First time playing Gothic

Originally Posted by Fluent
Yeah, it's Chromanin. I'm not sure what to do next about it, but the text says:

Spoiler

The wise one has a general overview before taking on his next mission.

So I take it that means to have a look around the world now before doing the main quest, and maybe something has changed/opened up, etc. Not sure, but I guess I'll spend some time exploring the map again and seeing what I can find before furthering the main quest. I'm already in Chapter 5 so I hope I didn't miss anything thus far.

Chromanin is a paper chase over half the map. The locations are close to the focus stones. I made a fugly map with all focus and Chromanin book locations more than a decade ago, when we still had GothicDot. Maybe it's still somewhere on our site.

It's a side quest. Gives nice XP, but that's it.

Originally Posted by Gorath
It's a side quest. Gives nice XP, but that's it.

Thanks for the spoiler! LOL . No big deal, though.

I'll probably still complete the quest just to say I finished it. I think I know where those locations are because I recall seeing split paths near some of the focus stones and I have stumbled on some interesting sites.

It's surprising to see how similar the first Risen game is to this game. The first Risen has very similar quest and dialog design, similar open-world design (although not quite as brilliant as the Gothic design - but then again, I never saw the whole world of Risen as I only played some 15 hours), expanded crafting which is nice to see (I've been hoarding herbs and flowers in Gothic all game thinking for sure that I'd be able to transform them into useful potions), similar faction design, etc. It seems like Risen 1 sticks very close to the Gothic forumla. The Gothic world seems a bit more dangerous than the Risen one, though, at least from what I recall.

Well, at about the 38 hour mark, I beat the game. What follows are some general thoughts I had about this classic RPG. I'm not sure if these impressions will speak more about my own gaming mindset or the game itself, so bear that in mind.

The Game In Thirds

I felt the game was broken up into thirds and my enjoyment of the game fluctuated between these thirds.

The first third of the game was brilliant. I loved building trust with NPCs and slowly discovering this new and dangerous world. It was fun to go from an absolute nobody into someone who could at least make a few ore and survive in this rough place. It was any means necessary and I enjoyed every bit of the grind.

The second third of the game was also very enjoyable. I was gaining rank within my faction, acquiring new skills and armors, and it was a slow but steady progress with good story-telling and a high degree of interactivity. I was eager to see what would happen next as the story unraveled before me.

The last third of the game I felt slipped a bit. It felt padded, rushed at points. The ending was very weak, I expected more. Grinding through deep dungeons in the manner of the final area was not what I enjoyed most about RPGs like this. I knew there would be dungeons, but I was hoping it wouldn't be a huge one, which it pretty much was.

I struggled to maintain my focus on beating the game. The last few hours especially were difficult.



So, I don't want to focus too much on the negative aspects, but on the overall experience. It was a good game. I enjoyed most of my time with it and would recommend it to anyone. A lot of the game ideas were executed well and I thought it had some good ideas overall.

My final rating: 8/10

I can see why everyone ranks this game so highly. It really was a great experience. The beginning parts were the best.

I agree with you. The beginning is the best. I only finished the game fully once, but I've played through it to chapter 3 5-6 times and I've replayed chapter 1 10 times or so.

Originally Posted by Pladio
I agree with you. The beginning is the best. I only finished the game fully once, but I've played through it to chapter 3 5-6 times and I've replayed chapter 1 10 times or so.

Interesting.

The first third or even half of the game is amazing. I love how you start off so weak you can barely kill a scavenger. Every piece of ore means something and you have to scavenge the world thoroughly just to scrape up enough ore to buy a necessary weapon, which then helps you explore a little bit further and the cycle continues.

In the last third or so of the game, ore meant nothing as I had so much of it and nothing to really spend it on, sans the odd scroll here or there. And it seemed like once the character progression started really picking up steam, I became extremely powerful in a short amount of time.

Anyway, enough rambling. Great, great game. It was refreshing to play something of it's kind and seeing where Piranha Bytes all started from was an added bonus.

Yeah, you do get somewhat overpowered in the last chapter. Still, I'm willing to bet that you would have rated it even higher if you hadn't waited 13 years to play it.

I'd give Gothic a 9/10, and there's only a small handful of games I've ever rated that high.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Yeah, you do get somewhat overpowered in the last chapter. Still, I'm willing to bet that you would have rated it even higher if you hadn't waited 13 years to play it.

I'd give Gothic a 9/10, and there's only a small handful of games I've ever rated that high.

If I had played this when it first came out, absolutely, would have been blown away. Still, 13 years later I find it a very engaging game with some great ideas.

I wish more open-worlds were built like Gothic's colony. Hand-placed everything, encounter "blocks" that open up with smart character progression, dangerous areas, etc. And of course, no level scaling.

I'd probably rate the game a little higher but I felt the last Chapter or 2 weren't as strong as the rest. It sort of felt like those ending chapters were disconnected from the first few chapters. Once I became powerful and slaughtering humans I started to lose some steam.

I also would have preferred a more involved ending. Some more resolution would have been nice.

Still, it's a very good game and I would recommend it to anyone to play today. Just use a gaming mouse and set one of your main buttons to CTRL .

I'm curious Fluent if you used the basic combo of left-right in combat? I only ask because you mentioned the tricky timing of attacks etc. I found I could get into a nice groove of the left/right combo and it was one of the things I loved about the combat. I have seen let's plays on youtube etc. where players simply do the forward attack which seems to work out more difficult. There is a more complicated/advanced combo which is worth looking into too.

In any case as much as I envied you playing G1 for the first time I envy you even more having G2NOTR to look forward to. What a game.

If you do go on to play G2 I would be in the "use G1" controls camp although I think there are differing opinions on that.

Originally Posted by BrianOConnell
I'm curious Fluent if you used the basic combo of left-right in combat? I only ask because you mentioned the tricky timing of attacks etc. I found I could get into a nice groove of the left/right combo and it was one of the things I loved about the combat. I have seen let's plays on youtube etc. where players simply do the forward attack which seems to work out more difficult. There is a more complicated/advanced combo which is worth looking into too.

In any case as much as I envied you playing G1 for the first time I envy you even more having G2NOTR to look forward to. What a game.

If you do go on to play G2 I would be in the "use G1" controls camp although I think there are differing opinions on that.

I really wanted to play G2, but I think a little break from Piranha Bytes-styled games are good right now. I'm playing another classic RPG that I missed over the years (Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines). I do really look forward to G2, though.

As for combos in Gothic, I thought the Master level combo for one-handed was pretty useless. The most effective attacks were definitely the up-left-right-left-right-etc. combos. That said, it was still very tricky to get actual hits because of the way the combat system was set up. They would do that backwards dodge thing and my attacks would do no damage. I basically had to let them get in a free shot EVERY time just to be able to hit some of them. It got a little frustrating near the end because every single enemy was tricky to defeat for that reason.

Does G2 have the same exact combat system or has it been tweaked some?

Hmmm. I don't they do that dodge thing. But I may be wrong (or forgetful).

Originally Posted by Fluent
Does G2 have the same exact combat system or has it been tweaked some?

As far as I recall it's the same kind of combat but they introduced a newer control scheme which meant you could one-click hit rather than the 2 key system. In the ini you could enable/disable it to stick with the G1 system.

You are probably right to take a break and play G2 in the right frame of mind.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Hmmm. I don't they do that dodge thing. But I may be wrong (or forgetful).

Everything started doing it near the end of the game. Unless I was experiencing some crazy bug or something, it happened with pretty much every encounter in the final few areas.

Someone please brush up my memory on G2 fighting, how did the one-click system work with the multiple directions needed to achieve combos in G1?

Originally Posted by Kostas
Someone please brush up my memory on G2 fighting, how did the one-click system work with the multiple directions needed to achieve combos in G1?

I'd like to know that as well.

They simply mapped the forward attack to the LMB.

Gothic 2 combat is the same, but smoother. You can now strafe much more easily, and the overall pace feels less sluggish. I consider it quite an improvement actually.

Also, the "best" combo is often just forward, forward, forward, forward. Left/right is something of a quick slash, and only really works with master rank skill. It tends to be rather cumbersome otherwise.

Personally, I like forward, forward and then dodge back or strafe to the side. That way it's easy to stay out of harms way, followed by another couple of quick swings.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Gothic 2 combat is the same, but smoother. You can now strafe much more easily, and the overall pace feels less sluggish. I consider it quite an improvement actually.

Also, the "best" combo is often just forward, forward, forward, forward. Left/right is something of a quick slash, and only really works with master rank skill. It tends to be rather cumbersome otherwise.

Personally, I like forward, forward and then dodge back or strafe to the side. That way it's easy to stay out of harms way, followed by another couple of quick swings.

In Gothic 1, the forward, forward, forward, forward combo seemed to always be interrupted by an enemy attack before I could get to the spin part (using one-handed weapons).

I liked to use forward, left, right, left right and repeat that. Can't say it worked particularly well, though, since I did have issues getting my attacks to do any damage .

Originally Posted by Fluent
In Gothic 1, the forward, forward, forward, forward combo seemed to always be interrupted by an enemy attack before I could get to the spin part (using one-handed weapons).

I liked to use forward, left, right, left right and repeat that. Can't say it worked particularly well, though, since I did have issues getting my attacks to do any damage .

Which weapon? Basically, I'd say the following combos work best:
1H Expert: Forward, forward, forward, forward. Sometimes forward, forward, dodge/block, forward, forward, dodge/block, etc.
1H Master: Any, but I tend to like forward, left, forward, left for some seriously fast swings. The left following the forward must be pressed faster than usual to get the "double" swing effect that I really like.
2H Expert: Don't use it. It's slow no matter what. 2H is not worth it until master. If you absolutely have to use it, try to stick with something simple like forward, left, dodge/block. Repeat.
2H Master: Quickly do forward, forward and then stop the combo so you can do forward, forward quickly again. So essentially hold ctrl while pressing up, up, down, up, up, down.

The reason forward (up) is the basis of all the combos is the movement of the main character. Left/right basically means you're standing still, usually outside the range of the enemy, so you're hitting nothing but air. If you constantly put at least 1-2 forwards into it, you'll push them backwards while still having a decent chance of actually hitting something. The 3rd/4th forward is often interrupted, so sticking to a quick 1-2 is probably the easiest way to fight.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Which weapon? Basically, I'd say the following combos work best:
1H Expert: Forward, forward, forward, forward. Sometimes forward, forward, dodge/block, forward, forward, dodge/block, etc.
1H Master: Any, but I tend to like forward, left, forward, left for some seriously fast swings. The left following the forward must be pressed faster than usual to get the "double" swing effect that I really like.
2H Expert: Don't use it. It's slow no matter what. 2H is not worth it until master. If you absolutely have to use it, try to stick with something simple like forward, left, dodge/block. Repeat.
2H Master: Quickly do forward, forward and then stop the combo so you can do forward, forward quickly again. So essentially hold ctrl while pressing up, up, down, up, up, down.

The reason forward (up) is the basis of all the combos is the movement of the main character. Left/right basically means you're standing still, usually outside the range of the enemy, so you're hitting nothing but air. If you constantly put at least 1-2 forwards into it, you'll push them backwards while still having a decent chance of actually hitting something. The 3rd/4th forward is often interrupted, so sticking to a quick 1-2 is probably the easiest way to fight.

Thanks for the tips. Hope I have better luck in Gothic 2 . I will most definitely keep the G1 control scheme since I'm used to it now.

Originally Posted by Gorath
They simply mapped the forward attack to the LMB.

But since LMB used to be lock target how are sideattacks executed without the ability to lock?

Originally Posted by Maylander
Gothic 2 combat is the same, but smoother. You can now strafe much more easily, and the overall pace feels less sluggish. I consider it quite an improvement actually.

Also, the "best" combo is often just forward, forward, forward, forward. Left/right is something of a quick slash, and only really works with master rank skill. It tends to be rather cumbersome otherwise.

I certainly remember left/right attacks resulting in a slower (more cumbersome) fight but also allowed for safer encounters since 1 hit can easily deprive you of 1/3 or 1/4 or your HP.