Gothic II
| Gothic II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Piranha Bytes |
| Publisher(s) | JoWood Productions Atari |
| Series | Gothic |
| Engine | Gothic engine |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Action RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Gothic II is a role-playing video game and the sequel to Gothic, by the German developer Piranha Bytes. It was first released on November 29, 2002 in Germany, with North America following almost one year later on October 28, 2003. The game was published by JoWood Productions and Atari.
Setting
Only weeks earlier, you, a prisoner in the mining colony on the island of Khorinis, discovered a vast subterranean Orc temple in the Valley of Mines and defeated the evil archdemon, known as the 'Sleeper', who resided within. Upon his defeat, the Sleepers' ancient temple collapsed along with the magical barrier that had encompassed the Valley of Mines for years. However in the very moment of your greatest triumph over evil, freeing hundreds in the process, you yourself remained a prisoner, buried alive under an avalanche of crashing rocks and rubble. Entombed, only the power of your magic ore armour prevented you from being crushed to death.
In that same moment, spurred by the hatred of men long suppressed, the escaping mine prisoners streamed through the only pass out of the valley to freedom. No one on Khorinis had been prepared for this. Too long had they lived under the deceptive notion of the security granted by the apparently indestructible magical barrier. Heavily outnumbered and unprepared, the small militia garrison stationed at the pass simply couldn't repel the onrush of the prisoners. After a number of short bloody clashes, many captives successfully escaped to freedom in the woods and rugged mountains of the surrounding countryside where they quickly formed into gangs of bandits.
The bandits' ever-increasing boldness seems to have paralysed the whole population of the coastal town of Khorinis as the number of raids and robberies in the vicinity of the towns' outer defence walls steadily escalates. Out in the surrounding countryside, angered by the inability of the kings' militia to protect their farms from the bandits, the farmers are now refusing to pay their taxes to the king and have instead hired some of the former prisons who are now offering their services as mercenaries to protect them. The island of Khorinis is now facing a very uncertain future. More and more of the farmers' food deliveries into town don't take place. The food stocks in the town's cellars are diminishing rapidly. The kings militia's might, it seems, ends at the town gates.
But there is something else that no one seems aware of. Evil on Khorinis is not entirely dead. With his last vengeful breath, the Sleeper summoned forth the Undead Dragon and his loyal Dragon Lords to help the Orcs deliver a final deathblow to all of humanity. And no one yet knows of their secret plan. No one?
Xardas, dark necromancer and your mentor, is one of the few who is aware of the precariousness of the situation, so chooses to free you with his magic from the deep underground ruins of the Sleepers' temple and brings you back to the world in order to decipher the mysteries of the mine valley and find out more about this new and deadly menace with the hope of putting a stop to their evil plans for humanity. But the weeks of agony deep below the ruins of the temple and the unspeakable torment and pain you've endured have left their mark. The man whose soul Xardas has summoned back to the world in his pentagram now seems feeble and wretched. For the second time, you must shoulder the burden of your country's fate, but have become so weak that you've forgotten many things. After all this hardship, you must carefully fortify yourself and slowly try to remember and re-learn those things you once knew, acquire new abilities, and thus, set forth to accomplish this new mission that Xardas has entrusted to you.
Mean while, back on the mainland, the war against the Orcs has been going very badly since the ore shipments from Khorinis have ceased. The Orcs have now pushed the kings army even further eastward and are now slowly encircling the capital city of Vengard. A desperate last stand now seems to be the only course of action left. Lost in thought, King Rhobar II stands alone in his throne room, gazing at the little lump of ore in his hand, fascinated by the glistening purple veins running through it which give it its remarkable magical properties.
"This is the ore my kingdom is built upon" he thought. "Without it, all is lost. The whole realm is sinking into chaos. Angry farmers everywhere are rising up in arms against me, refusing to pay their dues, and am powerless to do anything about it. Too many battles have been lost. So many of my soldiers have fallen under Orcish blades. Every last one of them a loyal son of Myrtana. So many lost sons". The king tightly grips the small lump of ore between both hands and brings it up to his lips as if in prayer, allowing a single tear to escape his tightly closed eyes. "My once mighty army is now desperate. I simply don't have enough men left to stand up to these barbarous Orcs for much longer. If I don't get more ore from Khorinis soon, we shall not survive the orcs' next frontal assault."
He rose from his throne, walked to the window and looked out over his beloved capital. There was an eerie calm hanging over the city. Only the monotonous rhythm of the Orc war drums could be heard in the distance. His saddened gaze fell upon the once bustling harbour, to the pitiful remnants of his once mighty naval fleet. The Esmeralda, a humble merchantman, is now the only seaworthy vessel left at the king's disposal. The rest of the fleet now lies at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the mighty Orc slave galleys. With a sigh, the king tears himself away from this sad scene, his eyes now drawn to the huge chimneys of the big industrial smelting furnaces. It has been two weeks now since the last fires could be seen burning in them. Now, the furnaces were bereft of their blaze and the chimneys had grown cold. They stood black and dreary and seemed to the king to resemble the pitiful skeletal remains of his once invincible kingdom reaching skyward as if pleading to the gods for salvation. Since ore production on Khorinis had ceased, his armies had suffered one defeat after another. Now his armouries were empty and without new ore it was impossible to forge new, superior weapons for his few remaining soldiers. Without ore, all hopes of turning around the fortunes of this horrendous war were lost. The human world's very future depended on resuming the mining and shipment of magic ore from Khorinis!
"I must come to a decision" thought the king. "The orcs' siege ring around the city is not yet complete. There might still be time to strike back, but who knows for how much longer? But a counter attack would be suicidal without the weapons required. What I need is ore!"
With his gaze resting over his realm's capital, the kings' eyes dried and came alive once more as he devised a new, bold and desperate plan.
"If my plan fails, we will be doomed. My realm will lie in ruins, and soon cease to exist save for sad songs and learned writings, but doomed also if i fail to lead. It might not yet be too late. My kingdom is not yet defeated! If I make haste, this might just work."
The king shouted to a messenger "Send Lord Hagen to me at once, I have a mission of great importance for him to fulfil!"
Presently, a visibly exhausted warrior entered the throne room. Like many other soldiers, he had not slept in days; only his iron discipline kept him on his feet.
"You sent for me, sire?". "Lord Hagen, I have a quest for you. The survival of us all, indeed the destiny of our whole realm depends on it. You must not fail, do you understand me?". "My life is of no importance, sire. I shall fulfil your quest, or die trying.". Placing a hand on Lord Hagens' shoulder, the king tells him of his mission. "My friend, I entrust you with our last seaworthy vessel, the Esmeralda. Take her at once with a hundred of your best men to Khorinis and do everything in your power to get those ore mines back into production. Don't return here unless your ship's holds are filled with ore, do you understand?". "But sire, the defence of Vengard!". "My friend, without ore, Vengard is already lost. It's just a matter of time. Go to Khorinis, get as much ore aboard the Esmeralda as possible and get back here as soon as you can. We'll try to hold out for as long as possible until your return, then we'll give these Orc bastards a taste of our blades once more! Time is of the essence, my friend. Go now, and may the gods bring you back to us on swift wings".
Back on Khorinis, you slowly become all too aware of the scale of the impending unrest which, at any moment, threatens to plunge this seemingly civilized world into corruption, greed for power, and murder. With the Esmeralda's arrival in the town harbour, the well-fed, complacent and ever greedy citizens inside the town walls of Khorinis now enjoy the protection of the seasoned royal paladins. The starving farmers outside, on the other hand, continue not to deliver grain into town, relying on their hired, heavily armed mercenaries to stand up to the paladins demands for taxes and for produce to be delivered to the towns people. Now even the magicians on Khorinis who usually enjoy a secluded life in their monasteries, feel compelled to intervene. The situation is steadily getting out of hand with open civil war threatening to erupt at any moment, which would likely leave no one on the island unscathed.
But why is it that the centuries-old order is now about to be destroyed? Is this new and hidden power pulling the strings in the background, playing the people of Khorinis off against each other like puppets? Is all this chaos nothing but a deliberate distraction to hide a much graver danger to humanity?
You must now set off, this time volunterily, to the Valley of Mines to uncover the hidden truth behind this new and mysterious dark power, and do all you can to stop it!
Prologue
After the barrier around the prison colony was destroyed, ore supplies for the kingdom have stopped. The king decides to send Lord Hagen with 100 paladins to the island to secure ore. On Khorinis, prisoners that escaped the camp raided the country and seeing as the militia was unable to protect them; some farmers formed an alliance with the refugees and no longer paid allegiance to the king.[1] Evil did not disappear with the Sleeper being banned as with his last cry the Sleeper summoned the most evil creatures. Xardas felt this and rescued the Nameless Hero from under the ruins of the sleepers temple, where he has laid for weeks, becoming weak.[2]
Plot
The Nameless Hero is instructed by Xardas on the new danger, an army of evil that has gathered in the mine valley, led by dragons. Xardas sends the Hero to Lord Hagen, leader of the paladins, to retrieve the Eye of Innos, an artifact which makes it possible to speak with the dragons and learn more about their motivation. The Nameless Hero starts to the City of Khorinis and after he found a way to enter the city, he learns he has to join one of the factions – the militia, the fire mages or the mercenaries – to be permitted entrance to Lord Hagen. When finally meeting the head of the paladins, the Nameless Hero is first sent into the mine valley, which is now overrun by Orcs, to bring back evidence of the dragons. In the castle, the former old camp, Garond heads the mission of the paladins. He also knows about the dragons, since the castle has already been attacked by them, but is only willing to write a notice on it for Lord Hagen, after the Nameless Hero has gathered information on the status in the mines. By the time the Hero exits the valley with the note about the dragons, the evil forces have become aware of his quest. Seekers are spread throughout the isle, with the goal to kill him. Presented with the note Lord Hagen is willing to give the Eye of Innos to the Hero and sends him to the monastery of the fire mages to retrieve it. But shortly before the Hero arrives there, the eye was stolen. The Hero chases after the thief, but just arrives in time to witness Seekers destroy the Eye of Innos. A smith can repair the amulet, but for the magical power to be restored, a ritual with high mages representing the three gods is necessary. Vatras, the water mage, prepares the ritual and represents Adanos. With former fire mage Xardas representing Beliar, Pyrokar, head of the fire mages, joins the ritual reluctantly to represent Innos. The mages manage to restore the power of the Eye of Innos and so the Hero can head back to the valley to destroy the four dragons that live there. After all of the dragons are killed, the Hero travels to Xardas' tower to report to him, but the mage is gone. The Hero is given a note from Xardas by Lester, telling him he was to find more information in the fire mages' monastery, in the book 'The Halls of Irdorath'. The book contains a sea map, showing the way to the isle Irdorath, one of the ancient temples of Beliar that once disappeared. The hero assembles a crew and gets a ship and a captain for that ship to sail to Irdorath and confront the leader of the dragons – the undead dragon.[3]
Reception
While Gothic II received very high reviews in the German press, it did not fare that well in North America, where it received high ratings, too, but also negative reviews.[4] One of the reasons for the overall worse reviews were the graphics. The translation of the script and the voice acting in the English version were also criticized, and were felt by critics to be out of place and poorer than in the German version. Much of the voice acting criticism falls upon the change in the voice for the character Diego.[5][6] While the game received almost perfect ratings from RPG dedicated websites RPGdot and Just RPG,[5][7] it still received fairly high reviews with ratings of 8.0 of 10 and above on most websites, including IGN and GameSpot.[6][8] The worst review Gothic II received was on GameSpy, with a rating of 2 out of 5.[9]
Technical
Engine
The game engine is basically a modified version of the Gothic engine. The texture resolution has been improved by the factor 4 and the world is said to be three times as detailed as in the first game.[10] While the graphics are less detailed than other engines of the time, there is almost no loading time.[11]
Release and distribution
The German version of the game was published by JoWood and released on November 29, 2002. In the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, JoWood and Atari co-published the game, released on June 13, 2003. The US release by Atari followed a few months later on October 28. However, according to Piranha Bytes, Atari did not officially confirm the US release to them, so they did not spread the word about this release for months.[12] On October 17, 2005 publisher JoWood announced that Aspyr Media was going to publish four of their titles in North America, one of them being Gothic II Gold, which includes Gothic II as well as the expansion pack Gothic II - Night of the Raven.[13] Aspyr Media released Gothic II Gold on November 29, 2005. In Germany, Gothic II is also available in a Collector's Edition, together with the add-on and Gothic. An English demo version of the game which contains the first part was released on March 17, 2005, when the game was released in several new territories.[14]
References
- ^ Gothic II story Piranha Bytes. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Gothic II manual fsfs.
- ^ Walkthrough World of Gothic. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Press reactions on the official web site Piranha Bytes. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ a b RPGDot Review rpgdot.com. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ a b IGN Review pc.ign.com. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Just RPG Review just-rpg.com. Retrieved on August 4, 2006
- ^ Gamespot Review gamespot.com. Retrieved on August 4, 2006
- ^ Gamespy Review gamespy.com. Retrieved on August 4, 2006
- ^ Gothic II Fan site FAQ World of Gothic'. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Just RPG Review just-rpg.com. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ News on the official web site Piranha Bytes. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Press release Jowood'. Retrieved on August 3, 2006
- ^ Press release Jowood. Retrieved on August 3, 2006.