Gothic Playable Teaser
TL;DR
! Gothic is a timeless classic that managed to be serious competition for Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls game of its time. Offering a compelling and vastly branching storyline that encourages multiple replays, interesting characters, intricate crafting systems, multiple specialized classes and a semi-open world, it captivated millions for many years. Sadly the graphics and the controls didn’t age all that well, so THQ Nordic, who now own the rights and apparently dearly love the franchise, are trying to revive the game.
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Gothic RPG Games.
This isn’t the Gothic you remember, and it’s not the Gothic you deserve.
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This is a tech demo asking for player feedback so they can decide whether to bother making a full game. Neat idea? Somewhat, but it feels half hearted.
Rather than trying to be like the original Gothic, instead it’s a blend of Witcher with Skyrim and fails at being any of the three. You’ll find poorly implemented ideas from all of them borrowed openly and then draped over with janky combat and long drawn out unskippable cutscenes.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Risen 3 - Titan Lords
Risen 3 is a third person open world action roleplaying game made by Piranha Bytes, the team that gave us the Gothic games and of course the first two Risen games. It’s hard to talk about Risen 3 without referring to the previous games, which I’ll call ‘PB games’ for short.
To summarize: Risen 3 is definitely a step up from Risen 2 but all in all, it is probably still a game that only fans of PB games will love and a game that only fans of the genre may learn to like.
To talk about this game more in-depth, I’ll take the list I used for my reviews of ‘Risen’ and ‘Risen 2’.
– Real player with 94.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Gothic RPG Games.
This is a long review, so just read the bottom paragraph for a simple summary of my thoughts.
It surprises me that the general consensus for this game is worse than Risen 2: Dark Waters. To be fair, if you hated Risen 2, there likely are not enough redeeming factors about the end of the trilogy to be worth your while. But nevertheless, some substantial improvements to the overall experience have made this a promising step in the right direction for Piranha Bytes as a developer.
Risen 2: Dark Waters was ultimately a failure as an open world, engrossing RPG. It was extremely shallow, overall having one of their smallest and most lackluster world designs to date, with most of the islands consisting of winding pathways with few interesting landmarks leading between major locations. These locations were greatly devoid of life, as the characters were as dull and two-dimensional as wooden boards. The combat wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen in a game, but it took forever to get the necessary skills to stay on top of combat, and by then you just got used to button mashing between prayers. Beyond combat, half the skills in the game were worthless or used in only scripted situations that were easy enough to do without.
– Real player with 84.7 hrs in game
TEOCIDA
Teocida is an esoteric experience focused on puzzles, cloning mechanics, platforming challenges and experimental elements. Explore the enigmatic passageways of a twisted microcosm filled with symbolic faith landscapes and erotic nightmares.
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Dirty and ugly experimental graphics made using different digital and handcrafted techniques.
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Clairvoyance evaluation with Zener cards!
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Seven principles to absorb.
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Multi-layered easter eggs for the most dedicated candidates.
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Customizable game speed for moments that call for quick reflexes.
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Content filtering setting for streamers or speedrunners.
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Not a metroidvania.
After her doctrine falls into oblivion, an infamous seer embarks on a journey to find suitable successors that can keep her philosophy alive.
Classic and straightforward gameplay with simple and intuitive controls. Uncomplicated mechanics with puzzles of increasing difficulty.
We are currently accepting new candidates, apply for the Metaphysical Aptitude Program now!
The program is designed to conduct experiments in extrasensory perception, subliminal effectivity, logic ability (problem solving), and response to audiovisual stimuli.
Content is not recommended for people who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy.
This game deals with some themes that can be considered taboo or uncomfortable for some players, the game is not suitable for children.
Read More: Best Gothic Dark Games.
Betweenside
So far, so good! A chilling and intriguing little Gothic tale with some innovative ideas on interactive storytelling. I will update this review as I keep playing and have more things to say.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
5.5/10
Although I recall writing a paper on “Gothic” literature in college, I can’t recall any hallmarks of the genre. I thought the idea of “rewriting the story” was a neat one, and was amused by the way that some of my revisions were then featured in the game’s environments (on a trophy or on posters). The game involves moving from object to object revealing brief vignettes, choosing whether to rewrite this part of the history and which of Victor’s family members to bequeath the item to.
However, I had difficulty figuring out who was speaking during the game’s vignettes, and therefore had difficulty choosing exactly how I might want to rewrite the situation. In addition, the game did not communicate exactly how much of each story I would be rewriting. I might want to alter one line, but upon choosing the rewrite option, almost the entire vignette was erased. Lastly, I just didn’t like the personality of the family lawyer that I was playing. His views on the importance of a military career and the incompetence of a more sedentary career clashed somewhat violently with my own.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Darker : Episode I
This is just like those indie games that you think are gonna be shit, because of the low budget, but isn’t. The soundtrack is just gold and everything in this game scream talent, but not money. I was constantly on my heels playing this, it’s so scary! They handle tension brilliantly.
This could turn out to be an amazing series of Darker games, if it is supported by the community. And this is not a full game! This is just a little teaser and test if we want more of Brothar, wich i would LOVE!
Thanks.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Very short game, with nothing really to do. Have to figure out the controls yourself, as there was no way to figure out key binds. There is not a hell of a lot to do in the game, and no real story. The atmosphere and music were awesome, and this could be expanded into an awesome game, but at the moment, its would be better if it were a free demo.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Gothic II: Gold Edition
The Gothic series and Gothic 2 (w/ addon) has a cult following in both Germany as well as Eastern Europe. Developed by a tiny indie studio it featured absolutely fantastic storytelling in a fantasy world without any of the usual high fantasy bullcrap. The entire Gothic series is low Fantasy, similar to the Witcher series, but not as grim. What makes Gothic 2 really shine, isn’t grittyness, but roughness. It is an unique RPG in the way that there is a difference between knocking someone out and actually killing them, meaning that bashing in a few heads is a viable strategy for many quests, without actually having to become a mass murderer. This allows for very intricate quest design and many memorable moments. It also spoils the inner child in me when I once again have the ability to verbally announce that the player character is going to plant his fist into the face of someone and most of the time, for good reason.
– Real player with 342.1 hrs in game
With most of the games what you see is what you get. But this isn’t the case. Gothic is a great game but Gothic 2 takes it on a whole new level. The amount of content, creativity and how much work the devs put into it is amazing. Another reminder that quality world building is important in games. Majority of devs don’t realize that having shit world design is a gamebreaker, so they just copy and paste same locations in a huge but empy world, make quests with obvious outcomes and no variety and dumb everything down. With this game though the bar was set so high that the devs from PB never managed to get close again. And likely they never will after Risen\Elex.
– Real player with 196.4 hrs in game
Osteoblasts
Target Audience: Those wanting a solid RPG
Summary:
Let me start off this review by saying please don’t take the number of hours that I’ve played of this game pre-release as the game’s length. It’s around 12 hours on a typical run, but I tested a bunch of stuff to confirm some thoughts about the combat system here.
With that said, Osteoblasts is actually underpriced for the solid combat system and the equipment/skill system the game throws at you. I spent hours upon hours playing with the different configurations of skills for the shaman, but each class only serves as a starting template to make a character that you want. Worshipping to the various gods and the stats that they give becomes the molding clay of how to make your ultimate character. The different equipment and stats and how enemies react to different strategies is smart and intelligent. Stats are a little familiar to other RPGs but all the secondary effects and different stat combos and the strengths of different enemies means that you’ve got to make strategic decisions each turn: conserving your marrow and using defensive and counter skills to take enemies down little by little. Really, a lot of the time in this game is just seeing how you can maximize your self in the enemies you’re facing RIGHT now, and then adjusting to the next set of enemies that you come across.
– Real player with 52.7 hrs in game
This is a pretty quirky one and it’s very hard to review, as a result.
Given the time I played and the overall enjoyment and general lack of bugs or whatnot, I’d give it a decent ‘yes’, with a few caveats. The story/dialog are all kinda ‘wacky’ to say the least. It’s a strange one. I got quite a few pretty good chuckles out of it, but it feels like later in the game tries to really hammer in a bit of actual story and whatnot and, frankly, I could not make full sense of it.
There seem to be a few endings and even an unlockable or two but nobody seems quite sure how to get them or what triggers what, and the writing and pacing makes it a little extra hard to tell.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Risen
Annoying, old-fashioned and inconvenient
Graphics
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Detailed landscapes, always something new to notice
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Nice lighting that adds atmosphere
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Characters barely move their body and are very stiff
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Faces are barely animated
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Low resolution textures
Sound
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Brilliant background sound
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German voice acting very good but only average English voice acting
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Sound makes game come alive whether it is animal growling from meters away before you see them, nearby waterfalls or the chitchat of NPCs
– Real player with 93.2 hrs in game
There seem to be a lot of people reviewing Risen who are somewhere around 10-15 years old, because despite the game being only 9 years old, many have this weird impression that the game is old, dated, the graphics are ugly, and these players keep imposing retroactive standards on the game that have only really popped up in RPG gaming over the last few years. This suggests the reviewers are new to RPGs, new to gaming, and that their concepts of what an RPG should entail is informed more by the AAA games of the last 5 years than the bulk of RPG gaming history. Don’t let bad reviews deter you; Risen is a fantastic game.
– Real player with 62.5 hrs in game
Darkbolt
Play as the survivors of a Lovecraftian apocalypse, where resources are scarce and horrors abundant.
Darkbolt is:
A gothic, Lovecraftian, Top-down shooter.
Rogue lite: character permadeath and procedural world.
Persistent Base, resource management (Think this war of mine)
Gothic 1
Gothic is an open world RPG created by Piranha – Bytes, and today it’s a classic cult title recommended to everyone who enjoys a role playing game, or an action title for that matter.
The player takes control of our hero, the nameless hero, who just happens to be imprisoned and sent into the colony. For those who don’t know, the colony is the king’s solution to the war with the orcs. In order to keep extracting the precious ore from the mines, but saving manpower, his highness ordered the magicians to create a dome surrounding the ore mines. Convicts are sent in, and when trying to leave the magical barrier kills anyone who dares to cross it.
– Real player with 67.8 hrs in game
Ambition unfulfilled
Disclaimer – Steam version of Gothic is flatout broken. It is likely that you will have to manually install patches just to get the game started. If you don’t mind such a thing, a little tinkering is recommended as community-made fixes greatly improve the game’s performance on newer hardware.
Gothic is an almost 20 years-old open-world RPG created by German studio Piranha Bytes and published by JoWood interactive. The game stars a classic fantasy setting with a fun little spin to it. The kingdom of man is invaded by an orc horde, and the only thing holding the line is wondrous equipment made out of magical ore. To fuel the war effort, a penal mining colony is established – no matter the crime, the punishment is mining of ore. In order to keep the convicts dedicated to the task a magical barrier is created over the mining colony. A blue dome that allows all things to enter, but no living thing to exit. Long enough a steady stream of magical ore leaves the colony, a steady stream of supplies flows inside. If you ever wanted to see a fantasy adaptation of the 1981’s Escape from New York, this is probably as close as you can get.
– Real player with 65.3 hrs in game