Does gothic 1 take place entirely in the same area?

[Jekktis]

does all of it take place inside the barrier? or do you venture out at some point?

[Frozen Fireball]

In the whole game, you are inside the barrier. But that's not a bad thing at all. Penal Colony's design is one of the best I have ever seen in any game. Detailed and atmospheric as it gets. Although I played the game around 1/5 years ago, but I still remember most of its parts pretty well. That's how memorable it was.

[JDR13]

You don't need to worry about feeling restricted in Gothic. It's one of the most open games you'll ever play, and it's quite large, especially for a game released in 2001.

[Fnord]

The area inside the colony is quite large. Not as large as say Morrowind, or even later Gothic games, but there is a lot to explore, and the game world feels both diverse and coherent (something that can't be said about Gothic 3, which feels diverse, but not at all coherent).

[Gorath]

Gothic 2 includes ca. 2/3rd of Gothic's colony. You'll visit it briefly in chapter 2 and explore it in chapter 4.