"Gothic II" succeeds despite the best effort of its writers and actors. It sounds like the same six buddies of the developer performed all the conversation (and there's more than enough to go around), and they're about as proficient with English as President Bush. Even stranger is the direction. Apparently, someone thought anachronistic caricatures would be good non-playable character templates. You'll encounter Prohibition-era mobsters, an evangelical Southern preacher, and more disgruntled farmwives than you can shake a rolling pin at. And those are just the few identifiable caricatures. The story underlying all this incomprehensible yakking is a good one, but your ears must suffer to experience it.