Back in January of this year, Piranha Bytes brought one of their classic open-world RPGs onto modern consoles with Risen. Now, theyβre doing the same thing again, but with a title that takes us even further back to see where their signature design began. That game is 2001βs Gothic, which has now been updated with quality-of-life patches, bug fixes, improved visuals and, of course, the ability to run on modern hardware. So is Gothic Classic, as it is now dubbed, worth diving into in 2023?
If youβve played Risen or any Piranha Bytes game such as ELEX in the last couple of years, then you have a good idea of what to expect. Gothic is where their open-world, open-ended design began and was widely lauded at the time of its release for its unprecedented level of world interaction. And it is, just as with all of their games, full of a considerable amount of endearing jank.
And, honestly, itβs that level of jank that tends to make Piranha Bytes games so much fun to play. Itβs not so much about learning how the system works as it is about, for lack of a better term, breaking it. And with Gothic Classic being the prototype for games to come, itβs significantly unrefined and problematic while being bizarrely playable.
That said, how much of Gothic Classic you will enjoy is going to be determined by how much of a fan of Piranha Bytes games you are and how much frustration you can take. The quality of life updates have, sadly, come with their own set of bug issues, most of them visual but itβs still a more refined experience than the original version.
Where Gothic Classic will cut the wheat from the chaff is in its absurd difficulty. Make no mistake, youβre going to die here. A lot. And that will be in your first hour of play alone. Part of that is down to the combat system and its tank-like level of control along with a bizarrely hard difficulty on the enemy side, be they lowly miner or monster. You will be pecked, gored, mauled and cut to death no matter what.
Youβre basically a weak newborn here and you need to spend your time levelling up to gain skill points to spend on health, strength and techniques while also gearing up with better armour and weapons so that ten feet from the castle walls you wonβt come a cropper. The bizarre bit is that you need to go exploring and questing across the world right from the get-go and you need to kill things, along with completing quests, to get the XP you need to level up. It isnβt the deep end of the pool so much as it is a Marianas Trench to overcome.
The combat is basic at best with an auto-lock-on system, a parry that barely works and sword swings that miss collision boxes as much as it hits them. Cue the tank controls which makes turning to run or trying to deal with more than one enemy at a time and you will need to get used to the squawking of that oversized chicken that sounds like itβs been backed over by a truck repeatedly. Add on bugs such as buttons not responding to presses, and your character unable to unsheathe their sword and, well, you get the idea.
You donβt have to rely on close-quarter combat as bows and magic are viable play styles, once youβve spent the skill points to learn them, but trying to switch between weapons in combat is a nightmare that usually results in, you guessed it, more death. It turns Gothic not so much into a hack-and-slash game as much as a hit-and-run one. Cautiously is the only way to play it. Thankfully, you can save anywhere, at just about any time. Youβll be doing that a lot as well, believe me.
And yet, itβs still so oddly entertaining. Like a badge of honour to see how far youβve explored before dying. Or completing an objective in any way you can. Hence the βbreakingβ of the game. Gothic may be oddly hard-core in how much it thrills in your death, but its quest conditions can be laid back at times. That said, a tutorial would not have been amiss rather than leaving players to figure out how to do even simple things, like opening a chest or that different attacks can be chained together with directional inputs.
And while Gothicβs world is sparse by modern standards, itβs still entertainingly designed that you do want to explore. Whether youβre running to old mines or joining different sects, Gothic keeps itβs simple questing engaging while the world reacts to your status. Walk into a house without consent and youβre liable to get a face full of steel and theyβll comment on your rank or faction choice. Theyβre small details that many modern games simply ignore. Itβs also a nice touch that Gothicβs factions arenβt definitively good or evil.
And the story? Well itβs entertaining enough to keep you going. The real delight is, of course, exploration and feeling like youβve achieved something, but joining Gothicβs three factions, or its smaller ones, and finding a way out of your barrier enclosed prison is still fun in its own right, some poor writing and abysmal voice acting aside.
Luckily, the Switch version of the game runs well. There are almost no performance issues and the game runs mostly smoothly, though some areas provoked crashes. There are, however, control bugs, such as the aforementioned button presses not registering and some visual ones, such as effects not rendering and pop-in. The menu and inventory systems have been redesigned with quick saving and quick loading a button press away.
Gothic Classic immediately receives points for software preservation. Being able to play old games on modern systems without hoops to jump through is always a plus. Whether or not you enjoy Gothic Classic is another story entirely. Outside of the enhancements, itβs still the same game, for better and worse. Fans of Piranha Bytes games, and the Gothic franchise, will undoubtedly be over the moon while everyone else may need to take it with a pinch of salt.
For me, it was a frustrating joy to play, fantastic to see Piranha Bytes’ design style in its infancy and curiously enthralling even when it was brutalising me to no end. Piranha Bytes games are not for everyone, and this is no different.
Gothic Classic Trailer
Read more of our reviews here https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/category/review/
You must be logged in to post a comment.