Gothic 2: A milestone in role-playing games

Gothic 2: Piranha Byte's Masterpiece (5)

Imagine it’s the end of 2002. You just celebrated Christmas and got a new computer game as a gift: Gothic 2. You played the predecessor and thought it was really good. You put in the three CDs, install, start a new game and you’ll be drawn into one of the best role-playing games in Germany and maybe even in general. It’s been 20 years since that magical moment, which many players in Germany and Europe experienced then and in the years that followed. For the big anniversary we look back at what makes the game so great, why it is still fun today and why we got what we know today as Gothic 2 with a bang.

What now?

Before we start, let’s take a quick look back. Gothic 1 will be available in stores in March 2001. Piranha Bytes pushes a few patches and then has to see what the next game will be like. While the reviews are positive, players are slowly pouring into the colony. A successor was not a foregone conclusion. The team is divided: One is to create a science fiction game, led by Mike Hoge, the original creator of Gothic. Anyone who has the Elex bells ringing is probably not that far away. However, it is not clear whether and how much of the considerations at that time flowed into the later Piranha Bytes project.

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Gothic 2: A milestone in role-playing games

At that time, however, the sci-fi bash didn’t work out because there was trouble in team number 2. There should be an extension to Gothic, Project name: Gothic Sequel. However, the expansion has nothing to do with the successor that exists today. Instead of going to Khorinis we come back to the mining colony. There, after the banishment of the sleeper, everything is really in a mess. Earthquakes, a plague and great destruction. The sleeper wasn’t completely banished and threatens to open a dimensional gate. In general, the mood would have been a lot darker and the level of difficulty much higher.



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Gothic 2: Piranha Byte’s Masterpiece (5)

Source: PC Games



But in the end it would have been just an extension. The decision-makers at the publisher didn’t see it that way. They just wanted to slap a “2” on it and brazenly sell the expansion as a successor. Mike Hoge is opposed, because if Gothic 2 (buy now / €9.99 ) is on it, then there should also be a full-fledged successor. He gets his way. His sci-fi project and Gothic Sequel are discontinued and instead the whole team works on Gothic 2. But then comes the next setback with the planned development time. The extension should have been ready in a year and the successor should now too.

Where the first part still needs around four to five years of development, the team knocks Gothic 2 together in about a year. The game will be released in stores on November 29, 2002.

The RIGHT successor





Gothic 2: Piranha Byte's Masterpiece (6)



Gothic 2: Piranha Byte’s Masterpiece (6)

Source: PC games hardware



That doesn’t mean there’s nothing in it. On the contrary, Gothic 2 is higher, faster, further in all respects. It is actually the right successor, as one wished for. For the story one takes distance from the extremely dark atmosphere of the extension and goes a much more classic fantasy way. After the banishment of the sleeper, dragons have come, raising an army of evil around them. The nameless hero should of course prevent that. Here the short development time is probably an issue, because with more time a more polished story would have been possible.

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In the end, it all comes down to style and design, and this is where Piranha Bytes shines. The game world is enriched with much more background knowledge. Things like the constellation of gods, population levels or the magic of the world were only touched upon in the first part. Now they are reasonably worked out and enriched with details. There are also numerous side scenes, such as a peasant revolt or the impending loss of the orc war. Everything embedded in a comprehensible environment.

Reference-www.pcgames.de