The first two Gothic games WERE THE ABSOLUTE BEST ACTION RPGS EVER CREATED. The first Gothic was also incredibly groundbreaking.In fact, it's the greatness of those Gothic games that really keeps me from loving the Witcher, as good a game overall as it is. Here are some of the ways that Gothic is just absolutely superior as far as its game design and dedication to total immersion for the player:1. You cannot simply walk into any house and rob everyone blind, which is R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S in Witcher and detracts INCREDIBLY from the experience. In fact, forget about stealing - in Gothic, you can't even WALK INTO a stranger's house without being threatened, which is much more realistic than The Witcher, where you can just burst into any UNLOCKED house anytime you want and start stealing or talking. I absolutely HATE that aspect of the game. 2. ZERO barriers when traveling the worlds in Gothic. No idiotic little fences or bushes that you can't jump over as in Witcher, which get so annoying. 3. Combat - this is a personal preference. The Witcher has incredible combat finishing moves, but i still prefer to have total control over my character in combat, especially the ability to block and then strike, etc. Clicking on an enemy and then waiting to click again just seems rather dull sometimes, although the moves are so great that it's still enjoyable. But Gothic 2 had an incredible combat system that was incredibly satisying. Gothic 1 was much clunkier and more difficult to control, but it still gave the player complete control over the character in combat.4. No auto-sheathing in Gothic. In fact, unlike The Witcher, you can draw your sword anywhere, but if someone sees you do it where you're not supposed to, you will be threatened and attacked if you don't put it away. 5. No loading screens in Gothic. 6. No overuse of character models in Gothic. They went to GREAT lengths in those games to make every NPC seem like an individual. The constant reuse of models iin WItcher is incredibly distracting to me and very disappointing. Now, don't go nuts, Witcher lovers. I love the Witcher myself. It's a great game that was made with a lot of heart and passion, but some of the design choices really baffle me. To me, the first two Gothics should be a rough blueprint for all action/RPG games. I have never played a game that was more immersive and featured more realistic AI than the Gothic games. Btw, I enjoyed Gothic 3, but it was FAR inferior to the first two games, which the developers admit. They feel that they tried to put too much into the game and it suffered. The next game they are working on is supposed to get back to the feel of the first Gothic, so I can't wait for that....As for Witcher, I'm enjoying playing it, at times REALLY enjoying it, but it disappoints me that they missed out on so much greater potential by making some of the design decisions they made. I hope the next one corrects a lot of these shortcomings, because Geralt is a great character.
