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Gothic Top Dog

RATING

Written by Underdogs March 21, 2009 4

8.5
(based on 2 reviews)

GAME DETAILS
Genre: RPG
Sub Genre: First-person
Themes : Freelance, Fantasy, Epic
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Publisher: Xicat Interactive
Copyright: Piranha Bytes
Year released: 2001
Year released: 2001
Platform: Windows XP
Multiplayer: None
Where to get it:

SUMMARY
In the first months of 2001, German developers Piranha Bytes released this excellent Role-Playing-Game, which
soon received very positive reviews from German gaming magazines.

Fortunately, non-German speakers didn't have to wait too much for the English version: it was released in
mid-November that same year. After downloading and falling in love with the demo, I hurried to purchase it... and
after spending quite a few hours with it, I can say it's excellent. I must say that the translation "feels" right (I can't
compare it with the original version though), and the English voice acting is thoroughly solid and convincing. But
first things first...

For starters, the plot is interesting and well planned: In a fantasy-type land called Myrtana, the insidious Orks
present a really dangerous threat for the kingdom. Myrtana's armies seem unable to stop their progress as they
sweep through the land, and King Rhotbar is getting close to desperate. He needs heavy quantities of Ore, the
magic mineral used to forge the best weapons and armors his blacksmiths can produce, so he forces all the
prisoners of the realm to work day and night at the Ore mines. To make sure they won't be able to escape, he
sends twelve mages to the mine to create a barrier impossible to be traspassed from the inside... but alas!
Something goes wrong, and the barrier grows unexpectedly, trapping the mages inside their own cage. Things get
even worse when the prisoners revolt and kill the King's guards, forcing him to trade with them in exchange for the
Ore. The barrier can be traspassed from the outside, and so the prisoners periodically get all kind of goods from
the outside world (including women, by the way).

In this scenario, you appear as another prisoner, thrown inside the magical jail by the King's men, with a special
mission: the delivery of an important letter to one of the mages...

The game doesn't give any more information to the player than that; it's up to you to find out how things work out
inside the barrier. Soon enough, you'll know power struggles and disagreements among the prisoners/workers
have led to the creation of three different encampments within the prison, each one with its own rules and
objectives. The Old Camp, which actually trades with the king and extracts Ore for him; the New Camp, which
doesn't want to have any kind of relationship with the outside world and only works for its own benefit; and the
Sect Camp, believers in a strange God whom they call The Sleeper, who will be the key to their escape (or so
they wish). Once you reach a certain point in the game, you'll have to choose one of these Camps in order to
progress further; the game will play differently depending on your choice.

And that is one of the most interesting qualities of Gothic: its open-ended nature. Although you have to follow the
main storyline if you want to see the ending one day, you have a certain degree of freedom along the way. You
can choose your friends (and, subsequently, your enemies) in each of the camps, and you can (must) decide
which camp you'll be loyal to. You can dedicate as much time as you want to forget the main plot and solve the
different subquests, which will give you important experience points, or simply to explore the world, to hunt in the
forests, to trade the animals' furs and claws in the marketplace, to climb the high rocky montains in search for
secret places rich on treasures, to explore the dungeons, to swim in the rivers...

Mmmm.

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The virtual world. That's what really hooked me in Gothic. The landscape is beautifully 3D-rendered, with more
than enough quality to create a convincing and charming effect (it isn't the best in the market though, so don't
expect as much texture detail as in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, to name a recent blockbuster). And, while the
world is not HUGE, it's still BIG. Walking (running actually) from point A to B takes its time, but it's never boring:
You are constantly finding new details you didn't notice before as you stroll along the valleys, the hills, the river
banks, the waterfalls, the thick and gloomy forests... Because Gothic features, above all, a credible virtual world.
A world you can easily get immersed into. A world you'll WANT to be immersed into. Every detail, from the
streams that will push your character in the rivers, to the different cloud layers, the well simulated weather effects,
the seamless transitions between day and night, or the possibility to forge your own swords or cook the meat you
took from the animals you hunted in the forest, is calculated to lure the player into the world of Myrtana. You can
spend a good deal of time in the camps, watching the NPCs as they carry on with their own lives, talking between
them, trading, repairing their huts, taking a break to eat or drink something, sleeping, quarrelling... You can marvel
at the amazing design of the old Ore Mine, which immediately brought me memories of the Moria mines as
described in The Lord of the Rings (with giant insects instead of Orcs)... and yes, you can try your luck mining the
Ore yourself.

This is probably the best virtual world I have seen in a CRPG since Ultima VII. It's a seamless world, too: except
in some very precise moments (when you enter the mines, for example), you won't see any "loading" screen.
Providing you are able to effectively evade/defeat the monsters, you can travel around at your leisure, freely,
knowing the whole world is (almost) fully loaded around you... and you can see a good deal of terrain before your
eyes, too, which can make for some stunning views when you look from the top of a mountain to the world below.

The game has some flaws that should be noted, though; and the main one is the interface, wich is a quite serious
problem... as you'll spend all of the time using it :-P. Believe it or not, mouse support wasn't included in the early
designs of the game, and it shows. As it is, the mouse is quite useful for moving your character around, but there
is no mouse cursor to be seen: not even in the game menu. You have to manage your inventory, select your
conversation replies, combat or trade using combinations of keystrokes -- usually, by pressing the 'action key'
along with a directional one. For example, Action+Up is used for a variety of actions, such as picking up objects,
using/equipping them when browsing the inventory, starting a conversation with a NPC or climbing ladders. To
lockpick a locked chest, you have to guess the right combination by pressing Action+Left or Right, and so on.
This, at first, is confusing and unfriendly, and will annoy many players who are used to equip items by dragging
them into the inventory slots, or to review the player's diary by clicking on it with the mouse cursor. Of course,
perseverance is the key to success: give the game a chance, and soon enough you'll perform any action by pure
instinct. But the first time around, it's pretty rough.

Another flaw is the game manual, which is short and lacks important information on certain subjects, as well as
being way too brief on others. For example, it doesn't explain how to dive while swimming (you have to hold on
the 'Jump' key and guide your character with the mouse actually). And technically, the game shows a certain
amount of polygon clipping when looking far into the distance. I haven't found any important bugs in the English
release (v.1.08j), though, which in these days is sadly uncommon.

The game can ONLY be played from a third-person perspective (you can use a first-person view momentarily, but
you won't be able to perform any action while in it), and you can't move the camera at all. Most of the time, you
won't need to, but there are moments on which part of a tree or a wall will get in your field of vision and you will
lose track of your character. (usually at the worst possible moment, like in the middle of a combat...)

As for the "design features" (not actual flaws) that will annoy some players, it must be told that the game is NOT
stat-based (as the Black Isle Studios RPGs are, for example). You just have Dexterity, Strenght and Mana as your
main attributes (called Skills), along with a few abilities (called Talents) such as Lockpicking or Acrobatics. And
that's it. Actually, I like it this way (I prefer to concentrate on the story and background rather than in an
intimidating, endless set of numbers that never make much sense to me), but the more "hardcore" RPG players
will probably be disappointed. You can't even create your character at the beginning of the game -- though you can
decide the way his Skills and Talents are to be improved as you gain experience and levels (you can decide either
to spend your hard earned experience points in raising your Skill or Talents. You must choose wisely especially at
the beginning of the game).

The action-oriented combats will pose a big problem for those used to turn-based battles, too, especially if they're
not fans of third-person 3D adventure games. There's no way to pause the game and issue orders to your
character: you have to rely on your own ability to kill the nasty beasts you'll encounter... which are really well
designed, by the way, and show a certain amount of intelligence. Many travel in herds, for instance, making the
task of slaying them more difficult.

The lack of any kind of multiplayer support is another point worth noticing. And one I don't care about at all, but
then again, I'm a natural born single-player gamer.

So this is what you'll find in Gothic: an excellent role playing game, with a thriving, living, amazing world to explore,
and a whole lot of NPCs who actually are intelligent and react to your actions as you'd expect them to. But you'll
have to dedicate some time to it and its cumbersome interface before you can really begin to appreciate it for
what's it worth, and you'll have to forgive some minor annoyances as well.

For me, it's certainly a must buy, the most pleasant surprise of 2001, and the best RPG released in the last years
(no, I don't like the Baldur's Gate series much...). A fair few thumbs up!

WHERE TO GET IT...

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE..

2 de 4 09/02/2012 22:41
Gothic [Link]

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Rating: 9.0

Reviewed by Hajil
July 23, 2010
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Lord of the Flies

Rating: 8.0

Reviewed by Progrox
June 25, 2009
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Gothic is an ambivalent game. You have a top-notch story. A prison mining camp has been magically sealed off
from the outside world, but when the magic gets out of control, the prisoners start a bloody mutiny and take over.
Now the king has to deal with them if he wants the ore shipments to continue. And of course he does, it is war,
after all.

Enter the hero. With a secret letter from the outside world in your pocket, you are tossed into this prison. You
soon learn that the prisoners have split up into multiple camps, each with their own ideology, and at some point
you'll have to make a choice. Up until then, you roam around and take up quests where you please. Outside of the
camps, death comes quickly. To reiterate: This game is hard, very hard. The all-keyboard control scheme doesn't
exactly make it easier, either. You control combat directly, by using key-and-arrow combos to swing your sword
left and right, stab and block. Timing is essential here, as the enemies are just waiting for you to let your guard
down. At night, even worse beasts come prowling out of the forests.

If you're able to overcome these obstacles, or you are very careful, then you are rewarded with a truly alive
gameworld. In the evenings, you'll see the miners and guards sit around the fire, roast meat, play guitar and talk
with each other. During daytime, everyone goes about their jobs. The guards make rounds, disciples train with
their weapons, the diggers make money in the mines or spend it again, relaxing in the camp. You're able to
interact with the world in many different ways. You can roast and boil food, take fur and claws from animals that
you killed, if you learned how to do it, and fashion your own weapons. The graphics and music and sound effects
all suit the game and add to the immersion. English voice acting is good (I was a little disappointed with the
German one).

If you can live with very hard combat and regular use of the save and load buttons, this game is about as
immersive and well-crafted as a RPG is going to get.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

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