Gothic, Risen and Elex series

I just wanted Gothic 4, man.

What happened to PB since they went broke? Did they shut down already?
 
I just started Gothic for the first time and it's such a cool ass game. The colony feels really big. Npcs react when you enter their living space. If you don't move out of the way of important character they will smack you down and steal your cash. Same with pulling a weapon on them. The combat feels really rhythmic. You attack from left to right and from right to left. It feels like you have to time it right. You can't just smash the attack button like a maniac. Some enemies try to dodge you even. Of course it's jank and some things work really funny or you can easily abuse it but still it's a game from 2001 and it has better tech than most of the modern titles. It has crafting(weapon forging) and cooking for fucks sake. Its primitive but really cool.

For the bad news: apparently Piranha Bytes was shut down last year. RIP.
 
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hawkisnight said:
I just started Gothic for the first time and it's such a cool ass game. The colony feels really big. Npcs react when you enter their living space. If you don't move out of the way of important character they will smack you down and steal your cash. Same with pulling a weapon on them. The combat feels really rhythmic. You attack from left to right and from right to left. It feels like you have to time it right. You can't just smash the attack button like a maniac. Some enemies try to dodge you even. Of course it's jank and some things work really funny or you can easily abuse it but still it's a game from 2001 and it has better tech than most of the modern titles. It has crafting(weapon forging) and cooking for fucks sake. Its primitive but really cool.

For the bad news: apparently Piranha Bytes was shut down last year. RIP.
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I played through all three of the Gothic games last year, one after the other.

At first the controls were indeed really wonky but after I googled how to pick up items everything sort of clicked and it became quite fluid.
Best part of the game for me was that you actually do start out as a nobody that isn't respected by anyone.
It's also great just how much your character tangibly grows by learning how to wield a sword properly and gaining some actual armor.

Just imagine Gothic 1's setting but you're the Dragonborn from Skyrim, you would just walk through all the NPCs trying to block you and you'll be let through to the guys in charge right away.

Overall I enjoy the first game best, the setting is very interesting and the relations between the camps are entertaining too, the second game has a far less interesting setting in my eyes though in most other aspects its a major improvement.

Gothic 3 doesn't really need to be talked about, you start out the game immediately decimating orcs with your lads and thats just a sign for things to come, nothing can really stop you in Gothic 3.
 
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Quartermaster said:
Just imagine Gothic 1's setting but you're the Dragonborn from Skyrim,
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Funny, considering Crapthesda pretty much stole everything for Assrim from Gothic 2, the whole "Dragons, which nobody has seen in ever, appear again, you're the chosen one, the one who talks to them, yada yada yada" and Gothic 2 is still miles ahead of the pathetic shit Crapthesda dares to call RPG (or their braindead minions deem a "good rpg/game") in terms of story, writing, world design (no copypaste shit every 2 meters, every cave and dungeon, longhouse and inn in assrim looks the same, it's pathetic), character design and even quest design.
Too bad Gothic 3 was such a shit show and 'Gothic 4' was such a joke they even removed that title in shame (and the less being said of that pajeet add-on for G3, the better, Forsaken Gods might be the worst expansion/dlc/add-on in gaming history)
 
ShadowAngel785 said:
Funny, considering Crapthesda pretty much stole everything for Assrim from Gothic 2, the whole "Dragons, which nobody has seen in ever, appear again, you're the chosen one, the one who talks to them, yada yada yada" and Gothic 2 is still miles ahead of the pathetic shit Crapthesda dares to call RPG (or their braindead minions deem a "good rpg/game") in terms of story, writing, world design (no copypaste shit every 2 meters, every cave and dungeon, longhouse and inn in assrim looks the same, it's pathetic), character design and even quest design.
Too bad Gothic 3 was such a shit show and 'Gothic 4' was such a joke they even removed that title in shame (and the less being said of that pajeet add-on for G3, the better, Forsaken Gods might be the worst expansion/dlc/add-on in gaming history)
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To be fair it's not a really unique plot, dragons are such a staple of fantasy that pretty much everything has been done already.
And in the end both games go in very different directions.

Say what you want about Skyrim but I doubt it ripped off the terribly unique idea of "dragons are returning and people don't want that to be true".

But what you are describing is a cancer to gaming in general, open world, something that the Gothic series would be falling victim to with the very next game.
Instead of having a smaller condensed map with one or two big towns with lots of quests you'd have a whole continent with tens of small towns with one or two quests each.
In Skyrim and Gothic 3 you're like a cow grazing on a plot until you picked it dry and move to the next plot, in Gothic 1 and 2 you're a guy who is down bad who has to work for every inch and morsel he got..
 
Quartermaster said:
It's also great just how much your character tangibly grows by learning how to wield a sword properly and gaining some actual armor.
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I fully agree. Nameless hero starts out the game wielding one handed sword in both hands but then when he trains with a proper warrior he starts wielding it one handed. A really nice touch. Same thing happens with two handed weapons but in this case Nameless changes his stand and makes flashier moves.
I haven't explore magic because I always play warriors but plan to become a mage in second game because I read later magic is cool. The mage robes really are quite stylish.
 
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Quartermaster said:
But what you are describing is a cancer to gaming in general, open world, something that the Gothic series would be falling victim to with the very next game.
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At least the world was fully hand-crafted, unlike Oblivion, which was mostly randomly generated. I agree that it was a bad call, but I can see what they were going for - gradually expanding the game world throughout the series. It's a shame it didn't pan out.

I'm cautiously optimistic regarding the remake. The playable teaser was trash, but the trailer looked good, so maybe they learned their lesson. I just hope they don't put ant fag shit in it.
 
Norstein Bekkler said:
didn't that come out like 15 years ago? they just called it something different
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It was a piece of crap and had a ton of title changes: Gothic 4: Genesis, Gothic 4: Arcania, Arcania: A Gothic Tale, then it became Arcania: Gothic 4. Nowadays it's just called Arcania and is one of the worst RPGs in history. It also bankrupted Spellbound Entertainment.
 
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ShadowAngel785 said:
It was a piece of crap and had a ton of title changes: Gothic 4: Genesis, Gothic 4: Arcania, Arcania: A Gothic Tale, then it became Arcania: Gothic 4. Nowadays it's just called Arcania and is one of the worst RPGs in history. It also bankrupted Spellbound Entertainment.
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It was a mid game, but absolutely dogshit as another Gothic game. I'd say that the "genre" is cursed though, because even when PB created a Gothic successor - Risen - the second entry did away with pretty much everything Gothic was about.
Spellbound didn't bankrupt, they "filed for bankruptcy" to avoid having to pay out their shareholders, and immediately reformed into Black Forest Games.
 
ShadowAngel785 said:
It was a piece of crap and had a ton of title changes: Gothic 4: Genesis, Gothic 4: Arcania, Arcania: A Gothic Tale, then it became Arcania: Gothic 4. Nowadays it's just called Arcania and is one of the worst RPGs in history. It also bankrupted Spellbound Entertainment.
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I think you got the titles slightly out of order, I'm pretty sure it was "Arcania: Gothic 4" before releasing as "A Gothic Tale", so many, myself included, don't consider it part of the series, and for good reason.

I haven't gotten around to play the Demo yet, is it good?
 
Never played the original series, but I heard about it cause I was looking for games that had the similar feeling to Witcher 1. Downloaded the demo for the remake and played for a bit. Despite the obvious bugs I really like it. Is that bad?
 
Spit bucket said:
Never played the original series, but I heard about it cause I was looking for games that had the similar feeling to Witcher 1. Downloaded the demo for the remake and played for a bit. Despite the obvious bugs I really like it. Is that bad?
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Not really. If you don't have memories of the original around the time it got released, you have no point of reference, even if you start playing it now. Just enjoy the game for what it is.
 
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hawkisnight said:
For the bad news: apparently Piranha Bytes was shut down last year. RIP.
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Oh man, they did. That fucking sucks, I've managed to play all of their games (sans Elex 2, which I haven't had the time to yet) and loved them, despite all the jank and early game ball-stompingly difficult combat. There's just some kind of charm to the jank that sets them aside.

Actually, come to think of it, Risen 3 did not manage to capture my interest and I never finished that one.
 
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