Nearly five years after the Gothic Remake playable teaser was released on Steam, I watched a detailed presentation of the project at Gamescom 2024, followed by an in-depth Q&A with the developers at Alkimia Interactive.
To start with, the developers stressed Gothic’s importance from a gaming cultural standpoint, especially in Germany and Eastern Europe, where the fantasy role-playing game immediately garnered a huge following. They also immediately clarified that the Gothic Remake Gamescom 2024 demo was not part of the actual game. Instead, it was a sort of prequel featuring another main character rather than the nameless hero. Alkimia Interactive said they were unsure whether the demo would be released to the public.
Even in this demo, the action still took place in the mining colony under the magic barrier created by magicians to keep convicts under control. The developers said it was very important to keep the original spirit and the daily routines of the NPCs, who do their own things, like having random conversations that you can listen to.
In the original game, the player could dive, but the action was basically useless. In the Gothic Remake, the developers wanted to make this more meaningful, so players can now find loot inside sunken chests. For instance, at the very beginning of the demo, enterprising players can find a sword underwater. Alkimia wants to make the Gothic Remake a highly immersive experience. To that end, UI elements like the health and mana bars will only appear when the character draws a weapon.
If you have played the original, you’ll find that many locations are logical extensions of something in the original. Often, there was a blocked path; you would see something behind it, but you couldn’t actually go in. Now, the developers have taken these open ends to add more content.
In keeping with the gritty, realistic vibe of Gothic, the main character doesn’t really know how to fight at the beginning. His swings are purposely very slow and equally clumsy. That’s meant to highlight he has probably never held a sword before in his whole life, so he’s untrained and skilled. However, in the demo (and in the final game, too, of course), NPCs were available to teach him sword fighting. You do actually train with them, and it is even possible, albeit unlikely, to beat them.
On a high level, this is one of the important aspects of the world of Gothic: everything is communicated to you either visually or through conversations, so you don’t have to look abstractly at your skill tree; you can just look at your character and see that he’s getting better.
Cooking was available in the original, but in the Gothic Remake, you can fry multiple pieces of meat at once. You don’t have to do it one after the other. Also, if you find more recipes, you can even cook some more sophisticated dishes and sell them or eat them to get some more health points back. Another example is that you can count the number of arrows you’ve got left by just looking at the quiver.
Interestingly, most NPCs you fight against won’t instantly kill you. They are instead only interested in asserting their dominance in the prison colony and they let you leave after they’ve won. Another peculiarity is that in the quest log, there won’t be any separation between main quests and secondary quests.
I also learned from composer Kai Rosenkranz that the music in the original Gothic was only 25 minutes, maybe 30 minutes long, but it was composed out of building blocks that could be rearranged and shuffled around, which made it less repetitive. Still, there was only so much trickery that could be done that way. The Remake already has over two hours of music, including original melodies that are both variations and brand new ideas. Interestingly, Rosenkranz said his daughter also wrote some music for the Remake, so this was a collaborative thing. In the original game, Rosenkranz did the same while his father also worked on it, making it the second time the music is a multi-generational affair from the Rosenkranz family.
Overall, the Gothic Remake demo looked great, running smoothly on Unreal Engine 5. It looks fairly polished, too, even though the developers wouldn’t open up on whether the game was close to launch. According to publisher THQ Nordic, it’s supposed to be released by March 2025, although plans can always change.
After the presentation, I quizzed Kai Rosenkranz, Alkimia Interactive Director/Studio Head Reinhard Pollice, and Community Manager Timur Khodyrev on various aspects of the game, from its longevity to the changes they’ve made to specific systems and questlines.
Can you explore all the world from the get-go, or do you need to unlock something first?
Kai Rosenkranz: Nothing is locked away from you, but some things are found behind a creature that is initially nearly impossible to defeat. Or maybe there is a closed gate, but when you find a transformation spell, you can transform into a little bug to crawl around tunnels and go to places. It’s not locked per se as a systematic lock, but it’s blocked by in-world obstacles.
Can you upgrade your weapons?
Kai Rosenkranz: You can in the sense that you can forge your own weapons, and if you find more recipes for better weapons and better materials, you can go back to the blacksmith and forge a bigger weapon, which will look a bit fancier and stronger.
Can you complete most quests in any order?
Kai Rosenkranz: Yes. Some quests advance the main story, of course, but there are also secondary quests that affect it. The player can choose what they want to do and what is important to them.
What’s the level cap in the Gothic Remake?
Kai Rosenkranz: The level cap will be 50.
I wanted to ask about the game’s length. I know you are adding some new areas and making new quests, so how much can we expect in terms of length?
Kai Rosenkranz: The original game from 2001 was roughly 20 hours long, but it had a very narrow and linear story in the later chapter, so the mid-game and the end game were much more to the point and much more linear than the previous chapters. So if we manage to extend those chapters, or even give you multiple options that extend the main story and the kind of opportunities to do side quests into the later chapters, that would, I think, lead to a significant increase in playtime to maybe about 30 hours.
The idea is to entice players to play more than just one time so that they can see other outcomes and experience a different fighting style.
I know the game runs on Unreal Engine 5, right? Are you using Lumen and Nanite?
Kai Rosenkranz: Yes to both.
Will it be possible to have the camera centered on the player character, rather than the player character being so offset to the left, as seen thus far?
Timur Khodyrev: We weren’t sure about the camera position, and in fact, we moved it to the side just a few weeks before GamesCom. But due to feedback starting with the trailer we will for sure add options like locking the camera on the left or in the middle of the screen.
Will players have different paths in the second and third Chapters if joining the New/Old Camp instead of ‘spying’ on the Sect Camp?
Reinhard Pollice: There are more optional quests and ways to do things, but the main quest remains similar, meaning that you need to get a grip of the Sect Camp.
Will there be more guild-specific quests compared to the original?
Timur Khodyrev: Yes, as in the previous question, we want to expand Gothic Remake in different directions. We want to provide players with more in-depth information about the guilds, their goals, and motivations.
Did you add more diverse character reactions to the Gothic Remake depending on which camp you have joined?
Reinhard Pollice: We have a very complex reaction system and we plan to have different reactions based on story progress, missions you are in, recent events in the world or just the role of characters involved.
Will it be possible to become a water mage earlier?
Reinhard Pollice: Not specifically a water mage, but we want to open up access to magic sooner.
Will there be ways to customize the difficulty?
Reinhard Pollice: The true Gothic experience has a specific difficulty level, but for players who want it differently, there will be options. However, everybody should be aware that it’s not Gothic as it’s imagined; it’s just a variation.
People always ask about the New Game Plus mode. Is that something you are considering for the Gothic Remake?
Kai Rosenkranz: We will have some options to raise difficulty, but no New Game Plus.
Can NPCs use scrolls in the remake?
Reinhard Pollice: NPCs use magic.
How will the Brotherhood react to Y’berion’s death? In the original Gothic, nothing changes except for Kalom leaving. Is that something you’re going to expand on?
Timur Khodyrev: Yes, absolutely. Actually, after that moment in the original game, you don’t really need to come back to the Sect Camp since there is no additional content or quests. This is also what we want to expand in the remake. But we can not spill the beans other than it follows our philosophy of adding depth to the world and making it feel more alive.
How is the skill system changing in the Gothic Remake?
Timur Khodyrev: If you mean the progression system, then it will be almost the same as in the original game. You earn XP by completing quests and defeating your enemies. You can learn something only from teachers. So there are no “skill trees” as in many other RPG games. So you need firstly to find a teacher, who is a specialist in this or that category. We have a 3-step progression system for one-handed, two-handed weapons, and ranged weapons like it was in Gothic 1 (not in Gothic 2).
Also, there are some new skills you can learn, for instance – free climbing or diving. For the latter, you can learn how to stay underwater longer.
Will you take advantage of ray tracing effects?
Timur Khodyrev: Yes, there will be Ray Tracing technology in “Gothic 1 Remake”.
Will there be a Performance mode on consoles?
Timur Khodyrev: Yes, there will be quality and performance modes on consoles.
Are you planning to take advantage of the PS5 Pro console?
Reinhard Pollice: There will be some improvements for sure.
Will Gothic remake support NVIDIA and/or AMD frame generation techniques on PC?
Reinhard Pollice: We will for sure support some kind of tech in that area.
Thank you for your time.
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