3dgaming.net 06/1999

25.06.1999


The Goods
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Release Date: Quarter 1 2000Developer: Piranha Bytes
Publisher: Egmont Interactive
Homepage: Gothic

Gothic

The world is in turmoil. An invading army of orcs approaches, and the valiant human army doesn't have enough ore for weapons. Blacksmiths can work day and night, and as hard as they wish, but if you can't mine enough ore… you're destined to fail. It's time a new plan is devised to help mine this ore and cut down on crime. May as well kill two birds with one stone, though I'm not sure why you'd be throwing stones at birds in the first place, but this new plan will involve plenty of toothpicks, some string, and even a match. You may think, "Well, only McGuyver could make a nuclear bomb out of those items." You'd be right in your thinking, and the crack team of scientists couldn't figure out what to do with 400 toothpicks, 250 feet of string, and a single match. Once they realized the shipment was just sent to the wrong place, they got back on track.

Now a magical shield was made about the mines, a rather large one. It allows anything to enter but only non-living items to exit. You've been accused of a crime, so your sentence is to be thrown into this shield, with the other criminals. Ok, sounds like a good enough plan for cutting down on crime and keeping the criminals in one area, but why are they going to keep supplying ore? Simple. You need lots of things to stay alive, and they can't all be found within this sphere. You want to trade for food, soda, or pornographic videos? Mine some ore and give it to the people on the outside. The more you put out, the more interest they take in you. A similar theory applies to nymphomaniacs in High School.
Sound like a boring game yet? Far from it. You aren't going to spend your time mining ore; we have more in store for you. But first, you have to try to fit in with everyone else and prove you can take anything they throw at you. Unless it's a bar of soap, because picking it up could result in… certain activities you may not which to voluntarily participate in. While nothing says you're a tough guy like killing a man, your weapon skills are borderline pathetic. It's time to practice a bit, then choose a class. You can be a powerful warrior, a sneaky and intelligent assassin, a powerful magician, or a psionic. Warriors may have brute strength and skill in weapons, but an assassin can avoid detection and slay foes with ease. Maybe a magician can call upon arcane powers to help attack enemies, but a psionic can convince women to have sex with him. Which is more important? It's all up to you.

Enough background info, it's time to get to the meat of any game, the gameplay. This is the area that will really serve to set Gothic apart from games of the same genre. Gothic will be played from a third person perspective, with a "what you see is what you get" type of attitude. It is an RPG, despite the easy to get used to interface and different appearance. For example, as you gain more experience with a sword, you don't see an increase in statistics. You see the sword swing faster, or more types of attacks become available. This should effectively make the game an RPG while still keeping the focus on the game and what's going on. If you change weapons, it shows up differently in your hand. The environment will also allow for all kinds of interaction. If your room is too dark and you can't seem to find the bed, go steal a torch from somewhere else and leave the owner's "in the dark" about what happened to their torch.
The way AI and the NPCs work is also one of the more appealing features of the game. NPCs live and work like normal people. They'll sleep at night, wake up during the day (which you can watch them do), and get to work. Sometimes to get their attention you'll have to interrupt their activities and get them to talk. It's all about making a realistic world, and not only the NPCs will contribute to that. Monsters do their own things too. In many games, monsters stand in a single spot knowing full well you'll walk by and kill them. They don't mind though; they are too stupid to understand the concept. In Gothic, monsters will be working on their own things, and interacting amongst themselves. Disturb them, and face the consequences. Each enemy has certain dislikes or alliances with other enemies, which is something you'll need to learn before following an orc into a troll's cave only to have them team up and slaughter you.

What about the graphics? They don't appear to be quite up to the upcoming standard of graphics, but everything else should make up for it. The texturing is fine, but the models lack the detail and level of graphical splendor found in many upcoming games. I don't think it will inhibit the gameplay in any way, but it is something that might hamper the sales of Gothic. If you see Vampire: The Masquerade- Redemption sitting next to Gothic in a store, which is going to be more appealing? The graphics in Vampire are going to catch people's eyes. Everyone who is "in the know" will still be aware that Gothic is a great game as far as the play, (assuming it is) but that won't get it all the attention it looks like it will deserve. The level of interactivity should make the game interesting despite any graphical inhibitions, but it is always wise to remember you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
I'm looking forward to trying out Gothic when it is released. I do have my doubts about the game, however, so it's not all peachy in a simulated medieval style prison. It will be hard to make an RPG game work with a Tomb Raider style interface and appearance. If done, it will blow away existing RPGs and maybe even revolutionize the genre. It would be a waste to see Gothic fail and fall into the abyss of bad games, but my hopes are higher than that. Piranha Bytes has yet to prove themselves, so we'll just have to wait and see if Gothic can live up to its current expectations.
-Eric Rasmussen