assassin, Leader of the Thieves and Warriors guild at the same time with the same character. That's restricting player freedom!

 

[Hoaxmetal]

They made the controls clunky because they were making a tank sim at first.

Fixed.

 

[cherry blossom]

Gothic was a blind purchase for me (a pirated copy as that was literally the only option available back then and was practically considered legit here), based on nothing but the name and the jewel cd case cover. I thought the name was cool and the cover looked good. I had heard nothing about the game beforehand.

One of the best blind purchases ever.

 

[Carrion]

In many ways Gothic is a blueprint on how to make an open world and do it right. Everything on the map is unique, you can buy hand-drawn maps to find your way around because there's no automap, there's no level-scaling (although dividing the game into chapter helps), you have tons of cool stuff like NPC schedules and the way different factions are handled... I'm probably forgetting half of the good stuff since it's been so long since I played it, but every developer wanting to make an open-world game should play Gothic before doing anything else. Also, every RPG should have characters that are just waiting for a level 1 goody-two-shoes newbie to walk up to them so that they can trick him, beat him up and take all of his stuff, simply because they can.

I can't say I'd ever have an urge to replay the game, though. The combat is okay but kind of simplistic once you get the hang of it, the writing and the setting just aren't all that interesting despite all the great ideas mentioned above, and even though the game offers some cool exploration, there's not all that much of it since the world is fairly small. The UI and the controls are indeed shit, and not including proper mouse support in 2001 should have been outright criminal. It plays like some shitty console port despite being a PC-only game, and even though it doesn't take that long to get used to the controls, they're still not very good. Still, the controls are probably the game's only major flaw. The good easily outweighs the bad, and it's a real shame Gothic hasn't had a bigger influence on the games that followed it.

 

[Lacrymas]

Eastern Block countries, duh. It was the same over here, I still have some of my pirated jewel case boxes from when I was a kid lulz.

Gothic 2 is awesome. I still haven't played Gothic 1, but I plan to. One of the best things about it is how they managed to make stats meaningful in an action-RPG. The more you increased the stats/training level the more fluid the controls and your fighting style became. They aren't great, but eehh. There were also very interesting ideas, like hand-drawn maps and the plants which increased your stats that could only be found by exploring. Exploration was handled well is what I'm trying to say, and it wasn't obtuse. There are very many things the Gothics did right, and some of them are mentioned already. A lot of RPG developers can learn a lot from them.

 

[Ludo Lense]

The most amusing thing is that Japanese games like the souls series/bloodborne or Dragon's Dogma are closer to Gothic's design principles (Both 1&2) than western Open world WRPGs from Beth, CD Projekt RED or Bioware.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I first heard about Gothic in 2004 or so, when the Bratwürst-speakers of the old Home of the Underdogs forums were gushing about how awesome the Gothic games were.

It's a game whose control scheme is off-putting and tricky to master, but once you're past that you'll be served a plate full of awesome-sauce. I ended up doing two full playthrough, one for Old Camp and one for New Camp.

I held off playing Gothic 2 until Night of the Raven was finally released in English in 2005, and had an awesome time with it. Again I ended up doing two full playthroughs, one for the Mercenaries and one for the Mages. On my second playthrough I decided to 'bend the rules' a little and see how much XP I could squeeze out of the game. This involved killing NPCs once they had exhausted their usefulness, finding the 'graveyards' and killing everything in there, etc. I just barely reached Lvl 58.

Gothic 3...I had a go at it in 2008/2009, but by the time I reached the Hashishin I was burned out, especially after the northern wastes and the disappointing resolution with General Lee.

I haven't played the Gothic games since.

 

[Jaesun]

Gothic, a game that only features men in a prison camp. My DREAM game <3

 

[Excidium II]

Gothic, a game that only features men in a prison camp. My DREAM game <3

Old Camp has the whores. Guess you didn't join that one.

 

[janior]

A lot of stoned half-naked men in the swamp camp, easy targets...

 

[Metro]

installed
awful controls
lol nope.jpg
uninstalled

What were they thinking when they made the game?

Controls are fine unless you have some kind of motor skill impairment.

 

[Karwelas]

installed
awful controls
lol nope.jpg
uninstalled

What were they thinking when they made the game?

They had some faith in that players won't turn into complete casualised retards. Well... look at it now.

 

[Excidium II]

It controls like every other 3D action adventure of the time.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

My first memory of Gothic happened when I was naive enough to believe the guard near the bridge that the old-looking fortress was the New Camp.
Then I had to run through the forest and who knows how many areas I had to explore before realizing that I was fooled. Fooled like a little motherfucker I am.

Then I ran back and tried to kick his ass.

Got my ass handed back to me.
Again.
And again.
And yet again.

I love this game.

 

[janior]

Dark Souls on mouse and keyboard is far worse than Gothic controls btw

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

And Fallout I, the darling of the Codex, has the worst controls ever, yet nobody ever mentions it just because.

 

[Excidium II]

jew wot m8.

 

[Sigourn]

They had some faith in that players won't turn intocomplete casualised retards. Well... look at it now.

>demanding good controls makes you a casual retard

This is what nostalgiafags actually believe.

And Fallout I, the darling of the Codex, has the worst controls ever, yet nobody ever mentions it just because.

lol no. Fallout 1 has much better controls. Even WASTELAND has better controls than Gothic, and it's a game where you must memorize controls as fast as possible if you don't want to use the mouse every single time to perform an action.

Wasteland. WASTELAND. A game which you could perfectly play without using a mouse, yet it give you a mouse that allowed you to do everything you could do with a keyboard. What's Gothic's excuse, other than so hardcore?

 

[FeelTheRads]

And Fallout I, the darling of the Codex, has the worst controls ever, yet nobody ever mentions it just because.

This is what nostalgiafags actually believe.

Goddamn newfags, GTFO.

demanding good controls makes you a casual retard

Except you keep posting about how you uninstall games because of controls. Therefore you are a casual retard and a newfag.

 

[kwanzabot]

 

[NotAGolfer]

installed
awful controls
lol nope.jpg
uninstalled

What were they thinking when they made the game?

I know right?
And it feels like you are controlling a tank, wtf were they thinking?!
Fucking Eurotrash is all this is.

Sorry folks, but you really have to admit that this crap just can't compete with today's standards for melee fighting games.
Just compare this clunky mess to something as fluid as Assassin's Creed.


Lol, look at these animations!
It's soo slow!
And unresponsive!!!11! One time when I clicked the attack button like a maniac he moved like in slomo, then the next time I said to myself fuck it I don't even care anymore and just clicked in random intervals and it behaved completely whacky, slow, then faster, then slow again, but not even in sync with my clicks. WTF game, when I click the button the retard on the screen has to do something ffs!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is basic stuff! Fucking Eurotrash, really!


It's really not that complicated. When I press a button I want something awesome to happen. Sure, my char is a wimp and didn't learn even the basic combat skills but there are better ways to show that, like different levels of awesome instead of this shit.
This is just bad, this isn't empowering. I want to play games that are empowering, not this trash.