[VoodooDali]

I just tried to play this disappointing game. At first, I was giving it the benefit of the doubt - since I had just played Star Wars: Knight of the Republic - which was fantastic - I thought maybe it understandably didn't hold up to that and I should not expect much.

Problems with Gothic II and why I don't advise buying it:

1. No Tutorial. This is a complicated game and the manual that comes with it is very skimpy. A short tutorial would have been very helpful.

2. Combat Controls. The WORST system I have ever encountered in any game. Basically, the controls are all on the keyboard - your mouse is pretty much useless. Here's how the controls work, as far as I could figure out.
a. Hit the spacebar or a number key to unsheath your weapon.
b. Hit the control button with your left hand to focus and attack.
c. At the same time, you will have to either strafe using A (strafe left) or D (strafe right), or you can block by going backwards (S or down arrow). W or up arrow to move forwards. Inexplicably, the right and left arrows will not let you strafe - so I kept confusing my hands. It's much easier to move around the game using the arrow keys, and feels completely awkward to have both hands all the way over on the left-hand side of the keyboard while in combat, using keys you ordinarily never use.

3. No potion hotkeys. You can edit your INI file to enable this, but I am not enclined to do mess around with that, plus I've heard it causes bugs.

4. Inventory system. Totally awkward set of boxes. Nothing is organized and to find something you have to move around with your arrow keys. To select, you need your mouse. Impossible to use during combat. You will be dead before you ever find and use anything.

5. No pause. As far as I can tell, you cannot pause the game, esp. a problem during combat, given how confusing the controls are.

Good things about the game.

1. It's non-linear, and has a Morrowind-like feel to it.

2. Lots of factions and complicated politics.

3. Some have criticized the graphics, but I thought they looked pretty good, if a bit dated.

Basically, I find the combat system so difficult to use that I will not complete this game. I will sell it to EBGames, I guess. I'm sure it's possible to learn to use the combat system, but I don't feel it's worth it to me to devote all my time to that. Perhaps, those of you out there that love tactical FPS's would enjoy it. It's a shame, because some of the role-playing aspects of it are pretty interesting. What I really can't understand is that this game is a sequel, and the very things that are terrible about this game were also terrible in the first game. Why they chose to maintain this clunky combat system after all the complaints about it in Gothic I is a mystery to me. If only they would fix it, they could really give Morrowind a run for their money. Personally, I would prefer a mostly mouse-controlled combat system.

Now I don't know what to get - I've played through Star Wars: KotOR a couple of times already. Maybe some sequels to games that I liked like Max Payne 2? Or Age of Mythology: The Titans? Looking forward to Deus Ex 2.