Gothic 1 Remake

Remaking a game like Gothic is a massive challenge. The original has a very special atmosphere, memorable characters, factions and locations, and a roughness that became part of its identity. So when I started Gothic 1 Remake, I was curious whether Alkimia Interactive could capture what made the original so special while still turning it into a modern game. [i]And somehow, they did.[/i] Oh boy, let me tell you, from the very beginning, the atmosphere just screams Gothic. The dark forests, mines, camps, monsters, weather and music - you can feel the love and passion that went into this project. It doesn't just look like Gothic brought into the modern era; it still carries the spirit of the original. There are still some rough edges, especially technically, but overall this is a remake I really wanted to see. So let me start with my criticism and explain my points in more detail: [h3]Exploration & World Design[/h3] The world of Gothic 1 Remake is one of its biggest strengths. The map has been expanded with new locations, details and some genuinely great surprises. What I especially appreciate is that the new content generally feels like it belongs in the world rather than simply being added for the sake of having more things to do. [b]It feels like Gothic.[/b] Walking through the Colony, entering the mines, or seeing the camps surrounded by darkness in the middle of the night, with nothing but a torch lighting your way, genuinely brought back that feeling from the original. One major weakness, however, is how little the world reacts to your criminal actions. You can kill people, steal things and generally behave like a complete menace, but the consequences often feel surprisingly limited. Considering how much emphasis is placed on having an organic and reactive world, this feels like a missed opportunity. [h3]Gameplay & Combat[/h3] The combat system is actually one of the biggest surprises for me. I ended up enjoying it a lot, especially the new combo system. [b]Playing with the bow is damn fun.[/b] I usually prefer melee combat, but the ranged combat feels so good this time that I genuinely enjoyed switching between both. The melee combat gets especially interesting once you start learning new weapon proficiency levels. Your trainer doesn't simply give you a new ability and call it a day. They actually explain how to chain your attacks together - and then [b]you have to perform those combinations yourself during combat.[/b] I honestly can't remember playing another game where learning a new skill level works quite like this. It makes the progression feel much more hands-on, rather than simply unlocking another ability from a menu. [b]It's genuinely one of the most innovative progression systems I've encountered in an RPG.[/b] Magic felt a little weak, especially in the middle circles, but the spell effects themselves are fantastic. Some of them look absolutely epic (monster shrinking!). [h3]Character & Story[/h3] The story has been expanded in ways that generally feel meaningful rather than simply adding filler. There are new elements, additional content and some genuinely great surprises, while the core story remains recognizable. The characters also benefit from the remake in several cases, though there are some things where I still prefer the original, especially when it comes to certain designs, like the characters of Lares, Lee and Gorn. Overall, however, the remake understands the identity of the original instead of trying to turn Gothic into something completely different. One of the coolest new additions for me is the hunt for the four [b]Focus Stones[/b] together with your core group of friends. [h3]Worldbuilding, Visuals, Atmosphere & Music[/h3] This is where Gothic 1 Remake absolutely shines for me. The graphics are fantastic, and it's the little details that really make the world feel alive. You can see the mud and dirt under your feet as you walk, or watch the Nameless Hero naturally adjust his footing when running down a slope. Combined with the environments, lighting and especially the weather effects, all of these details make the world feel incredible. [i]And yes, Uriziel looks absolutely badass now.[/i] The monster designs are another huge highlight. The Minecrawlers are a perfect example. Seeing those red eyes glowing in the darkness of the mines looks fantastic and makes the world feel dangerous without having to constantly throw huge enemies at you. All of these details come together to create something that goes beyond just looking good. [b]The atmosphere is probably the biggest strength of the remake.[/b] You can genuinely feel how much love and passion went into this project. The developers clearly understood what makes Gothic special, and that comes through in almost every part of the world. And of course, I can't talk about the atmosphere without mentioning the music by Kai Rosenkranz. [b]The soundtrack is absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ incredible.[/b] It fits the world perfectly and adds so much to the atmosphere that some moments simply wouldn't feel the same without it. The combination of the visuals, weather, monster design and music creates exactly the kind of atmosphere I hoped for. [b]"Yeah. This is Gothic."[/b] [h3]Technical Issues[/h3] Unfortunately, this is where I have to take some points away. The technology is still rough around the edges. NPCs can get stuck in combat animations, companions can occasionally disappear during quests, and sometimes you simply have to save and reload to get things working properly again. That said, during my own playthrough on version 1.0.5, I had [b]no game-breaking bugs, no crashes and no major technical problems.[/b] The issues I encountered were annoying rather than catastrophic, and they never ruined my playthrough. The game simply needs some more polish. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Gothic 1 Remake is exactly the kind of remake I wanted to see. The expanded map offers plenty of new content and surprises, the story adds a lot without losing the original, the combat is much better than I expected, the monster designs are fantastic, and the atmosphere is absolutely incredible. That said, it's not without its flaws. There are still some things that need work, especially when it comes to the technical side. The world barely reacts to your criminal actions, NPCs can get stuck and companion quests can sometimes require a reload. Because of that, my current rating is: [b]7/10[/b] But that's heavily based on the current technical state. Because when it comes to the atmosphere, graphics, music and the actual feeling of being back in the Colony? [b]12/10 for me.[/b] If the developers manage to properly clean up the remaining technical issues, I genuinely think this could become one of the best remakes ever made. No exaggeration - this is an absolutely worthy remake that deserves to carry the name [b]Gothic[/b]. [b]➤⠀L⠀A⠀P⠀T⠀O⠀P⠀⠀S⠀P⠀E⠀C⠀S ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬[/b] CPU-: 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900HX (24 CPU cores / 32 threads) GPU-: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 Laptop GPU 12 GB GDDR6 VRAM MB-: Intel® HM770 (Raptor Lake-S PCH) RAM-: 32 GB (2x16 GB) SK Hynix DDR5 RAM (5.600 MHz) SSD-: Samsung® PM9A1 MZVL22T0HBLB, 2048 GB

1. Does this remake captures the feeling of the original? Yes, I'd say so. Not just that, but in this game, the devs were able to add several quests, secrets and scenes (especially towards the end) that were in the mind of the original devs, Pirana Bytes, but for constraints of time, budget and technology, couldn't afford. So, I'd say the game is better than Gothic 1; not just for the graphics, sound, UI, controls but also for the things that were left done 90% in the original, and are now here, completed. 2. Gameplay Phiosophy For who doesn't know Gothic, this is a game where every little progress count. You switch from a fortune weapon as a pickaxe to a rusty sword? -- the world now opens with new possibilities. Also, no one thinks you're special (until you are, by the end of the game), so when you are sent for an errand, that doesn't feel like "hello, world saviour! -- would you mind finding my lost sheep please?", but as "hey, want to join the cool guys in the camp that get the protection money instead of the ones that pay it? -- well, work by bringing this letter to the enemies, and since you're there, keep your ears open. If you can do this maybe you're less than useless". In the beginning, you have to fight for food -- literally. In the beginning, you will go back to the base just to sleep, so you can restore health and mana, because potions are few and extremely precious. Cooking raw meat will be essential if you want to adventure just 500m farther in the wilderness than last time. And you will die, a lot. You can try a "never die run"... when you learned the game inside out, maybe after the third run, but until then, it's totally normal to die because of a mob you didn't see at night, or because wolfs always attack in packs and you can't kite one of them. Finally, upgrades don't come cheap. A full run, with all side mission and if you massacre half the colony for a couple of extra levels, will get you to level 34, or 340 learning points. Health grows with level, but other than that, mana, strength and dexterity must be bought, at the price of 1 LP per ability point. Some ancillary ability cost 5 or 10 points (underwater breathing, climbing and acrobatics/dodge the most important ones). You will need 100 points to become a fully proficient melee fighter, 60 for an archer, and 110 for a full fledged mage (not considering the cost of Mana points, you will need to spend around 100 there if you're serious about magic). Other useful skills like lockpicking (30) and smithing (30) don't come cheap. You can do well by focusing in a build and using a bit of the rest for utility; for example you can be a melee fighter and allocate some 40 points in archery (between dexterity and the base skill) to kite and pre-damage the most dangerous creatures, and maybe 50 in magic, just to leverage low level spells for their utility (especially healing firebolt). Or you can be a mage and get some basic archery to spare mana when killing easy targets from afar, and some basic melee skills to survive simple encounters while you get more power. But if you try to be a jack-of-all trades you will hit a wall towards the second part of the game; from difficult, it will simply become nearly impossible. This, in a nutshell, is the philosophy of the game: work hard, think before you spend your hard-earned points and focus on what you like to do, on your role. 2. Technical aspect. Gothic Remake plays well almost everywhere, I found some stuttering in the main castle of the Old Camp and in the Fire Mage enclave, but anything else was solid 90 FPS on a pretty basic/old gear. I had a few crashes after 9 hours of continuous play, but nothing major. I encountered what seems to be a nasty bug: reload in the final temple will always crash. Don't die there, or be ready to reload the game. For the rest, the game runs smooth as butter and solid as rock. 3. Gameplay issues. Is the game perfect? -- no. There are a few rough aspects that could be hammered down. 2. Some career paths and quests can be softlocked. For example, you can't get full 2 handed proficiency unless you do it early in the game or join the swamp camp. When you enter the final temple, the only trainer that can give you magic circle 6 becomes unavailable; also you can't train Mana anymore after the 5th chapter ends. 3. Magic is extremely underpowered. A few low level spell will carry you until mid game but the midlevel spells are too weak for the cost and casting time. As a mage, you'll be running around a lot and calculate the timing for your skill to hit before the enemies can hit you back. Unless you know what you're doing (i.e. your third run), you're better off considering magic an utility, and use the scrolls (which you can create and use without spending the 110 points needed to get to the 6th circle) for utility and situational spells. Advices to the devs. ---------------------- 1. Better inventory; make sticky sorting and user-defined placement; a privileged/locked slots -- without being quick slots, just for easier pick in the inventory would be a fantastic addition. 2. Related to that: make scrolls and transport items (teleport, whistle) useable also from the inventory / privileged slots. 3. Add 1 cross for quick slots on the controller. Keyboard players can get slots 1-12, the controller should have unmodified (simply use directional cross), L1 + direction and L2 + direction. Currently unmodified and L1 are the same; it's a shame. 4. Rebalance magic (yeah, "easy you say", but hear me out): The problem with magic is that Gothic is a subtractive game -- you deal the damage - resistance, and it could be 0. That's fine with weapons, but channelled spell deal a little damage per second, and any basic resistance will turn that into 0; by the time we find channelled magic spells, they are completely useless (deal basically 0 damage to anything worth hitting). The solution is that to convert the resistance to % only for channelled spells, or alternatively divide the resistance by 10 for them. A resistance of 100 will still stop channelled completely, and that's fine; you will need something that hits harder against those target; but for everyone else, the channelling still hurts, dealing 9, 8, 7 hp/sec instead of 0. Easy fix IMHO. 5. Talking of magic, another necessary rebalance is to add some damage to spells as the caster goes up in circles. 5 points per circle would be very good, and would allow to keep fireball and firebolt (and similar) still relevant until the end of the game. I would even dare adding a 10% per higher circle; so firebolt (circle 1) gets a 50% increase when you have level 6, but death wind from level 6 gets the nominal value, fire rain (circle 5) only 10% when you go to 6, and so on. 6. Still talking of magic: death wind should really be channelled. By the level you find it, 150 HP damage is very low, but a 50 or 100 sec channelled (maybe to a max) would be still meaningful. 7. Blacksmithing needs some love. None of the craftable weapons in the game is better than drops or items you can find, often easily. Gothic 3 introduced the idea of sharpening, that gave a flat 10 HP damage bonus to all weapons; that would be nice, especially if you can only sharpen crafted weapons. It would be also nice if it was possible to craft the same top-tier weapons found in the game, or some with just 10 hp more. If not possible, better combo windows and animation speed for crafted weapons may be a very good way to give the players something for the crafted weapons without hurting the game balance, and would make crafted weapons "different".

Gothic Remake is my game of the year for 2026. I haven't played the original (or at least I don't remember playing), I've only played the second game and I gotta tell ya - this is the original game in an Unreal Engine 5 coat. Technically, it's more than that, but it reminds me of Oblivion Remastered, only in case of Gothic, the entire game has been remade. What I'm trying to say is it's like playing the original game but with better graphics and modern quality of life features. But 90%-95% of the game is the same as back then. Which means its a true RPG where you start as someone who has absolutely nothing, gets killed by moles in two hits and goes to someone who isn't afraid any monster or any character in the entire game. That's something not a lot of games let you do these days. Even in Witcher 3 you start with two swords, armor and a number of spells (signs), you're not nobody and you can take on larger monsters. Not in Gothic though. And I'm not saying starting as a nobody is better than being a Witcher, but in that game you're playing as a set character with his own preferences, at least in terms of weapons. You can pick up an axe in that game but it won't be as effective as your swords. In Gothic, how you get to be the most badass person inside the barrier is up to you. And if you get there or not is up to you too. You start down to earth, count every ore from selling absolutely anything a trader would take, and make every purchase count. Slowly, but surely and steadily you make progress. The more you hunt some animals, the more your level grows. With levels come skill points, which you then decide to spend on learning from a trainer. Maybe you decide to become a mage, maybe you'd rather get better at swinging a sword, or maybe you'd rather be better at shooting arrows, which at the start of the game is OP. He won't say no to a necromancy scroll or a scroll that turns you into a mole because its not his style. And that's the kind of freedom that we used to have back when Gothic and Elder Scrolls were core RPG series. I'm not saying modern RPGs are ♥♥♥♥, not at all. But the level of immersion this game has, and the path you go through that entirely depends on what you decide to do. That's role-playing to me. You go from literally considering whether you should go outside a camp at night with a torch, or sleep until morning when at least you can see where you're going. Nothing in this game is completely unfair or unjustified when you know exactly what your character can and can't do yet. I won't get into the details about the story and the setting, but I just want to say that if you think that being trapped inside a barrier makes the available game area small, you're wrong. The barrier is huge and it does include several biomes including forests, swamps, desert and tundra areas. And what I love is that you're now trapped with everybody else in it. Some have figured a way to prosper, and you're just a new arrival, so don't expect people to love you poking your nose into how things work. Most won't appreciate that.