You know, there are games that you may not like the first time. And not even from the second. But once you try the game, you won’t let it go, and at least once a year, you’ll want to replay it. And Gothic is just one of those games. Gothic is an amazing game.You have to be a really persistent and stubborn person to get into Gothic. She wipes your feet on you, hits you in the face, extorts ore, but at the same time remains so dear and cozy. Some people devotedly love Gothic, others hate it, and you can understand such people. After all, Gothic doesn’t babysit the player, because even if you try to talk to the character in the game, the character will first leisurely finish his beer and only then ask “What do you want?”?”. But what you can’t do with Gothic is deny the fact that Gothic is a cult game. You are on Stopgame.ru and this is the history of the Piranha Bytes company
It all started back in 1997 with the development of the zEngine engine by three programmers from Oldenburg – Dieter Gildenrant, Ulf Wohlers and Bert Speckels, who called themselves ”Mad Scientists”. The working title of the game was ”Orpheus”, but later Bert suggested the name ”Gothic”. Piranha Bytes was founded in the fall of 1997. The company was founded by four people – Michael Hoge, Alex Bruggeman, Stefan Nühl and Tom Putzki, who previously worked at Greenwood Entertainment and developed games for MS-DOS.
Mike Hoge was the artist and wrote the story and dialogue, Alex was the animator, Tom Putzki was the level designer, and Stefan Nuhl was the concept artist and game designer. The developers themselves were inspired by the film ”Escape from New York”, and from role-playing games, Ultima served as inspiration. The developers had a limited budget, so it was decided to focus on a small area and limit it with a barrier. The idea of the barrier belonged to Mike Hoge. In December 1998, Gothic was announced. The game was demonstrated at E3 in May 1999. In September of the same year, two videos dedicated to the game were released, in which health was still displayed as hearts, instead of the usual health bar.
In April 2000, it was decided to cut multiplayer.
Gothic fact: Thanks to the engine’s ability to play online, there are role-playing servers, co-op servers and battle royales.
In May of the following year, a trailer for the game was shown at E3, stating that the game was almost ready. However, the release was still far away. For E3 2000, Gothic was refined on the old engine to impress the public. At the same time, another Gothic was created on a new engine. At the end of November 2000, major plot changes took place, the city of orcs and the abandoned mine were cut out. Initially, at the end of the game they planned to populate the entire valley with orcs. The game design document was leaked in 2001, but we will discuss this later. In Germany the release took place on March 15, 2011. The game reached North America in November of the same year. And the game reached the Russian market only on October 25, 2002. The game was localized by Snowball Interactive under the publishing house 1C. In 2004, the game was re-released by Russobit-M with a new localization and with the subtitle ”Collector’s Edition”, which included the ”Dikkurik” mod. There is no official information on Gothic sales. Mike Hoge said in an interview that the development cost several million and only a little of it was returned. The World of Gothic website claims that the number of copies sold was six figures. Piranha Bytes managing director Michael Ruwe spoke of sales of over 100,000 copies.
Kingdom of Myrtana. Orcs are besieging the kingdom in hordes and only swords and armor made of magic ore somehow help to resist the orcs. King Robar II ordered the exile of the people of the ore mine for any offense. To do this, he also ordered the construction of a magical barrier over the mines, allowing living creatures only inside and killing them if they try to leave. However, during the construction of the barrier, something went wrong and the barrier grew to impressive sizes, absorbing the Valley of Mines and 12 magicians who created the barrier.
Gothic Fact: There are 13 mages mentioned in the game, but this is a mistake. In fact, there were 12 magicians. Here’s what Mike Hoge has to say about it.
Mike: There’s a dialogue in the game where one mage breaks the sequence. I think it’s Saturas. I noticed this error, corrected it, and one of my former comrades ”corrected” it back because he did not know the background.
Let’s get back to the plot. Taking advantage of the turmoil, the prisoners captured the castle and entered into an agreement with the king – they supply the king with ore, and in return receive food and weapons.
Our nameless protagonist was condemned and prepared to be thrown over the barrier, but the magician Pirokar approached him with a request to deliver the scroll to the fire mages. The main character agrees. The nameless man is thrown over the barrier, where he manages to undergo a baptism of fire, but Diego comes to his aid in time. The first chapter begins, in which the Nameless One must join one of the camps – Old, New and Swamp. We’ll talk more about camps later. Having entered one of the camps, Nameless gives a letter to the fire mages. It turned out that the letter was addressed to Xardas, a former fire mage who now practices black magic. Later, he receives the task of going to the Swamp Camp and finding out what they are up to there. In the Swamp Camp, Nameless receives a task from Yu Berion to find a unitor. Arriving at the place, the main character finds the novice Niras, who has gone crazy. The main character takes the unit Yu to Berion, and he asks the Nameless One to take the unit Kor Galom. Kor Galom says he lacks crawler saliva and must have a stronger ingredient. Nameless goes into the mines to find ingredients. At the end of the mine he kills the Queen of the Creepers and takes the eggs of the Creepers. But not everything is ready to summon the Sleeper. It turned out that the unit was discharged, and there is an almanac that describes how to charge the unit. The almanac was in the possession of the novice Talas, but the black goblins took it away. Taking the almanac, Nameless takes it to Kor Galom. Now everything is ready to summon the Sleeper. During the ceremony, everyone had a collective vision in which an orc cemetery was visible. The Nameless One goes to the cemetery and meets the Idol of Lukor there. At the end of the cemetery, Idol Lucor goes crazy. Returning to the Swamp Camp, Nameless learns that Yu Berion’s condition has worsened, and Kor Angar asks the protagonist to bring medicinal herbs. While the Nameless One was going for herbs, Yu Berion died, but before his death he briefly came to his senses and said that the Sleeper is an evil demon, and we must give up trying to awaken him. Kor Galom did not believe Yu Berion, and gathered some guards and left the camp. Also, shortly before Yu’s death, Berion pinned his hopes on the rescue plan developed by the water magicians. Going to the water mages, Nameless met Saturas. From him he receives the task of finding the remaining 4 units that were used to create the barrier. Milten, Diego, Lester and Gorn – characters who will appear in all subsequent parts of Gothic – help the Nameless One to find the units. Having obtained all the units, Nameless goes to Saturas, but he reports that there are not enough magicians to detonate the ore, and sends Nameless to the Old Camp for help from the fire magicians. Near the Old Camp Nameless, Milten meets him and reports that the fire mages are dead. It turned out that they stumbled upon an underground river in the mine, and the mine was flooded. In a panic, Gomez ordered an attack on the New Camp mine, but the fire mages opposed this, for which they were killed. The Nameless One met Diego at the other gate of the Old Camp, and he asked the Nameless One to convey a message to Lester and Horn about the meeting. We won’t see the meeting itself in the game, since the developers didn’t have enough time to implement it. Teleporting to the New Camp, Nameless meets the desperate Saturas, and he says that without Xardas it will not be possible to blow up a mountain of ore. The main character goes to Xardas in the lands of the orcs. After passing the golem test, the Nameless One meets Xardas. He says that blasting the ore will not give anything and the real answer is under the city of the orcs. Xardas sends the Nameless One to Ur-Shak, an orc shaman exiled by his own people. Ur-Shak says that the ancient demon Urshak is the Sleeper. Several centuries ago, the orcs summoned the Sleeper in the hope that he would help defeat their enemies. The shamans gave their hearts to the Sleeper, while remaining neither alive nor dead. The sleeper is fueled by the power of these hearts. Ur-Shak asks the Nameless One not to break into the orc city in battle, and tells him that he needs to wear the orc talisman Ulu-Mulu, with which the orcs will not attack the main character. Ur-Shak’s friend, who is in the mine, will help you assemble Ulu-Mulu. Teleporting to the New Camp, Nameless meets Gorn, and he asks for help clearing the New Camp mine from Gomez’s people. After killing Gomez’s men, the Nameless One meets Ur-Shak’s friend, the orc Tarrok, in the mine. Tarrok is wounded and asks the Nameless One to find a healing potion. After this, he tells the Nameless One how to assemble the Ulu-Mulu. To do this, you need body parts of the colony’s most powerful creatures. Having collected the necessary ingredients, the Nameless One takes them to Tharrok, who makes Ulu-Mulu. The main character goes to the underground temple of the orcs. Having passed all the tests, the Nameless One meets Horus Boba. He says that Kor Galom is preparing to awaken the Sleeper and attacks the main character. Also, the Nameless One kills four Sleeper shamans and finds Urizel’s sword. But the fifth shaman cannot be defeated, and the main character goes to Xardas. Xaradas says that the orc prophecies speak of a Holy Enemy that will defeat the Sleeper. Maybe this is the main character, maybe not. It turned out that Urizel is an ancient magic sword, but now it is discharged. While Xardas searches for a way to charge the sword, the Nameless One goes to Xardas’s old tower to find better armor. Nameless finds armor made from magic ore. Meanwhile, the Nameless One can return to the Old Camp, kill all the ore barons, and free the blacksmith Stone, who can improve the armor. Returning to Xardas, the Nameless One wonders if the spell is ready for Urizel. Xardas says that the spell is ready, but the main character will not be able to use it, since the spell must be read by a magician while the Nameless One touches the source of powerful magical energy with his sword. Nameless asks Milten for help, and he agrees. To do this, they are going to use the mountain of iron ore in the New Camp. Returning to the orc temple, the Nameless One kills the fifth shaman Sleeper. Meanwhile, Xardas teleports to the temple and tells the main character that the five hearts of the shamans must be pierced with blades, and that this is the only way to defeat the Sleeper. Having said this, Xardas faints. After this, the Nameless One meets the maddened Kor Galom, and kills him along with his minions.Afterwards, he pierces the hearts with five blades, and banishes the Sleeper to his dimension. After the Sleeper is banished, the Nameless One emerges into the sunlight. The magical barrier has fallen.
Also in 2000, a comic book based on Gothic was released, which tells the story of the four friends of the Nameless Man, even before he got behind the barrier. The comic begins with Milten being thrown into a cell for stealing an apple. Gorn, Diego and Lester were already sitting in the cell. Then they are thrown over the barrier. Later, while watching the battle in the arena, Gorn had an argument with Gomez’s bodyguard, Brabak. After this, Brabak and his friends waylaid Horn and attacked him, but Lester came to the rescue in time. Hiding in a cave, the four friends discuss how to get rid of Brabak, and they hatch a plan. Diego hides in a barrel, and at night, during the battle in the arena, together with Milten they try to get into Brabak’s room. Along the way, Diego steals two bags of ore. Diego and Milten enter Brabak’s room, but it turns out to be Gomez’s room, and there they encounter Gomez’s concubine. The three of them try to escape, but the fire mage Drago notices them out of the corner of his eye. While trying to escape down the stairs, Diego has to throw a bag of ore. After unsuccessful attempts by the guards to break down the door, the fire mage Drago loses patience and sends a fireball at the door, hitting a heap of ore in the bag of ore, thereby causing a strong explosion. A huge piece of the wall breaks off from the castle, which can be seen in the game. A few days later, the four friends develop a plan to get rid of Brabak. They placed a stolen bag of ore in the cave, and Horn told the waterbenders where to find the bag. At the same time, Diego spread the rumor to the Old Camp that the Horn was hiding in this cave. Brabak goes to the cave and finds a bag of ore, but at this time the people of the New Camp come and kill Brabak. After this, Milten, Lester, Diego and Gorn sit near the exchange site and see how the Nameless One is thrown over the barrier.
The comic came out quite well, but the appearance of the characters raises questions. Gomez looks like a Chinese emperor, for some reason Horn flaunts around the colony in swimming trunks, and the soldiers of Khorinis are dressed in the uniform of Roman legionnaires. If you close your eyes to this, then the comic fits well into the Gothic canon.
The structure of the world
So, the Valley of Mine is divided into three Camps – the Old Camp, the New Camp and the Swamp Camp, plus the Orc Lands.
Old Camp – this, forgive the tautology, is the oldest camp. It is a castle with an outer ring built around it. It was this castle that was captured by convicts after the sudden expansion of the barrier. Most of the inhabitants of the Old Camp are miners, the lowest class in the Old Camp. After them come the Ghosts, who are engaged in trade, fencing training, theft, and so on. The Ghosts are led by our friend Diego. Higher in the hierarchy are the guards who keep order in the camp and do not allow strangers into the castle. At the top of this chain are the Ore Barons, who oversee the extraction of ore and conduct exchanges with the king’s people from the outside world. Next to them were the fire mages, for whom it was entrusted to deliver the letter to our main character. The Old Camp exists due to an exchange with the king. Ore Barons send ore to the king, and in return he gives food, weapons, tools, etc. It is the Old Camp that is favorite among many players due to its elaboration and sense of comfort. For example, every morning you can see Diego walking around the outer ring. In general, in Gothic, many characters have their own schedule. Most of the characters go to bed at night, some of them sit near the fire, and only the guards stand at their posts around the clock.
Next comes New Camp, which is located in a huge cave. Miners in the New Camp extract ore not in order to conduct an exchange, but in order to blow up the barrier when enough ore has accumulated. The New Camp exists by growing rice, which is then used to make rice schnapps. Peasants grow rice, and the Rice Lord oversees it, who doesn’t care about the peasants, and he can be punished for it. Also in New Camp there is the only tavern in the entire colony, where schnapps is produced. The cave is divided into halves. Thieves live in one half and mercenaries in the other. The thieves are led by Lars, and the mercenary leader is General Lee. Next to the mercenaries are the water mages, who came up with the idea of exploiting the ore. To get to the water magicians, you need to give the same meme password. There is also a dam in New Camp, thanks to which it is possible to grow rice. Well, at the very end of the New Camp there is a mine in which miners, which are called scrapers here, extract ore.
Secret fact: You can get https://jettbetcasino.uk/withdrawal/ miner’s pants for free in the New Camp mine. To do this, you need to go to the Sweeney scraper and lie that you know how to mine ore.
Several years before the events of the game began, one miner began to have visions in which the Sleeper appeared to him and promised freedom if the miner began to worship the Sleeper. This miner took several people with him, went to the swamps, and founded there Swamp Camp. Later this miner took the name Yu Berion. The inhabitants of the Swamp Camp themselves call themselves the Brotherhood. There is an atmosphere of mystery and tranquility in the camp itself. The idols make their speeches, the novices pound the swamp grass, and only in the distance can you hear the swamp eater howling. At night, the camp is illuminated by lanterns made of magical ore, due to which the atmosphere of mystery intensifies significantly. Swamp Camp – the most vertical camp in the colony. Here and there there are stairs, and a considerable part of the huts are located at the top. Therefore, in the initial stages of camp it is easy to get confused. The camp exists by making and selling marsh grass.
Criminal fact: In the game you can sell swamp grass. The grass is bought by the inhabitants of the New Camp, and it is sold for 10 pieces of ore apiece.
According to the hierarchy, the Brotherhood is divided into novices, guardians and gurus. In order to join the Swamp Camp you need to enlist the support of at least four gurus. The biggest disadvantage of the Swamp Camp is that you cannot learn the fifth and sixth circle of magic, since the Nameless One is not expelled from the camp after the third chapter, and only Saturas teaches the fifth circle of magic. But this can be explained by the fact that in the Swamp Camp they teach the magic of the Sleeper.
The peculiarity of Gothic is that the developers have thought through each camp. Here’s what Mike Hoge has to say about it.
Mike: Each camp should be able to provide itself with food, the Old Camp exchanges ore with the outside world, the cultist camp can sell its swampweed for food to other camps. And New Camp has the opportunity to grow its own food. I tried to find different ways to do this for each camp.
Then I had to figure out what kind of food the New Camp should grow, and it seemed to me that rice fields would be the best option, because.To. they are not difficult to display in the game, such as a wheat field – in this case a large dam would be required for water supply. In any case, the dam made the relatively small camp larger.
The Mine Valley itself is small, but very hilly, making it seem larger. And the main character moves slowly, and teleportation runes appear only towards the middle of the game.
The Valley of Mine is open from the very beginning, and the player is free to go wherever he wants. However, there are monsters on the way, which in the initial stages can overwhelm the Nameless One with one bite. Therefore, we have to avoid dangerous places, like the forest. And only towards the end of the game the Nameless One can destroy all living things in his path. Although even at the end of the game a crowd of orcs can cause problems.
The currency in the Valley of Mine is magic ore. Although Gothic has an exchange system. Each item has its own cost, and you can, for example, exchange 100 arrows for a one-handed sword.
Gameplay
The first thing the player will have to deal with is the controls. After all, in order to simply open the chest, you must first hold down the action key, and only then hold down the forward key. At the beginning of the 2000s, when the Internet was not yet so widespread, it was even more of a challenge to figure it out on your own. And so in Gothic you can interact with many objects – sit on a stump, strum a lute, stir a cauldron with a spoon. True, the above actions are of little use – but immersive! But there are also useful actions. For example, fried meat restores more health, and you can make good money by forging swords (if you steal the blanks from a blacksmith at night).
The combat system is also designed. You must first hold down the action key, and to strike, press the movement keys left, right, forward. Use the backward movement key to place a block. On the Internet you can hear a fairly common opinion that Gothic combat is crooked and clumsy, but with proper skill you can enjoy it. Moreover, as you level up your sword skills, the animations change, and even a combo appears! Speaking of pumping. The player gains experience points by completing quests and destroying all living things on the map. Moreover, living creatures will respawn only in the next chapter. Therefore, every chapter you have to clear almost the entire Valley of Mines. The player can spend experience points on wielding weapons, picking locks, circles of magic, as well as on extracting claws, skins, fangs from monsters, and so on. Moreover, skinning is very profitable, and it is better to level it up at the very beginning. Also, the player can improve his acrobatics, and then jump like a real circus performer. As for the distribution of experience points, you won’t be able to do this on your own; teachers are needed for this. Distribution occurs not simply by clicking on the desired item, but teachers explain in detail that, for example, you cannot hold a one-handed sword with both hands. And indeed, if at first the Nameless One holds a one-handed sword with both hands and swings it like a monkey with a stick, then as he levels up the main character learns to deliver precise and quick blows. Another unusual lockpicking in Gothic. In order to pick the lock you need to choose the right combination, to do this you need to press the left and right movement keys. If you press the wrong key, the lockpick may break, depending on your skill level. And in order to quietly penetrate houses, the Nameless One will have to improve his sneaking skill. And don’t sneak up in front of other NPCs. The main character can learn magic. There are six circles of magic in total. As the circles are explored, the Nameless One can use more runes.
In general, Gothic is an immersive game, its interface is minimalistic – only a health bar in the lower left corner. Even the map in the game looks like it was drawn by hand, which further enhances the immersion. And since we’re talking about immersion, it’s worth talking about the atmosphere.
The atmosphere in Gothic – even hang an ax. The dim sun is trying to break through the clouds, darkened leaves are falling in the forest, and somewhere nearby you can hear the bubbling of a scavenger. Mine Valley is a dark place, and this is one of the reasons why you may not like the game, along with the high barrier to entry. This is not the second Gothic with its green forests. The color scheme here is muted, predominantly dark brown.
One of the important components of the Gothic atmosphere is the living world. It seems as if the world of Gothic could easily survive without a player. In the first Gothic, no one considers you the chosen one, no one rushes to your feet with pleas for help. Even towards the end of the game, when hints appear about the chosenness of the main character, Xardas says that maybe it’s you, but maybe it’s not you. The Nameless One is treated the same as everyone else. To gain respect from the characters, you need to do something really important, for example, deal with the crawlers in the Old Mine.
Since we’re talking about atmosphere, we can’t help but mention the music. The music for all parts was written by the most brilliant composer Kai Rosenkranz. Kai was only 18 years old at the time of the release of Gothic, and when he started writing music for the game, he was already finishing school. Here’s what Kai says about it
Kai: At first I wanted to become a developer. My hobby was creating games, and for them, of course, I also made sound and music. Before my exams, I decided to visit several development studios to get an idea of my desired profession. After several visits, Tom Pucki made me feel welcome and I got to know the whole team. In addition, I found out that they still have no one to do sound and music in Gothic 1. Then I applied and got my chance.
Kai also created all the sounds for the game, he even used his nose for this.
So, let’s look at the characters that will appear in all parts of Gothic
Nameless – he’s the main character. An arrogant and overly curious guy. Who is he, where is he from, nothing is known about this. The only thing he reports about himself is that he was kept in a hole for 2 months before being thrown over the Barrier.It is also unknown why Bezymyanny was convicted, but Mike Hoge said in an interview that ”no one is innocent”. We also don’t know his name, although he tries to name it.
Diego – according to the miners, he’s a normal guy, which he proves with his actions. It is he who saves Nameless from Bullitt. Looks after newcomers and gives them a test, thereby giving them a chance to become a ghost.
Horn – cheerful big guy who loves to eat. Nameless first meets Gorn in the New Camp, where he advises Nameless to kick Shrike out of his hut. Owner of the most relaxed gait in the Valley of Mines.
Leicester – novice in the Swamp Camp, has been behind the barrier for two years. When asked by the Nameless One whether he really believes in the Sleeper, Lester replies that he is ready to believe in anything, just to get out of the Barrier. Can help the Nameless One enter the Swamp Camp. By some miracle he knows how to bypass stone golems.
Milten – Apprentice of Archmage Corristo. Joined the mages after Xardas left. According to Milten, Corristo took him on as a student rather for fun. It is to Milten that the Nameless One delivers the letter to the fire mages.
Xardas – former Supreme Mage of the Circle of Fire, who went to the Orc Lands to independently study necromancy. Xaradas is blind. There is some debate among fans about whether Xardas is really blind. Most likely he uses magical vision.
Saturas – Archmage of the Circle of Water. At first he was happy about the Nameless One, but later, after stealing energy from a mountain of magic ore, he greatly hated the Nameless One. It will be possible to return the favor of Saturas to the Nameless One only in the next part.
Lee – former general of King Robar II, who was unjustly convicted of murdering the king’s wife. Perhaps he was a general under Robar I.
Design document and cut content
Initially, the developers had ambitious plans. Additional daily activities planned. In the Swamp Camp it was a meditation for calling the Sleeper, in the Old Camp it was transporting food and wine to the Old Mine, and in the New Camp it was transporting ore from the Free Mine to the New Camp. A fourth camp was planned – the Free Camp, which was located near the entrance to the Free Mine. The Free Camp was inhabited by a guild of hunters.
A different story was planned, which would pay more attention to the relationship between the camps. In the end, the entire Valley of Mines was captured by orcs, and the main character, before defeating the Sleeper, fought with Xardas. Also Gorn, Diego, Milten and Lester were members of the Freemasons Guild. This may explain some of their remarks.
It was planned to be able to set fire to wooden objects. The pre-alpha version had helmets and shields. The ability to lure out monsters using meatbugs and goblins as bait has also been removed. Orcs behaved more like humans. For example, orcs could patrol the Valley of Mine with a torch in hand and accompanied by an orc hound. Orcs could sleep, sneak, swim, climb ledges and give orders to their hounds.
The troll could throw stones and goblins at the player. The player could cut off a zombie’s head and throw it. A decapitated zombie could put its head back in. The obscurants were afraid of bright light. The crawlers were blind and reacted to noise. The early version of Gothic was planned to have more spatial puzzles. Stealth quests were planned, traces of this remained in the final version in the form of the ability to hide in a barrel.
And that’s all. Write what memories you have associated with Gothic. I played Gothic for the first time in 2015, but then I didn’t even get to the Old Camp and abandoned the game. Six months later, I decided to play Gothic again, decided to join the Old Camp, and abandoned the game again. And only at the end of 2016 I completed the first and second Gothic in one gulp. See you again at Stopgame.ru