Gothic 1 Remake – Review

Gothic 1 Remake is an action-adventure RPG where you play as a nameless hero thrown into a barrier. You’ll have to climb the ranks, make powerful friends, and find a way to escape this supposedly inescapable barrier. While most people would love nothing more than freedom from this barrier, some have gained power because of it and would do everything to keep it in place.

For more information about the game, please visit its official Steam page here. If you’ve already got the game, you can check out our walkthrough and guides for it here.

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Trapped in the Barrier

Gothic 1 Remake’s story revolves around a barrier that even those who erected it can’t leave. You’re quickly told that the King desperately needs ore, and that’s exactly what the higher-ups inside the barrier take advantage of to rise to power. The king sends every convict to this barrier, and you’ll realize immediately that the Valley of the Mines is not for the naive.

Even though this is a remake, the story of Gothic 1 is still interesting enough to keep you hooked. Furthermore, as a fan of RPGs, the game showed me that I was playing as a truly nameless and powerless character in the beginning, and I was, of course, no match for the people who had been in the barrier for far longer than I. That is exactly how it should be.

Picking Fights (and Losing Them)

The game doesn’t stop you from doing anything, and that’s one of its many charms. You can do anything and pick a fight with anyone, though the NPCs can humble you easily early on.

One more feature that I loved was the fact that if you’re defeated in battle by a human, they steal your ore and items and let you live. You can also do the same with NPCs. However, wild beasts aren’t as kind.

I loved the trading as well. Ore is scarce, but if you’re able to find the right merchant for what you want to sell, you can earn a lot.

Beauty and (True) Darkness

The visuals of Gothic 1 Remake are absolutely stunning. Everything looks beautiful and makes you think maybe it’s not so bad here after all. If you dive underwater anywhere, it looks like an entirely different world. It’s also quite dark at night, so you’ll need a torch or the Light spell to see anything, which is a nice detail and encourages you to rest at night like most NPCs in the game.

Fighting For Your Life

The combat is decent. You need to train to get proficient with weapons. However, the difficulty was really challenging; even though the game never shies away from being blunt about it, it actually is quite difficult in the beginning, but gets much easier later on when you’ve got better gear and weapons. In the early game, it’s best to rely on other NPCs to escort you from one place to another.

The game emphasizes exploration, but if you keep exploring and get rid of all the wild beasts, they only respawn after every 30 or 31-day cycle. If you keep roaming the wilds for weeks in in-game time, you’d be exploring in a mostly empty world, which makes it challenging to level up.

The AI for the enemies is very interesting in this game. If the wild beasts realize that you’re a much stronger opponent, they might try to run away from you, which I found very unique. Otherwise, they’d try to gobble you up.

Verdict

Overall, Gothic 1 Remake is an incredible Action-Adventure RPG, and if you love the genre and don’t mind the difficulty, you’d love the game.

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Developer: Alkimia Interactive
Publisher: Alkimia Interactive, THQ Nordic
Country of Origin: Spain
Release Date: 5 June, 2026

This review is based on a PC (Steam) copy of the game, which was provided by the publishers.

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