First time playing Gothic

It didn't take long to notice the exquisite character progression in this game. The way that Learning Points are gained and used is very simple in it's execution, yet makes for some complex choices. It feels as though I can craft the character I want, and while a game like Morrowind wins in the *amount* of skills/abilities, it is nice to see so many varied, interesting options in Gothic.

For example, the ability to skin animals. Seems simple enough. 5 Learning Points and away you go, able to skin any animal with fur. It adds another little element to the game that rewards you, this time directly with gold for your sold pelts. By investing the LP, you can become a little richer, but it comes at the cost of beefing up your strength or weapon skills. There's a tradeoff there, a real consequence and, in turn, a substantial reward for your choices.

I really like how the weapons have stat requirements as well. Modern RPGs, take notes, please! There are requirements but they aren't arbitrary. You need to be skilled or strong enough to wield these weapons, and increasing your base stats gives you a real incentive to get stronger or more dextrous. You'll have some real choices to make, such as - Do you want to learn to sneak and pick locks early? That will cost you a hefty 15 LP. Or, do you want to pour those learning points into your weapon skills, or your strength, even. That may give you the advantage in battle, and any gold or loot you miss out on by not having the ability to pick locks, you can possibly make it up on the battlefield.

I guess the main idea that I'm getting at here, is that the game offers choices, consequences, and freedom, not only in quests and story, but in every aspect of the game design! It truly feels like a wide open experience, one that you can completely define by your own choices. I call it a very "organic" experience, because it's not contrived, it's not all flash and no substance, it's exactly the opposite - ultimate substance and ultimate freedom.

Here's an example of a tactic I just did in my newest playthrough.

I was trying to get into the Upper Quarter, and this time I was being creative. I noticed that the guard guarding the back yard full of confiscated goods at the entrance to town was the only person there, and that the chests he was guarding also did not have locks on them. Well, I decided that I would find a spell of Sleep to cast on this guard and quickly plunder the goods he was guarding while he slept . The game gave me this opportunity right from the jump, and even hinted a bit that I should try this (Matteo mentions that the guard confiscated all the citizen's items, as well as spare armor. Thus, this gives you the notion that you can acquire some free armor perhaps, if you're able to get into that storage area.)

So, I grab a spell of Sleep from Ignaz, and away I go. I cast the spell, quickly run in, grab all the stuff I can carry and boom! There's some armor, as well as citizen's clothing! Okay, so you don't even have to become a citizen of the town to get into the Upper Quarter!? Unbelievable. Just steal from that chest and equip the citizen's clothing.

So, that just shows me that this game is designed with ultimate freedom in mind. Don't want to join the town as an apprentice? Fine. Do something else. Join a mage society. Or, maybe you just steal clothing and say you're a citizen? However you want to do it, it feels like the options are limitless and it's all up to how you decide you want to do things. (I also find it quite funny that some of the NPC background dialog says stuff like, "I would have went about that differently", and the classic, "He would have never thought of that on his own." LOL!

So, I was exploring up near the hunter's camp where I met Dragomir. I was hunting along the path, killing scavengers, bloodflies and whatever else got in my way. I was winding my way through the path when I crossed a bridge and headed further into the mountains. I had no idea what I was going to find there!

So, I go a little further and come to a giant swamp, or lake. After killing several bloodflies and other nuisances, I came across a few lurkers. Well, I couldn't run out of there fast enough! I ran up the path to the left and it turned into a mountain path that led to some sort of temple! It looked like something from Risen. It was really cool and the music playing was gorgeous, but I wasn't able to get close enough to investigate, since there were several nasty enemies patrolling the grounds.

I went up the path higher into the mountain and it turned into a sort of rocky clearing. There, I spotted an NPC and had no idea what to expect. I had 700 gold in my pocket and didn't want to lose it, so I approached very cautiously. Well, he seemed nice enough. He was a hunter who wanted to hunt some snappers, but they outnumbered him. This was a very tough decision for me to help him. First, I said I had other matters to attend to. Hilariously, he laughed at me and said, "No you don't! You're in the middle of nowhere!". So there was really no way to get out of this. I didn't want to say yes and have the snappers kill him, and I didn't want to say no because this could unlock something if I hunt with him. So, I hesitantly decided to help him.

Thankfully, he picked one off at a distance and was able to kill the other 2 easily enough. I was no help at all, my attacks were doing very little damage and one bite from the snapper took my health about half away!

So, we kill the snappers, and what do you know? He can teach me about hunting! I anxiously clicked the dialog and to my great surprise, he teaches many trophy collecting skills! Awesome!! Now I know who to go to to get hunting skills.

Well, he warned me about a black troll further up the mountain. Sure enough, I walked a bit towards the cave and spotted the beast. That thing looked scary! So naturally I shuffled away quickly and didn't get too close.

Further past the rocky clearing I spotted a sort of enchanted forest. It was really interesting to me; it glowed green and had dense trees and foliage. By this time I was completely out of arrows, so trying to defend myself in this forest was proving to be very difficult. I'm a ranged character who heavily relies on his bow, so it was tough, but with a bit of sneaking around, I was able to get to the stone circle in the middle! Sure enough, as Dragomir informed me, his crossbow was laying there, unguarded. I grabbed it and got out of that forest quickly.

I found a winding stair path that led me past a mine and down the mountain a bit, but there were vicious wargs patrolling the path, so that route was out of the question. I went back through the rocky path, learned how to remove claws from the hunter, headed back to Dragomir, who rewarded me with a huge sum of gold! 150 pieces . That was sweet.

I made it back to town and had nearly 1000 gold! I bought a new bow after upping my Dexterity to 20, and have a lot left over for other things. I also have a TON of herbs to sell, if I don't decide to learn alchemy and brew up some potions.

All in all, another great session playing this game. Fun stuff