If you are passionate about RPGs, chances are you have heard of the Gothic Series – an old school eurojank RPG series featuring a nameless hero who is unwillingly dragged into a plot involving evil gods, dragons, and saving the world. The series, developed by Piranha Bytes, was remarkable for its unique world building, characters, and progression system. You started as an absolute nobody in the most literal sense and had to slowly push your way through the ranks, ultimately becoming the hero of legend – all in a gritty medieval setting.
Despite its janky controls and obtuse learning curve, Gothic became a cult classic, with Gothic 1 and 2 being revered as some of the best RPGs ever made. Unfortunately, Piranha Bytes went bankrupt and with them gone, the series was thought to be dead… until a new company decided to step in and take over the IP: THQ Nordic. A separate branch named Alkimia Interactive is developing this remake while also carefully listening to the fans’ feedback. A first playable teaser was first released in 2019, but after a very poor reception it was completely scrapped and reworked, the new demo being now available on every console, titled “Nyras Prologue”.
Since the first Gothic games happen to be my favorite games of all time, I took it upon myself to check this demo and see if it comes near close to the original. After playing and finishing it, I can confirm that the developers are on the right path with the remake, as they seem to understand why this series is so beloved in the first place.
In this demo, you are not playing as the titular Nameless Hero. In fact, this demo is a sort of “prologue” where you play as Nyras, another unimportant criminal thrown into the Valley of the Mines, a penal colony covered by a magical barrier that prevents anyone from escaping. You are allowed to explore only the starting area; the rest of the game being conveniently blocked by a rockslide. Once you are in, you are welcomed by Diego, one of the few friendly characters in the series. He will give you a quick rundown of what you can and can’t do, shortly describe the place you find yourself in, let you know that there’s no way out, and lastly give you the first and most important quest – find a place to sleep.
For any other RPG, finding something as simple as a bed would take 5 minutes at most. However, in Gothic Remake, this mundane quest showcases exactly how the world of Gothic works – everyone that is thrown into the Penal Colony is a complete nobody, you literally have no rights and no friends and have to work your way up. Since you are a convict after all, the camp at the start of the game won’t allow you to just take a nap; you must prove that you are trustworthy. And you will want to do that asap, because night is creeping in, and you are without a doubt unprepared for the beasties that love to roam about during nighttime.
After you are done with gathering all the information needed, together with also grabbing everything that is not nailed to the ground, you can finally explore your surroundings. I was thoroughly impressed and even hit by a wave of nostalgia, seeing how well the opening act was remade. Everything looks upgraded and into its place, but without sidetracking from the original design. Character models look great and some areas are now accessible even, compared to the original release of the game. Those who played the first game might remember a certain blocked cave in the beginning, which is now available to explore.
However, I also have a small nitpick with this demo – the game tends to be too “shiny. The world of Gothic is a grey, moody and gritty one, while the demo gives me the vibes of a game similar to Elder Scrolls Oblivion. This is a demo though, so I expect to be able to customize the graphics in the full release.
A significant effort was put into the combat of this game. The original Gothic game had a very obtuse control scheme at first, unlike anything before, but once you learned how it played it would surprise you with how intuitive the game could be. On keyboard, you could even play the game with one hand. Holding the CTRL key would allow you to go into “Action Mode” and pressing the directional keys would allow you to perform specific actions. During fights, pressing forward would allow you to do a forward combo, pressing left and right would allow you to flail your weapon and pressing backwards would give you a sort-of parry that didn’t work most of the time.
In the remake, the combat was revamped, having a “Souls-like” scheme. Using the Dualsense controls, you can focus on an enemy with the R3, strafe around with directions and R1 and have various attacks with the face buttons square, triangle, circle and x. While it’s not even close to how the original controls and combat was, I understand that the whole control scheme had to be revamped for a new audience. While not as satisfying as before, it does work surprisingly well.
Thankfully, the enemies are just as vicious as ever. Fighting Scavengers and goblins at level 1 is just as dangerous as before If you get surrounded, you better prepare that Load Game button, because you are not getting out of that encounter alive!
Finally, I can confirm that yes, the levelling up system will be the same. You do not “put points” in a weapon skill, you will actually learn how to use the weapon more efficiently. Just like in the original game, when you first grab a weapon you are an untrained peasant, holding a one handed sword with 2 hands, flailing it around like an idiot. After interacting with a master that explains you how to properly fight, you will hold the sword correctly (1 handed) and you will inflict more damage, depending on your mastery level. I expect this to apply to bows, crossbows and magic later down the line.
This is one of the most critical features of Gothic and I definitely am glad that they took extra care of it.
Overall, I feel that the remake is a definite step in the right direction. While this remake will not be able to fully capture the atmosphere of the old game, which was the equivalent of lightning in a bottle, the developers are on the correct path here and I am more than eager to see the final product.
Suffice to say, this will be a day 1 purchase for me!
