Fantastic open-ended gameplay more than make up for the bugs and dated graphics.
Forget games like Dungeon Siege, Fable, neverwinter Nights ect. Think Morrowind, and you'll already have a good idea of what Gothic 2 is about. From the very start you get the general idea of what you'll end up having to do at the end of the game. But once you leave the tower you can forget about that for now, you're completly free to go and explore the surrounding land, and do quests in any order you like. Fortunatly though you're given a little more idea of where to go next and how to advance in the story than with Morrowind.
The problem with exploring in Gothic is that the game is very challenging, so much so that you will have trouble killing many monsters you encounter for quite some time, not to say you can't try or succeed if you use a little bit of cleverness. For most games out there you're probably used to being able to kill pretty much everything that the developers throw at you as you advance, not here, so be prepared to have to die alot if you cross the wrong monsters. But once you start gaining levels, getting stronger and more skilled in your choosen weapon (or magic) you will eventually begin to kill all those monsters in Khorinis with ease. This game really gives you the motivation to kill everything you see, to explore, to do every quest, simply to become more powerful. In other games i've played I have left alot of monsters alone because I didn't feel the need to kill them due to the game already being easy.
If you're like me and enjoy this type of game, chances are you'll not stop playing. I've put in about 30 hours so far and am only on chapter 3 in the addon world (Night of the Raven). You'll find so many people to talk to, so many quests to keep you busy. You also have to choose your own path. While this doesn't affect the main story, it will give you different quests. There are 3 Guilds to choose from. Paladin (best for the new player imo) Mercinaries, and Mages. Regardless of which you want to choose, you should probably do all quests from each guild before joining in order to ge tthe max XP. Once you choose it is permanent and all quests which you were able to do in order to join the other 2 guilds will no longer be avaliable. You then go from quest to quest, gaining levels, exploring, watching the citizens go about their lives, as it switches from Day to Night. You can even find a bed and sleep if you're scared of the night and prefer to play in the light.
As for the bad points of the game. The graphics are very dated compared with the latest games which have been released, but don't let that put you off, they certainly arn't bad. I am able to run the game on the highest quality with max draw distance and fade out, and some of the long distance views really do look nice. Also there are a handful of bugs here, but none are that big it should distract you from your enjoyment. There is 1 bug I have head of which can stop you progressing to the addon world, but with a little searching you can carry on by spawning the object the bug causes not to appear. An lastly the pathfinding is not great by a long shot, monsters and NPCs will occasionally get stuck somewhere, although if you move around a bit they should become unstuck, but this is a little frustrating. All in all the bad points of the game really arn't enough to take away just how fun and addictive this game is.
The changes from this and the original Gothic 2 are that this Gold version includes the Night of the Raven addon, which is seamlessly intergrated into the game and story. It is a new area in which you can explore and do alot more quests. It really adds alot more game play to an already great game. I'm currently in this area and am loving it. It will also increase the difficulty, by quite a large amount. As you increase in your skills you'll notice they start to cost more learning points. This is why I mention above you'll really want to get every bit of xp you can find. It will also add new quests and items in the original Gothic 2 world.
I have the english version of the game, and find some of the voices to be a little repetitive, and some are just bad. But then i'm not complaining, after waiting so long to have them release an english version, i'm happy not to have to read english subtitles with german voices. Aside from that the sounds are ok, you'll hear people in towns "chatting" although that gets reptitive, but still its better than them saying notthing at all. While exploring the wilderness you'll hear soft relaxing sounds, along with twigs snap, monsters screeshing or howling ect.
For the price it is selling for it is a great deal which should last you dozens of hours. Shouldn't be missed if you're an RPG fan.