I think that's the key word in the discussion. In altar of this immersion (or even better, 'vibes'), Gothic series makes many sacrifices that don't gel well with certain crowd. It's ultimately a matter of expectations. People who grew up on American tradition of fantasy and role-playing games must find early eurojank games extremely jarring, because it almsot purposefully goes against their sensibilities.
Take, for example, criticism of writing. If someone expects vibrant and extensive dialogue trees, written by masters of the written word, Gothic would be a disappointment for them. But the almost simplistic, down-to-earth, unembellished style is there on purpose. This is, ultimately, a primitive prison (or backwater, largely insignificant town), not a fantasylandia of wonder and high adventure. You're among the lowlifes, not bards and minstrels, and the best locale you can find on the map is dilapidated fortress, not some whimistical city of elves/Telvanni. In that setting, it works, it serves to underline the
setting. Even when the plot rises the stakes, it (setting) never breaks with limitations it imposed at itself, creating largely coherent experience.
The quests and associated running around are just pretexts to immerse player more into this world, not the main source of fun itself. I'll admit that at least first game takes this a bit too far (Ulu-mulu, god I hate that questline), but the reason why many players remember the game fondly is not because of the amazing questline, but because mine valley/isle of Khorinis imprinted itself into their psyche, it left lasting impressions with its handcrafted locations. How many open-world games can boast such achievement?
I loved both Morrowind and Gothic as a kid, but while I vividly remember only a few locations from the first one, I can probably draw world from first two Gothics from memory. And it's not like Morrowind didn't have striking 'vibes', or visually appealing locations - especially comapred to competetetion, even 20 years after release. However, Gothic was much more successful at making even seemigly mundane locales memorable. In any other game 'orc axe cave' from G2 would be forgettable, minor stop, but I bet any Gothic affecionados on Codex immediately not only recognized which place I am talking about, but also recalled the layout and features of that ultimately small location. And it functionally serves only as an optional stop on a fetch quest.
Funnily, I think Piranha Bytes partially didn't understand this appeal of those games, hence not only problerms with replicating Gothic magic in their later titles, but also abyssmal endgame of both Gothic 1&2. What's the common part of both? They throw Nameless One into a new locale (Orc Temple/Irdorath) with which we have no connection. And the magic goes away...
