Gothic Review

Gothic Review
March 21, 2002

For many years in the land of Myrtana, a kingdom thrived. Food was plentiful and mines produced metal ore in abundance to equip and arm its military. Its cities grew and prospered, becoming centers of knowledge where arcane arts, astronomy, or other scholarly pursuits were studied. However, due to this prosperity, neighboring lands became envious, and their jealousy ultimately led to war. For several years, the conflict raged, and thousands on both sides were killed. In the end, the strength of the armies of Myrtana prevailed and forced their opponents to surrender. But this victory came with a price. Food and metal ore were now scarce and multitudes were hungry throughout the land. Before these problems could be rectified, Orcish hordes began to plunder the outlying areas of the land, and these minor invasions soon escalated into a full-blown war.

Desperate for ore, the king began sending prisoners to the mines, even for very minor or non-existent offences, in order to increase their output. However, many escaped, and ore production still did not meet demand. Finally, the king called forth twelve of the most powerful mages in the land, six from the circle of fire and six from the circle of water, to erect a barrier around a mine at the city of Khorinis that produced the land's finest ore. Living things could enter but not leave, assuring no further desertions. Gothic is Piranha Bytes' real-time single-player RPG that tells the story of a prisoner newly arrived within the magical prison and of his quest to escape, and this Gothic Review describes what we encountered within the game to help you judge whether this somewhat unconventional title is one you're likely to enjoy.

When the barrier was raised, it was far larger that the spellcasters had intended, trapping them and the guards inside. The prisoners quickly eliminated the latter, and the populace split into competing factions, each ensconced in its own encampment. Accordingly, Gothic thrusts the player into an anarchistic gameworld where might rules. Gameplay begins immediately since there is no character creation scheme; everyone starts out as the same character. The game employs a third-person over-the-shoulder type graphics engine and a relatively simplified role playing system. Within it, you gain experience points from completing quests or defeating opponents. Ten skill points are accumulated for each character level reached. These points may be saved or immediately spent on statistics such as strength, dexterity and mana, or on conventional skills such as magic, one- or two-handed melee weapons, bows, lockpicking and sneaking.

There are also a few less conventional skills that may be obtained during the game. Examples include acrobatic, which allows greater jumping ability, and hunting, which lets you take killed game and separate it into different animal parts for future use or sale. The magic system consists of six circles that correspond to different levels of competence for the player. Within each level, several spells are available from different schools such as fire, water, and brotherhood magic. Single-use scrolls are available for each of these spells, but in order to use them repeatedly, you must obtain their respective runes. Each use of either a scroll or rune requires personal mana, which can only be replenished through potions or plants. While there are no specific character categories within the game, depending upon the stats and skills selected by the player, one basically plays the game as a warrior, focusing on melee, ranged weapons or a combination of the two, or as a mage.

Gameplay is rather different from many RPG titles. Control of your character is almost exclusively through the use of keyboard commands. General movement occurs from pressing one particular key, while interaction with the gameworld requires pressing various combinations of two keys. Different hotkeys allow the player to enter combat mode and select a melee weapon, ranged weapon or spell. The weapon equipped via the hotkey will be the currently selected weapon in the player's inventory. You may assign specific spell scrolls or runes to the 4-0 number keys for easy access. When in combat mode, common actions such as casting a spell, firing an arrow or swinging a melee weapon use the same combinations of keys. More advanced types of attacks may be made by pressing different two key combinations. Targeting enemies is relatively straightforward. You merely look toward an enemy in combat mode and, if you're close enough to attack, the enemy name and a health bar appears at the top of the screen. Once combat begins, the game automatically attacks the closest of all targets within range. Therefore, when engaging a group of enemies, one does not need to turn to target each new enemy.

Your inventory is also available at the press of a key and is broken down into several item categories such as weapons, armor and potions that are each accessed separately by scrolling forward and back. The inventory appears to be unlimited, so one can pick up anything and everything available in the world. Basically, when wandering around the world of Gothic, if an item's name appears above that item, it may either be picked up and stored in inventory or used in some way. The same applies to NPCs, of which the world contains literally hundreds. Upon approaching one, either a descriptive title or a name NPC appears along with a health bar. During the ensuing interaction, your character is given several conversational options. When one is selected, your character speaks it; all of the NPC dialogue is also spoken. Your character may speak to almost every NPC within the game to obtain general information. Those with given names usually provide more specific information and quests. Certain information acquired from them, including quests and locations of merchants and tutors within the world, is automatically entered into the player's journal, which is accessed, again, by pressing a particular key.

Gothic is structured in six chapters. Each begins after a particular milestone is reached or a choice is made by the player. As noted above, quests are obtained through interaction with characters within the game. While most of the quests are relatively standard fare such as delivering an article to another NPC or going deep within a mine in order to obtain an item, interacting with and helping certain figures in each faction greatly affects what specific quests may become available. This type of interaction also determines how opposing factions will treat the player. During the day, NPCs tend to stay in specific areas, so they're quite easy to locate. At night however, they make their way into huts or other living accommodations to sleep until morning. Also, your player character is normally not allowed to enter NPC dwellings unless invited or he has some reason to be there. Normally, an NPC will begin by yelling at your player character and, if you remain in the dwelling, it will attack. This type of interaction provides a sense of realism not found in many RPG titles.

Combat in Gothic can take a fair amount of time to master. As noted above, the keyboard controls are not standard. They are also not necessarily intuitive, and the manual doesn't have detail descriptions so familiarizing yourself with the system can involve substantial trial and error. Fortunately, this information is also available in non-commercial walkthroughs on the Internet, which I admit to using more than once. That being said, once you are familiar with the mechanics of actions and combat, the control scheme does fit well within the overall gameplay.

The opponents in Gothic range from various animals and monsters within forests, caves, mines, and beach areas to other people trapped with your player character within the prison barrier. The AI of the opponents in Gothic is generally good. While its possible to lure one of a group of opponents away to make it easier to dispatch large numbers of enemies, this approach is generally difficult and requires patience and aptitude. The balance of this aspect of the game also feels solid. Combat can be extremely difficult in the early stages, with almost every enemy you encounter being able to kill you very quickly. However, as the player amasses skills and abilities, the difficulty level of battles in the required quests tends to keep pace nicely.

The graphics in Gothic are excellent, with many details and added touches. The world slowly changes from day to night and rain intermittently falls. Often, when your character turns in a certain direction, the sun will actually shine in his eyes so there is momentary blindness. As your character approaches the boundary dome, it shimmers with blue light that, again, brings a feeling of realism to the fact that you are trapped within its confines. Most of the inside settings, castles, towers, mines et al are fairly dark, and a torch or mage light is necessary to move around. The monsters and NPCs are also well drawn and move very realistically.

Of course, using a relatively high-end graphics engine has trade-offs. For example, you require a 16 MB video card to run the game. While serious gamers have systems that meet this requirement, it may prevent many casual players with older PCs from running Gothic. With respect to stability, the game froze a couple of times during gameplay, but the performed very smoothly overall. I have noted on game boards that some players have run into a couple of potentially game stopping bugs having to do with turning winches; however, I did not encounter any such problems. The voice acting in Gothic is reasonably good, although actors were apparently used for myriad characters without changing their voices. This is most likely a result of the very large amount of spoken dialogue. Ambient sounds are also very nicely done, particularly outside where forest sounds seem very realistic. The music was relatively understated and not particularly memorable.

Overall, Gothic is a game that possesses many positive features with only one weakness of any real note. Its eye-pleasing graphics, large amount of varied NPC interaction, and relatively straightforward yet interesting story combine to help make the player feel very involved in a real world, and the majority of your character's actions fit into this scheme wonderfully. Piranha Bytes deserves special praise for tackling a game with so much spoken dialogue, which truly helps the player become part of the gameworld. The only negative aspect of the game is the somewhat cryptic and confusing control system. The guide accompanying the game does not provide enough information about it, necessitating taking the time and effort to learn the system without offering a corresponding benefit in terms of enhancing the ease of use or play. That being said, once mastered, the control system did not overly hinder enjoyment of the game.

The Last Word
While perhaps not for everyone, Gothic should appeal to RPG enthusiasts who are interested in a captivating, story-driven game. It provided about 40 hours of gameplay including a well-balanced mix of interactions with NPCs and real-time combat against diverse monster, human, and undead opponents. The world of Gothic is relatively unique and it offers a gameplaying experience that is truly different from many RPG titles. The beautiful graphics and extensive NPC interaction truly allows the player to become part of the world. Although there certainly is ample combat, it is not a dungeon crawl, and therefore, gamers looking for that type of experience might be put off by the difficulty of mastering the control system as discussed above. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this title to gamers who are looking for more than a straightforward hack and slash RPG.

Related Links
Gothic Gallery - June 27, 2000
Gothic E3 2000 Report - May 21, 2000
Gothic E3 2000 Gallery - May 19, 2000
Gothic Intelligence Report - November 4, 1999
Gothic Interview - June 29, 1999

Mark Homer aka Dunkinator