Hear me out
There's a few things to know about Gothic, and this Gothic Remake that will inform your purchase better than my, or anyone else's opinions. That said, for context, please understand that I do 'not' like fantasy themes usually, and despite that I still feel this Remake specifically has earned it's 5 full stars.
Gothic 1 in 2000 was, on the surface, your typical RPG. Like any typical RPG, you start as a low-level nothing nobody, and an adventure of swords and beasts and magic awaits... It's not until you've started playing it until you realize how different, and interesting the game and it's mechanics can be.
The combat is the best example. The first time you pick up a sword, your character will awkwardly flail it around like an idiot. You run into an enemy or two, and they beat you down with shocking ease. It's not a "Dark Souls" moment of "git gud" (ugh), instead it's just you don't have the strength or training with a sword to not get floored by a weird chickencluck nightmare ... thing. You can still kill it by blocking and dodging, it's just not easy (yet). When you start to level up, and get skills, you see that progression MEANS something in this game. You start to hold your sword strongly and when you attack you look like you know what you are doing.
The inventory and interaction systems are incredibly straight-forward for an RPG. Not in a bad way either, just streamlined. The dialogue system is simple, but it does exactly what it was designed to do. Give you a surprising amount of choice, and be a smart-ass if you want. Getting this clunkyness out of the way helps you enjoy the game, and soak up it's atmosphere. This goes for the UI in general. You're not seeing objective markers and wayponts on a minimap or compass. It's very minimal. There is a map, just not at first. You have to go get one.
Regarding the Remake specifically, I'm happy to report that this is - like Gothic itself - deeper than the surface suggests. It's both a very faithful remake, and slight expansion to the game. Everything about the Original seems here - same locations, characters, story, etc. Yet much of it is expanded. The best way to describe it is this is how you'd remember Gothic if you hadn't played it in 20 years.
The menu/ui were obviously improved, but they kept their simplicity. The new glossary, and the way you can toggle straight-forward objecitves vs a journal for "what to do" was inspired. As was the suite of options. After playing a round some I was able to get the camera to mimic the original, change the way lighting works indoors, alter the gamma, and tweak brightness / contrast to remove the modern cinematic look... and the fact I can tweak it's display that much, that easily is really nice.
The original Gothic was a strange RPG I played many years ago as a non-fan of RPG's, and was taken by it's strange dead-autumn vibe, and suprisingly grounded attitude about the ohterwise annoying fantasy genre. It left a distinct impression on me, and changed how I thought about RPGs and Fantasy. It isn't in my Top 10, but it is my Top 100 games, for sure.
The remake enhanced nearly everything about the original, even if some stylistic choices are not what I personally would have gone with (a little too green in the forests and stuff... and that Ponytail does not work with the new graphics, I'm sorry, it's just awful, like it reminds me of Steven Segal hahaha. Jokes aside, it was absolutely worth the 50$. I sincerely hope we see a Gothic 2 Remake in the exact same fashion as the original - which is to say they feel like 2 sides of the same coin.
If you're REALLY not sure if it's for you, there's a demo that was floating around somewhere - OR you could buy Gothic 1, the original. For a few bucks on GOG you can try out the original and ask "Would this be awesome with modern graphics?" and if the answer is yes, grab Gothic 1 Remake.
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