"Dressed in a hard leather armor I walk through a dark wood. I suddenly encounter some wolves, 4 adults, 2 juveniles... its gonna get violent. I quickly draw my battle sword when those dangerous beasts close in. The leader, an unusually big beast, jumps at my throat. My years of training and reflexes kick in..."

Gothic I fans will be glad the story still plays on the island of Khorinis... and they'll be happy to meet some old friends. Newbies don’t need to panic, the game is completely playable without knowledge about Gothic I.
Although the game doesn’t really make a difference between classes you can say there are 4 of them: fighters, paladins, thieves and mages. If you’re a mage you can still use of weapons. Its perfectly possible for a mage to walk around in heavy armor and use the biggest swords! There are several parameters you can improve that aren’t class restricted.
The 4 weapon types you can use are bow, crossbow, 1 handed weapons and 2 handed weapons. You can also learn how to use magic and the 50 spells in the game. There are 2 types of magic: scrolls and runes. There are also skills you to need to learn only once, skills like skinning animals, making swords etc.
An alchemist can teach you how to brew useful potions with the several herbs found in the Gothic world.
If there is anything Gothic II has plenty of, then it's quests. The manifold ways to solve those quests and the way they influence the story are very amusing. For example: if you were given the quest to find a stolen package containing some drugs, you can be a good citizen and return it to the paladins... or you can return it to the owner and get a big reward.

The graphics are very good. The surrounding area has a good atmosphere, although it sometimes happens that the trees and bushes block your view and make you fall down a canyon. The voices and sound effects in Gothic II are also very good. There’s no lip-synching, but but the voice acting is fantastic(subtitles available). The music is inconspicuous and never disturbing.

The most important minus point I would say is the long loading time; the difficulty level is very high, so it might get on your nerves to have to load the game again after dying for the 1374th time. There are also not enough statistics and parameters, and the game is action based. We won’t find much strategy in combat.

The big plus points of Gothic II are the way the large world is shown and the minute details; for example, if you walk into the local brothel dressed in the uniform of a city guard, you won’t succeed in getting info... if you're in your civvies and spend some money, then it's another matter altogether. Gothic II strives to have great player freedom and a non-linear storyline. Although this don’t goes as far as in Morrowind, Gothic II certainly is a well made game. In short, Gothic II has a good story, charming graphics, fantastic sound and a good portion of action - in short, it's a better than good RPG.

Minimum System: P III, 256MB, Win98, 32MB 3Dcart
Recommended System: P 4, 512MB, 64MB 3Dcart
Positive: -atmosphere -large world -great voice acting
Negative: -no quicksave function -little strategy
Score: 83. Gothic II will please many RPG-fans.