Recent reviews by Thorusus

Super enjoyable so far

I've seen a few of reviews on the game, mostly people who don't recommend this, with mixed views on whether this is promising or not. And so, here is mine.
In my opinion, if you are a Gothic fan, you must ABSOLUTELY DOWNLOAD AND TRY THIS DEMO, and here is why :
First and foremost, while it's not nearly as faithful to the Gothic series (and I'll come to why later) as I want it to be, this Demo is the beacon of hope that so many of us have longed for, for over a decade. A company has finally taken interest in this long forgotten Saga, and happens to own Piranha Bytes and seems to grant them some creative freedom. I honestly believe the least we can do is appreciate the effort they are taking to revive a childhood dream, while it certainly doesn't look like the most profitable course of action.
Second, they have specified OVER AND OVER that they will take feedback into account, and that nothing is set on stone. Therefore, as Gothic fans who really want a good game to come out of this, it's our duty to help them by giving insight on what we've liked in their work so far, what we would like them to change/remove/add etc... You really can't blame them if you haven't at least tried to explain what you want out of this.

Now, as to my personal opinion on the content of this demo.
I feel that you're going at this like trying to water down Vodka so that any child can drink it. The beauty of Gothic comes from many aspects, one of these aspects is undeniably it's crudeness and difficulty. Sure, the gore and brutality is alright, but the original Gothic didn't have that and felt more aggressive and resistant than this demo. The original Gothic showed us how insignificant we are with Bullit punching us "welcome" before we even started playing. We're constantly reminded that we're at the bottom of the list, but, when after 30 hours of playing, we come back with a good weapon and armor and social status to beat the sh*t out of Bullit for a revenge, THAT'S satisfying. Being able to kill a Snapper after my first hour felt awkward and devoid of any pleasure... Besides combat, the characters sound much less frightening and crude than the original Gothic, with the exception of Bloodwyn which didn't sound that bad, but felt out of character compared to the original one. Same goes for Diego, who, while he was the most refined of the Four, was still somewhat coarse towards us, and showed no special affection to us until after we've proven ourselves, after the Test of Faith. While I realize you're striving for more than a remake, don't forget the roots of where this game come from, so don't stray too far from it.
Another aspect that made Gothic beautiful, was it's ability to tell stories with it's environment alone. I must be able to deduce stuff that happened somewhere just by looking at it : a skeleton under rubble, a hanged man etc... While it's a nice thing to have cutscenes, I believe they should be reserved for crucial moments. I'd rather have 4 very well made cutscenes in the whole game than multiple average ones. For example, I personally believe the Intro could've been way better if given more time, but it seemed a bit rushed. Remember that's literally the first window to your game : the intro scene.
Finally, i'll make a list of miscellaneous things I liked/disliked :
+ The faces look somewhat similar, so do some armors.
+ The environment looks gorgeous so far, really good work on that part.
- The Nameless Hero being called "Rookie" by Diego is such a big "nope" and quickly gets annoying.
- The Nameless Hero acting kinda sassy also annoys me.
- Changing the character of any of the main people from the original Gothic is imo a mistake. (imagine a remake of the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf goofs around every now and then...)
- I'm not a big fan of the combat system.
- The item pointers aren't really something I'm a fan of. Maybe a pointer WHEN looking at the item, getting ready to interact with it, but not at all times.
- The overanimated characters during dialogues. When Diego talks to Nameless right after he saves him, I almost feel like he's talking to a deaf person, using sign language.

After all this, if you're a potential player, I urge you to download this and try it, and give feedback about what you would like to improve. If you're a developer, you have my deepest thanks for trying to revive this, and I hope you'll take our reviews into consideration.

Best game for D&D lovers so far

Love this game, is and will always be my favorite RPG.