I’ll sprint right out of the gate to explain that I never played the original release of Gothic. However, I’ve always had a bit of a thing for janky, overly ambitious RPGs that shoot for the moon with nothing but a bow with no strings. Gothic 1 Remake was therefore an opportunity to right a wrong, with a chance to know if I missed out on the original, or have struck lucky with waiting for this remake.

25 years later, can Gothic’s vision stand up to scrutiny with a modern coat of paint and quality of life updates? Descend into the barrier with me and let’s find out if the Colony is worth visiting again, or for the first time.

Barrier To Entry

You are Hero, a non-descript nobody who’s abruptly thrown into the magical barrier that surrounds the Colony, with nothing but a letter for a fire mage on your person. Upon reaching the cordoned off Colony, you’re immediately assaulted, before being somewhat rescued by Diego, a no-nonsense gruff dude with a hook for a nose and barely a kind word. Gothic’s world is grim and brutal, brought to life with ever more dire circumstances you’ll encounter as you explore.

While the story itself is fairly bland, the three factions – Old Camp, New Camp and Swamp Camp – are superbly realised. They differ in perspective, hierarchies and ideologies, all of which can supplement or restrict Hero’s progression. Exploring the land, uncovering their faiths and social laws (or lack of), was probably the best part of Gothic 1 Remake’s experience for me. Completing a variety of quests to gain trust, accruing reputation to be accepted, and learning through plenty of backstabs along the way, was great.

Unfortunately, (and this will be a common theme), the story can barely build momentum thanks to audio bugs causing constant overlapping dialogue. I had two quests bug out thanks to AI that’d get stuck, making valuable quest related NPCs immobile, and a raft of other small issues that sucked out any of the momentum. While the story is serviceable and the faction system is engaging, the tale is bogged down with volatile voice performances, stiff animations and a litany of technical problems.

Dropping The Ball Sword

While the world and story of Gothic have been largely retained in Gothic 1 Remake, the gameplay has seen some sprucing up. As an immersive sim RPG, you can expect the usual gauntlet of learning combat through failure, interacting with NPCs with realistic day-night cycles, thievery, questing, dialogue galore and everything in-between. Some of my favourite features in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II can probably be traced back to games like Gothic, to give it its due.

Melee and ranged combat have apparently been made more fluid, though you may struggle to tell. This is still very much a janky, clunky affair, especially in your early hours. Truth be told, not much of your first five or so hours will be any fun at all. Enemies one-shotting you, unscrupulous guards nicking your low supply of ore, having no skills, no armour or even a friend. No, Mud doesn’t count, yes he is here, and yes he’s utterly insufferable.

However, like many of games in the genre, Gothic 1 Remake has that certain unpolished, dirty charm that infects many a gem. Despite getting rough-housed at every turn, when I’d cleverly outsmart a Shadow to turn a quest in my favour, or stole a recipe from under the nose of a Baal, I was met with a strong sense of achievement. Your victories are earned here, and the remake seemingly maintains that sense of Gothic being a rather rough gem, that grows on you as you play.

Bugs, Bugs Everywhere, But Not One I can Kill

But, here comes the Majora’s Mask moon sized elephant in the room – Gothic 1 Remake runs terribly. It’s somewhat baffling, given remasters and remakes are supposed to be definitive, fixed and most beautiful versions of games, yet notoriously either don’t fix most problems or create brand new ones. So it is that the trend continues here. I couldn’t go more than 5-10 minutes of undisrupted playtime, before something would inevitably drop in and wreck my life.

In my first 5-6 hours, I suffered four crashes to the PS menu. I had numerous play sessions where all of the audio in the game would just… stop, like Thanos had snapped his fingers and removed all sound. One NPC disappeared entirely from the world, so I couldn’t turn in a quest to be finished. Another NPC got stuck on a bench, even after restarting, so I had to reset 20 minutes back to be able to progress his quest.

Almost all of these issues require full game restarts, reloads or workarounds. While nothing is necessarily game-breaking alone, they’re a pervasive problem that sap Gothic 1 Remake of all fun. I can get on board with tough-yet-rewarding RPGs, and I can get on board with AA games that have some technical problems. I cannot however, get on board with both. Losing chunks of progress repeatedly to bugs, crashes and AI breakdowns is motivation crushing. By the 8-10 hour mark, I could barely stomach playing anymore of the game.

A Gothic Glow

Now, I want to emphasise here, I really like Gothic as a game. Is it still clunky as sin? Yes. Are the dialogue interactions more wooden than a scarecrow? Absolutely. Does everything kill you relentlessly making early quests a nightmare? For sure. However, much like a Dragon’s Dogma, for example, there’s an addictive charm to RPGs like this. It’s tough, and it isn’t afraid to punish the tendency to be the “hero” (despite your character’s name) in this world. All of which, I really respect.

There’s a version of Gothic 1 Remake, in about 6-12 months’ time, where all of the glaring issues with bugs, crashes and performance problems are solved. In that timeline, it would be getting a much more positive review. However, I have to review what currently exists, and as it is, I can’t stand the thought of trying to play it. If the litany of bloodflies and swampsharks don’t get me, the technical bugs will.

Even so, I’ve had moments of satisfaction during my time with Gothic 1 Remake. The decision-making is nicely layered, with multiple ways to solve quests, though understandably not as in-depth as more modern immersive sims. The combat too, finds some rhythm, once you level up, find new weapons and get new skills. I can see myself spending upwards of 50 hours in Gothic 1 Remake once it’s fixed, but not until then.

Either Ore

Visually, the developers have done a good job in recreating the 2001 original in a more modern style. It very much harkens back to the days of beige… and more beige. But then, this is a repressive colony filled with creatures that want to kill you, never mind the humans. The environments have been well realised, even if weather effects like rain or storms look… odd. While animations are stilted as hell, that’s kind of the appeal of games like this, so try and embrace it.

Overall then, I’m left incredibly conflicted by Gothic 1 Remake. There’s a nugget of ore in here that’s worth more than gold itself, if only it wasn’t marred with so much dirt. Given this is a £49.99 remake, it’s a steep asking price for a title that’s so technically compromised, especially as remakes are supposed to iron out the problems. I haven’t had the fun I know I would have had otherwise, and that’s a sad inditement of the state it’s in currently.

Despite this, I can absolutely see myself returning in a few months and following a few patches, so that I can hopefully get the intended Gothic experience. I don’t recommend it right now unless you’re a die-hard returning fan or you’ve got an unsatiable appetite for janky AA RPGs, but I suspect it’ll be a thorough recommendation once the patches flow post-launch.

Gothic 1 Remake is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Developer: Alkimira Interactive
Publisher: THQ Nordic

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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