Birth, Life and Death of the Gothic Franchise

[@KillmanPit]

It's said that every time a word "Gothic" is spoken anywhere, someone somewhere installs Gothic or Gothic 2. Thanks for keeping the fire alive

[@snoomtreb]

I just reinstalled Gothic 2 after watching this video xD ( after a decade or so xD)

[@ebonyPM]

@@snoomtreb I had all 4 games on CDs, so I just bought digital copies three days ago since my new laptop doesn´t have CDrom and I am halfway through G1 again. Still getting chills from old camp soundtrack in a almost 20 years old game, that is how you know it is really good game ;-)

[@snoomtreb]

@@ebonyPM absolutely if you’re ‘actually’ afraid of high level bossed you know you got your emerging down ^^

[@Fate_94]

I’ve just installed Gothic 1 and Risen 1 this month and finished it. Now I’m going for Gothic 2 heh.

[@820-t3q]

I still play it from time to time on classic old XP machines. Absolutely love the atmosphere the games in this series have.

[@LourdeDev]

Gothic will NEVER die! Not with such a strong fanbase!

[@frankdesmet4468]

@Coding Only Consoles? Gothic is a PC title, and should stay away from console peasants if it doesn't want to tarnish its legacy. /looking at you Deus Ex 2, Dragon Age 2 and so many other console fuckups based on legendary PC titles.

[@criticalbytes1739]

@@itarH I think he is talking about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

[@frankdesmet4468]

@@itarH Deus Ex 2 was not Human Revolution, that was 3.

[@petr-nagy]

@@frankdesmet4468 calm down and drink the tea mum made for you.

[@frankdesmet4468]

​@@petr-nagy As she died 26 years ago.that is very much impossible. Besides that I don't like tea anyway.

[@Razorhunter5]

Glad that the community still make these games shine nowadays. Gothic will never truely die.

[@Portulak007]

3:51 friendly reminder that Kai Rosenkranz was 18 years old at given time lol

[@PartyQuest]

one of the MOST detailed and informative of my favorite game of all time, video EVER! well done, wow i can't imagen how long it took.

[@criticalbytes1739]

Thanks for the praise.^^ It took 2,5 months for me to make it and it ended up being a rushjob at the end because I was about to move. 1 month of which was purely spend in researching (luckily I was with the Gothic series from the beginning so I knew where to start finding sources) and 1,5 more months in a mixture of ongoing video editing and more research/finding sources. :D

[@PartyQuest]

@@criticalbytes1739 you welcome! you deserve it! it's amazingly put together and what info! the things i did not find in other videos. 2.5months! omg!!!

[@andriypohors2538]

​@@criticalbytes1739 for someone who hasn't played any games in years and is just here for some nostalgia and emotional connection to the game and the one and a half decade old memories associated with, i must admit that this is the video i've been waiting for. thankfully not the 100th let's play game, but something that tells the story from the perspective of the developers and veteran followers. you obviously are a true connoisseur of the game and also a member of the old forums. is it known what the original founders do these days? who or what is the main culprit of gothic's demise in your opinion? greed? production deadline? development constraints? jowood? what was the role of that weird wisecrack ivan ertlov guy in the development of gothic3? he's an excentric guy who publishes fantasy books from time to time a quick search on google reveals. thank you for your efforts.

[@criticalbytes1739]

@@andriypohors2538 First off thank you for the praise.^^ Those are a lot of questions. I have been able to trace the steps of most of the original founders but not all of them, if I remember correctly, some of them have unfortunately passed on by now. In my opinion there is no main culprit to point a finger at, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. JoWooD was facing bankrupcy once again and had to make deals with Koch Media to survive until the release of Gothic 3, the leading developers of Piranha Bytes were way too overconfident to tackle the development of both a new engine and a new game within just 3 years and a small dev team, the communication between JoWooD and PB already started to show cracks and there were moments of the developer not knowing what the publisher is doing and vice versa. Ivan Ertlov is actually a pretty nice guy in my experience, sadly he just blindly followed his superior's instructions back in the day, which led to him making his false marketing promise and eventually quitting JoWooD. His role was to keep the community hype in the active forums going, answering questions with PR answers, the usual customer support stuff. The main problem with him were his new guidelines for the Gothic 3 Community and that his superiors didn't care what he said as long as it made sales. The whole "behind-the-scenes" story of Gothic 3 is a series of unfortunate events in my opinion: JoWooD was greedy, certainly and eventually way too much, but they were in a constant fight with insolvency. It didn't help much either that the decision-makers of JoWooD were more interested in their own salary and constantly made bad moves to "restructure the company's business model". PB was overconfident and were basically on a "high" coming from the success of Gothic 2. There is a rather infamous interview with, I think it was Mike Hoge, where it was stated that PB didn't believe that bigger games don't require bigger teams. On Paper he was right, bigger games don't necessarily require bigger teams when it comes to the mere size of the game's world. What PB completely disregarded at the time (or at least during the interview) was the workload for everything else. In the end, it all collapsed on top of their heads. With my limited knowledge and experience, I would say that in order for Gothic 3 to have turned out alright, JoWooD would have needed 4-12€ million of additional funding per year (from 04-07). Perhaps even a change of CEOs could have helped a lot. JoWooD desperately needed to restructure their company, a lack of personnel and the thick-headed elite at the top completely missed out on that though. Eventually the decision-makers of JoWooD, who from the get-go had no idea about anything regarding videogames, ran the company into the ground. PIranha Bytes would have needed a team three times its size with enough time to work out a good plan for team coordination, Piranha Bytes also would have at least needed an assistant director or another project manager in general. The game and the engine could have both used a QA phase time of 6-12 months as well. The development time of Gothic 3, to release in a mostly bug-free and actually finished state, would have taken another two years from the way I see it. I hope that answered most of the questions. :D

[@sitordan]

I played all the Gothic games multiple times and loved them. I'm now exploring Magalan in Elex.

[@jebise1126]

14:50 best voice over ever

[@lucypatootie]

Gothic 2 Night of the raven is the perfect game for me. No skyrim, no fallout, no cyberpunk! Gothic is love, gothic is life

[@ahabduennschitz7670]

I met a lot of people in my life and when it comes to gaming sooner or later i share memorys of gothic with other people. It seems like everyone who truly loves gaming has at least heard of gothic. I have the feeling the creators of gothic have still no idea what huge impact their game still has on gamers

[@megamike15]

it just feels like to me after gothic 2 pb forgot how to makes games.

[@Krispen_Wah]

Blame Pankratz

[@LourdeDev]

More like they were forcefully rushed with Gothic 3. Look at Risen 1, it's a good game. You know why? Cause freaking JoWood didn't rush it. Never played Risen2/3/Elex so I cannot say anything about those games.

[@Krispen_Wah]

@@LourdeDev they suck

[@criticalbytes1739]

I wouldn't go as far as to say they suck. They have extremely high potential but it feels like Piranha Bytes is making games now because it's their job, not because they want to make something special or unique anymore.

[@criticalbytes1739]

While JoWooD certainly carries a lot of the blame in my opinion, if not the most blame about Gothic 3, let's not pretend that it's exclusively their fault. Piranha Bytes did their fair share of stupid decisions and they could have made compromises during development, but didn't in an attempt to fix a burning trashcan. They were overconfident. When the game released, they tried to halfway justify the unfinished game's mechanics by blaming everything on the Publisher. After the split JoWooD/PB, they pretty much tried to stick everything on JoWooD, which is a popular spin on the narrative, and one of their ways of avoiding unpleasant responsibilities, like answering questions about the core design decisions (writing quality, quest design etc.). PB has screwed up just as hard as JoWooD with Gothic 3, but for different reasons in my opinion.

[@stalkerlohh]

this is some quality work Man. really enjoyable

[@tedy5796]

i'm not crying .. you are crying

[@Montv3]

we are

[@gothic3theageofwar565]

Gothic 1 and 2 are masterpieces, I really can’t find anything that makes me feel unsatisfied. It’s almost perfection. Maybe with horses it would’ve been 100% best game ever. The story was incredible. Vanilla gothic 3 didn’t have a single npc wearing a helmet, I know it may be a small thing but I felt completely out of immersion. Moral of the story: if you want to play a decent Gothic 3 mods like Quest Pack and Content Mod 3.1 are a must. I believe Gothic 3 should’ve had horses, the world is very big and going around on foot all the time might get boring after a while. Also horse combat is cool. The story was not that bad but mediocre at best. Such a wasted opportunity. The only good thing about Arcania was the world (Argaan is still now extremely beautiful). Such a wasted opportunity.

[@PartyQuest]

true, true. my nameless hero!

[@PartyQuest]

i made an amazing let's play of gothic 2! maybe the hero intereseted?

[@kyronix560]

Hey your the guy who talks about fucking horses in gothic

[@gothic3theageofwar565]

@@kyronix560 YES HORSES!!!! 😂

[@LordVollmilch]

wtf gothic 1 and 2 had no helmets too.

[@modernrock5556]

And now its alive and kickin with Chronicles of Myrtana.

[@Gems56]

Arcania is alive and kicking also so hate on it some more but it technically is keeping this series relevant sure there's pc mods for the older games but Arcania isint a bad game at all I can't believe how much hate it got

[@miguelcondadoolivar5149]

​@@Gems56What relevance does Arcania hold? It is an unsuccessful game with little to no impact on the industry as a whole.

[@michalmokos6663]

This video was pure enjoyment for me, it was awesome, awesome, awesome. Great job, insta subscriber here

[@Tomasman97]

First I was like "how dare you talk about DEATH of this series, don´t you know the fanbase?!", but this video... This is some real quality stuff. Thank you for your contribution! Gothic went through some rough times... Also, few months after the release of this video, a new chapter of this franchise started. A bit controversial, but Gothic is still alive :3

[@ciupenhauer]

gothic is not an open world medieval RPG, it's THE open world medieval RPG

[@Amducyas]

Gothic 1 and 2 english dub is the only thing that allowed me to play them. NEVER talk shit about the english dub. It's beautiful and unique. And without it I would never discover my favorite franchise

[@ayoubmorjane7722]

you showed some footages that I never seen before, like the motion capture of the dancing nps that is dope

[@AFCAWorldBodybuildingArchive]

I love Gothic 3. Even the RAW 2006 version. This is part of gaming history and I love it. 🙏

[@karner1541]

Gothic 3 has the best music I have ever heard in any videogame

[@SSchithFoo]

Eww

[@xxxdark-urielxxx8985]

I'd rather say the only good thing it had is the ost. The rest is completely shit!!! The fighting mechanics and model textures are the worst. Also when Arcania (gothic 4) was made by other company, they absolutely killed the games saga.

[@Andrew85or]

@@xxxdark-urielxxx8985 It's pretty good with mods.

[@pedropuche6066]

@@Andrew85or Nah, The game is still broken. The modders can't fix the core problems, at least the game is beatable now...

[@drmprod]

Great work, there's too few videos about this topic! Long live Gothic!

[@TodyId]

For nameless. Diego. Milten. Gorn. Lester. Lares. Lee. Cor angar. Saturas. And xardas. Spirit Of Gothic longlive All gothic Series.

[@Wuschel1990]

But the story goes on... THQ released a playable teaser for Gothic 1 so we can give them feedbeack on how we want this game

[@SSchithFoo]

They said they liked Gothic and made the demo nothing like Gothic.

[@Wuschel1990]

@@SSchithFoo that's what the feedback option was for

[@marcwittkowski5146]

PB made two great games. G1 and G2 (+ add-on) are classics and I love them. But after those, the best they could come up with was Risen, which was a watered-down rehashing of G2.

[@andipajeroking]

" Every line of dialogue was voiced by professionals voice actors" " Only meee aloooone. Diiiiieeeeeeeee. Yaaaaaaaaa" 😂😂😂😂

[@Brumbrumauto]

You got a sub man that was reallly good summary

[@SLCicu]

solid work here, mate!

[@Garkash]

Danke für das Video

[@trastewere]

Good to see you back m8.

[@primusro]

Even to this day I think Gothic has the best NPC AI and behavior. and whomever designed the game world is a genius. Pairing that with the varied and interesting quests makes the game truly a technical masterpiece. For 17 years I looked for the same detailed behavior in following RPGs but they never came close. I know I'm a Gothic fanboy, but I know I'm right when I say Gothic 2 NotR is a masterpiece and probably the best RPG ever created. Piranha Bytes has long since forgot about Gothic and I feel like they also lost the interest in it. Elex still had some of that magic in it, but wasn't as immersive.

[@newsheed11]

a gem of a video, thank you

[@V3rciS]

Damn that might be the most comprehensive timeline of PB and Gothic. So much drama. They also announced recently Gothic 1 remake, I wonder how this will turn out. However I'm not very confident judging by the teaser demo. Hopefully PB themselves create a new Gothic with a decent budget and plenty of time at their disposal.

[@mayamayhemmusic]

please no, PB does not have the original team anymore and all the games they made in recent years have been very meh at best. If another Gothic ever gets made, I think it is best to be made by a different developer. That way, it at least has a chance to be good.

[@V3rciS]

@@mayamayhemmusic sorry just trying to understand how bringing a new developer ensures better results than the original developer (even if majority of the original team is indeed gone).

[@rumers100]

So many years later G1 and G2 still hold their own if not they are better than almost all new RPGs. The world, story, nature Its just much better. Everything feels alive.

[@AlexiosJG]

It always makes me sad when I talk to any other gamers in Canada and the USA about this game. When the remake was announced I told all my friends about it and people in other games - and the response was crickets. No one had heard of it. I wish they’d done a better job of marketing it in the West. This series is just top tier ☀️

[@PMnLC]

I like how the ending of the video is structurally very simmilar to epilogues in gothic 3.

[@GrapplingAutist]

Good stuff! Here's hoping Gothic makes a strong return!

[@vladutze84]

congrats on a great video

[@Richter5]

Suddenly: Gothic Remake :D

[@houseoffirebellytoads1439]

"remake"

[@Siearben]

Lovely channel, thanks for the nostalgia trip throughout the 2000s. Never even knew about that mobile game!

[@criticalbytes1739]

Thank you for your time of writing the comment and thank you for the praise. :) The mobile game isn't even that bad, it's pretty good for 2008 in my opinion. Nobody wanted to talk about it in the media or in the community, as it was seen by them, including me, as a quick cashgrab from JoWooD. I eventually ended up playing it sometime around 2014 if I remember correctly. :D

[@Aeternus1990]

Fast forward a couple years after your videos, and we see the real future of the franchise: Gothic 2 total conversion mods like Archolos giving us new content for the game we all loved.

[@EvangelionEscaflowne]

Bought gothic 1 right when it came out... come back at least once every few years to complete. Absolutely amazing story and game play. Loved the combat in g1 and 2

[@DmytroPedia]

Critical Bytes, I love you!

[@criticalbytes1739]

U 2

[@davideblonda6159]

I liked the way you announced the arrival of "Arcania Gothic4" on consoles with that sarcastic voice almost to perimeter the scandalousness of that obscene peace of work.

[@jonass961]

This is such an in depth video, very impressive. I wonder how you even get info like that (23:00 onwards). An interesting but sad tale for sure...

[@vojtechjanda9684]

With the mention of Dungeon Siege II (which I never got to play for more than a few dozen minutes, sadly), I wonder whether SiegeEngine, used for Dungeon Siege 1 (and therefore possibly available before development of G3), or a variant of the technology behind it, could have been used for G3 instead of creating something from scratch. AFAIK the engine was capable of handling huge maps without loading screens without many problems.

[@romaniahasmetal]

I really cannot call myself a Gothic fan. I have only ever played the third one. But it is by far the best action rpg I have ever played in my life. I'm always sad when I see old time fans criticize it so harshly. For me it's the pinnacle of gaming. I just got it again and plan on finishing it, maybe the first two are next

[@angeltouch4834]

you should definitely try it 1 and 2, gothic 3 was my first gothic game, but right now i started 2 and belive me u might not like it at first comparing to 3 but trust me its really enjoyable, it will take a while to get acustomed with the combat movement system, but everything beside graphics i guess is better than g3, especially the quests and story and cutscenes.

[@angeltouch4834]

1 bere cand te vad daca te apuci de gothic2 :)

[@radekhruby142]

go play 1 and 2 and you will never be able to play the 3rd again :D

[@tesselesk8]

Thank you for this video, it was a pleasure to know all about the development of those masterpieces, I really wished that the history was not that tragic, and maybe now we would have one of the biggest games ever released (Gothic 3)

[@ste666666666]

I'll always play Gothic 1 & 2 every year or so!, its amazing!

[@kimbojimbo1892]

Gothic will not die... There is even a German audio book about the first game, that just came out recently.

[@GalliadII]

really? did not notice.

[@SABaruj]

gothic 1 and 2 were perfect. I remember myself playing gothic 1 with my friends and gothic 2 all by myself.. good times.. But when i installed gothic 3 something was different, the game lacked the personality of the first 2 ones

[@SSchithFoo]

After 2 it went to shit

[@studenastrana273]

Since i played Gothic i experienced peak gaming experience for me and not single game came even close to it ♥ Forever my favourite game

[@starstriker1881]

Best thing about gothic 1 was that you can knock out merchant and loot everything from them. Realism at the next level

[@Sk0lzky]

>"the feature was removed due to licensing issues" >plays the song in his KZbin video Madlad.

[@federikus2928]

great video!

[@derjeniche5409]

I still play Gothic 1 and 2, mabe I try out the third one in a while.

[@sheezy2526]

11.53 IMO gothic 1 had better AI. Enemies in Gothic 2 attack anyone despite how strong the enemy is. But in Gothic 1, if you bring a set of snappers near some NPC;s they just run away.

[@fluffygutts2240]

Great video. Ive put a lot of work into it and it shows.

[@Corristo89]

JoWood and Piranha Bytes were essentially throwing mud at each other by the end of their relationship. JW claimed that PB had piled on too many features and had been to ambitious. Remember, JW wasn't and isn't a huge developer and going for a massive release like Gothic 3 was like a novice driver wanting to compete at Le Mans. PB on the other hand accused JW of putting insane amounts of pressure on them in order to get the game out the door before the end of a set date in order to keep JW shares up with another major release.

[@iluharyb]

Just found this video in my recomended. First of all, I want to thank you for doing such a great job with this video. I am bad at German since middle school so I was and still kinda am isolated from the majority of this information around the franchise and the community. And I prefer this type of "history" content with more facts and less subjective opinion of the creator/narrator. Second of all, a little bit of my backstory. The first installment of the franchise that I came accross was Gothic 3. I first saw it at my brother's screen while he was playing (that was the main source for me finding out new games at the time of my early puberty). I immideately fell in love with this game even with the cheesy combat system and a lot of bugs and errors. I played pirated version for hours and even received an official disk copy (it was a bundle of original + forsaken gods. Probably it's still somewhere in my parents' house, but I've lost all hope in finding it a long ago). I've finished it only once at the moment, but I did not really care about the story. I was just enjoing living in the world. NPCs having day and night cycle, a lot of local conflicts and problems of various characters, the environment, and, especcially, the music. I still think that Gothic 3 OST was Rozenkranz's magnum opus. So melodic, so diverse and at the same time so similar in providing the atmospere of the game. I played the 1 and 2 games a couple of years ago, and don't get me wrong, these are great games, but I still have a place in my heart for Gothic 3. And, even though I completely get where all the hate towards this game comes from, I still get a little bit sad for it, because it's still one of the greatest games I've ever played, with CPs or without them, and I always will advocate for it against some veterans that don't recognise it as canon and want PB to reboot it. And the only thing I hope for is that some day Gothic 3 will receive a remake (not a reboot) that will make justice to the game and will finish every idea that for some reason wasn't in the original. So everyone can see that it is actually a great game, maybe not in the same sense as the first two were, but still a solid installment.

[@StrangeNazemi]

Gothic 1: Great 2: Amazing 2 with NoR: Magnificent -------------------------------------------- meh Gothic 3: Eahh it is ok kind of.. not really. --------------------------------------------------------- trash Gothic 3 FG: wtf?! ------------------- not Gothic 4: played for 10 minutes. 4 addon with name I don't even know.

[@alexanderzack3720]

gothic 3 without patches and such was mostly unplayable.... some enemies were invisible, meaning you had no idea where you got damage from. some important quest items fell through the map, like the teleport into the sieged city in myrtana. some npc´s had the tendency to run into big rocks and never coming out again, meaning those quests were unfinishable.... and those are only the BIG ones

[@SeisoSpazz]

​@@alexanderzack3720 There was even a worse problem with the first version: every non-human enemy didn't have any kind of attack cooldown, so if a lizzard landed a hit on you, it would be attacking endlessly until the main character died.

[@RetroBacon1]

Damn, Been binge watching your videos so im deffs subscribing. You have great content man! keep it going.

[@criticalbytes1739]

It'll be a while until the next video but thanks for the compliments. :D

[@kip_c]

would love to see you review the 2019 game Outward, it expands upon what I think is Gothic's winning formula (start with nothing, join one of three factions, etc) but with better combat and crafting mechanics

[@Xearin]

I still have an unpatched copy lying around. If you manage to get through the installer, you first have to patch it to get it to launch. Then after 1 minute ingame it completely shits itself. It got playable after patch 1.09 for me, and I managed to finish it when 1.12 came around. So much potential, sadly never came to fruition.

[@stockpilethomas7900]

I'm playing Elex 2 on ps5 now ,the combat is so much better then the first Elex . Never played the Gothic games but want to.

[@Tan3l6]

Game League - Legendary! At least the first two...

[@ahabduennschitz7670]

3 tried its best OK?!

[@Naryoril]

"There's only one part within the machinery "Gothic" that can't be replaced by the same, or preferably, something better, and that is Gothic itself" Gothic 4, Risen and Elex strongly disagree. Even though i think Gothic 2 is still PB's best game, Risen 1-3 and Elex are way more of a replacement of Gothic than Gothic 4 ever was.

[@marekkapusta7825]

I didn't know about the Stargate game. It's sad how it ended.

[@MrFilbert28]

What a corporate nightmare....

[@mawit4543]

Cooles Video! Ich wollt grad schreiben, dass Du die deutschen Namen echt gut aussprichst, aber nach ein paar Minuten viel mir auf, dass Du wohl einfach deutsch mit gutem Englisch bist xD

[@criticalbytes1739]

Aye :D

[@patriciusvunkempen102]

there are gothic one versions with InEx removed? lmao

[@Osinivos4]

Anybody else still have there CD's ?

[@NDakota79]

Gothic 1 und 2 sind die besten Actionrollenspiele, ich ich jemals gespielt habe.

[@Ebbelboiz]

Actually, compared to other titles from 2002, I think Gothic 2 was the title with the least dated graphics of the franchise at the time.

[@cousindexter]

In poland we loved hothic so much that after years, a group of very skilled people bascially made a new chapter for gothic, based in myrthana 😂 and it was great, with such a attention to detail!

[@zwojack7285]

man, I cant wait until Gothic 2 gets a successor

[@andipajeroking]

This oddly reminds me of the Rover 75 release lol. Great car, bad marketing and bad luck 😵

[@patriciusvunkempen102]

THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MULTIPLAYER!??! HELL THAT WOULD BE GREAT DAMN DAMN DAMN

[@KingRobar2]

I can still fondly remember my version of Gothic 3, where I actually had to edit the code files because there was simply no voice over at all

[@Daeinyr]

Bless them for making such a great games

[@ZeratulSRB]

Friend, this video is of immense quality. The FBI level of information, timeline storytelling, constant tension and rivalry between money focused publisher and the makers of the game. I love how in the end Pirate Bytes got to be able to work on Gothic again. Hope they will make new Gothic one day to end the series. Thank you for a video, very very good.

[@andrewstencel]

good games, but to say that the first title featured stunning graphics and professional voice work (in english, at least) was a bit of an overstatement

[@criticalbytes1739]

Not really. Gothic 1 brought the High-End PCs of 2001 to their limit, thus the statement about its graphics is accurate. Also, I was specifically referring to the german (and polish) voice acting, the english localization (chronologically speaking) did not exist at this point in time.

[@rodrawing8192]

hello guys. i'm a big fan of gothic franchise. does anyone know when we're getting new content? i know that there is a fan made expansion for gothic: The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos and a remake but when? i'm getting desperate now... the wait is so damn long...i finished g1,2,3 multiple times and still enjoy them but cmon..

[@criticalbytes1739]

Heyho, I can't say much about the other projects but in regards to the remake: The Gothic 1 Remake has hit full-development, based on the press release, in Februrary/March 2021. This means that, considering the size and the mechanics of a game like Gothic 1, you should be expecting the remake around 2023 if they end up rushing it. Personally, I would prefer if we would get it around 2024-2026, simply due to the reason that I would like to have a Gothic game that actually launches in an acceptable technical state. :D

[@Catonzo]

Gothic 2 was the best of the bunch in my opinion. I've played Gothic 1, but because these games are very similar it is like going back in quality with none of the nostalgia really there to keep it afloat. I would compare it like if you've played Might and Magic 7 first and then try Might and Magic 6. Subjectively I find them equal, but objectively the 7th game is vastly superior in every aspect. I just can play each interchangably because I have nostalgic attachment to the 6th installment - but even then I know very well that MM7 is superior in balancing and scope. I don't think I'd be able to play MM6 today if I hadn't been deeply emotionally attached to the game even if the game technically are very much the same, with the 7th just being an improvement. Back to Gothic this means that I see Gothic 2 technically superior in every way even if they are very similar and since I didn't play Gothic 1 back in the day I have no attachment to it. Then came Gothic 3. I actually do find it a very beautiful game.. but it is a very unfinished game. They could have improved on so many things, but instead they went a step back in combat and magic. Simplified it all. Fast attack, mid attack and powerful attacks - while Gothic 2 had all attacks do the same damage, they had timings to them where some strikes worked better for different kinds of opponents. None of the games had amazing combat, but there's only so much you can do with combat without hampering the fluidity. For comparison Skyrim has practically NO difference in combat throughout the game so this is not a game killer in itself. I think Gothic 3 would have needed another year. Just one more year of development. Magic and combat could have been improved with just a couple brainstorming sessions and some more development. Visually and musically the game was stunning. A bit.. unenjoyable with how it handled far distance vistas, but it is funny that today you can max out the rendering distance with a mere change in the config file, so the engine is actually very good. I find more enjoyment in Gothic 3 than I do with Skyrim. I remember losing all interest in Skyrim after ~20 hours because.. well, they failed to grasp me with their Arnold-English, fake-norse (which is not a bad thing.. they just did it poorly) architecture and culture and quite frankly shit combat system. Gothic 3 had many of these flaws with its combat system, but it had exploration and freedom mixed with the correct changing of scenery. Even if I love snow, mountains and fjords, sometimes I just want a summer-landscape too.

[@tietscho]

These people are heroes

[@Hijackerrr]

u got that wrong "Germany Bochum October 12. 1997 majority of Germany´s video game production WAS AND STILL IS focused in developing cheap and quick games usually truck, farm, airfield and other nonsens simulator"

[@gothicsage955]

Yeah. Gothic 3 you see wolves and boars go through fucking rocks!

[@CESSKAR]

Tears.

[@arkd3um1988]

This game and devs proves that passion and dedication is the way to go when it comes to gaming world. Today cash and old farts dictate the way games are made...it is a sad future, but in the end we all need to feed our belly with something and i dont blame any dedicated dev out there, I just blame the system that made us slaves with false rights, slaves that would be brainwashed to feel free in a world that is ruled by shadows and jokers that will not stop to rule us this way ever.... I just hope one day we wake up and start to erase the bull shit in this world. No more ideas such as "boss" or "god" or "laws" because we are not slaves so nobody is boss of anyone, there is not god and we dont need laws as long as common sense exists.

[@rockaheror1391]

Played 1st Gothic 3 times, played Gothic II 4 times , if this is not the best games ever

[@MrHuggaga]

Dude I gotta replay this game ere the year is over... ;D EDIT: was talking about G1

[@linklindlink]

Guess we will never get a proper gothic game again,maybe someone will one day make a spiritual successor.

[@BlackSecrit]

Que the Arcania isn't a gothic game comments

[@LourdeDev]

Literally noone wrote such a comment, even though it's true. xD

[@smurf5352]

Not a bad game but happy that elderscrolls made the race

[@2Squarky]

Two words: G R E A T V I D E O. Overall you said all you could, it was funny and correctly made, gothic will be the game of my childhood and i will never forget myself at young age starting my story in colony :). Thanks for bringing back the memories, the good one and worse one, once again, great vid, sadly pirania will never create gothic 5 and we basically can dream of anything new from gothic saga except the gothic playable teaser which MAY BE actually decent game :)

[@MrSuperProoo]

the best games are already out there, some for very long

[@ebonyPM]

this game was a pioneer in many things, evidently, not only good but also bad :-D Gothic 1 and 2 are still one of my favourites games ever and I play them almost every year since their release in my country at least once, but I never finished G3 or Arcania (which I don´t even count as Gothic game) ... btw do you remember those times were most games were released finished, polished and with minimum of bugs and games like Gothic 3 were minority? now it is the other way around and it sucks.

[@Hijackerrr]

1:27 that is Scooter

[@PartyQuest]

14:45 lol

[@zig9260]

I lost count how many times i gave Gothic 3 a chance, even 10 years later with mods. Deep down i liked the game a lot, but at the same time i fucking hated it because it was garbage. I cant really explain to you my feelings for this game lol. I got to half of the game once before i went nuts and uninstalled again haha

[@ahabduennschitz7670]

The problem with gothic 3 is that you could play gothic 1 or 2 instead

[@smurf5352]

Thats how it feels to be a fanboi

[@blakegunner5841]

There’s somehow a urge to keep playing.

[@Andriej69]

Damn, Piranha bytes had really shitty luck most of the time