Recent reviews by Giusep007

EDIT: THEY REMOVED THE BUGGED ACHIEVEMENTS!!!
Thank you so much guys, the game shows now as a 100% complete. Now I have REALLY started looking forward to the remake and I guess my OCD can go obsessing elsewhere.

(Original: Before I say anything else: PLEASE, for God’s sake, give us a fix for the last 4 achievements of this appetizer, so my OCD can finally go start obsessing about something else for a while. I know it's only a teaser so I expected some minor glitches, but one would hope that someone at least makes sure that the achievements will be working.)

Back to the game itself:
I will start by saying that I have a strong emotional connection to the original game and I have many fond memories of playing it as one of my first PC games that wasn't DOS based (when I was around 8-10 years old) so be sure that in my eyes I am holding this game to a high standard and hoping this will still be as perfect game as the original was.
So keeping in mind that it is a teaser (which I hope means they know there can be much improved to the full release), I have to say, in the end, I wasn't disappointed.

I was very skeptical, when I started playing at first. I got scared that something bad had happened and that I was robbed of the free roaming, exploring and mainly collecting whatever the unexpectedly vast world could offer as I used to as a child, because I couldn't find any items anywhere around me.
Luckily, I can say that relief came only a few minutes later when the tutorial scene finished, and even though I can say that I am mainly glad that these core game mechanics stayed in the end, it feels a little sad to see even such minor alterations and one can't stop wondering whether they are for the benefit of the cause or not.
I remember that the feeling of getting just a few introductory words about the world that I was about to start exploring and than immediately being thrown into it without much of a guidance (regarding mechanics of the controls and implementing them into the world) was also a big part of how the original game left such a huge impact on me and what drew me in it. If it worked for Dark Souls, why couldn't it to some extend work for Gothic as well?
But despite all of that, I can see the logic behind the steps towards comprehensibility.

I was very curious about the combat system, since that was something pretty unique in the old game. What they came up with here isn't half bad and I like how it somehow reflects the original combat system, but builds on it and moves it to something more current. Lot of the strategy leans on your sword control, but in combination with parry and evading, it is an interesting new take on combat, which with some minor tweaking could turn out to be a great innovation, but there will be a lot to consider when it comes to combining it with magic or bows and I am scared that making the transitions between those styles will be the real challenge.
If this is done well, I believe it has a great potential.
(What they have here is pretty decent, and after a while, you can get used to it and it works, I would just appreciate some way of knowing how much I need to move the mouse to change the block stance - for example if the movement of the mouse correlated with the movement of the sword and the 3 blocking stances could be "separated by some unspoken line" where the stances transit, but the sword moved fluently through them, I think the feeling from the control over the sword would be much more encaptivating. This way, I mostly chaotically move the mouse in the direction of the desired stance and I am pleasantly surprised when the transition comes at the right moment.)

I've played it from the beginning to the end and compared it with what I remember and I know I am content with what I've played so I will probably play it again.

There is definitely so much of "the good" in here e.g. the map is gorgeous, the more detailed story sounds as an improvement, it overall captures the spirit of the limitless exploration I was hoping for. I just didn't like some of the changes at first, but even though I don't like it, I must admit that I eventually understood the reasons behind most of them after a while and writing them off as a matter of their unique artistic take on Gothic, even despite the many small flaws* I really, really, really liked it. Don't get me wrong, there is a long way to go, but I feel optimistic. For example just by this gesture of a good will of a teaser which I hope means that they will try to do what is best for the game, and that is the only thing I am hoping for it right now.

*(Graphics are pretty nice but need more polishing, pace at some moments could use a faster beat - Jesus, Diego speaks soooooooo slowly, the main character could be less chatty and more perceptive, the item marking in the world could be a little less distractive, there is a LOT of room for improvement in the musics department, and most importantly - they need to bring back as much of the original atmosphere of bountifulness of the world and the sense that the exploring is really rewarding, which was in my eyes the key component of the Gothic series - so far I've seen interesting side-locations that used to be pretty hard to find turned into a natural part of the main story, and I'm adding this extra as I am waiting for yet another cutscene which I have already seen to finish: PLEASE DON'T MAKE UNSKIPABLE CUTSCENES AND DIALOGS)

If I werent afraid my rewiew gets censored, I would simply write "excrement" in the more explicit way a few times and it would have been the most accurate describtion I could write, and don't get me wrong, I love the "Ticet to Ride" series and I have been playing it for a while now without ever having to say anything bad about it, until I tried this map.
I haven't played the tabletop version, so I can't say what parts of this poor insult of a game are caused by the PC conversion and what had already sucked before, but to put it simply:
- If I had known how utterly idiotic this map is, I would have argued with the president of the universe to have this piece of excuse for luring money from people excluded from my library specifically (and I'm saying that despite buying it in a bundle for nearly nothing).
- I played this map once, and I can guarqante that I will never make that mistake again, and btw. this is not spite, if you are asking, I haven't even lost the game, the game just wasn't even worth playing after the first 2 minutes because of the concept of countries surrounding the map not connecting the routes going through them - basically wherever you go, you are guaranteed to f*** it up for the rest of the players withing the first 2 turns.
- and setting this whole problem aside, even if I understood that some people like games designed to annoy the other players, the realisation of how buggy this map is makes this, one of the biggest gaming insults I have in my library (mind that I spent tens of hours playing "Witcher 1" without complaining) the game is able to continue decreasing your turn-time for your competitors turns, once we finished playing, the game showed us different game score for the 3 players on each of the computers playing.
- 11/10 dentist would tell you to rather have all your teeth drilled than to spend money on this joke...