After being told about the brilliance of Gothic for years by friends, family and RPG sites i was finally given the opportunity to play all 3 through the Box Set “Gothic Universe”.
I have to say, over all they are amazing games and well deserving of their hype, however, all 3 come with their own problems, and it appears that as the game series progressed the developers had fixed one problem but then opened up another.

Gothic 1

is all about a war between man and Orc, forced in desperation the king gathers all the criminals (no matter how minor their crime) and forces them to work in the mines, gathering magical ore to create special weapons to give the humans a major advantage in battle.

 

In an attempt to stop prisoners from escaping the king calls forth 12 mages to make a barrier, but something disturbed the ritual and the barrier grew much larger then planned, trapping the mages and the whole valley in the barrier as well. The prisoners take advantage of this, kill off the guards and create 3 camps.
They then trade the ore to the king for things they need, such as food, wine and women.

We first see our character as he is being sentenced to be thrown into the barrier, there is no customizable face, no picking hair, no naming, you get what your given and suddenly, and literally, thrust into the world of Gothic with only a letter to the fire mages which must not be opened.
What will catch you first is the amazing fact that the game is fully tailored to create its own world, all lines in the game are spoken, even your character has his own voice and personality, something that is far too rare in older RPG’s, and even though it may sound simple, it really adds deeply to the atmosphere and allows players to indulge in the fantasy world, with fully speeched conversations and some truly unique and stylish graphics it creates a world like no other, and makes it feel like your actually there.
What will catch your attention secondly is the annoyingly complex and glitchy control system, simple things such as looting corpses for items or taking treasure from chests have become seriously frustrating tasks, to see what the body has on it you must hold the left button and press up, you are then given a list of items you can take and to take the item you must hold the left button again and press left, sounds simple enough right? well, it would be, if not for the fact that there is timing and luck involved as well, you must hold the mouse button for between 1-2 seconds before pressing left, and if you do it too fast or too slow, or if the computer just decides not to give you the item, you are thrown across to the back of your inventory and are forced to scroll all the way through it to get back to the items you wish to pick up. This quickly becomes very time consuming, and incredibly boring as well as repetitive.

If not to make it worse fighting is equally annoying, your not allowed to just slash your sword, instead you must make a running start before your allowed to attack, making the best tactic for beginners is to run around in a circle slashing your sword like a nutter until you finally kill whatever poor and now dizzy creature has tried to eat you.
This does not make an entertaining experience, and if by some luck and with the patience of a god you get used to the system and start to learn a few more battle tactics, you will find annoying little glitches and errors through out the game, all of which make the game far too frustrating to play. I myself am currently stuck in some mines, with the only way out being up a ladder, however every time i climb the ladder our unnamed hero does some weird spasm half way up and chucks himself off it.

 

Though, even through all its errors and problems, it still boasts 30+ hours of game play and with plenty of re-play value due to the 3 different factions you can play as, each of which have their own quests.
The world is very dynamic, and reasonably realistic, you will see people go about their daily lives, eating, sleeping, urinating, cooking, forging weapons, most of which you can do yourself.
While the game has some really good features which was brilliant and very creative for the time, I suggest giving the first game a miss, or possibly playing it last, as it may put you off a truly amazing gaming experience that could only be delivered by Gothic.

Gothic 2 

You will be glad to know however the these glitches and errors seem to have been stamped out in the second game, its control system remains mostly the same but with most of the annoyances cut out. You will find this game much more satisfying the first.

The story is, after the defeat of the Sleeper (the last boss of the first game) our unnamed hero was buried alive under rubble and left there for weeks before finally being summoned from under the rubble up to the wizard Xardas’s tower, here the hero finds that in the sleepers final scream he yelled a command to the dragons to come and destroy the lands, the dragons have created an army of lesser beasts and plan on laying waste to the world.
With his equipment still laying in the rubble of the sleepers temple and being weakened from the weeks he spent buried alive the unnamed hero must start from scratch with only basic equipment.
With the barrier round the valley destroyed you are finally outside in a new area, now there is no New Camp, Old Camp or freaky cultist camp, and if for some reason you want to venture back into the valley you will find that some areas have changed and the valley is now over run with orcs and the home to a few dragons, in the area where Old Camp once was, now only stands the castle, where New Camp once was is now buried under ice, and where the freaky cultists was, is now bordered off by a fence, put up by orcs.

 

The game is a straight up sequel, the story follows directly on from the first, you will meet a lot of old characters and everything feels and acts out pretty much the same (with out the annoying glitches), even the graphics are pretty much the same, but with a little more detail to the environments and some touched up textures.

 

This is most certainly the game you should start off on, even though you wont really know the characters as well as you should, and a few parts of story are missing to you, you can always catch up on the first game after you have finished with this one, and it will allow you to play with out horrible glitches putting you off.

Gothic 3 

While the first 2 games are true masterpieces in their own little ways, its the 3rd that REALLY stands out, its one of the most enjoyable gaming experience i have ever had the pleasure of taking part in, and shows why the series has such a strong and loyal fan-base.

 

In the third we meet up with our hero once again, but this time you leave the lands of the last 2 games behind and sail to a new continent, one that is controlled by orcs.
The second you start playing you are thrust into deep and bloody combat with a small army of Orcs, brandishing a special Orcslayer Sword, you, Diego, Milten, Gorn (your 3 loyal friends that have helped you through the previous 2 games) and a whole army of peasants fight to the death to take back a small town which has been enslaved by the Orc army.
While in the first 2 games the hero starts weak, in this one he has not forgotten his battles with Dragons and Orcs, and comes with amazing fighting powers, making some fights feel more like Dynasty Warriors then the struggled combat of the first 2.

 

After liberating the town you are allowed to travel freely in a new world, and this world lives, through all the games i have played i have NEVER seen any game as realistic as this, if you pick someone to follow you will see them go through their entire day, they will wake, go about their work, when they get hungry they will cook, eat, work some more, and when it gets to night they go to bed, and the living, breathing world does not end there, head into the wilderness and you will see packs of wolves hunting and eating animals, wild boar sniffing for berries, hunters hunting and skinning animals and people stood round camp fires listening to musicians playing their instruments.

While so far the realism of the world sounds nothing more then a brilliant little gimmick, you will learn that its a key part of the gameplay. Draw your sword near someone and they will instantly challenge you to put it away, don’t do as they command and they will attack you, as well as call to friends to help out, if you defeat them you wont have killed them, just knocked them unconscious, this DOES have consequences, as they wont speak to you any more and bad things will be said about you in the town which they live in, meaning that even more people wont speak or trade with you, 1 fight can cost you a lot of failed quests and the restriction of using shops carrying items you may need.

As you travel freely around the world you will come across new towns/citys and hidden rebel camps, each have amazing amounts of freedom and allowing some very serious moral choices to take place, do you join the Orc mercenaries and slaughter the rebels for money and an easy access to information, or do you struggle with the rebels, collecting bundles of weapons and arming the slaves to build an inside army ready crush the Orcs in a huge, bloody, and overly satisfying battle for freedom?. Its this freedom of gameplay and choice that allows Gothic 3 to become a true must have for any RPG gamer, it has the huge and beautiful world of Oblivion, but the moral choice, consequences and open dynamic world of Fable, it really is the best RPG ever made.

I wish I could write more about these games, but they are just far too huge to be able to do them any justice in text, you really must play them to get the full depth of their world, and in fact, the title Gothic Universe is a suiting title to show how huge these games really are.

Over all the graphics of the first 2 games are bad compared to todays standards, but still have a unique charm and the feel of a living world which makes up for them, and with the bonus of no loading times in-game you are never taken away from the fantasy world with “Please do not turn off your computer - Loading”.

The graphics for the 3rd game aren’t “next gen” but they are pretty close to Oblivion and use Pixel Shader 3.0 and most the latest technology.

The sound effects and voice acting can be a little corny at times, but they add to the atmosphere and throw in a little extra humor which most modern games are missing.

The controls for the first 2 are very complex and take a lot of time to get used to, but once your in they quickly become comfortable and feel somewhat natural.
Controls for the 3rd are much improved and simplified, making the game damn near perfect, and topped with an hugely in-depth fighting system, favoring Timing, Skill and Style over Stats, really make this game truly brilliant and easy to handle.

While the first game is VERY bugged and somewhat raw, 2 and 3 are very nicely polished and have had some serious effort put into making them perfect.

All 3 games are HUGE, and the whole box set is said to have over 300 hours of game play in them (i beleive that does not include replay time, and with each game having different factions with unique quests, you WILL replay them, so to get the most out of the games you will probably play all 3 games 3/4 times each, making the box set will worth its £20 price tag).

This is a box set you MUST have, if you have ever enjoyed an RPG, this will be the perfect box set for you.

Gothic 1

Gameplay - 4/10 - While it is a very impressive game, it far too bugged to really enjoy.

Graphics - 3/10 - they are old and don’t fair well in todays market, but they do still have style.

Controls - 2/10 - probably the worse part of this game, overly complex and not worth learning.

Sound - 8/10 - some of the sound effects are brilliant and the dialog is fully voiced, well worth the creators efforts and a true saving point for this game

Overall - 4/10 - Worth a miss unless you really need to learn the story.

Gothic 2

Gameplay - 8/10 - A flawless version of the first, true proof that sequels can beat the original while still staying true to it.

Graphics - 4/10 - Same as the 1st, but with a few extra details put in.

Controls - 4/10 - Overly complex, pretty much the same as the 1st game, but these ones work better and don’t frustrate so easily

Sound - 8/10 - Brilliant, pretty much same as the first, but with a few little changes to old characters personalities.

Overall - 7/10 - A masterpiece in its own world, this is what the first game should have been, in-fact, miss the first game and pretend it never existed, play this instead.

Gothic 3

Gameplay - 9/10 - Slow when you need a rest, but bloody, and involving when you need action, everything is realistic and you really see your actions taking effect on the world, damn near perfect.

Graphics - 8/10 - Not next-gen, but they are as close as you can get with out crossing over, the world is magnificent, huge and highly detailed.

Controls - 9/10 - A real improvement from the first 2, and make it a wonderful and stress free game to play, they really couldn’t have improved something any more then this.

Sound - 8/10 - Nothing too special, but there is some nice humor and realism to the voice acting and sound effects.

Overall - 9/10 - About as close to perfect as a game could possibly get. A saving point for the box set and worth a lot more then £20.

My best advice is to go to Play.com and hit Buy as fast as you can.