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My impressions of playing the demo ...
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RPGDot Forums > Gothic 2 Spoilers

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Dulak
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Joined: 24 Jan 2003
Posts: 10
My impressions of playing the demo ...
   

Hail,

First off I dled the german demo and put in the english translation text.

So I wasnt sure if I knew everything about the game since I cant read german but I had a pretty good idea from fooling around with the game etc for awhile.

Also when I play a single player roleplaying game I tend to play where if I die I start over. Needless to say I had to start over many many many times. I dont know about you but I'm not really fond of starting over that many times or if you dont go that route to keep loading up when you get killed. To me it takes the fun out of it.

Not sure why they made things so tough; the game does kind of remind me of ultima ascension. I only played that for a bit (had lots of bugs at the time) so its hard to remember.

I liked the game and the engine seemed to run pretty smooth on my system. But I dont like the combat part where you can die so easily to numerous of things; making a wrong turn almost anywhere might yield you 2-3 wolves and they might eat you for breakfast.

I did enjoy the dialoge thou; seems to be a high point. To me I wasnt totally impressed with the demo since it was so tough to complete even when I was extremely careful.

-side note- I just got done with arx fatalis (I really liked this game even thou it had some flaws.) Reminded me of ultima underworld.

Summery - I will probably buy gothic II; graphics seemed pretty nice and the story or interaction did also. But I dont like the way the combat system is or how easily you die. Some people dont like to keep loading to finish a game.

oh I was going to say also that the graphics sort of reminded me of dungeon siege.

Dulak
Post Fri Jan 24, 2003 7:28 am
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
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Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany
Re: My impressions of playing the demo ...
   

quote:
Originally posted by Dulak
Hail,

First off I dled the german demo and put in the english translation text.

I hope subtitles rev2?

quote:

Also when I play a single player roleplaying game I tend to play where if I die I start over. Needless to say I had to start over many many many times.

Hehe, I died more often in chapter one than in the whole Gothic 1.

quote:

Not sure why they made things so tough;

This is a problem with a space limited demo. You are meant to play G2 slowly and carefully. Look here, look there, run away, get an armour, a better weapon and 10 strength and return to solve a quest. Chapter 1 is very unlinear. You simply lacked the opportunity to do the newbie quest for the mages or the mercenaries. This would have earned you a few more levels and made things easier.
Itīs almost impossible to communicate this context in such a demo.
IMO G2 is hard (yes, it is ) but fair. I never had to cheat and I seldomly had to halt the story and gain some levels.

quote:

the game does kind of remind me of ultima ascension. I only played that for a bit (had lots of bugs at the time) so its hard to remember.

U9 was Piranha Bytesī primary target for Gothic 1. They blew it away, according to most reviews in Germany.

quote:

I liked the game and the engine seemed to run pretty smooth on my system. But I dont like the combat part where you can die so easily to numerous of things; making a wrong turn almost anywhere might yield you 2-3 wolves and they might eat you for breakfast.

Did you try the alternative combat system? It can be activated in the gothic.ini (and in one of the menus). Then you only have to click on an enemy to hit him.
Nevertheless, believe somebody who has seen hundreds of skeptical RPGers: the combat system will grow on you. Itīs a lot more complex, strategic and fun than it looks.

quote:

I did enjoy the dialoge thou; seems to be a high point. To me I wasnt totally impressed with the demo since it was so tough to complete even when I was extremely careful.

Quicksave/quickload, first person combat ==> gothic.ini
Loading is <i>a lot</i> faster since the first patch.

quote:

-side note- I just got done with arx fatalis (I really liked this game even thou it had some flaws.) Reminded me of ultima underworld.

Arx is very popular here.

quote:

Summery - I will probably buy gothic II; graphics seemed pretty nice and the story or interaction did also.


Youīll miss a great game if you donīt.

quote:

oh I was going to say also that the graphics sort of reminded me of dungeon siege.


Okay guys, no flaming! He didnīt know it.
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Post Fri Jan 24, 2003 8:21 am
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Esrohnoil
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Gorath:
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Post Fri Jan 24, 2003 5:39 pm
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
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Joined: 10 Jun 2002
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Location: Australia
   

I usually don't try to play demos like I would the real game; the exception being DD which was a massive demo. Therefore, I've played the G2 demo with a hacked character, so I could ignore the dangers and simply explore the world and see what was in it. That's my demo approach and I know it's not for everyone, it depends on why you play demos.
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Post Fri Jan 24, 2003 11:35 pm
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Fantasm
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Joined: 24 Jan 2003
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I'm assuming from your original post that you never played Gothic 1, and so are unfamiliar with the general game mechanics of both Gothic 1 and Gothic 2.

IMO, your refusal to take part in saving/reloading might make your Gothic experience quite a bit more frustrating than it otherwise would be in other games. This is because Gothic takes a fairly unconventional approach to a game world and only provide the illusion that it is large and open-ended, and free for you to explore at your whim. In reality, to some degree there really are "rails" that your character must stay on, especially early in the game, and the boundary to these acceptable areas to explore is determined by the monsters that inhabit the area. This means that sometimes, you won't know whether you are "supposed" to be in a certain area until you actually wander in and either fight some easy scavengers, or get ripped apart by snappers and wargs and orcs (oh my!). Because of the almost exponential way in which characters advance (better armor combined with more hitpoints combined with higher strength allowing more damaging weapons), there can be a HUGE disparity between the toughness of different creatures, and many will be downright impossible to defeat until you gain a few levels (an example is the black goblins or the snappers in the G2 demoground). So these really do make effective barriers, although again, you won't really know they're there until you try going to a new area.

This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, because many creatures give you a little warning and a chance to back off before charging you, although with some you're simply out of luck. Also, there are often non-conventional ways to kill things, like getting them to chase you and luring them to NPCs who will often dispatch them for you. But this is often fraught with peril, and you will be doing a LOT of saving/reloading by going this route.

I have played and beat Gothic 1 and enjoyed it very much, and I got my character up to about level 7 in the Gothic 2 demo and am very much looking forward to the US release. So most of my observations are based on playing Gothic 1, although the demo looks to have the same traits (those who have played the full game can tell me if I'm wrong). I hope this doesn't dampen your enthusiasm for the game, but I don't want you to think this game is something that it isn't. If you enjoy it for what it is, it can be a fun experience. If you don't stray off the beaten path too much, you can probably get by without much reloading...

Me, I'll still explore every nook and cranny way before I'm supposed to and probably reload about 1000 times throughout the game. =)
Post Fri Jan 24, 2003 11:37 pm
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Dulak
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Joined: 24 Jan 2003
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No I havnt played gothic one yet; hoping to do that here soon since people say its a good rpg. Kind of hard to find thou.

I did run across some really tough creatures ie orc and this other beast (maybe it was a warg). I'm mainly talking about fighting normal critters like those shell beetles; or 2-3 wolves at one time. Those shell bettles are real tough. I mean sure you can beat em; but then again they might just beat you so you are stuck with reloading or starting again. And while reloading might appear fun for some people for me personally dying that much and reloading takes the fun out of the game.

again I'll still probably get the game since I am a fan of rpgs. And it has a different feel then alot of rpgs.

just wanted to post my opinion of playing the german demo (with english subtitles).

Dulak
Post Sat Jan 25, 2003 12:00 am
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Srikandi
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Joined: 04 Dec 2001
Posts: 222
   

You should be able to beat the beetles ("Field Raiders") as a starting character. The first ones you meet are young, and those you can kill right out of Xardas's tower with nothing but a heavy branch if your timing is good; the full-grown ones near the farm are a bit harder, but by the time you take them on you should have some basic armor (farmer clothes) and a real weapon from the peddlar by the road.

But there's another feature of Gothic, which is that each creature has its own behaviors, and you will have to get familiar with those before you can take advantage of them in battle. Most monsters, for instance, can be drawn off away from the pack one at a time; you'll know which ones have become aware of you by the way they act, so you alert just one, retreat as it comes after you, and then kill it, repeating until they're all dead.

You can't do that with wolves, though, since if one is alert it will alert the others, so you have to be prepared to fight several at once. In the demo, your best option is to take the huntsman with you; the two of you should be able to handle the pack of wolves.

Live (or die) and learn

Personally I prefer games like Gothic where you can expect die at least once in a while -- otherwise there's no credible threat, which pretty much eliminates any sense of suspense.
Post Sat Jan 25, 2003 1:56 am
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Fantasm
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Joined: 24 Jan 2003
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Srikandi hit the nail on the head, and I should have mentioned this as well. If you treat combat like a FPS and charge in guns (swords?) blazing, you will struggle mightily. There is a definite strategy to combat, and utilizing the right strategy can make the difference between victory and struggling with a seemingly impossible encounter.

The best example is the concept of leading monsters away from the pack. This involves simply approaching the monsters very slowly, step by step, until the closest one notices you. The bug-like creatures will start wailing before finally approaching, while snappers will simply start walking towards you. Once you've got one coming for you, back up a ways and lead them to a secluded area where you can massacre them one-on-one. =)

There are other tactics that give you an advantage, like being able to back a monster up against a wall so they can't back up anymore after you hit them. Also, I find that constantly rushing some monsters (basically constantly running towards them while flailing my sword around) greatly diminishes the amount of damage they do to me (this doesn't work for all creatures, though).

Often, the key to surviving many enounters is to simply run when your health starts getting low. You can outrun many (but not all) of the creatures in Gothic, and eventually most will eventually stop chasing you to go back to their habitat. Take this opportunity to heal up and try again against the now-wounded opponent...

Anybody have any other tips on combat they'd like to share?
Post Sun Jan 26, 2003 6:35 pm
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Maylander
High Emperor
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Joined: 22 Mar 2002
Posts: 1712
Location: Norway
   

Keep a steady "rythm" of swings.. as long as you hit-hit-hit-hit instead of hithit--hithit or something, you'll be able to take out most foes in both Gothic I and II(some foes are pretty resistant, or just too tough/fast, for this to work, but it works in most cases)..
Post Mon Jan 27, 2003 12:12 am
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Kabduhl
City Guard
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Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 127
   

Also with wolves you can back away and take swipes as each one darts in at you ... they usually don't attack all at once but try and cricle you and then take lunges at you to wear you down ... just make sure you are quick on your feet and keep targetting the approaching wolf and take one swing to back it off then watch for the next one coming in and rinse and repeat ... just keep beating them back but NEVER over-commit ... much like in a real fight, when you over-commit and over extend yourself you become open to all sorts of pain ... i think it's quite rewarding to beat stuff down in gothic because it does take some skill rather than pure stats ...
Post Fri Feb 14, 2003 11:29 am
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Lord~Xamepon
Village Dweller
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Joined: 16 Mar 2002
Posts: 6
   

one thing i would like yo add, as far as combat goes, i'm sure most of u know this is, attack then block, at least when fighting people once u block they will come back to attack and when thier swing is finished u can attack right away again while thier guard is down and score a nice hit, and just repeat the process the more skilled w/ one-handed and two-handed weapons you are the more hits u can score before having to retreat and block again i used that strat for both Gothic 1 and gothic 2 demo, if ur good at it u can almost avoid any damage
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Post Sat Feb 15, 2003 8:43 pm
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RastaBlasta420
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quote:
Originally posted by Fantasm
Often, the key to surviving many enounters is to simply run when your health starts getting low. You can outrun many (but not all) of the creatures in Gothic, and eventually most will eventually stop chasing you to go back to their habitat.



Don't try this strat with shadowrunners. (found that out the hard way.) Damn they're fast in Gothic II!
Post Wed Mar 05, 2003 5:32 am
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Cathbad
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Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 9
   

Now i haven't played Gothic 2 except for the demo, so i don't know if it is open ended, but the world in Gothic 1 was not unlimited and that was good that way, I played Morrowind, and the Island was just TOO huge, it took forever to find a specified location, and the variety in Monsters was way too small, after level 25, you couldn't find anything new. what also bothered me about morrowind was its fighting system, the one in Gothic is much better. even tho people said that morrowind was better, i'd have to say that Gothic whooped morrowinds ass twice over, and number two probably does the same. I don't know why they changed the controls tho, i thought Gothic 1 was perfect.
Post Tue Mar 11, 2003 3:54 pm
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ShadowWolfe
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Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 205
Location: In the northern mountains of the western continent.
   

amen Cathbad morrowind was too big and empty espcecially ...
gothics combat system is one of the best and most realistic ive played some people say the animations are limited ... but as you learn skills you get more "moves" and techniques ... so its not bad atall ...
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Post Thu Mar 27, 2003 6:39 am
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Daedalus
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Joined: 04 Jan 2002
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hehe indeed G1 was open ended and so is G2 open ended(finished the german full version long time ago) and many new features there hehe
Post Thu Mar 27, 2003 5:01 pm
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