Gothic 3 Which Gothic game was your favorite?

I'm very curious to see which Gothic game was the favorite of the majority here. Please participate in the poll and let us know why you selected the answer you chose. Personally, I think the original Gothic was the best of all... I don't honestly know why... it just felt more... real... if that makes any sense at all. Gothic 2 was my second favorite and Gothic 3 is my third... but it goes without saying that all of them were amazing, great games!

I voted for the 1st one because it completely blew me away when it came out in March 2001 in Germany. I was working for a PC system builder/retailer back then and the company was also selling games in the retail outlets. Purchasing those games was one of my tasks and we got Gothic a couple of days before the German street date. There was zero hype for Gothic at that time, no forums posts with impressions because no one had the game yet, and the print press had barely covered it at all. I knew very little about the game. Only that it was supposed to be some kind of fantasy-style Tomb Raider (that's how the German print mags labeled Gothic before its release due to the 3rd person perspective and the control scheme). I fully expected the game to suck just like the other forgettable Tomb Raider clones before it. Well, and the rest -as they say- is history .

My old PC I'm using now was then at the very height of good systems. It was a very good machine then, and I use it even now while I write these lines.

I bought it some time after the hype had began, and actually became intrigued so that I finally bought the game - at an reduced price at thge last of a closing computer games shop.

Like Moriendor already wrote, I was blown away. This (Gothis 1) is - from the point of deep immersion - one of the best games I've ever played.

I must admit, that I can't really vote in here, because OI've never played any Gothic part than that (bought Gothic 2 only a few weeks ago).

I just wanted to emphasize that feeling of "being blown away" that Moriendor had, too. I'm actually a bit astonished that someone had exactly the same impression ... - although I really shouldn't be surprised, because the rest is history.

Over the next few months (given no adventure game hinders me from that ) I'll try whether Gothic 2 will or will not run on my old Athlon 800 Mhz PC.

EDiot : Just to add : I became very proud that German developers had managed to do what nobody had expected from them : To actually build an very good game.
The same happened with Far Cry, by the way.

Wow you're lucky! So you were one of the first to ever play the game I remember actually having some really hard times with the original because the game wouldn't run good on Windows ME. The game was awesome and I wanted to play it so desperately, that I actually went through three different operating systems before finally finding one that worked good with it. Before then it'd crash way too frequently (kind of like Gothic 3 does for me now).

Anyway, after I fixed it it was like smooth heaven. Everything about the game is just so memorable. I don't know how else to explain it except to say that you just know when someone has poured their hearts into something. I really believe Pirahna Bytes poured their hearts in the original Gothic and that is what made it truly spectacular! It's not just the graphics detail at the time, it was the attention to the landscapes, the fluid and fantasy-realistic flow of everything and how it all meshed together like a good dream you just hate waking from. And the innovation! OMG, who ever saw something that looked like a scavenger and sounded like chicken or rooster before? Maybe they got the idea from a dinosaur? I have no idea but the whole "world" design was brilliant and so new. The monsters were so different from any other game, movie, or other form of entertainment I had ever seen before. I only wish instead of using the same old stuff on a larger scale, Pirahna Bytes had maintained the same scale while introducing an abundance of new and innovative stuff like the original stuff was. I mean, for example, on earth you see different species depending on where you go. Sure, there are a handful of new MOBs in each of the Gothic games... but overall its more of the same stuff... I hate to sound like I'm complaining because ALL of the Gothic games are really great games but I can't shake the feeling that Pirahna Bytes is losing whatever spark it had with the original. I think maybe they are too focused on what other games are doing... I think Morrowind or Elder Scrolls probably prompted them to spend an enourmous amount of resources on creating a huge world for Gothic 3 when it just wasn't necessary. It's not quantity that matters, it's value. I'd rather have a world the size of the original Gothic and equally as imaginative, diverse, and unique, than a world 100 times the size of Gothic 3 or any of the Elder Scrolls games. Can anyone honestly say that Gothic 3 doesn't seem at least a little repetative at times?

I consider myself one of the most biased and stubborn people when it comes to the Gothic games. I've written reviews on the past two games (one was published and copywritten on quandary) and have always stood up for the Gothic games... it's always annoyed me terribly when people talk badly about these games because they're so great.... but at the same time I can't help but notice the gradual misdirection of the Gothic series. I guess I'm just sharing all of these thoughts because I'd like to know if anyone feels similarly. It's possible that I simply enjoyed the other two Gothic games so much that my expectations have become too high for reason.

I fully second your sentiments. Another thing that made Gothic stand out IMHO was that the goal of the game didn't immediately become clear. Breaking out of the jail/barrier or destroying the barrier by the end of the game just seemed like one of many possibilities. For a long time, you didn't really know what was going on regarding the grand scheme of things because you had to focus on much more mundane tasks like gaining rep and rank with (one of) the different factions. I really liked it a lot how they revealed only little pieces of the grand scheme bit by bit before it became clear that there might indeed be a way to bring down the barrier.
Gothic II and III on the other hand are lacking that kind of mystery. It's pretty obvious in both games what the bigger goals are. There are a few minor surprises on your way to reach your goals but both games don't have the same "building up the story as you move along" approach that made the first game so great in addition to all the other things you mentioned.

...and then there were the unknown lands...

If this thread gets enough posts I'll email Kai Rosenkranz (one of the developers - the Music, Sound, and Effects Design developer) the link and maybe he'll actually take a look at it and get the attention of the rest of the Pirahna Bytes team. I haven't talked to him a long time so I doubt he remembers me but he seemed like a really nice guy who was genuinely interested in what the fans had to say. He even read my review at Quandary for Gothic 2 and commented on it.

I'll go with the crowd. First one is definitely the best. The game kept the tension of story all through the game. I really adore gothic 1 because the flow was so natural. Instead in g2 xardas explains right away what we must do, so because of that it didn't feel same....

In g3 they went back to the roots as player did not have any preset goals other than finding xardas... But at some point i simply ignored it and started doing my own thing. maybe there should have been more gentle push from devs. Oh gosh ain''t I such a whiner, but what can I say, g1 was the most balanced in terms of how story proggessed

g1 > g3 > g2

I love gothic 1, really I do, I played it on an old machine and waited for like 6 mintues each time for it too load because it was that good and worth it....
i rememeber the feeling of complete immersion, the feeling that the world is a real breathing world.... not something created by people, which I don't see in many computer games anymore.
it felt so real and so big(even though that in retrospect it's not as big as other games) I got lost in the woods on my way to the sect camp many many times(till I got a map of course) ..... , it also felt like a prison, you got roughed up (who among us doesn't rememeber the words"thanks for the ore you hero")and got mugged you were asked to pay protection money and if you didn't things could have gotten ugly, and after a while you did the same to others just to get thier gear and ore(might makes right in gothic1).it just felt real which is something any computer game should aspire too

Don't beat me but I'm enjoying the latest one the most. Yes, I have to admit that I'm not all the way through. Also I liked the previous two parts a lot...

I think G2 Gold is the best of them, followed by Gothic. G3 is clear third.
Gothic is the most immersive but G2 has the better gameplay and holds the pace for a much longer time.

I cast my vote for G2 (especially with Notr added).

I love the entire gothic series and when the first one arrived it completely blew me away. Going down that winding road and discovering a big city with lots of interesting NPCs with their own daily tasks reminded me of "Ultima 7 Serpent Isle" - just in full 3d Later, when I found myself sneaking around the woods at night hunting scavengers with a bow and trying to avoid roaming wolf packs and sleeping shadowbeasts it just hit me - this was the most immersive RPG I had played for a very long time. I felt like being a part of the world!

When G2 arrived I basically just wanted more of the same - and in my opinion that's pretty much what we got, just bigger and prettier Now, for me both the story and the exploration part of the Gothics are the most important things - possibly with exploration being the most important one for me. And this is what tips the scale towards G2 for me I think. I just *love* walking through the world, looking for small hidden caves or tombs. As cliche as it might sound I *love* finding hidden caves when I swim behind a waterfall G1 had some of these locations, but G2 was just completely *stuffed* with them. All designed by hand and with carefully distributed loot to be found. One of the best examples is the treasure island in G2. I was standing at the harbor, looking out over the open sea - and there in the distance there seems to be an small island. I swim to it and find it inhabited by a pack of beasts which I manage to defeat. Then I find the hidden entrance to a treasure cave, complete with a spike trap, hidden switch and everything. I mean, what's not to love here

G3 is also great. It's absolutely huge, looks great and also has lots of secret caves to find. Unfortunately there are way too few items in the game, so you very very rarely find any really interesting loot. Also the content of the chests has been randomized (there are probably too many for the devs to fill manually), which in my opinion also makes it less interesting to go exploring for them.

So, bottom line - G2:NOTR is the best Gothic for me

Are you sure you really voted?

G2 Gold. Gothic 1 a very close second.

I voted yesterday, but didn't have the time to add a comment until today

im with dez, in that i think the 1st is my favourite with 3 next and then the 2nd. for all the people who voted for the 2nd, i'm wondering how much time passed between when you played them. ie did you play gothic 1, less than a year, less than 2 years, or more than 2 years before playing gothic 2. i really believe that the 'when'of playing a game relative to its release, escpecially when a series is involved has an impact, even if small, on possible levels of enjoyment of a game. i played gothic 1 when it came out, but having to 'wait' for gothic 2, escpecially the expanision to be realeased coupled with it being mostly the same but 'bigger and prettier' as kasperfauerby explained, as well as more refined, made it not as great for me though still i had no complaints with the game. and the changes in gothic 3 added a freshness to me, whether or not they were better i can't say, that i enjoyed greatly.

games like deus ex i didn't play 'til it was a year or more old so i had less expectations for and time to wait for deus ex 2 which i enjoyed. the same with the thief games which 1 and 2 i played only 1-2 years before the 3rd came out which i enjoyed alot. and then there's playing a sequel first, like with system shock 2 which i played close to when it came out. one of my favourites, which then i went back to play the original which i thought was good, but nothing like the second.

anyone else share these feelings?

I disagree on SS. I know the graphics aren't as good, but I found the original a much better game. I enjoyed the sequel, but it didn't have the lasting, dare I say for the time groundbreaking impact of the first!!

yes corwin that's fine, but what i wanted to know was the order you played them in and when. judging by your comment it looks as if you played ss1 when it came out, which is exactly what i'm getting at. the 'groundbreakingness' of an original game played when it comes out, and played before you play other games (not necessarily in that franchise) that have similar or copied elements in them will lessen the novelty of your experience with the 'first' game like it did for me.

Curious, I understand what you're saying. In fact, the System Shock series is a great example. I played SS2 first and thought that game was a little better than
SS1.

However, I voted for Gothic 2 even though I played both when they were first released. I just feel that Gothic 2, especially when you add in NOTR, just offered so much more. I think there's a lot of nostalgia involved in all these people voting for Gothic 1.

Gothic 2+ NoTR for me.

Gothic was an incredible game for sure. But the controls (c'mon all ye faithful, admit it) were cumbersome. Anybody know the story behind that?

Gothic 2 had fantastic gameplay and the controls were waaaay improved. Also the gameworld was twice as large (with NoTR, three times). Sure, the atmosphere doesn't match its precursor. That's because it was designed to be completely different. You're not a prisoner trapped in a mining-based prison colony encompassed by a deadly barrier. Now you're a free man, a man who has accomplished much (Banishing the Sleeper, destroying the barrier) and must seek out old friends (and enemies!).

As for Gothic 3...I'm waiting for a new rig and at least another patch