Gothic Remake

Before I decided to play Gothic 1 Remake, while reading some reviews and impressions online, I noticed that many people draw parallels between the remake and the original. As someone who has never played the original nor had a powerful enough computer back then to run it, this puts me in a somewhat unenviable position. I have no nostalgia to pull from, no flashbacks to latch onto. Who's to blame me for going through Parasite Eve II for the twentieth time while the rest of the world enjoyed the charming eurojank of Gothic. But here we are, so let's see what this remake offers.

Where were you when I was nobody?

After the first few hours of playing Gothic 1 Remake, I can imagine why the original had that specific allure. There’s something interesting about the fact that for a change, you are not the chosen one, the enlightened, the savior, the slayer, the ruler, the creator, and whatnot. You are just an ordinary and miserable nobody whom everyone looks at with suspicion, and for the first few hours, you fight for your life while beating up various moles and small rodents with your bare hands. You can’t trust anyone, everyone wants to con you, and the game doesn’t really hold your hand from quest to quest. Pay attention to the text, read, listen to what you’re told, explore, and maybe with a bit of luck, you’ll wander where you really need to go. After I killed a few rodents on my way to the first camp, I met some guard who, in a not-so-subtle way, tried to extort protection money from me. Being the moral vertical I am, I refused not only on principle but also because I had nothing in my pocket and moved on. After a few rounds of exploration around the camp, some loser approached me and said he found a valuable amulet outside the camp and if I help him with that, we would share the loot and I’d get easier access to the inner circle of the camp. Being nice and foolish as I am, I believed him, and outside the camp, he and two of his friends beat me up because I didn’t want to give that guard at the entrance protection money. And that’s when I realized I love this game.

Play and stay alive

As for the gameplay, Gothic 1 Remake still has that characteristic eurojank. You’ll spend half the game fiddling with the inventory (sometimes even in the middle of a fight) and arguing with the framerate. Framerate drops are not frequent but are completely random, and I also experienced occasional texture pop-ups or enemies freezing in place sometimes, allowing me to beat them as much as I want. The game can be buggy at times, but considering that half the bugs sometimes work in the player's favor, I can’t complain too much. However, one thing must be clear to you - the game is not mer-cy-less. You are only a hero in name (really, your character is literally named Hero even though no one treats him as such), and charging at enemies and blind exploring are not the smartest options. Almost every fight in the game is a big risk (at least in the first 2-3 chapters), and there’s no trick to go a little outside the camp, grind XP, and come back three times stronger for the main quest. You grind only when the game allows you to, and always try to start fights near camps so you can tactically hide behind better-equipped NPCs while they kill for you. The game cheats, and so do I. The only complaint here is that once you get a little freedom, the game becomes noticeably linear. First, they send you to the old camp, then to the new one, then to some third one, and by the time you figure things out and make a decent character for yourself, you quickly realize the game is dragging you along a linear path.

A copy of the PC version of the game for review purposes was provided by distributor Colby and publisher THQ Nordic