Risen is the perfected version.
I just got Gothic 2 from buying the Witcher 2. Couldn't get into Gothic 2 in the past, I'll have to try again.

Well to each their own but I'll throw in a vote towards horrid lol. Don't get me wrong, the game is still outstanding IMO, enough so that it allows me to overlook how stupid the controls are. Definitely worth the trouble for those who enjoy the choices and open world exploration it will provide.

Speaking of horrid controls... I used to think The Witcher had the worst controls, ever! With a lot of help from GOGanites I learned the "error of my ways" and grew to love it.

My point is... I loved Risen, but never did grow to "love" the combat controls. But I like to think I'm a little wiser and perhaps more patient because of TW1, so maybe I'll learn to love Gothic's controls someday too...

I think the OP is the first person I ever met who played Gothic because they thought the story was awesome.

Anyways, the reason Gothic tends to be overlooked is because it's always been a rougher, smaller version of the mainstream Elder Scrolls series.

Personally, I nearly always play games primarily for their stories, so I can't say I love Gothic or any sandboxy game, as there seems to be a strange design philosophy that says if you want to make a sandbox, you can't have a great story. And, yes, this also means I've never enjoyed any of the Elder Scrolls games either.

Also, Risen has some of the worst combat controls ever designed. :p But, it's definitely a better Gothic game than Gothic 4. It may as well be renamed to Gothic 4 and the actual Gothic 4 should probably be removed from all stores and buried somewhere no one will ever find.

I personally liked Gothic for the sense of immersion and because I'm not the hero in this world, but merely yet another convict that tries to get out. The more powerful characters always bash you (in the beginning, pretty much everyone is better than you), and the sense of achievement that I got when I achieved some social status in the game.

I also found the story to be quite good. Nothing great, but there were a few things surprising elements. (I'm talking about the Gothic story; the Gothic II story, while good, wasn't very surprising, imo.)

I was of two minds after playing and completing Gothic this year for the first time. There is much to say for it, like the setting, the NPCs' daily routines that give the game's environment some credibility, the opportunities for free exploration etc. and I especially loved the soundtrack. On the other hand, I think my expectations were a little too high. I hadn't perceived Gothic as an overlooked RPG but instead as one of the most praised with a real cult following and therefor it was bound to disappoint me, I guess. Of all the RPGs I've played Gothic is far from being my favorite. But that's probably also due to my preference for intrigueing plots (the relative lack of which in Gothic was already mentioned). I felt that in the end I didn't get enough out of it for the time invested, too much running to and fro for fetch quests or similar (and running to and fro is no small deal in an open 3D world).

Um... I still bought Gothic 2 though afterwards, so take my criticism with a grain of salt. ;)

I'm especially loving Chapter 2 of Gothic II. Having to sneak around to avoid the attention of orc warriors and lizard men (largely because just one of either could tear my 'nads off with a mean look) rather than carving a path through them as is the usual RPG fare really makes the whole orc war seem far more serious than the usual fantasy wars (unlike, for example, Zelda, in which Gannon and his personal army are defeated by a single elf boy), not to mention, the above combined with my thief/archer character really gives this part of the game a kind of Splinter Cell vibe.

I've played Gothic II and III and well, um. *cough*

I really did not like them at all. Never finished either, but I did give both a solid 10+ hours of playing.

It's just that the world seems very generic and uninteresting, the combat is horribly clunky, the dialogue is terrible, and the quests rate very high on the "meh" scale. Gothic II was technologically ok, but Gothic III is utterly horrible.

For example, the beginning of Gothic III: who are these people on the boat? For that matter, why am I on the boat? What should I be doing in this world? Exploring? When I can't defeat a single monster in combat?

And the bugs!

I'm completely ready to be pelted with tomatoes, strung up, dragged behind a horse etc., but... are we playing the same game here? :)

German workmanship :p

No, seriously though, I think you pretty much nailed it. Not only the atmosphere, the overall feeling of the game is what makes it so great. “Relaxed” gets closed but there is more to it.

The beginning of 3 takes up directly off of the ending of 2. I agree that they should not have essentially made playing 2 a prereq for understanding the beginning of 3, but if you've played 2 it does make sense.

Did you play with CPT 1.74? I've only every played it with that patch and I never had any real issues.

Glad to hear some many like the game, I must say that I cant agree with the story and controls, I liek both! The controls are different, but not bad at all actually, the combat is a bit clunky, but I feel that oblivion (wont even mention morrwind...) is worse. FOr the story - its poretty much made in the same way as half life, ok, not in the same way perhaps but they are similar in the way that the overall game world is very unique, complex and interesting and the story within the game is more realisitc in a sense, not epic cries after loved ones being killedand cutscenes where blood is splashing, just more laid back:). But I have to asc you dedicated gothic fans - As I've stated, Iäve just started playing the two games gothic 1 nad 2 and LOVE them. But I haven't tried out the third one, is it any good? Or rather similar, thats what I want!
Edit: woah sorry for the spelling errors, just got a new keyboard, will check my comments before posting from here on...

Gothic 3 definitely has a very different feel to it, but it still is "Gothic". Most fans would agree that it's probably the worst out all the (first three) Gothic games, but it's by no means bad. If you're going to play it don't forget to apply the community patches, they make the game A LOT better.

I liked especially the free three-dimensional world. You can jump, climb, fall down and the world is not divided into (many) parts but is one big world with all persons and all monsters available at any time. You can steal from anyone and you can swimm and dive in the water if you like (and sometimes this helps). There are no gray areas, you can climb almost every mountain if you like. In other words: it's an open world, ready to explore, with a very advanced physics model. Compare against Witcher 1 or many Bioware titles and you see that there you had small areas which just had to be finished sequentially and mostly a 2D landscape and just much, much less physics/modeling involved.

I also liked the atmosphere, the hard life of the normal workers, the singing of the gothic band In Extremo which I like really and the music. The music was always superb in Gothic. Gothic 3 is mediocre at best but its music is perfect.

The fight was not too complex and not too simple for me, I had to change between distant attacks and melee attacks. The story was okay.

All in all the best thing about Gothic is it's marvelous game engine with (for it's time) outstanding physics abilities and open world feeling and the atmospheric impressions created by the NPC characters and the music.

I actually liked Gothic 3 more than the first two, but it's of course completely subjective.

+ More open (and larger) game world
+ More varied skill/upgrade path
+ More freedom in decisions, and they have more of an impact on the game world.

- Less coherent story
- Click-fest combat controls (clicky click, click)
- Crossbow reload times are usually about 27 minutes.

+/- (depending on you) If you don't have alternative balancing on, you can effecitvely become a god as far as skills towards the end. I like this, gives me another sense of accomplishment, but some people feel it kills replay.

I like Gothic and have never found the controls to be particularly clunky once I figured them out. The inventory is annoying with its tendency to not remember the "page" it was on :|

For fun, I started a new game on Gothic 2 and ran to the Old Camp immediately. It's possible (and quite fun) :) You do get stuck there though :P