Second installment of the gothic trilogy that's even greater than the first one.Must have for every declared rpg fan.
You play as the same nameless hero who after being resurrected by Xardas after dying in the Sleeper elimination process once again is needed to get rid off all the evil of this world.In this case you have to get rid off all the dragons that started stalking the area after being summoned by the last words of the dying sleeper.Night of the Raven additon expands the game by giving the hero an alternative quest which is killing the Raven, an ex old camp right hand of the powerful and brutal ruler of the colony, Gomez.
First thing that came to my mind after starting the game was the great improvement of the games graphics.The world got more details,the textures were much nicer.It was a much more beautiful and detailed world than the one in gothic 1.The npc's models were much more detailed as well.Considering that Gothic 1 didn't have the nicest graphics in the world I would consider that as a huge jump in the game's quality.
The world is richly detailed and isn't repetitive at all.The game has 5 chapters during which you will have plenty of things to do and plenty of quests to complete.Each chapter is unique and evolves the story in a very good way.Each npc ( npc's with actuall names and not guards or simple citizens) is effected with those story changes not only your hero.Each npc has different things to say, has different tasks for you dependant on the path that the story takes so it is really worth talking to the same npc's in different chapters to hear their different opinions,their fears or to have them assign different tasks for you.
The climate,story,plot got even better.The constant uncertainty of what may happen or of what may jump at you from the next corner is what describes the whole series.Great story and the above mantioned mystical climate is followed by some great audio tunes ( especially in Raven's world ).
What also changed is the gameplay itself.
Here's where I will share my thoughts regarding some reviews and comments from people who either hate this game or can't see it's brilliance because it has crappy fighting system and is to difficult to finish it, making the saving and loading so frequent as frequent breathing is.
Yes,the game is difficult and with the ' Night of the Raven ' addition it's even more difficult but don't tell me that it's difficult to fight! One of the reviewers wrote that it was impossible to swing the sword while staying in one place and that he couldn't swing anything and that all he could do during a battle was to see his hero being smashed by everything that was moving and he couldn't respond to that.
I haven't heard such a crap for a very long time! Of course you can swing!You can do it whenever you want.It all depends on the main menu settings.If you prefer to use the fighting system from the first Gothic game then while clicking your left mouse button use your keyboard arrows in any direction to hit somebody.And yes this game maybe irritating because the fighting skills have to be improved by distributing your skill points (which you get from leveling up) towards your one handed or two handed weapon abillity.Only when you get to warrior level ( 30% of the total ability) you will be able to say that you hero knows how to fight.This game is difficult and you WILL fail many times but who said that trial and error is wrong? This isn't Diablo 2 where all you do is click your mouse button so often until it starts burning.In this game you have to think about your next move,you have to think about what you're gonna do next.Not every quest can be completed at first.You can't kill every monster you encounter at the beginning but that's what makes this game unique.That's why this game has such replayability.That's what makes this game realistic!
Gothic 2 was made for real rpg gamers who love challenges, not for some casual gamer who dares to spit on this game after 20 minutes of gameplay.Finish this game first.Then try and finish it 4 more times like I did.Only then you will be able to make rightous judgement.Don't judge the box if you didn't even manage to look inside of it.
RPG means role playing.It means acting,trying to be the hero you're controlling.It should be a slight imitation of real life and that's what this game does.You won't kick anyone's ass if you weight 50 kilos and have no muscle on you.You have to train really hard.Take a stick and go to Africa and try to kill the lion :).Rpg's aren't games like all of the shooters for example where all you have to do is to throw couple of nades and shoot whatever there's to shoot without even thinking about it.
Summarizing my thought.....This game is for real patient rpg fans who take satisfaction in passing a quest or in defeating a troll after a series of previous unsuccessfull attempts, who cherish plenty of rich dialogs and who love to roam the world in search of any hidden cave there's available.
And because of that this game isn't for everyone.Not everyone has to love it.There types of games we love and types of games we consider a waste of time but let's not judge something only because we don't know how to play it.Let's be objective and not subjective selling statements that are based on our irritation.
Phew!
back to business...
The game is a little bit to difficult for my taste especially with comparison to the Gothic 2 game without the 'Night of the Raven' expansion.Although the leveling system stayed the same and you still get 10 skill points for each level,you can improve less skills with every point you have.Before you needed 5 pts for every +5 strenght points.Now the stronger you get the more skill points you need to improve your strenght for example.At the end you even need 20 skill points to improve your strenght by 5pts and considering that there's plenty of other skills to improve and that to acquire next level each time you need more experience points it's very hard to be strong,agile,one hand weapon master at the same time.Because of that you probably won't be able to wield the dragon slayer sword which requires you to have 160 strenght points and have at least 60% of the two handed weapons ability to swing it the right way and to have good timing with it as well.All of this results in some large dose of frustration at the beginning where all the monsters you can kill are not stronger than wolves.
What irritated me as well was the inventory system which didn't bother me to much at first but after collecting plenty of weapons,animal skins,claws etc.,runes,spells,plants,potions the inventory was to crowded.All of the items are thrown in to one basket,one slot so when after clicking on the weapon of your choice you have to scroll down to open lets say a bag of gold it takes a considerable amount of time to get there and if you have to do that a lot it really gets irritating.All that had to be done to solve this problem was to create different slots for different types of items and the inventory search would've been much simpler.
Another problem is the in game music and videos.I run MS Vista so I had to download couple of native dlls and paste them in to the game's folder to be able to hear the music at all.But even after doing that the music likes to stop playing right after loading your saved game.It takes some time then to make it run again ( usually in the open world ).
I couldn't see any videos from the original Gothic 2 but I could see all the videos regarding ' Night of the Raven' expansion but I think this is a system related issue more than the game's itself.Everything worked when I was playing Gothic 2 as soon as it was released and back then I had XP.
Last frustrating thing is the game crashing from time to time.it just likes to freeze on occassion and all you can basically do is to reboot your pc.
In overall Gothic 2 is a great game for every adventure and adrenaline rush seeker.It sucks you in right after you start playing it and makes you not wanting to stop playing it until you reach the end.
The Good:
- Graphics
- Audio
- Story
- Mystical Climate
- Huge world to explore
- High Replayability
The Bad :
- Occassionally crashing
- combat system not for everyone it seems
- Hero development
- inventory
- To difficult and because of that frustrating at times
- Some audio and video problems ( probably dependant on the system or game's version)
- Dissapearing textures,npc's or enemy stuck in walls
I would recommend this game to anyone who loves real rpg's and who is patient enough ( patience is rewarded in this game ) to cope with some of it's difficulties.Don't call yourself a real rpg gamer if you haven't played and finished this game! :))
Must have