Gothic 1 is a classic, but you can definitely feel that it’s an early project from the developers. A lot of the systems are a bit stiff, and that shows in things like conversations, which are often very short—usually just a sentence or two, or simple options like trading or training. Quests are also pretty basic and don’t go much beyond surface-level complexity.

The combat is built around a straightforward damage vs. defense system, with a chance to land critical hits. For most of the game, this works really well. The main issue comes up if you decide to play with bows or crossbows. Toward the end of the game, there are a couple of enemy types that you basically can’t damage with ranged weapons, even if you’re using the best gear available.

That leads to situations where you’re just firing arrows and hoping for a critical hit so you can do any damage at all, which isn’t very satisfying. It gets even worse if you go down the magic route and trade in your final weapon for the supposedly best spell, “Death Wave.” It sounds great on paper, but in practice it’s pretty underwhelming—it doesn’t even kill a regular orc and takes a long time to cast.

Another downside is that this version of the game doesn’t include the event where In Extremo performs in the Old Camp, which is a shame. Their music actually fits the atmosphere of the game really well.

That said, even though this all sounds pretty negative, the game is still enjoyable about 95% of the time. Yes, it’s clunky and a bit stiff, but that’s just part of playing older games—and honestly, that’s part of the charm too.

Final boss sucks

One of the best RPGs out there, cant wait for the remake.