Your Favorite Piranha Bytes Game?

Gothic 2 was simply amazing. I quite enjoyed the first, but the second really is the perfect mix of open world and story driven game play for my tastes. I would have to put the entire Gothic franchise before Risen too, though I haven't picked up Risen 3 yet.

Gothic 2. What a g.a.m.e.!

I know I have to play Gothic 3. I'm very excited to do just that, as soon my Gothic II Let's Play is finished!

Gothic one kept me playing until it was done. Two was just more of the same. Better looking, but Gothic one was the original.

G2 with NotR - 9.5
G1 - 9.0
G2 - 8.5
G3 (patched) & Risen - 8.0
Risen 2 - 6.5
Risen 3 - 5.5

My favourite segment in a PB game is the return to Mine Valley in G2 - seeing how the area has changed since G1 is just cool and, more importantly, I find it an excellent survival experience and a perfect example how lack of level scaling can work to a game´s advantage. "Nostalgia bonus" obtainable via Diego is the cherry on top .

I consider G3 to be a bit of a lost opportunity due to lackluster combat system, a lack of meaty questlines and some other deficiencies (like effectively missing female presence for no apparent reason), but I think the game is an impressive achievement nevertheless thanks to its world design + faction system and I really dig how the main quest is weaved into the game´s open world - lack of quest markers is particularly notable.

The core reason why I score R2/3 fairly low is the games´ combat experience - I really don´t understand why PB didn´t expand on the combat system featured in R1 in these games, maybe the publisher´s influence? - and I also think it´s a pity the games pretty much threw out R1´s dungeon crawling experience.
Even though R3 improved upon R2 when it comes to character development possibilities, world design and general expansiveness, I still rank it lower due to most of the predecessor´s setting´s uniqueness missing, lackluster writing (and voice acting), and, most notably, really poor provided combat experience due to a combination of repetitive and uninspired enemy/encounter design and general combat frequency.
It also perhaps bears pointing out that I´ve played R2 as a member of the voodoo faction which, as far as I can tell, provides a more unique and better balanced experience (spells not as immediately "overpowered" as guns, few faction exclusive creative quest solutions, more openness thanks to a certain island being accessible shortly after joining) when compared to the alternative.

G1 and G2 with NotR belong among my favourite gaming experiences and constitute what I consider some of the absolute best open world offerings to date.
Night of the Raven is one of my favourite post-release content for a game (along with Mask of the Betrayer, The Lost Crowns trilogy for Dark Souls 2 and the DLC set for Mass Effect 3) and thanks to providing more ties to the game´s predecessor, careful rebalance and superbly designed new area is the reason why G2 edges out G1 in my book.

Gothic 1 for sure. Gothic 2 was mechanically better than 1, but the first one had a way more interesting world, better story, better atmosphere. And it was quite original. And I loved that first at least 2 thirds of the game you had no business saving the world. You were trying to first survive, then climb the hierarchies of the different camps, and only later on found out about the dangers that the Colony was under. Just beautiful.

Gothic 2, while being better polished gameplay-wise, it was very formulaic and generic when it came to the world they were building. And it felt like G2 was in a different age than G1. G1's world felt archaic and ancient and that just gave it a perfume like no other. G2 was more run-of-the-mill medieval themed rpg.

But what both games did beatifully was the progression sense. It just felt amazing, getting your ass handed to you at first, going away and improving yourself, and then coming back and getting back at your initial aggressor.

The other thing both games did well was exploration. Beautifully designed game spaces that you could loose yourself in.

Gothic 2 with expansion. But Gothic 3 with the community patch was awful fun to play also. Just played it a few months ago and had a great time.

Voted G3. The sprawling and breathing world gives it a tiny edge over G2.

Another vote for G2. Strong vote.

However, there is G3. I tried playing that game for years. I got it on release and its released state was so horrendous it started me thinking conspiracy theory type things although that was totally irrational thinking. However the released game was totally irrational. I think I started and eventually stopped that game 4 or 5 times. (each time over 10 hours). And let me say the game is so good, I just had to give it more shots. I mean these guys did do G2.

But in addition to being buggy the game world is huge, the story line is intricate and leveling your character is far more convoluted than G2. So if you wait too long to resume, you have to start over. But my last two times (last time was last year) the game was mostly bug free and finally had that G2 feeling. And G3 can hold its own to todays graphic standards. And in the end G3 is just a beautiful and fun game to play.

G3 is easily PBs second best game in my book.

And Risen 3 for 3rd place.

And looking at that list, that is why PB is my favorite RPG developer. The worst game in the bunch (Risen 1) is only marred due to the poor design decision they made with the end game boss. And Risen 1 is still a very good game.

Anybody hear anything on what PB is up to now??????

I actually have a game of Gothic Three that I've not finished, I was enjoying it at the beginning but at some point I just got terribly bored with it. That never happened to me with Gothic Two.

Dajjer said:

Anybody hear anything on what PB is up to now??????

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Mike Hoge wants to make a Space-Exploration game...

HiddenX said:

Mike Hoge wants to make a Space-Exploration game…

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Yes, and just to make sure and clarify since the quote said what "Piranha Bytes is up to"…. Mike Hoge's game has nothing at all to do with Piranha Bytes. It's a completely separate project, done by a separate company and team.
Mike Hoge left Piranha Bytes as a working employee (as a PB founding member, he still seems to hold some stakes in the Pluto 13 GmbH which is the mother company of PB) shortly after Risen 2. He had no role at all in the development of Risen 3 and has been absent from any active involvement with the day to day business of the company for over two years by now.

Also, as I posted in another thread recently…

Regarding Mike Hoge's project, there was an interesting turn of events recently when it was revealed that Daedalic is working on a space exploration game called 'The Long Journey Home'. Just like Mike Hoge's game, it is using the Unreal engine, and again also just like Mike Hoge's game, it is supposed to feature a soundtrack by Kai Rosenkranz.
Coincidence? Maybe. But if so a pretty massive one.
Also, Mike Hoge used to be quite talkative in the thread about his new project until late last year but not a single bleep since 12/23/2014. Maybe because he is simply too busy…. or because he is under publisher NDA now?
If you ask me, it's the same game. Spacetime = The Long Journey Home.
But we'll have to wait and see for an official confirmation as always…

—

And finally to answer the question what the actual Piranha Bytes team itself is up to at the moment: All we know is that they are working on a new game for the PC (and whatever other platforms the publisher "orders" = confirmation they have a publisher ) and that it is not a Risen 3 expansion and not a Gothic reboot. It could be Risen 4 or a new franchise. No one knows.
Jenny Pankratz regularly answers fan questions every Monday at the WoR forums but as always at this early stage PB is under a gag order and are not allowed to really talk about what they are doing.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer, Moriendor.

I did not quite like how damage scaled with skills (or rather the chance of dealing full damage), at least with NOTR, in Gothic 2, and that pulls it down a few pegs compared to Gothic 1. Apart from that, I also enjoyed the setting in Gothic 1 more, it felt more unique.

Gothic 3 was not without its strengths, but the move to "true" open world also meant that it would have to compete with games like Morrowind, and it really can't do that. It's by no means a bad game, it just plays second fiddle to other similar games.

So personally I would put them in the following order: Gothic > Gothic 2 > Risen 1 > Gothic 3 > Risen 2.

Fnord said:

Gothic 3 was not without its strengths, but the move to "true" open world also meant that it would have to compete with games like Morrowind, and it really can't do that. It's by no means a bad game, it just plays second fiddle to other similar games.

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I strongly have to disagree there. G3 is far above Morrowind in anything but setting, IMHO.
Morrowind has a slightly outerwordly setting with those giants 'shrooms, I'll give you that, but other than that… The NPCs, exploration, enemies, atmosphere, the world design itself and even graphics are just far, far better… Far, far, far better…
It's the superior game (for me) hands down.

EDIT: Note that I only played the game after it was already patched with the CP to 1.73, so my experience was bugfree from the start.

I definitely prefer G3 over Morrowind in terms of world and setting, but I'm not a big fan of the alien environment. I especially hated the giant ash area, which is just about the bleakest and most dull area I've ever had the misfortune of roaming.

That said, when it comes to dungeons - Morrowind is the clear winner, even if it's far behind Skyrim in that way.

DArtagnan said:

That said, when it comes to dungeons - Morrowind is the clear winner, even if it's far behind Skyrim in that way.

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Morrowind had such boring, recycled dungeons. I felt like they were just put there for the sake of having them.

G3 however, yes, had no real "dungeons" (what *is* a dungeon, anyway, hm?). Everything is part of one seamless and natural world — every cave, every grotto, every niche…
Not a bad thing in my book, so Morrowind can have that one.

EDIT: I remember how I found it amusing how every cave (or dungeon) had a door in Morrowind.

wiretripped said:

Morrowind had such boring, recycled dungeons. I felt like they were just put there for the sake of having them.

G3 however, yes, had no real "dungeons" (what *is* a dungeon, anyway, hm?). Everything is part of one seamless and natural world — every cave, every grotto, every niche…
Not a bad thing in my book, so Morrowind can have that one.

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Yes, MW had boring recycled dungeons - but you had to play for quite a few hours before you realised that. Fans never noticed, I guess.

However, G3 had a terrible random loot implementation, and MW had hand-placed stuff, which is far more interesting when you're exploring areas.

Also, G3 combat was broken - and MW combat was simply incredibly dull. I guess that's a toss-up?

DArtagnan said:

However, G3 had a terrible random loot implementation, and MW had hand-placed stuff, which is far more interesting when you're exploring areas.

Also, G3 combat was broken - and MW combat was simply incredibly dull. I guess that's a toss-up?

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Was it handplaced in MW? I forget, or tend to confuse it with Oblivion. If so, then yes, I'll give MW that.

That's one thing where G2 has the clear edge over G3: loot.