I picked this game up for $19.95 at EB a month or two ago.
Graphics
I actually really like the graphics, although the character animations are unnatural (particuarly the gestures during conversation).
Music
Excellent musical score. Reminds me of Morrowind in that regards.
Voice acting
It's.. different. The acting itself isn't too bad, but there's some bizarre accents in there (exactly where does a Fire Mage pick up a texas twang?). Still, it gives the NPCs more personality than your stock British accent.
Gameplay
Combat can either be very rewarding or a huge pain in the butt. I like the fact that you generally end up getting slaughtered if you try to solo against a huge group of monsters. If you're good at blocking, you can even cross swords with the tougher monsters at the beginning of the game (i.e. Orcs). Also, +1 for making orcs actually challenging instead of the fodder that they usually are in other fantasy games.
The game is fairly linear, but gives you three classes to explore. I'm at the end of the game as a Paladin (other choices are Mercenary and Fire Mage).
I was all set to give this a good score, except for the last area. The last dungeon is chop-city on my poor old PC (a 800Mhz Celeron with a 64mb GeForce II Ti). I don't get it. I had no problems with the rest of the game, but the damn Halls of Irdorath runs at 5-8fps. Chug city. I got as far as just past the puzzle room, but it's completely unplayable.
So Gothic 2 gets -10000 points for lying on the side of the box (700mhz P3 my ass). I'll probably finish it (much) later when I'm able to afford a decent video card.
Nathan
Graphics
I actually really like the graphics, although the character animations are unnatural (particuarly the gestures during conversation).
Music
Excellent musical score. Reminds me of Morrowind in that regards.
Voice acting
It's.. different. The acting itself isn't too bad, but there's some bizarre accents in there (exactly where does a Fire Mage pick up a texas twang?). Still, it gives the NPCs more personality than your stock British accent.
Gameplay
Combat can either be very rewarding or a huge pain in the butt. I like the fact that you generally end up getting slaughtered if you try to solo against a huge group of monsters. If you're good at blocking, you can even cross swords with the tougher monsters at the beginning of the game (i.e. Orcs). Also, +1 for making orcs actually challenging instead of the fodder that they usually are in other fantasy games.
The game is fairly linear, but gives you three classes to explore. I'm at the end of the game as a Paladin (other choices are Mercenary and Fire Mage).
I was all set to give this a good score, except for the last area. The last dungeon is chop-city on my poor old PC (a 800Mhz Celeron with a 64mb GeForce II Ti). I don't get it. I had no problems with the rest of the game, but the damn Halls of Irdorath runs at 5-8fps. Chug city. I got as far as just past the puzzle room, but it's completely unplayable.
So Gothic 2 gets -10000 points for lying on the side of the box (700mhz P3 my ass). I'll probably finish it (much) later when I'm able to afford a decent video card.
Nathan
