One of the few cult RPGs for PC
It may be a few years old, but this is definitely one of the most under-played games I have ever set my hands on. The first game was excellent, and I was curious how this would fare. What improvements could it bring? Would it be as gripping as the first? How would the plot go?
Well, the graphical improvement is pretty good. They also FIXED some of the combat bugs from the first Gothic. It sounds odd to say that the clunky system was WORSE in the first, but it was. It is much MORE gripping than the first as well. The plot seemed to flow quite well as well. So, in an early summation, they seemed to make the game better on almost every level.
It has an odd feel to the game. You can tell it isn't an American release just by the overall environment. There isn't the typical swords & sorcery, the menagerie of different races. There are boatloads of weapons though. Some are very useful, others not so much. That's the same for every RPG though, right?
Your character (who never has a name) was a convicted felon, thrown in some mining colony (from the first game), and after you do some good you start the game on the country outside the mining colony of the first game. What makes for one piece of nostalgia is the necessity to go back to the mining colony and get stuff taken care of. I'm just a sucker for re-living maps/stages from previous games (so long as they are done correctly, as it is with this).
They even incorporate into the plot why your character never has a name, it is VERY late in the game when this is revealed, but it is there nonetheless. There is a bit of a twist at the end of the game, but it is foreseeable. I guessed it at the end of the FIRST Gothic. It was on a whim of "Oh, it would be really cool if this happened." Luck was on my side I suppose. Another piece of nostalgia, are the appearances of many characters from the first Gothic. It helps give the sense that you are in the same world, but just a much different portion.
The overall world of Gothic II is gigantic. The overall world of Gothic I was one of my favorite features. Even if the graphics are outdated, it is still fun to just roam the world and do what you want. Killing whomever you see fit. They somehow managed to improve upon this further. It is possible to just roam around and kill things. This is INCREDIBLY hard in the beginning, but still doable.
This game is one of the best RPGs ever made for the PC. It may not be as engrossing as Baldur's Gate 2 or as mystical as Morrowind. But it hits the spot if you have the patience to learn how to play it and better yet, to master it.