…in the book of dave. Gothic is an original mix of gameplay elements from Tomb Raider, the classic adventure game types, and action RPG games like System Shock and Deus Ex. When I first got it I spent about an hour playing and decided it was too hard and contained too much dialog, but folks kept popping up on usenet talking about how great it was and how you had to get past the first couple of hours of the game. So after I built my new machine I tried it again and I have to say it’s an awesome, awesome game. The first couple of hours are rough since you have basically no combat skills ….

… and you have to get a feel for the lay of the land, which involves talking to about 20-30 characters and working through sometimes lengthy conversation trees. But if you stick with it the game gets really good. Why?

There’s never been a better 3d world realized in a game. Towards the end you can get to the top of the highest tower in the land and if you graphic card can support it you’re able to peer out over several miles of landscape, it’s truly remarkable. And the landscape is chock full of caverns, hidden valleys, ancient ruins, shipwrecks and all kinds of other cool landscape elements, all stitched together seamlessly. And there’s almost zero level loading.

The plot is pretty good so far as fantasy plots go, and contains all the plot elements you would expect, including my favorite, violent revenge 😉 The gist of it is, you’ve been imprisoned in a magically constructed prison that covers several square miles. You get wrapped up in a number of different efforts to destroy the magical prison and effect escape. Not all is as it seems and it’s not clear who you can trust. And the ending is very satisfying.

The rpg elements are well thought out – its less complex than System Shock or Deus ex but still satisfying and you can see the effects of your advancement in your ability to fight and progress against the game’s various challenges. Gain a level, choose to increase your strength, and note how you can finally start to hurt those giant lizards who used to be impervious to your attacks. Or spend points on dexterity and note how you can hit things with your bow from a greater distance. Or spend some on hunting skills and start making money off of your kills, which yuo can spend on better weapons, or armor, or healing potions, or magic spells.

The action bits of the game are its weakest part but still fun. Exploring is just awesome, it’s really great fun to run through the world checking things out and it maintains this throughout the game – right up to the end sequence you are still discovering new areas. There is a lot of backtracking to be done as you play but it never gets tedious (well, almost never. There’s one quest near the end that sucks). The combat is the most frustrating aspect of the game though, especially in the beginning. All I can say is stick with it – by the end of the game I was beating ass on every enemy in the game (I did take the warrior path however, not so sure the magician or ranger would have had it as easy as I did).

The graphics in the game are good. Not on par with say Quake III, but still good. And the tradeoff is, while the character models are not as detailed as Quake III, you can see for MILES and the landscape graphics do an awesome job of imparting a sense of scale no other game has done. Turn the visibility distance to 3 or 400% and stand on the high ground, you’ll see what I mean (Radeon or Geforce 3 class cards only, mind you). The sound effects are very good. The voice talent is a bit of a mixed bag but generally pretty good. (The guy who voices milton should be shot however. Heroic wizard dude my ass, he sounds like a whimpy accountant). The music is really pretty good in a subtle way.

The downsides to the game – there are some technical issues, especially with sound. I had occasional crashes to the desktop with it in Winxp, usually when I was facing many enemies at once. The game’s NPC’s are very talkative, you can get caught in very lengthy conversation trees. For the most part I liked this since the plot was good, the voice acting was generally good, and the writing was quite good, but if it’s not your cup of tea then you might be put off by the game. Lastly, the first couple of hours of gameplay are rough. Stick the the old camp, talk to every one (suffer through it, trust me) and perform what quests you can for the inhabitants. By the time you get to the point where you can beat the shit out of Mud, travel to the old camp’s mine, and visit the New and Sect camps, you will be well on your way to the really enjoyable parts of the game

So, this is rambling. To sum up, this game has been added to my all time favorite games list. It’s well worth paying full retail price for. Tough out the first couple of hours and you’ll be richly rewarded.