Customer Reviews

Gothic Universe

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

(REVISED REVIEW 1/18/08 - Bump overall rating to 4 stars)

If you have never played any of the Gothic series, this may be a good place to start. Gothic 1-2 were simply excellent games. I would, in fact, consider them to be all-time classics, almost on the level of Baldur's Gate 2 and Fallout (but in a very different style). Gothic 3, unfortunately, was a bit of a misstep, buggy even once patched and jettisoning almost all semblance of plot - and the plot was one of the strongest points in Gothic 1-2! See the Gothic 3 reviews for more details (stunlock, lol)

Apparently this packed DOES include the Night of the Raven expansion for Gothic II - the item description does not make that at all clear, and does not mention it at all. So I've updated this review accordingly.

In Gothic, the King needed slaves to mine the ore that makes powerful magic weapons to help in the impending war against the Orcs. Prisoners were to be used to mine and to keep them imprisoned in the mine area, the king had wizards erect a shield in which humans may enter but not leave. By some mistake the wizards shield was way bigger than expected and trapped the wizards, the prisoners, innocents, and cutting off the world from the entire mining site. Now the king has to barter with the prisoners who now control the much needed ore. You are a prisoner thrown into the camp who is destined to protect the mining colony from monster and orcs, while working with the wizards to blow the barrier and escape the prison.

Gothic II picks immediately up where Gothic I leaves off, as the orcs have arrived for battle and taken much of the mining camp.

This is a great game. If you enjoy open ended games like Morrownind, Obilivion and Arx Fatalis, then you'll really enjoy the Gothic series. The graphics are a bit dated, but not enough to turn away the hardcore rpg gamers who want an awesome open ended experience.

In Gothic 1, the controls are very bizarre and seem to make no real sense. After the learning curve of the controls you understand why they are so strange. The controls are improved in Gothic 2 but still a bit bizarre by other rpg standards.

The battle system is alot more fun than the ones in other open ended rpgs that I have played. The story is pretty good and the setting is very interesting. There is a big open world for you to explore, and plenty of treasures and secrets to discover.

A+

I had heard good things about Gothic II; so, I recently picked this game package up. I have completed Gothic I and just started Gothic II. Reviews I have read concerning Gothic III were not totally favorable.

Issues: Gothic I was released in 2001 and does not seem to like running on Windows XP. It continuously and frequently froze-up/crashed. I have a high-end system; but, even lowering all the game setting parameters did not help. Error messages appear to indicate that it couldn't locate the files it was looking for. During game-play, this was very irritating and my forgetfulness to continuously "save" after each successful event proved painful. Gothic I is a "keyboard" game and the controls are difficult to use and initially very frustrating - not getting the right keys while getting beat on gets old in a hurry! Gothic II makes use of the left mouse button for "action," instead control + and arrow key. This set comes as three disks, with NO printed documentation/manuals. Gothic III has a PDF file on its disk; but, you'll need to go to www.replacementdocs.com or similar web site to download the manuals for Gothic I and II - the odd keyboard controls make it a necessity. Even then, in Gothic I, some required keyboard actions were not even documented in the manual and searching the internet was necessary to accomplish things (e.g: swim underwater = control+right mouse button). There are some still some known "bugs" in the game; but, no updates/patches are available for Gothic I. I have found patches for both Gothic II and III on the web. Only Gothic I would auto-install. Both the Gothic II and III disks required that you manually install them. I was initially concerned that my game disks were defective.

Goodstuff: Despite the frustration caused by the crashes and controls (which tempted me several times to just give it up), I found Gothic I to be one of the better games that I have played. The Gothic I story line, while linear, is excellent and the balance within the game made it a challenge from beginning to end (I played as a mage) - I was never "king of the hill" but had just enough to accomplished what had to be done. The Gothic II disk is the "Gold Edition" and includes the "Night of the Raven" expansion game. I have heard that Gothic II is one of the best RPG's of this genre that's been put out. If it proves to be true, then the play-value of this "package" has been well worth its price, regardless of what Gothic III proves to be.

The Gothic Series is a small German software company's response to Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Series (Dagerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion).

I have found I much prefer Gothic.

The default controls in Gothic are a bit unorthodox (but remapable if you find them cumbersome). I left the controls as the designer intended and after getting used to them, find it very enjoyable.

For the entire series, you start off with a blank slate human character and build them up with melee, hunting, magic and/or thieving skills. There is a day/night cycle, characters remember you if you have wronged them (attacked, stolen from) and the game is wide open as far as choices, consequences and endings go.

Combat is where Gothic shines, and you will definitely be tested by the difficulty of this game.

I have found good resources for maximizing the looks of the game (and help should you get stuck) at the following forums:
RPGWatch
JoWood
WorldofGothic

All three games play in widescreen resolutions with no vertical stretch and look great with AA/AF if your computer has the horsepower to do so. The game engine is also scalable if your computer lacks horsepower ... you will be able to play this.

Gothic III was riddled with bugs when it came out in 2006. In March 2009, the community released a 1GB patch which makes the game worthy of the series. You should definitely grab this patch if you play Gothic III (from the WorldofGothic or JoWood forums above).

While graphically I might call Elder Scrolls and Gothic a toss up, I prefer Gothic in every other category. Especially atmosphere

You sure cannot buy every Elder Scolls in one compilation for $25 or less, so what are you waiting for?

CRPG is not exactly prospering at the time buried amongst overflowing amount of console action games and MMORPGs. Even Japanese RPG and console RPG, although have fared better so far, are not looking so optimistic right now. Such fate is not all too unfamiliar in the world of RPG. CRPG has never been fully accepted as a mainstream video game genre for its obscure in-game mechanics and time consuming level-building. 'Final Fantasy' series put Japanese RPG on the map, 'Oblivion' saved face for CRPG but also critisized for selling out to console counterparts. While the current trend in American game developers leans toward selling out or making MMORPGs, it's ironic European developers are picking up the slack and making old-fashioned CRPG out of passion for the genre. 'Two Worlds', 'The Witcher', and 'Gothic' Trilogy are all created by fellow CRPG lovers across the Atlantic. Too bad none of them have received the critical and commercial success they achieved in Europe here in the United States. Although negative reviews and poor sales are not totally unwarranted, things have been overly critical for these games I think because people these days are not too fond of CRPG in the States. People want Diablo-esque action RPG or Diablo's biggest legacy, MMORPG.

'Gothic Universe' is a collection of all three 'Gothic' games, and the second one 'Gothic 2' is the extended cut called 'Nights of the Raven' that contains more quests and expanded storyline. Each game in the series all have multiple endings. Each game is all non-linear, free-formed game that you can go just about anywhere, talk to just about anyone, and take any quest in any order except main quest. Each game offers about 100 hours of gameplay if you decide to do absolutely everything there is to do.

What is unique about the game is how each NPC acts and reacts in the dynamic game world. They have their own schedules and they spend their days according to their schedules. They go to work, they eat, they rest, they drink, they hunt, and they sleep. The animation of their daily routine is very detail too. You, as a avatar in the game, can also perform these routine. You approach any of them with your weapon drawn, or if you enter their private property without permission, or if you touch their private possessions, you will be emphatically warned with deadly force of their own. If they don't like you, they won't talk to you. They remember your action. These simulation of the living, breathing dynamics of the world is specifically scripted, unlike 'Radiant A.I.' used in 'Oblivion'. And this is one thing the series do much better than 'Oblivion'. Although random events and interaction among NPCs are not possible like the one by 'Radiant A.I.', this is indeed very impressive achievement. No other game has given you this much illusion of the living gaming world yet.

The gaming world in the first one was big, the second one was very big, and the third one is huge. All three of them are very well detailed and well drawn.

Magic, weapons, armors, and items are plenty and you can learn new techniques to make potion, cook meal, upgrade your own weapons and armors, do trade, and even harvest plants. There are plenty of things to do beside taking on quests and fight enemies.

What stops 'Gothic' series from being excellent game overall is in-game technical shortcomings. First of all, character design is ugly, very jaggy and unpolished. Next, there are plenty of bugs even after multiple official patches and several unofficial community patches. But worst of all is how the games handle combat.

The combat control in first two games are handle exclusively with keyboard. And the way they implemented the buttons are so clunky, you will have arthritis. The third one doesn't fare much better either even with mouse. It would have been forgiveable if combat mechanics are better, but they are not. Enemies in all three games are mighty and strong enough already, but put you in this situation with clunky control design is downright mean-spirited. Only thing you can do beside getting squashed in the early stages is drawing them to the nearest allies for they seem to be all expert fighters and mages except you. Combat mechanics are very uneven and awkward even when you level enough. You are constantly struggling with enemy not because they overpower you but because you are not expertly able to handle yourself in combat.

In the end, 'Gothic Universe' is a terrific package that offers you obscene amount of open-ended RPG gameplay with tons of quests to take and things to do in this wonderfully vivid living world at a bargain price of $30. If you are CRPG lovers or who is interested in getting into old-fashioned single player CRPG, get 'Gothic Universe' along with 'Oblivion: GOTY' ($50), 'Two Worlds: Epic Edition' ($20), and 'The Witcher: Enhanced Edition' ($40). That's $140 you spend and your social life is finished. We're looking at 300 hours for 'Gothic Universe', another 100 hours each for 'Two worlds' and 'The Witcher', and minimum 150 hours before all the free downloadable contents for 'Oblivion'. Add 'Morrowind: GOTY' ($20) for minimum 200 hours and you are officially *$#@%^!&. You have been emphatically warned.

This is only a brief game review to be accompanied with a product review; as there are already some good game reviews available - especially the review by Neotristan. Also, If you need to see more reviews, please have a look at the reviews section for each individual Gothic games (I wrote individual reviews for Gothic 1,2, and 3 as well).

As a big Gothic fan, the main reason I bought this collection is simply to get another copy of Gothic 1 and 2 on DVD as these are still the best 3rd person real time action RPG ever made IMO. In short, Gothic 1 and 2 are extremely challenging games to play with unusual - if not awkward - controls that take quite some times to get used to. However, once (and if) you are used to the control, these are the most amazingly intense games that can provide total immersion in a mythical universe.

Gothic 3 is a decent game once patched, but fail to live up to the tradition of its predecessors in virtually every way. Perhaps the publisher, Jowood, also has much blame to bear in this case because Gothic 3 obviously has the potential to be outstanding. Who knows, if the developer Piranha Bytes had at least another year to rework the beta version that was released, Gothic 3 may have set a new standard for PC gaming.

As for the product itself, the cardboard box contains 3 games that come on 3 separate DVDs in paper sleeve. There is no manual. I wish that the packaging and the presentation would be more fitting of a connoisseur's game library - namely a game package that is more substantial that I can show off. But then again, I understand that cost is a factor.

In addition, these games do not seem to come with any DRM. Once you install them, you can play the game without the disk in the drive.


Here is a few more notes that some may find helpful:

-Gothic 1: No autorun for installation in my case. Browse the disc for the setup.exe file install. Other than that, no special comment here. Same good old original Gothic 1, except that it is on DVD.

-Gothic 2: Same as above - look for setup.exe to install. Also, during the installation, the default install location for the game folder will be the C drive - with no option to change the location. This condition only applies to Gothic 2. For Gothic 1 and 3, you can install the game anywhere you want.

This is the Gothic 2 version that comes with the Night of the Raven expansion. To be more precise, Night of the Raven is not really a traditional expansion where you have more things to do after the original campaign. Rather, it is different version of Gothic 2, where you will play original campaign all over again with expanded game world and expanded quest (and with more challenging opponents). In short, you are not playing the original Gothic 2. Personally, I wish BOTH versions are included, and one can choose which one to play. The main reason is that the difficulty level of Night of the Raven is definitely NOT recommended for casual gamers.

-Gothic 3: This is the un-patched version. Be sure to patch accordingly or you may possibly have a broken game riddled with technical issues and broken quests - right from the start. Forget the official patch; I believe the latest, and the best thus far, is community patch 1.6

Overall, this collection is a bargain, and should belong in every hard-core PCRPG Gamers' library.

Welcome to the Gothic Universe, where there is always "something to be had".

Yes, they have some bugs but the patches fix them for the most part. Just remember the rpg golden rule(save,save,save your game) and you will be fine.

The games themselves tend to become somewhat addictive and are very detailed and hugely explorable. There are countless things and npc's to interact with and lots of things to learn. You can beat out your own swords on the smiths anvil,cook food,learn alchemy or magic,to name just a few.

Fans of games like Oblivion or the Elder Scrolls will feel right at home playing these beautiful masterpieces.

This is an action/rpg game that has been around for awhile. I understand that Gothic 2 is widely regarded as a classic, and that Gothic 3 has more bugs than Virginia in August. Unfortunately I was unable to get Gothic 1 or 2 to work on my computer. I understand that these games were originally built to be used with Win 95/98 OS, but this repackaging says it should work with Win 2000/XP. I lost interest in trying to get those games up and running, so I'll just mention Gothic 3. It works fairly well; however there is very long loading times and the gameplay tends to stutter often on my system. I am running Win XP service pack 3 with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 3800+(2.00 GHz), 2 Gig RAM, and a GeForce 8600GT card. I am sure these specs are well above the requirements for this game as it is older. There seems to be alot to like in Gothic 3 if it would only run properly. I tried getting a patch and found some community patches that didn't really help me. I have also played Risen, which is by the same company and seems to be a spiritual successor to Gothic and is quite outstanding, graphics are great and it runs well. In short, proceed with caution if considering a purchase. I'm not too unhappy as the game only cost me a few bucks on Amazon and I didn't have high expectations anyway. I would recommend going with Risen which is somewhat of a new game made by the same company with many of the same conventions as Gothic.

I love the Gothic series. Each has a few bugs easily handled with a patch download but other than that unequaled gaming delight.

Loved everthing but the controls,they have it set up to use your mouse for looking around & I just hate that setup,its a real PITA & hard on the wrist etc etc. tryed redoin the key setup to more my liking but could not get it right.

Other then that? man what a deal for what you get for the price,over 300hours is what they say & I belive it.

worked just fine for me also,not sure if some of thease reviews are about the older versions without the available patches? or what. this has all the most up-to-date patchs included for each game so just install the game & your GTG!.