My life as the Nameless Hero in Gothic 1 Remake has been nothing short of a disaster. I got robbed, beaten up (three times within the first hour), and insta-killed by tiny dinosaurs. After six hours of playtime, I am weak, broke, and traumatized. Naturally, I cannot wait to spend more time in this glorious hellhole.
Gothic 1 Remake starts with a brief and somewhat overwhelming cutscene, wherein a gruff voiceover informs you that you, the Nameless Hero, are about to be thrown into the Valley of Mines, a no man’s land enclosed by a magical barrier. Once you get in, you can never get out. But hey, at least you’ll be given a grand quest to pursue: You must deliver a letter to the fire mages in the “Old Camp.”
Don’t mistake yourself for a chosen one, however, as that letter is about the extent of your importance to the world. Despite the name, Nameless Hero is an unskilled nobody; this open-world fantasy RPG does not revolve around you, as I learned the hard way when a beaked, dinosaur-like scavenger bird murdered me with a single bite.
This roughness, this brutality, is what captured my interest when I attended a Gothic 1 Remake event at Gamescom last year. I went home determined to play the 2001 original, but alas, the dated graphics and clunkiness proved too great a hurdle to overcome. Although I’ve since watched an unhealthy amount of Gothic gameplay and lore videos, I went into this preview not fully but at least partially unsure of what to expect.
Following Gothic‘s intro cutscene, I was left with complete freedom and no clear plan, so I explored my surroundings until I found a rusty sword and set off in search of the Old Camp. Looking for a friendly connection, I introduced myself to a bridge guard, informed him of my newbie status, and asked whether the fortress behind him was indeed the Old Camp, to which he replied with a very sarcastic “No, that’s King Rhobar’s cathouse. The Old Camp’s right under this bridge.” Upset that I got trolled, I decided to do the same to the next guard I met, who happened to be an Old Camp gate guard. Bad idea — very bad idea.
When he stopped and questioned me, asking me if I was “going to make trouble,” my reply was: “I sure am. I’m gonna burn down the whole camp.” Rather than laugh at my funny joke, he beat me up and stole my rusty sword.
Had Gothic 1 Remake been a regular RPG, though, this incident would’ve been embarrassing but not too troublesome, as I would’ve found myself a new weapon shortly. But folks in the Old Camp don’t just hand out weapons for free, and neither do they leave them unattended. I searched the entire place, but could not get my hands on another rusty sword.
So, there I was, a fresh arrival at the Old Camp with no money, no weapon, and no friends. To make matters worse, the first camp resident I talked to tried to extort me, making it very clear that I would get beaten up if I didn’t pay him. (Here’s a hint: believe him.) What to do? As getting eaten in the wilds or curling up in a corner and crying didn’t seem too helpful, I decided to explore the camp. This was the moment when Gothic 1 Remake truly blew my mind.
After meeting 10 or so NPCs, all with a unique personality and extensive dialogue options, I was already impressed, but the stream of new acquaintances just didn’t seem to end. I could talk to every single person, and although some of the nameless ones didn’t have unique voice lines, many Old Camp residents are fully fledged characters who immediately hit me with jokes, threats, lore, and requests. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of talking to Mud, whose sole purpose in life is to stalk and annoy the player. But as with everything else in Gothic 1 Remake, unexpected events lead to creative opportunities.
As happy as I was with my full quest log, I still lacked a proper weapon, so I set out into the wilds, lured Mud to a scavenger den, and, while distracting him, allowed the skullish fiends to attack him from behind. (I would like to stress that, technically, I wasn’t the one to commit this murder.) Anyway, once the birds had left, I was happy to find a mace among Mud’s remains. I am sorry, Mud, but at least your sacrifice was not in vain.
Even with a weapon in hand, Gothic Remake 1 didn’t get much easier, but I can’t blame it all on the scavenger birds. As I slowly but surely leveled my character by luring baby scavengers away from the group and taking them out (before anyone judges; one nip from their parents and I’m dead — surely I am the victim here), I mustered up the courage to chase some quest goals, but found that I didn’t get a map, compass, or any sort of marker to make navigation easier.
I confess, the complete lack of marked quest objectives worried me at first. This was one of Gothic‘s old-fashioned features that seemed most eligible for change, as modern RPGs seldom go without quest markers, and if they do, it’s a feature you can toggle on or off. But once I got used to it, the lack of markers made Gothic 1 Remake all the more immersive, as it forced me to listen closely to NPCs, ask the right questions, look for landmarks, and think along the lines of “who among my Old Camp buddies might have this information?”, thereby taking into account their backgrounds, expertise, and personality.
Questing might’ve turned to frustration had it required too much of my memory, but as the Nameless Hero keeps a journal with every piece of intel collected, I could safely leave the game for a few days and continue without trouble. At least in the first few quests, there were several ways to obtain the intel required, plus more than one way to complete a quest, so I rarely felt stuck. The main reason why Gothic 1 Remake‘s quest system works so well, however, is that it’s set in a pretty small world — it’s just easier to understand what one means by “old tower” when you know the world as well as your own backyard.
The humble map size is another thing that might’ve put me off in another game, but not in Gothic. Although it took me only a few minutes to walk from the northern edge of the map to the center, I came across a varied landscape with several NPCs, lovely views, and not-so-lovely enemies. People go about their day, doing their jobs and having fireside drinking parties, while animals roam the wildlands, occasionally attacking each other (I witnessed a rather interesting fight between a scavenger and an oversized wasp). The Old Camp itself, though not large, is densely packed with people, shacks, tents, campfires, scaffolding, dungeons, a fighting arena, and even a castle.
Sometimes, when an old game is remade, I feel it predominantly serves as a rush of nostalgia. Newer games, similar in concept but more modern, have already become perfect substitutes, so there’s no real reason to play the remake if you weren’t a fan of the original. I thought this might be the case for Gothic 1 Remake, but now I believe I was wrong; 25 years after the original’s release, this game feels utterly unique. While I’ve only set foot in the Old Camp, I have faith that the rest of Gothic 1 Remake will prove just as brutally magnificent.
Gothic 1 Remake will be released for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X on June 5.
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