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Rendelius
Critical Error
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria |
I'd like to hear your comments on the english demo of Gothic. How do you like it? Are you as impressed as europeans were when they saw the game? I know that some won't have it yet, due to its size, but this weekend should be a good time to download it and fool around with it a little. Go ahead, let us know 
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Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com |
Sat Sep 01, 2001 7:05 am |
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Garrett
Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany |
Yes, please let us know - I enjoyed the english demo very much,btw
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Sat Sep 01, 2001 7:35 am |
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Azareal
Assassin in the Night
Joined: 01 Sep 2001
Posts: 28
Location: Vancouver, Canada |
Things always happen when I'm away =(
Oh well, nearly finished downloading it, should be good.
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Stiletto @ RPGDot.com |
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Sat Sep 01, 2001 9:41 am |
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Stiletto
God Emperor
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 312
Location: Orlando, Florida |
Hey Azareal, I guess I stole your nick in the transfer huh? Sorry about that. I can't wait to play the demo myself. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I am on vacation. Kind of anyways. I got home Friday and immedaitely started downloaded, but at 19k/sec it was going to take awhile. I left my computer on downloading when I left for vacation. So it should hopefully be waiting on my computer when I return. Will keep you posted on my first impressions. |
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Sat Sep 01, 2001 6:38 pm |
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Guest
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My first impression is that it looks like a great game and I'll definately be buying it, but it has some awkward controls. I've got a pretty good handle on the movement now, altho I still take a whooping in combat, but I can't for the life of my figure out how to trade. There has to be some way to confirm my trade and actually exchange the goods, but I don't know what it is. |
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Sun Sep 02, 2001 1:54 am |
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Garrett
Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany |
About Trade:
On the left hand side you see the trader's inventory, on the right hand side is yours.
In the middle is the trade pool (again left is the trader's, right is yours).
By pressing CTRL-left/right you can move items to the trade pool both from your inventory and the trader's and once the values of what you want to buy and what you offer for it is the same, you finalize the deal by pressing RETURN in the trade pool.
A bit complex, but very easy and fast to handle once you've mastered it.
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Garrett (Sia Manzari)
Editor-In-Chief RPGDot
[ This Message was edited by: Garrett on 2001-09-02 03:56 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Garrett on 2001-09-02 03:58 ] |
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Sun Sep 02, 2001 8:49 am |
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Griddle
Village Dweller
Joined: 02 Sep 2001
Posts: 1
Location: Tampa, Florida |
I'am very surprised and impressed with this game. I never really paid much attention to this game since most the information about it was in german. I'm very glad I ended up downloading this new demo. The gameplay is great and the English voice acting is very good. I will definatly buy it when in comes out in the states. IMHO best RPG that I have played this year, even though its just a demo. 
[ This Message was edited by: Griddle on 2001-09-02 12:53 ] |
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Sun Sep 02, 2001 5:49 pm |
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Ðrâktøn
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 12
Location: Monterrey, Mexico |
I downloaded the demo this morning at around 4:00 am which is when the traffic is less intense. Thank goodnes I have Cable connection it took me only 3 hours to download . Haven't had the time to play yet, but tomorrow night I'l give it a shot for sure.
Ð.
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He who hesitates, is lost.
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Better cheat than quit |
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Mon Sep 03, 2001 2:17 am |
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Guest
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I played the demo for about 8 hours now over two days. It ran a bit sluggish on my old P3 600 (133FSB) w/ (overclocked) G400MAX, 256MB PC133, on Win2K. Occasionaly it was like: press key, wait a second, see response. It made sword fighting quite difficult and frustrating, sometimes keyboard events didn't make it time or simply didn't make it at all. It was hard to get my timing in synch with the monsters, trying to block their attacks and go offensive in between. To my surprise dropping the high poly count and texture size to the bare minimum didn't help much. Defragmenting the Atlas 10K SCSI disk (on NTFS) helped to eliminate most of the initial harddisk trashing though.
The interface is not very intuitive. It took me quite a while to figure out how to pick locks (apparently alt+grey page control keys). It's not a bad interface though, once you get used to it it works quite well.
The world is amazing. Very rich, vibrant, detailed, mysterious, and realistic. Walking through a dangerous forest feels like walking through a dangerous forest, climbing a cliff feels like climbing a cliff. A valley opening up before my eyes made me feel like I was on a hiking trip... sightseeing time, have a break, sit back, check the map, anticipate on exploration. And encountering a wolf in a dark forest made me feel very uncomfortable and anxious, just like it is supposed to.
The atmosphere of Old Town reminds me most of Ultima Underground, raw and mysterious, at the same time homely in a fashion. Much bigger and much better looking than UU though, it took me many hours to find my way and to become comfortable with Old Town's habitants and ways. Very cool.
In short, the overall atmosphere of the game is right on spot I think, better than anything I have experienced. It makes me want to upgrade my PC, and spending that amount of money on a game is the ultimate compliment I think.
Character development is pretty straight forward. The character will gain experience through combat and solving quests. The character will level up through this increase of experince. Leveling up will give him an amount of skill points, and those skill points can be used to buy new skills (like thieving skills, combat skills, hunting skills, etc.) from certain NPCs. A learned skill will make the character more proficient in that area. Practicing the skill does not seem to improve proficiency, but that may be an incorrect observation on my behalf.
Monsters are nice I think. Pretty hard to fight, not hack, slash and voila... experience. They tend to live (and attack) in groups and a strategic approach is necessary if you want to avoid getting overwhelmed. Combat technique is important too. Luckily, saving and reloading is possible without penalty.
Different creatures need different weapons so it seems: I couldn't kill a certain kind of bug with a decent sword, but an old pick axe smacked them up real good.
NPCs are rather stupid and both overly smart at the same time. You make (or buy) a friend and the next moment he will pull his sword on you like he has never seen you before. They may not notice you when you're right in front of them picking the lock on their treasure chest, but at other times they will spot you right through walls and such. If you and the NPC are together on an open field the NPC may eventually kill you for not letting him through???
Stuff like that. Those binary guys need some serious tuning. As it is I could not relate to them as people, but as automated zombies. It doesn't hurt game play very much but it makes the NPCs stand out negatively from the overall quality of the complete Gothic experience.
I'm done with typing now. Being a hardcore RPG gamer with a drive to explore I give the Gothic demo a 7.5 out of 10. If the NPC's were to be more advanced I would value the game at 8.5, add a more direct and responsive interface and it would earn a 9.5. Enhanced character development might have boosted it up to 10.
As it is - a very worthy 7.5. |
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Mon Sep 03, 2001 9:57 am |
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Maggot
Magister of the Light
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland |
I was very impressed. The user interface takes some getting used to, but after that it's just pure pleasure. The NPC's are a bit dumb, it's weird that you can just pull a sword to be able to run past some guards that otherwise block you, then just sheath it and stroll around inside whatever building they were guarding as if nothing were out of place
The graphics were spectacular. The game looks and plays much better than Ultima IX.
The only performance issues I had was due to my display settings not having fog table emulation enabled (adjust z-buffer depth needs to be enabled as well). |
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Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:23 am |
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Ðrâktøn
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 12
Location: Monterrey, Mexico |
Nice! Nice! This game demo is awesome. I mean the feeling of reality. Even tho its set in a fantasy world. NPC's aren't just standing there waiting for you to come and ask them stuff. They go by their own business. They won't do anything at night because they go to sleep. You watch them do just that. You just can't get into any house to sleep because the owners will chase you out. You gotta find a deserted hut with a bed if you wanna sleep. I haven't got much into combat yet. The game seems to me rather complicated. So much as real life .
I like it so far and will definitely buy it when it becomes available in the USA.
I hope the manual will show how to do certain things. For instance, at the begining of the game I went to swim in the lake. Somehow I managed my character to get underwater, but I just couldn't get him out of it and he drowned  .
Ð.
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He who hesitates, is lost.
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Better cheat than quit |
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Wed Sep 05, 2001 3:55 am |
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Maggot
Magister of the Light
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland |
I tried combat, it was pretty cool. A bit hard getting used to (hold LMB, then press an arrow key), but easy once you get the hang of it. I decided to roleplay an American, so I ran into Gomez' mansion, went to the second floor and tried to decapitate the naked chick (to my american character, she was being a sinful prostitute!), but alas, rather than cooperate with my dispensing of justice, she put on her clothes and started screaming and running around. The guards watched me run after her, as long as I didn't go near them with my sword exposed, they didn't seem to care. My American self-appointed one man justice dispenser understood that attitude well.
I cornered the chick a couple of times but she always managed to elude my inexperienced attacks. Finally, I got bored and decided to see how long I'd last against the guards, since clearly, through inaction, they were supportive of her criminal cause.
Then it dawned on me that for some reason the guards were able to kill my American straight away? This fitted the American's world views, since this type of oppressive government behaviour was the reason he ran around with a sword anyway. However, my character was dead.
I reloaded and went to Gomez himself to complain. He was furious and called the guards, and I started thinking 'Oh, he's going to punish them', but hey, then he attacked me! Typical oppression! |
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Wed Sep 05, 2001 11:35 am |
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Paulo Darkio
Village Dweller
Joined: 04 Sep 2001
Posts: 4
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This demo is ub3r nice looking.
Boosting it up in 1600x1200,makes you feel like you are inside the game.
Grafics are so smooth and fast scrolling.
Controlling moves is very good,after a few ours of playing when you get the hang of it.
New fight moves(faster+new combos) when you gain more skills.
I like the way you can fight someone and dont kill them,unless you make the deep cut.
Dont look like faction hits,unless you kill someone.
Only downer so far is when you talk to someone about a quest and the annoying *Not available in demo* apears.
Perfect so far of what i have seen.
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Paulo Darkio.
The Fighter. |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 10:21 am |
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Alferd
Village Dweller
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 21
Location: Stuttgart - Germany |
quote:
On 2001-09-06 05:21, Paulo Darkio wrote:
... Boosting it up in 1600x1200,makes you feel like you are inside the game.
Try to use some 3D shutter glases (like ELSA 3D Revelator) and you will even feel more inside.
(Never tried it myself but I heard about it) |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 1:30 pm |
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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
2 Thumbs up!! That's my rating in a nutshell, here's why:
Environment (graphics/sounds): Gothic has one of the most immersive worlds that I've seen in quite some time. Examples are facial expressions that change on NPC's with different responses, the sound of crickets chirping in the evening/night hours, and the almost totally interactive world. i.e. You can walk into a hut, sleep on a cot, open a chest, go outside and cook meat on a fire (which then produces smoke...how cool is that??) and then steal a plate from someone..
Gameplay: My biggest complaint with the game is the awkward controls. The use of the arrow keys and the 'action' key in combinations is very unusual, but after a minimal amount of gameplay, they become second nature.
Story: Here's the kicker. You're dropped into a self contained world, trapped inside the barrier. Inside the world, you have rival gangs, magicians, psionic mages, thieves, warriors, and merchants. All of which you can talk to, some of which will contribute to your journey. Really makes the player feel like part of the game, and that's something that's rarely done nowadays!
My last comment is that as soon as this game hits store shelves in the US, it's mine!! I only hope it happens soon!
Excellent job, and Kudos to Piranha Bytes, the webmaster of this page for hosting a forum in the English language, and to everyone else here for helping out the new guys to the game!
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Member of the "Fantastic ONE"
(hell, everyone else is a member of something..)
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 11:14 pm |
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