Gothic Remake gameplay overview reveals an eccentric open world RPG that still feels like the future
It's a hell of a thing to showcase a remake weeks after kiboshing the developers of the original game. In early July, Gothic creators Piranha Bytes were reportedly shuttered as part of Embracer Group's mad race to trim costs, following their decade-long acquisition binge. Watching THQ Nordic's new Gothic Remake trailer, below, feels a little like watching a vivisectionist parade about in somebody else's skin. Still, the remake's developers Alkimia Interactive aren't to blame for Embracer's fuck-ups, and I am selfishly happy to see Gothic return as an Unreal Engine 5 production - even if I didn't play the original back in 2001.
Sin did play the original game, and in her 2016 retrospective, she paints an absorbing picture of a dark fantasy "microsociety" in which every community "has a reason to exist, a means of providing for itself, a social order, and a long term goal". It's a setup that reminds me of my beloved Roadwarden, even as the sight of grumpy lizards slinking through undergrowth has me silently mouthing "fus roh dah".
Gothic unfolds in a magically quarantined penal colony, where human convicts mine ore for weapons with which to fight a losing war against the Orcs. Shortly before you enter the picture, however, the overseer wizards screw up their calculations, trapping themselves inside the valley. Then, the prisoners seize control of the mines and form a rogue nation consisting of three factions. One group are happy with the new status quo, trading ore to the king in return for the luxuries of the wider world. The second plot to escape the magical barrier, using the ore as a catalyst. And the third, swamp-dwelling "brotherhood" worship a mysterious god called the Sleeper. You are a random prisoner who is tasked with delivering a message to one of the factions, and things escalate from there.
Alkimia's principle aim with the remake is layering up Gothic's life simulation element, whereby humanoid NPCs and the wildlife have distinct routines and
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