News THQ Nordic Barcelona is remaking Gothic

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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Apr 21, 2019
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PR BLURB:
This is not a full game. Its a playable teaser version to a potential approach for a new Gothic game. Nothing is set in stone.

So your feedback is essential to turn Gothic into a modern game. Therefore, and to reward your loyalty, Gothic Playable Teaser is totally free for all fans who already have any of the titles in the Gothic saga or developed by Piranha Bytes!

The Kingdom of Myrtana has been invaded by an implacable horde of orcs.

King Rhobar II, in need of a large quantity of magical ore in order to forge powerful weapons, operates the Khorinis mines with all available prisoners. To prevent them from escaping, the monarch asks his best magicians to create a magical barrier. But something goes wrong. The magic gets out of control and a mutiny turns the mines into a wild territory now controlled by the most violent prisoners.

The King is forced to negotiate with the new owners, while the tension between the different factions of the mines increases. What no one expects is that the arrival of an unknown prisoner will change absolutely everything.

Key Features
  • Return to The Colony, a reimagination of the popular and revolutionary game Gothic from 2001. Rediscover the world of the mining colony, its secrets and challenges in this playable version of two hours.
  • Play as the Nameless Hero – Manage the fate of a lifetime convicted prisoner who must survive in a world of wild animals, creatures and convicts of dangerous reputation.
  • Experience a two hours-long introduction to The Colony – A mysterious red scroll and a set of strange characters will immerse you in a complex story of loyalties and betrayals.
  • Fight humans and others creatures like Scavengers and Wolfs – Learn the combat arts through a tactical and demanding combat system.
  • Discover the possibilities of crafting – Experiment with ingredients and recipes to discover powerful soothing and healing foods.

Q: Who is developing this project?

A: THQ Nordic Barcelona. You can find out more about the studio here (hint: we are looking to grow our team).

Q: Is Piranha Bytes involved in the project?

A: No! Piranha Bytes is working hard on a different project, which will be announced in 2020.

Q: Wait, why can we only play two hours?

A: Because it’s just a prototype, done by a new small team in Barcelona and we wanted to do an unusual approach and give this into the hands of players early. What you are going to play is all we have to show you at the moment.

Q: OK, got it. But if we want the full game, how long do we have to wait?

A: Quite some time. We will only start full production if the community demands a Gothic remake. In order to do so, we will need to grow the development team and rebuild Gothic from scratch.

Q: This can become a remastered HD version of Gothic?

A: We’d like to call it a remake. We are using a completely new tech (Unreal Engine 4) and so basically nothing but the story, the setting, the atmosphere, the music and the world of Gothic will remain. The whole tech, all graphics, the sound, different systems will be recreated according to modern high quality standards.

Q: Can I buy the prototype?

A: Yes and no. Everyone who owns ANY game from Piranha Bytes will get it for free–so if you don’t have either Gothic, Gothic 2, Gothic 3, Risen, Risen 2, Risen 3, or ELEX you can buy one of them now and the prototype is also yours.



Reaction on Steam has been... divided. It's obviously only a prototype, and the entire point is to gather feedback, but there are complaints about the visual tone, the writing, the controls, the camera, the music, the fact it has so many cutscenes, the hand-holding quest design, and more. While listening exclusively to Gothic diehards isn't the best approach, and also listening to the "MAKE IT DARK SOULS PLEASE" isn't a good idea, either, they are pretty obviously going to have to make some significant pivots to make something that pleases both newcomers and series fans.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Yeah, so, this is pretty bad.
And that's being kind. To the term "bad".

It's pretty much nothing like Gothic. At all.
Not that the combat was good in Gothic 1, but in this, it's shoddy For Honor-like... and that's not good either, bordering on near unplayable for a game of that type.
Add unskippable cutscenes and dialogue, very poor visuals, and just... "not Gothic" applied to every element.

I think it hurts even more when System Shock is available the very same day, and is a 1:1 remake, unlike this thing.
But hey, I want to see more Gothic, just not what they've done until now.... which must hurt a lot actually, but you don't take a franchise name and scrap it for something copied from Ubisoft (well maybe you do, and you get Breath of the Wild, and that's garbage, but people like fermented open world juice).
 

Oldschool PC

Junior Member
Nov 23, 2019
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THQ: How do we modernize Gothic for a modern audience?
Barcelona: Add dialog wheels, excessive bloom, flashy cutscenes, and quest markers.

And the writing, oof.... look how they massacred my boy Diego

 
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Gengis Khan

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Jan 26, 2019
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I hope this does not turn into another Souls like.
If only.

It looks like it's turning into another Arcania, with the combat copy-pasted from For Honor (but far worse), instead.
And so far it looks underwhelming, to put it mildly.

P.S. Just because I don't want to copy-paste the same opinion every-fucking.where, here's the Steam review that summarized how I felt about the entire demo:

And I didn't even give them enough shit for the quest markers and the dialogue wheel, in hindsight.
 
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Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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My friend, who is the world's biggest Gothic fan (well, at least it seems like that to me) was decidedly not impressed by the teaser.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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There's nothing to "turn around" or "scrap", they're just now building a team to develop the remake. It'd be strangely inept if they work off an universally panned demo, they want to develop a Gothic remake because of the demand, if they wanted to develop that demo that should mean a cancellation cos people hate it.

People seemed to expect a finished game out of a proof of concept (or less) demo and talking like no way is it just a demo, it's too finished and polished, it's probably how the whole game will be, and so on, and so forth. Well, there it is, they didn't even have a development studio ready to go and are only building a team because response was positive, not for the demo as it was but the possibility of a Gothic remake. I can't wait to see what they're doing with it. If they somehow decide to work off of the demo 1:1 despite the negative response that'd be very peculiar, it was clear people want a remake, but not like that.
 
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Oldschool PC

Junior Member
Nov 23, 2019
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The vision of the teaser is so far from what Gothic represents, that I have absolutely zero faith they will turn it around.

At this point THQ Nordic is one of my most hated publishers. They turned Jagged Alliance into a shovelware factory, Comanche into an online PvP shooter, and Gothic into a poor mans Witcher clone. These assholes have no respect, and shouldn't be allowed to ruin another classic IP ever again.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Hmm.
Visuals, sound design, UI issues... hell, even the dialogue can be fixed in a couple years.

But the gameplay, that's a bit harder. Going back to the drawing board at this stage is risky.
 

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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Yeah hopefully, I love me some Gothic so I'm excited for a new one either way.
honestly - i'm fairly certainly pretty much no one told them "yeah, i love that teaser ... that's EXACTLY how i want that remake to be" :p

the vast majority of feedback (if not all of it) was what you'd expect from people who played the original ... so here's hoping