It’s rare for me to find a game that both infuriates me while simultaneously being hard to put down. The awkwardly titled Gothic 1 Remake is perfectly encapsulated by this sentiment with its intricate, hand-crafted world, engaging story, and regular sense of discovery. Of course, it also feels incredibly archaic and frustrating at the same time, with a lot of jank, bugs, and some truly horrid combat. I do quite like the game overall, but it can take some real effort to deal with its many irksome qualities, even if I do think it’s worthwhile overall.
Gothic 1 Remake is a surprisingly faithful recreation of a low-budget, janky game from 25 years ago. The visuals are pretty decent, even if the game does have a pretty generic Unreal Engine 5 fantasy look, plus the optimisation is quite poor across the board. It does mostly look like a modern game, though, even if you might not be able to have the settings high enough to make the most of this due to said optimisation.
You play as a nameless hero who gets thrown into an open-air prison covered by a magic barrier. Naturally, you’ll have to forge alliances and undertake many quests to survive in here.
Unlike many RPGs, this one starts you off feeling incredibly weak. We’re talking “can’t beat the weakest enemy in the game” without trouble levels of weak. Wanna fight another human? Good luck! However, few games manage to sell the feeling that you’re improving bit-by-bit. Eventually, you’ll naturally be able to go toe-to-toe with pretty much anything, but it’s a hard road getting there. For most of the game, enemies do such an enormous amount of damage that fighting can feel pointless. Once you get your level up and get better weapons and armour, though, things that put the fear of god into you die just as easily as you used to.
Part of the issue with the above is that the combat here just isn’t good at all. It’s janky, awkward, and unresponsive in equal measure, typically feeling slow and cumbersome. You can use a three-hit combo, plus some other attacks (such as my beloved forward stab with swords), as well as dodge and block. Blocking does massively reduce damage, but fighting multiple enemies at once feels like a giant mess due to the combat just seemingly not being designed for it. Still, you’ll often be doing just that, much to my chagrin. The combat really does feel like a chore, especially when you haven’t yet learned the acrobatics skill that lets you do a dodge roll.
You get ten learning points each time you level up, which you can use to learn new skills from a variety of teachers. You can also increase your three types of damage (blunt, edge, and pierce) as well as increase your magic ability. Skills vary from learning to dive longer, lockpicking, sneaking, pickpocketing, and much more. It’s a novel approach that feels pretty immersive, although it’s diminished somewhat by how so many skills really aren’t that useful compared to just pumping up your damage. Still, it’s all unique and well considered, which led me to feel very immersed.
Another defining aspect of Gothic 1 Remake is that the game refuses to hold your hand. Quests get added to your journal with updated descriptions, but that’s all you get. There are no markers, no major hints, nothing. Sometimes quests are so vague that I had to look up what to do, as the game loves to tell you your objectives in a general area with zero elaboration. Oftentimes, you’re expected to just wander around until you stumble upon an answer. Even getting quests and learning skills is centred on wandering around and talking to all named characters. It’s very much not for everybody.
If you jive with this, though, this is really one of the best games for it. Granted, that doesn’t make the constant back and forth across the map any less tedious, as it takes quite some time to unlock fast travel. The game’s map also isn’t all that great (and there’s no minimap), so it’s easy to spend even more time as you stop and open it up every few seconds. Some locations are also very confusingly laid out, such as the Swamp Camp, which has some of the most confusing design I’ve ever seen. I get lost in it even after hours of familiarity; it’s such a mess.
There are three factions to choose from, so there’s some extra replay value, but they aren’t really massively different from each other. There are a lot of options, though, even if weapon variety is very limited and magic just isn’t as good. They truly don’t tend to make RPGs like this anymore, so Gothic 1 Remake is certainly worth a look even for that alone. Granted, as I said, it can be incredibly frustrating and tedious, but the game really does feel quite rewarding. I do wish the design had gotten updated more, but this is a unique, engaging experience that you’re not likely to find in many other places, especially not with such a modern coat of paint.
Gothic 1 Remake: Archaic and frustrating, there's still nothing quite like Gothic, as it manages to intrigue and immerse despite its horrible combat and baffling signposting. – Andrew Farrell
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