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Exceptional game, with some irritating flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Aside from the Elder Scrolls series, few games offer the degree of freedom you enjoy in Gothic 2. You can explore a vast, realistic world at will, meet a host of strange and unique creatures and individuals, and (naturally) kill them. There are numerous quest paths to take, and options available for class customization. The graphics are exquisite, and the sounds and soundtrack well done. Though voice acting is a bit bland, it's at least understandable and doesn't detract from the experience.

The actor and monster AI are quite well done, though it tends to work better outside of combat rather than in. Monsters often get stuck if you're up on a rock or ledge, though I'm half convinced this is a feature rather than a deficiency (more on that later). Town citizens react in a realistic manner if you try to steal from them or act aggressively. Of particular note is that drawing weapons is considered a hostile action- something strangely absent in many RPGs. The realism is enhanced by excellent modeling (though human characters and expressions are somewhat uniform) and occasional cinematics.

The first thing you're likely to notice about Gothic, however, is that the controls are very odd. Strafing makes you go perpendicular to the direction you're facing- it doesn't allow you to move diagonally. This will certainly throw anyone familiar with FPS controls. You click to target an enemy in combat, and then use directional keys to perform attacks or a block. Your character tries to track the target, but more often than not hits something or someone else. Additionally, the controls are sometimes very unresponsive. Accessing your inventory causes you to put away your weapon, and you have to run through your presorted items (which can be massive in number, since there's no encumbrance limitation) and select, say, that healing potion. Most of the time if you need healing in combat, you will die.

Couple these problems with the fact that early on, most enemies will be able to smack you down with ridiculous ease, and you have a pretty harsh initiation into the world of Gothic 2. It doesn't help that most of the vermin out there come in packs. I found myself doing a lot of running until I hit about level 15. It's a good thing guards lend you a hand if you happen to lead some monsters by. This also makes that occasional rock or ledge extremely useful, provided you have a ranged attack.

The world itself is actually quite small, as you'll see when you get a map (you have to buy one- no freebies like in most RPGs). However, the developers did a great job of expanding the world vertically, so there's a surprising number of places to visit. Many of these are creepy caverns filled with monsters and treasure, and secret areas lurk in hidden corners away from roads. The different environments have creatures to match, and you can usually tell when you're treading on the territory of some powerful beast (wonder where this blood trail leads...) There's enough NPCs around to make the world seem reasonably populated, and they go about their business like real people would.

As for more serious problems, I noticed significant game instability during saving. Furthermore, whenever it crashed during a save, the save was unrecoverable (yikes!). I also saw the world reset every time I changed areas during a chapter transition. This led to weird things like people I had killed returning to life. The patch didn't fix these problems.

Lastly, if your PC isn't relatively powerful, you're going to see some major lag in populated areas like Khorinnis. Reduced video settings might fix this, but playing on low detail in this game is just no fun. One cosmetic gripe I had was the lack of character customization- you have precisely one choice in terms of your appearance and voice. This is for continuity purposes, I understand, and doesn't detract too much from the game experience. Nevertheless, it is something missing that's present in most current games.

There are scores of quests, most of which work as expected. I did see a few quest bugs, but that's to be expected given the complexity of the game. The main quest is what drives the plot, and although it does have some interesting twists, it isn't exactly brilliant. I suppose the developers spent so much time and energy on the world, the graphics, and the side quests that they had little juice left to work on the main quest. However, there's enough paths to make the game replayable nevertheless. Specifically, you can play as a mercenary, paladin, or fire mage, and each route leads to unique quests and capabilities. If I could resolve the technical issues with the game, I'd likely play it through again.

In summary, Gothic 2 isn't a perfect game, but it's definitely a great one. For what it costs now, it's one serious bargain for any RPG addict.

Totally awesome ý one of the best ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Bought this game a month or so ago on the rave reviews I saw here on Amazon. This game pretty much unbelievably rocks. I've played tons of rpgs my whole life... and Gothic 2 is quite the rare gem. The world they've created is VERY real, so real it's hard to put down (though I have to admit I haven't finished it yet, I think I'm still on Chapter 1!). I love the fact that it's easy to die... this kind of lethality is something that more RPG's could learn from. And when I mean real... I mean that there's a realistic night and day, people react to you realistically (wouldn't try stealing from townsfolk too often), manipulation of objects. Probably the only unrealistic thing in the game: you can heal serious physical damage by eating and sleeping (but hey, all CRPG's do this and how else would you do it, especially when at the beginning you've got almost no money and no magic?). As far as realism goes... you even have to get a realistic friggin job at some points (though this doesn't become burdensome, it only adds to that real feel.) The game is challenging, features good conversations with characters (and pretty good voice overs), always has a good amount of combat but not too much, beautiful graphics, great sound, you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything you could in real life, you have character development that's simple - yet still feels important, and good weapon/armor selections that affect how you fight (though I don't see any shields - a pity but it doesn't detract from the game). I think the keyboard controls are relatively simple and easy - though I would LOVE if they rig more of these games for play on a Playstation 2 type controller. Before, I was more strictly the CRPG fan of games that feature a whole party of different characters, preferably with one as the central character. However, as these things have gotten better I've become engrossed (or enslaved by...) some of these first rpgs that have immersive, believable, cool environments. Gothic 2 is like the Half-Life of fantasy - but even better if you ask me! I like Half-Life, but never got into it enough to finish it. I will definitely finish this game. One other very minor strike against this game, the basic background story is kinda like everything else you've seen in fantasy hack stories or CRPG's, but that doesn't really matter as you became immersed in what you are doing (heck, wasn't Half-Life's story another lame re-hash too? Didn't seem to matter to most people...). Oh yeah, I'm taking the Paladin path, which has some magic capability. There are 3 character types you can progress as: DragonHunter (which has the least magic), Paladin (middle of the road magic), and Wizard (pretty much all magic, I don't think that's the exact name though). Maybe I will post more reviews after finishing and/or re-playing the game as Hunter and Wizard (I love games that have this kind of replay value!)

Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Simply the best. Incredible immersive atmosphere, great leveling system, great combat and literally 1000's of spoken lines of dialog. Like Morrowind You can break from the main plot for days and find some really great areas. In fact, my favorite find was a "Dragon Slicer" two handed magic sword being guarded by some Shadow Warriors: I couldnt handle them at the time so I did a snatch-and-run and jumped off a low cliff to get away! I think I've spent over 50 hours exploring and questing to arrive at a level 14 Paladin.
A few have complained about the controls - not sure why. As a "rookie" the controls are intentionally quirky to reflect your skill level. At "master" level I can assure you the controls are very precise. When I tried to wield the "Dragon Slicer" as a rookie I was getting flattened all over the place. Now I'm almost ruling the kingdom. Learn to parry and strafe combo in melee and the game will reward you. If not the skeletons will teach you the error of your ways!
I cannot recommend this game more!

Gothic II Review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Story: 5/5

/-.5: A lot of the story elements in Gothic 2 are taken from stories already in existence, i.e. Dragons, Orcs, Seekers...

/+.5: ...but the other bits and pieces of the story more then make up for it.

*Comment: The story is extremely diverse in comparison with other games, and very immersive. The story, overall, is novel quality, and the elements taken from other stories don't seem to detract from immersion at all.

Game World: 5/5

*Comment: Never repetitive, incredibly detailed, excellent layout and extremely memorable. Absolutely spectacular work.

Gameplay: 4/5

/-.5: Clunky control of the character as you cannot move and strafe at the same time.

/-.5: Many bugs can be found in the game, albeit they will not hinder the telling of the story. Also, modifying the control scheme can result in annoying bugs.

/-.5: Leveling your character will be one of the hardest (a few exceptions here) aspects in the game, and seemingly unnecessarily. I often find myself wanted to cheat to gain levels just so I may complete a quest without resorting to hours of playing to get to the appropriate level.

/+.5: Just wandering through the game world is amazing. NPC's all have daily routines, the monsters as well will sleep at night (most of them, at any rate) and the city of Khorinis is excellently presented.

*Comment: The overall game play is presentable, but could have used more work. When just beginning, the character can seem clunky and slow, for Gothic 3 it would be better to use a more responsive control scheme.

Overall Presentation: 4.5/5

/-.5: Blocky character models could have used more work.

/-.5: The game seemed poorly optimized, as slow frame rates turned up especially in the city of Khorinis. (NOTE: *Reviewers system*: 2.2 GHz Athlon XP, 1 GB Dual Channel PC-3200 Ram, 128 MB GeForce 4 Ti 4200)

/+.5: The Game world, and the incredible attention paid to detail and textures, is astounding. Well worth the cash altogether.

Comment: Overall, the game's presentation is nothing short of spectacular, albeit it gets old leveling your character during the early stages of the game. Graphics and sound, although not on par with some of the newest shooters, doesn't really detract that much from overall immersion, which the game play and story provide flawlessly.

Reviewer's Score: 4.6/5

Total Score: 4.62/5

Percent: 92.4% A-

BOTTOM LINE: Gothic 2 is a very well-presented RPG that relies less on technical achievement, and more on a unique, intricate, and ultimately satisfying experience.

An RPG player

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Although I rated this game at 5 stars, it does not mean that the product is perfect. Let me explain. Voice acting is below par. Dubbing some characters with assorted local American accents is odd and inappropriate, to say the least. The game becomes choppy sometimes, however, in my experience such occurrences are infrequent. All this said, I should admit that the amount of fun I had with Gothic II is immense. Although I enjoyed playing the Baldur Gate series and some Final Fantsy games, Gothic II stands out and really shines. Character development gives you a lot of freedom, even after you join a Guild. The graphics are very friendly and give you a wonderful point of view. After you set up the controls (forget the original Gothic layout from the prequel and customize them per some very helpful suggestions from the Internet), and after you get used to them, you will appreciate the flexibility they give you in choosing your own, unique combat style. Initially, you will be very seriously challenged by the adversaries, but it makes the game more attractive than any other RPG's, where you are a master adventurer from the very beginning and everything depends on the quality of your weapon. Not that you should not get a good weapon, by all means you must upgrade at the first possibility, but your fighting style and proficiency are very important and you can work on them. Some quests are extremely hard and you may try to tackle them after you build up your skills and experience. If you choose a Guild, you cannot leave it (except for the Tieves' Guild, which you can join in addition to your main affiliation). I am taking extra efforts not to add any spoilers to this review, therefore, I will be brief. The game is great, it has a replay value if you select a different Guild next time, it has a very good story and gives you a lot of freedom in character development. A great value for your money, too. Good luck playing.

THE BEST ACTION/RPG EVER!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: March 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played the Gothic 1 at least 10 times and it never gets dull. I downloaded the Greman demo of gothic 2, IT WAS SWEET!!!!!!!. The game play has only gotten better and they fixed some of the control problems. Your character starts out a little better and the graphics are amazing. I highly recomend getting the demo, its worth it even though its German. This is going to be the best game ever.

Better than Gothic 1, if that's possible

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I ordered this from the UK for under 50 bucks instead of waiting for the US release. G2 improves on everything from the first game. It's way larger, with a lot more equipment, monsters, items, and area to explore. It has better controls and graphics as well.

Neverending Quests!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After reading many reviews warning about "learning" the keyboard commands for this game, I have to admit I was hesitant, but decided to give it a shot... DON'T let your fear of learning keyboard commands deter you from buying G2! It is actually one of the easiest to control games (from a keyboard) that I have ever played. Every RPG fanatic NEEDS to own G2. I have never played a game that scared the heck out of me around every corner... As I sneak through the woods to attack that nasty bloodfly, I hear the horrifying howl of an Orc and suddenly the Orc is upon me kicking my arse all over the place. From the beginning of G2 until the end you will have meaningful quests that are fun to complete, and come with either danger or the promise of a few gold pieces. The world of G2 is neverending (it seems). I am playing through the second time now, and am still finding hidden caves and coves I didn't notice the first time through. You can explore almost every single inch of the incredible G2 3D world. I am very impressed with this game. There aren't many RPGs out there I haven't played, and G2 has become my new favorite of all times. Oh, and the music is incredible. You will experience incredible music and sound in this game, and the placements of the sounds (birds, insects, etc.) are CORRECT, so if you have a gaming computer with 5.1 sound you are in for a real treat. I don't know if this review will help you, as there is so much to tell about G2 I can't imagine trying to fit it into this one space. One thing I am VERY happy about... The ending REALLY leaves everything open for expansion... could G3 be coming along sometime in the future? I can only hope and pray to Innos! Have fun!

Quite possibly the best RPG ever!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Gothic II is the embodiment of RPG perfection. With spectacular graphics, amazing level design, (one of its best attributes), and a very nonlinear storyline, Gothic II outshines its original by far. When I bought Gothic I several years ago, it was widely unknown and the store I bought it from stopped carrying it shortly after I bought it. But it was a huge success! So of course when I saw Gothic II annnounced, I knew I had to buy it.

Gothic II has many seemingly minor improvements over its predecessor that actually make a world of difference. Here are five examples.

1. Finally, there is "happy" music - walk along the countryside when you are not battling to hear a nice, quiet little tune play.

2. Lo and behold! - the sky is actually BLUE! No more weird, yellow Gothic I sky! (Sorry if somebody actually enjoyed it - I know I didn't.)

3. Now when you trade with people, you can sell them an item and get gold for it - the trader has "infinite" gold, so you can sell all your items to him/her and they will pay you in gold. I liked this much better than Gothic I's awkward trading system, where you and the seller had to accept an agreement of trading one item for another item. In Gothic II when you want an item from a trader, you simply highlight it and press the action key. If you have enough gold, you'll buy it. If not, sell something of your own and get gold to buy it with. I love it.

4. Your inventory system has been redone - no more confusing "Sections" you have to go through to get to an item.

5. The levels are so much more DETAILED now! This is the most lavishly detailed game I have ever laid eyes on. Explore a forest; ferns dot the floor and ivy crawls up trees, shrubs and bushes are scattered about gloriously. I simply can't praise the level design enough.

The only negative I can complain of is that your health and mana don't recharge depending on your character level or a similar attribute, which is why I gave the game only four stars out of five. This may not sound like much, but to me it was a big problem. You have to find healing plants/potions and mana plants/potions lying around the level to restore your health. You can occasionally buy plants and potions from merchants, and sleeping the night out on a bed will restore health and mana as well, but the merchants run out of stuff and you can't very well sleep every time you finish a battle now can you? Keeping up health and mana later gets annoyingly difficult, considering plants don't regrow, merchants don't get new items, and as I just said, it wastes a huge amount of game time to sleep every time you finish a battle (and this isn't usually possible - where would you find a nice comfy bed out in the middle of a forest?)

But all in all, my final words are "Buy this game! You'll be glad you did!"

Very good.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Has to be one of the BEST RPG-type games I have EVER played. Gothic is also good; I would recommend it before you buy this. If you do not, you'll miss some of things that make this game "neat".

You get to visit the old areas of Gothic, but they are "burnt" by the "dragons".

A MUST buy!

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