Gothic

"Gothic" is a third-person action role-playing game set in an open fantasy world. The player controls an unnamed prisoner who is sent to a mining colony surrounded by a magical barrier. The gameplay emphasizes exploration without quest markers or a guided map, and the player character starts with no skills—they learn them by finding teachers and spending earned skill points. The game features three factions to join, each offering different paths and abilities: The Old Camp grants access to fire mages, the New Camp to water mages, and the Brotherhood to ancient magic through the worship of a being called “the Sleeper.” In combat, melee weapons, ranged weapons, and magic are used across six circles of increasing power. The environment is highly interactive and allows the player to cook food, forge weapons, and perform many activities that can also be observed among NPCs.

Story

The main character has to complete quests and hunt down wild animals and monsters to earn skill points that can be used to increase their basic attributes, improve skills and learn professions. They are spent by finding the corresponding teacher. Some skills have only one "level" (sneaking, acrobatics), while combat skills (one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, bows and crossbows) have two power levels. If the hero decides to become a mage (or joins the swamp camp), he can learn magic circles, of which there are 6. The main attributes are increased in increments of 1 or 5 points, starting at 10 and ending at 100. The upper limit can be exceeded with potions. The game puts a special emphasis on the interactivity of the environment. For example, when you hunt wild animals, you get raw meat. This heals damage and can be sold. However, with a stove or a frying pan, the player can turn this meat into grilled meat, which heals much more effectively. Also, most activities that feature other characters (playing musical instruments, stirring soup pots, urinating, etc.) can be performed by the main character (with the exception of forging weapons, however, these activities have little impact on the game). The player can choose which camp he/she wants to join, although the quests become more linear and the differences between the various factions decrease later in the game. The biggest difference is that members of the swamp camp cannot become mages because they only have 4 (out of 6) magic circles. However, they do get access to magic sooner.