80%PC

Gothic 2 is probably the best game in the Gothic series. It improves on the original Gothic in a number of ways but keeps the same formula, which makes these games something special amongst the many fantasy RPGs out there.

Note that it's a game from 2005, so you'll need to do some patching and fixing to get it to work well on modern hardware, but it's definitely worth it. I would put this is my top 10 list of RPGs of all time!

The Gold edition also includes the excellent Night of the Raven expansion.

90%PC

Masterpiece. Was bored by lazy dungeons and bad loot in them. The targeting system was very annoying.

30%PC

Unlike its predecessor, Gothic II no longer has the excuse of innovation to excuse its terrible pacing, awful gameplay and mediocre story. This is one of the most miserable games I've had the displeasure of playing in a long time. Maybe it was somehow good for its time... I don't know. All I know is that it's aged like fucking shit. If anything, it reduced my appreciation of its predecessor as well, because I realized that the only reason the first game had become fun for me was because I broke it and became overpowered very early into the story.

There is no point in becoming overpowered in Gothic II, no reward, because by the time you do, you have already overcome every tedious stumbling block the game threw at you that would have made you want to get stronger. It's a completely hollow experience, so unless you enjoy running errands and playing bellboy for every rude prick you come across, so much that you want to do it even while 'relaxing', this is the game for you.

The graphics are largely the same as Gothic 1, though curiously the marginal increase in detail has affected the game negatively. You can barely see where the fuck you are in forested areas, the already-terrible combat hobbles you further because of the camera clipping into some background object leaving you blind, and there's an awfully weird disparity between the quality of the environments and the character models.

The gameplay... what gameplay? Every quest consists of you talking to an NPC who tells you to talk to another NPC, who tells you to talk to another NPC, until you grow sick and tired and quit and go smoke a cigarette, and wonder how much of your life this shit game is going to waste before it gives you a crumb of progress. Then once more back into the breach. The controls are slightly changed from Gothic 1 so they're even worse, so the first thing I advise you to do is to rebind the keys to get to a more Gothic-1-y control scheme. The second thing I advise you to do is to uninstall this piece of shit and play a better game. Or read a book. Read two, even. It's good for you.

Now, I play a lot of RPGs, so I don't mind formulaic plots, but the gameplay-story integration in this game is its Achilles heel. Your character, who was God-killingly strong at the end of Gothic 1, is reduced to a wimp who could be beaten and looted by a five-year-old child, all from a mere three weeks of sleep. Now, fans of this game, who are much more patient and better men than I, will tell you that it's because of muscular atrophy, or because he lost all his memory of how to fight (but not any of his knowledge, which is weird because muscle memory is far more enduring). The real reason, of course, is that Piranha Bytes were appealing to the masochistic tendencies of Gothic fans by making them run the entire rigmarole of the 'zErO tO hErO' routine that the first game actually justified. If you're an inexperienced fighter and dropped into a colony of rough, hardened prisoners, I can forgive you for getting your teeth knocked in. But if a housewife with a frying pan can beat the shit out of you while you're tall, well-built, and carrying a sword and armour, no degree of amnesia can make me forget what a wimp you are.

On the subject of muscular atrophy. I should mention that I got very sick irl earlier this year, and my weight dropped from 78 to less than 60 kilograms. I actually recovered from my muscular atrophy in REAL LIFE faster than Mr Gothic does in this game. Christ.

By the time you finish what was technically the first quest, you've already forgotten what it was about. Gothic 2 feels like it's best enjoyed by people who want to explore a virtual world for the hell of it, as if the novelty will never wear off. If you play this game with the intention of beating it, you will be just as miserable as I am now, so I don't recommend doing so. On the other hand, if your ooh ooh ah ah dopamine centers get lit up simply from the fact that you can sit down in chairs just like IN REAL LIFE, enjoy.

I should also mention the fanbase of this game. Now, the guy who gifted me this game is among the dearest of all my friends. I love him like a brother, and I really tried to beat this game to keep his feelings. Eventually I issued a sincere apology to him, and YouTubed the remaining story. Also I know a Polish guy who's pretty cool, so he's all right even if he likes this game.

The OTHER fans of this game though, dear God, are so entrenched in Stockholm syndrome that any criticism of this game makes them hiss and arch their backs like my cat Splotch when she meets cats outside her immediate family. They'll even admit the combat is terrible, the pacing sucks, and the game can't decide if it has PS1 or PS2 graphics. But it's a sacred cow still. They'll use gaslighting and all manner of sordid tactics to make you believe YOU suck, not the game. Well, I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore. Gothic 2 sucks. The music is pretty good though.

90%PC

Before starting Gothic II, do yourself a favor and play Gothic I. The plot picks up mere days after the events of the first game and you will miss out on a lot of the attention to detail if you choose to skip it. In terms of gameplay and presentation, Gothic II utilizes the same engine as its predecessor with some improvements to the control and visuals while still retaining its immersive atmosphere. Really, Gothic I and II are practically two halves to a whole.

Easily the biggest change between the two games is scope, with Gothic II expanding on everything from lore and world building to explorable areas and general content. Best of all is that the sidequests don’t become a dried up well after the first chapter which greatly smooths out the pacing issue that the first game presented. The expansion features a few extra quests and a new area to explore, but it is more of a rebalancing patch than anything. The entire game was tweaked to be more difficult and it can honestly be frustrating trying to figure out where the game is leading you with such large maps and tough enemies. Progression is very slow and revisiting the same key areas again and again looking for any missed opportunities can be tiresome, but the fairly drastic changes introduced to the world between chapters make for a truly immersive experience.

80%PC

Gameplay: 4
Story: 4
Graphics: 4
Sound: 5
Replayability: 5

90%PC

One of the best RPGs ever made in terms of choice, world building and immersion. Good characters also. Negative points for generic plotline.

100%PC

Great action RPG number II

100%PC

The gold standard of immersive "western" RPGs. Character progression, world building, quest design, story, atmosphere... it is unmatched, even by the developers later games.

100%PC

Best game ever. I didn't see any bugs.

100%PC

IMO Gothic 1 was better, but still one of the best game and best action adventure RPG ever made.

90%PC

+ vela hodin zabavy, kopec optional questov
+ urcite nainstalovat communitne opravne patche - how to play gothic 2 in 2020 - steam guide

100%PC

Продолжение шедевра как и первая 10 из 10 но так же под конец уже не то, хотя это наверно из за 10 часов в день игры)
Но так просто нет слов, приходишь в город ты не кто начинаешь узнавать становишься учеником мастера а далее рыцарем, теперь есть доступ к дворянам в верхней город, все продуманно просто фантастически, ничего подобного нигде не видел, город живой аж чувствуешь что ты там находишься, в целом такой подачи нигде не было, Вторая игра за лет 5-7 в которую я играл больше 5-6 часов в день а это говорит о многом.

100%PC

Great game, story could be better, but apart from that 10/10 ^^

70%PC

Pretty much just more of Gothic 1, using the same engine but graphically improved in many ways. The world itself is decorated to a grander degree, which looks nice but at times can be annoying because it inevitably obscures more of your vision. The gameplay is much the same, so any grievances you might have had with Gothic 1's controls / combat etc. are mostly still there. In some cases there have been changes made, for example, hitting a side attack after a forward strike results in the character moving to that side, usually resulting in you circling the enemy you have targeted, this change alone resulted in me getting hit so many times until I got used to it. No other major changes were made and as a result fighting against multiple enemies is still an absolute nightmare.

My biggest problem with Gothic 2 is the progression, the game is larger and longer than Gothic 1 and as a result the progression system is stretched further and progress is less noticeable. Improving most skills / attributes starts at 1 learning point per stat increase, but the higher you train these skills the higher the cost, so before long it becomes 2 points per stat increase, up to at least 5 I think, in the end this means it can require multiple level ups before you can train for maybe that extra 5 strength you desperately need to equip a new weapon but at the end it the extra power is barely noticeable unless you crit. Luckily increasing weapon skills increase crit chance otherwise the game would be much more tedious than it is. The whole "you do lots of damage, the enemy does lots of damage, here's a ton of health potions to justify it" isn't that fun because it results in many cheap deaths and a lot of precautionary saving and lots of reloading, especially with how clunky combat is.

The start of the game because of the progression system is absolutely awful imo. the pacing, enemy placement is so punishing that just trying to eek your way through the game safely is a chore. The other problem here is that by the time the balance starts to shift in your favour, once you've gained some levels, found better armour and weapons, it becomes stupidly boring since you'll have been facing the same enemies start to finish. I think I've killed more orcs in this game alone than several others combined.

Overall, it's a good game, a decent RPG. I ultimately ended the game with a character I wanted to make so that is a huge plus. The story is fairly interesting and the improvements made were appreciated. I personally don't think it was *as* good as Gothic 1 simply because of the progression system and it started to exhaust itself with those extra 20 hours or so. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else, just be aware of the punishing nature of it, for the first 25 - 33% of the game I'd say.

80%PC

This game is good, it has bugs, and glitches, as well as a difficulty that is insane. The play is good, and you will probably like it if you liked Gothic 1. Gothic 2 had me annoyed at many of the parts, this is probably because even after I obtained the best armor in the game, monsters could still kill me in less than 5 hits.

It is a challenge to beat, but worth it in the end.