Gothic II Retrospective
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There's a retrospective piece for Piranha Bytes' Gothic II up on RPGWatch, and it serves as a reminder why this particular installment solidified the series as one of the greatest RPG series of all time - at least until Gothic 3 showed up on our hard drives. Their words to follow:
I mention freedom, and that's really what the Gothic games to me are about. Limitless freedom. Transform into a scavenger or wolf and run around the lands free of the burdens of being human (although, don't be seen by any humans or predatory animals if you want to live.). Specialize in magic while wielding an axe with a leveled up strength stat. Cast scrolls of lightning on your foes, or learn a spell of Fire Arrow to snipe your enemies at a distance. You can work on your brute strength, your dexterity, or your mana, and each choice you make is yours and yours alone. These choices will greatly influence what weapons your character can wield, what spells you can learn, and truly shape the direction of your character building. Every point you spend means something and makes you that much stronger. Thankfully, the limitless freedom of character building is not the only area where you are free to do as you wish. This core design principle spans across the entire game, and influences every designed aspect of the game.
Some of the customization you can expect comes in the way of training the hero in many different abilities, both combat and otherwise. There is everything from forging weapons, to alchemy, skinning animals, taking horns and teeth from critters, one and two-handed weapon skills and so much more. You will always have something interesting to spend your valuable Learning Points on when you level up, and again, it's all yours to play with and experiment with. Make a character who specializes in removing horns, hides, teeth, claws from their prey in order to gain riches. Or, make a character who can craft a Pure Health potion which fully restores health, thus giving you the advantage in tough battles. The game reminds me of the classic Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, in this regard. The world is a playground for you. You can build your character and develop them using all the toys and tools the game gives you to do so, but it never locks you into one thing or forces choices upon you. It's always yours to shape, yours to do with what you wish, with your own creativity, ingenuity, and inspiration taking center stage. Be who you want to be and do what you want to do, and use your wits to survive; that is Gothic.
For those who love choices and consequences in their RPGs, you aren't going to find much better execution on this front in the entirety of the RPG genre. There are so many choices to make here, and the world reacts accordingly. Help a shady merchant shake down a weapons seller and they'll give you a pass to enter the otherwise unreachable city. However, if you choose to refuse this nefarious task, there will be consequences of that action as well. Perhaps the merchant will tell the city guard that you are an ex-convict, and they will come looking for you. Perhaps the merchant may stop dealing with you altogether, locking out trade with that particular character. Even more extreme, crazy and creative outcomes are possible, and you are never quite sure how the characters in the game are going to react to your decisions. Every decision is crucial and will shape how the game reacts to you, and is another area where freedom of choice trumps all.
Characterization in the game is another strong aspect of the Gothic design. Each character you meet will have his or her own personality, their own motivations, and their own behaviors and talents in this open-world environment. Tick off the wrong person and it could put you in a lot of trouble. Make the right friends and you can get yourself in places you didn't think you'd be able to go. You may even end up dead simply by saying the wrong words to the wrong guy (or gal, as it were.). You have to tread carefully and weigh every option heavily, as the developers intended. If you just select any old response, you could end up in hot water faster than you realize, possibly making your life much harder than it could be had you thought harder about the choice you made. The game will actively reward clever decisions on your part, and appropriately tear you apart for more risky choices. (Side note - To get the maximum immersive experience from this game, refrain from re-loading previous saves if you make a "wrong" decision!)
