Gothic Remake Preview: Can the quality match the ambitions?

When Pyranha Bytes was shut down by Embracer Group last year, it marked the end of an era. The studio was not only one of Germany's most successful developers, but had also enriched gamers around the world with some of the most innovative and uncompromising role-playing games in series such as Risen and Elex. Fortunately, the studio lives on in a way thanks to the upcoming remake of their debut game, the cult classic Gothic, which is now finally approaching launch.

Behind Gothic Remake is Barcelona-based Alkimia Interactive. They began production back in 2021, but before that they had already released a free "Playable Teaser" for the project, which, with a peak of 3,888 concurrent players, showed that interest in the brand was still there. However, the concept demo also met with some criticism from fans of the original, who felt that the developer had completely misunderstood Gothic.

Admittedly, the game still took place in a magical-encased prison, but the previously tough and hostile inmates had been replaced by helpful NPCs, the tone seemed off, and perhaps worst of all, unlike in the original, you felt like the archetypal hero around whom the entire game world revolved.

I already realise that a lot is different this time when I shake hands with a smiling German who leads me into the secluded press room. He turns out to be composer Kai Rosenkranz, who created the soundtrack for the original Gothic when he was very young. "I was 17, 18, and I didn't really have an approach," he explains when I later ask him about his work.

"I was just brute forcing my way through a steep learning curve, specifically with the audio software I was using back then. For the remake, I'm now following today's approach which is completely based on emotions. For every single track - even though it's a combat track - I try to understand the intended emotions, what factions are involved and so on, and then I try to translate that into the music."

While the original soundtrack, which is about half an hour long, is also included in the remake, Rosenkrantz has composed an additional 3.5 hours of music. In this way, his contribution also illustrates Alkimia Interactive's approach. The Catalan developer has teamed up with several of the original developers to ensure a product that is faithful to the original version. For example, the game's dialogue and story are being developed in collaboration between some of the original writers and the studio's local writers. But the studio doesn't just want to polish the classic, they also want to add extra content to the game.

Lead game designer Javier Untoria Zuñiga gives us an early taste of the high level of ambition when he chooses to play as a magician during our demonstration. According to Rosenkrantz, this class was a bit lacking in the original Gothic, so Alkimia Interactive has expanded the spellbook considerably. Zuñiga shows off some very traditional magical abilities - a bit of exploding ice and other tricks - before pulling the big rabbit, or rather wolf, out of his hat.

It looks spectacular and appropriately gruesome when he uses a spell to transform our nameless hero into a wolf, but what is impressive is not that you can play as the wolf, nor that it has unique attacks. No, what is truly impressive is that you can transform into ALL animals in the game, from birds to fish and everything in between. The creatures offer a wealth of different possibilities when it comes to combat and navigating the game world. You can even use transformations for a kind of stealth à la disguises in Hitman.

"For us the relation between the creatures, society and factions is very important. For example, the wolves think I'm one of them and ignore me. Smaller creatures like scavengers might even run away from me, because we have a systemic world," explains Zuñiga.

Although the transformations alone seem quite extensive, Zuñiga emphasises that they are only one of many tools available to the player. And if you choose not to train in the art of magic, you will not experience this part of the game at all. In this way, Gothic Remake is very reminiscent of the original. You are free to do almost anything, but not in the same hidden way. For example, depending on which factions you work with, you will get different missions and experience unique events, just as your relationships with the NPCs will also be shaped by your choices.

As in the original, there are many different factions to do missions for. Gothic Remake takes place in a prison protected by a magical barrier. Here, the inmates perform slave labour to obtain minerals to help the king of the country in his unsuccessful war against the orcs. However, after a prisoner uprising, the king's people lose control of the inmates, who split into three camps, each with their own leadership and overall philosophy.

Thanks to a debug menu, Zuñiga takes us on a quick tour of the camps. The Old Camp has entered into a partnership with the king, while The New Camp is trying to find a way out of the barrier and escape. Finally, The Swamp Camp is almost like a hippie commune, where the inmates practise mysticism and grow plants with euphoric effects.

Visually, it looks quite impressive, and each camp has its own style. They also seem very lively, which is due to the fact that every NPC is unique and has their own routines. Since Gothic Remake does not contain quest markers, glowing arrows, or minimaps, our nameless hero must ask a guard when he needs to find a character. The guard is helpful, but instead of telling him the exact location, he tells him what the character's daily and evening routines are. As in the original, you must therefore get to know the game world - not as a static map - but as a living world. And yes, you can still kill or rob almost all NPCs. But of course, this has consequences.

"There is also a crime system. But it's not about karma or reputation, it's more about people knowing that if you have something that belongs to other people, the traders will not buy it. So they have a long term memory, but it's not about karma or a bar, it's more diegetic," tells Zuñiga.

It is precisely this kind of immersion that made Gothic a cult classic. And with its systemic gameplay and limited but living world, which your choices and actions actively help to shape it, Gothic Remake seems to capture what made the 2001 game so special.

However, the many opportunities to sabotage missions - either by tripping them up or, for example, by 'cheating' through transformations - must be quite a challenge for the developer to handle. I therefore ask Zuñiga how this freedom has affected their mission design.

"We always have in mind three ways to solve a quest - by violence, by tricking the character, or by solving the quest in the "proper" way," he explains. "Maybe some players slash their way through, maybe they find a secret way or passage, or maybe they complete it by going through certain steps. With our quests, it's not 'do this, in this way. It's simply "do this," and you will have to figure out the best approach yourself."

If THQ Nordic wanted to sell a vision with their presentation, they succeeded. With its focus on immersion, absent UI during gameplay, and living world, Gothic Remake seemingly carries on the legacy of Piranha Bytes and delivers a true role-playing game where you have the opportunity to shape both your character and the world around you. But, but, but, whether the game's gameplay actually holds up is another matter entirely.

Having returned from Gamescom and tried out the game's recently launched console demo, I am not particularly impressed with the game's combat system. It seems somewhat stiff and clunky. I am also curious to see if the developer manages to deliver an exciting story. The game's dialogue - from what little I see and hear - seems closer to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, to name a couple of the genre's most prominent beacons.

With a year to go until launch, Gothic Remake finds itself in a very exciting place, where I can see it becoming either a resounding failure or an overwhelming success. There is a chance that it will collapse under the weight of its own ambitions, and that the fundamental gameplay structure will not quite be able to support the many immersive systems. But even if it turns out to be an ambitious failure, I would almost prefer that to a formulaic success. I am therefore looking forward to the game and keeping my fingers crossed that Alkimia Interactive will realise their ambitions when Gothic Remake is released in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.