Gothic 2 - Retrospective Review (2023)

Talking about the much loved follow up to the classic RPG Gothic!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:42 History & Release
03:00 Getting It To Run
06:24 Story Set Up & Thoughts
09:56 Classic Vs. Night of the Raven
12:48 Progression Systems
17:31 Factions
20:16 Worldbuilding
21:50 Combat
24:48 Steam Deck Compatibility
25:38 Positives/Negatives
26:46 Conclusion
27:55 Wrap Up

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#gaming #gamereviews #gothic #gothic2 #piranhabytes

[Daroo]

Fun fact - the creators of the Witcher series - Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński (CD PROJEKT RED founders) and many employees, were big fans of gothic, they repeatedly emphasized in various interviews that the Witcher 3 is a game built on the foundations of the first two Gothics themselves - world building, quest arrangement, hero progression. So you can say that Gothic is the grandfather of the Witcher series games :D.

[marekkapusta]

The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos is definitely worth looking into. Even though it's "just" a mod, it has a size of a full game. It took me over one hundred hours to finish one playthrough. It is a huge love letter to the first two Gothic games.

[morgan_NYC]

One of the greatest RPGs ever made. I might be biased since I grew up with such games, but Gothic I and II are special titles. The gameplay is not for everybody, but few RPGs have captured me the same way Gothic II did. The sense of progression and exploration in this game are incredible. You start the game feeling like just another insignificant person in this world, and you end up involved in epic fights and feeling like the hero.

Thanks for covering this legendary classic. German people sure do know how to make good RPGs. Gothic, Drakensang, and although not a full RPG, Europa 1400 - The Guild are all games I absolutely love.

[thegreatmaximilian]

Gothic 2 is my favorite game of all time. I know every detail, every secret and every enemy location on all the playable areas, having finished it a over dozen times. Nowadays I find great joy in breaking the game by overleveling into an unstoppable beast, but back in the day the game was a real challenge for me. Thanks for the nostalgia trip down memory lane, I hope young gamers give this gem of an RPG a chance.

[ockblogt]

Gothic 1+2 are my Favorite rpgs of all time. They aged so Well. Many mechanics and Design choices were better than the content in current Games.

[bobfreedlund]

I bought the original Gothic at Best Buy because it had RPG on the box. I was also trying to play Morrowind at the time, and while you could obviously customize your playstyle more, it just didn't give me the fun that Gothic did. I was also amazed that the Gothic programmers were able to do a seamless open world where Morrowind paused to load as you moved from area to area.

When I saw Gothic II it was a no-brainer! It is still my personal favorite. Also, I loved it because I was able to totally complete it without any guides or cheats, which was rare for me at the time. When I learned there was an expansion and they eventually made it available in the US, I was even more excited and played the whole thing again and was not disappointed.

Two standout highlights for me:

1. Having to return to the original map from the first game after the fall of the shield. It brought back such memories and it was so cool to see what had happened to it after it had been altered by events.
2. The day-night cycle and coming across a group of seekers at night. It totally freaked me out and was to me a great example of the immersive nature you can get in a video game.

As you go to Gothic 3, I still have very good memories of that game, especially how absolutely huge it was for its time. It was enormous! But maybe a little too ambitious. But Gothic II still is the best.

[satans_pet_penguin]

Can't believe it's been 20 years. I have such fond memories of playing this game back when I spent all my time gaming in my parents box room

[パンダの死体]

What I love most about these games is how impactful the faction choice is.. Elder Scrolls etc could never compete

[MrAnt-hhbp]

Through some strange twist of fate, I'm the polar opposite of the ordinary experience.
The first Elder Scrolls title I've ever heard about and picked up was Skyrim on release in 2011, never played Morrowind or Oblivion until after I finished Skyrim and wanted more. Gothic, however, shaped a big part of my gaming childhood. Back then one of my classmates got hold of a burned copy somehow, I played with Russian voiceover and German subtitles, because my 4th grader brain didn't think to get into the settings and see if I could change them (or maybe it was because of the copy, there was none, I don't remember). It was pivotal for me. I picked up all titles, legally, multiple times actually, because I repurchased it on Steam when it finally released there, so I could have all of the titles in my library to proudly present, somewhere in my parents attic there's probably some old CD's in the original cases from almost 20 years ago.
The experiences I had in the first 2 games including NOTR, are burned into my brain like nothing else. Still remember getting ganked by those a**holes outside the old camp, because I was too trusting and wasn't ready for the harshness of the experience to come, lol. Or s**tting my pants encountering that Ork in the Cave near Khorinis, having only leathers and a war scythe equipped.
Spending hours with my friends just f*ckign around in Khorinis by spawning in dragons through console command, or defying gravity by T-posing through the air. Good times.

[krisnatherryano]

this game still has one of the coolest armor in RPG games i've ever played, the Heavy Paladin armor in particular looks like one of those armor set you can see in a museum. The merc armor has that fur+plate vibe that i like as well.

[seciak]

Here in Poland we love Gothic series. It's really classic and nostalgic games for us, and we probably (well in most cases) love Gothic more than, for example Morrowind, which was released in similar time.

[mhjmstultiens]

Such a landmark title and an example how to create an immersive role playing world. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mort.

[tesselesk]

This game changed my life! I found this about 3 years ago, and since then, I'm playing the original, and the huge amount of mods, I just love the engine, the grapgics, the atmosphere. Gothic have some qualities that none other open world rpg managed to reach in the same level.

[fafnyr]

I definetly recommend checking out the mods for this title, Archolos and returnings are awesome.

[Darkholow]

Thank you for the review and checking out this series, because it's in my top 3 of all time. Gothic II is truly an underrated masterpiece in my eyes. I have so many fond memories with this game in particular.

My favorite faction is Mercenaries (which I played the most) and the whole paladin of Innos questline and finding the hidden sword was an amazing experience and questline.

[cathulionetharn]

About night of the raven: part of the dificulty increase is a massive increase of npc stats compared to their equipment
Say there is a bandit with a bow, in classic he has 30 dexterity and the bow requires 20 and deals 25 base damage, in notr he has 90 dexterity and the same bow requires 40 dex and deals 40dmg, meaning the equipment you pick up from human enemies is significantly less valuable compared to the strenght of the enemy and often times by the time you can beat an npc (much less have similar stats to him) the weapon is bad.
Also they tend to have more stats then they could naturally learn with their level (say bandit with melee weapon is level 30 but strenght + weapon training alone require him to be level 35 or more)
One thing I like about the entire series is the game (world, music, graphics, combat, difficulty) progress with the main character
-gothic one is dark, dangerous, brown, grey, muted; you start as absolute shit and it takes a long while to get good, it's a closed off world where best gear is owned by established characters, people are rude, self-centered and don't care about you; it takes until end-game for you to start doing things other characters couldn't (sleeper)

-gothic two is still dark in places but most areas are lighter, you again start as shit but not absolute shit (now you know not to two-hand a dagger), the world is bigger, more open, more accesible, established characters still have good gear but it gets outclassed by magic ore weapons and swords sprinkled with literal god-tears; significantly quicker then last time you get to a point of dragon-slaying

-gothic three is all in epic fantasy, everything is bright, the music reflects it, you start the game rolling into a village, stare down an orc chieftain and immediately it's a fight, your character is kinda weak but compared to armed, armored war veterans and not stick wielding farmers, you can very quickly get better gear, put a few levels into strenght and equip better weapons and BOOM you can do whatever, you are the hero and this is your world to change. Outside nordmar that is
And yes I do realize it almost definitely wasn't a conscious decision by the devs

[officialgruber]

I remember when I started walking back to town after one of the chapters and those creepy dark mages came out of nowhere just spawning everywhere. Such a cool thing, I got a bit creeped out at first haha

[Pulsar]

Greetings from Germany, I appreciate to see that not only us German enjoy the Gothic Series.. Had been my first RPG I ever played and I still come back to it every 1-2 years

[charles_carette]

I would add that Kai Rosenkranz's OST was amazing in this game! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thank you for this review 👍 👍 👍

[theblobconsumes]

The Chronicles of Myrtana is an important one to give a review for. Mods that big do deserve their own big reviews, just as Enderal and Tamriel Rebuilt do.