Gothic Remake: Finally on the right track! – Analysis

Today is a good day! We’re finally chatting about Gothic! My colleagues once again let me in front of the keyboard to write about the best role-playing series of all time (result of a non-representative survey among me). Although I could of course rant for hours about the constellation of gods in Gothic lore or the best recipes for meat bug ragout, there is actually a reason for this column! On its in-house showcase, THQ Nordic has released a new trailer for the Gothic remake. It caught me off guard because it made me surprisingly positive about the remake. So far I wasn’t particularly convinced that the new edition would be anything. I want to share with you why I was able to change my mind, whether everything will be fine and what details are in the trailer.

Before we start, let’s summarize the eventful history of the series in short form. Gothic comes onto the market in 2001 and turns the German role-playing game market inside out. It convinced with an open world, a down-to-earth staging and a dense atmosphere. The successor Gothic 2 can top that and is considered a cult today.

With Gothic 3, however, the catastrophe begins. The game is bugged and in a way the cyberpunk of the 2000s. Publisher and developer separate, the rights only go back to the developer studio Piranha Bytes later. However, they don’t do anything with it as they are up to their necks in new projects like Risen and Elex. But they probably also have a good deal of respect and therefore don’t want to venture back to the cult brand.

The old camp in Gothic 1 was bursting with life.

Source: PC Games



Appearance: THQ Nordic! They buy the developer Piranha Bytes along with the rights to the Gothic series. Six months later, a playable teaser for a remake of the time-honored Gothic suddenly appeared on Steam, along the lines of: “That’s how we would imagine it. What do you think of it?” It doesn’t come from Piranha Bytes, but from the newly founded studio Alkimia Interactive from Barcelona.

The fans had a very clear opinion: Remake – YES, ABSOLUTELY! Only: please not like that.

The teaser shows the entry into the game. One is thrown into the mining colony of Khorinis as a delinquent. The prison camp is self-organizing and surrounded by a magical barrier. They let you in, but not out again.

In the original Gothic, this initial area with all the dialogue you can have is maybe 10-15 minutes long. The teaser easily inflates the section to one to two hours. The entire area will be completely rebuilt visually and narratively.

We’re not just thrown off a cliff into a pond. In the teaser we drive down the big elevator, which suddenly catches fire. It is immediately noticeable that the nameless hero talks to himself on a tour and comments on the situation.

This is extremely annoying after just a few moments. After we have arrived at the bottom with action and explosions, we are not greeted with a punch in the mouth as in the original, but are immediately attacked by snappers. But an old friend comes to our aid: Diego!
He saves and then tells us a few bars about the mining colony. He actually did the latter in the original and you can also recognize a few fragments of sentences. At least if you can overlook the fact that we are not faced with the NPC that you once grew fond of, but a Zorro for the poor!

Diego is a caricature of himself, with sweeping gestures, endless monologues and a damned cape!

Source: pcgames.de