Before I get started with the review for Gothic 1 Remake by Spanish developers Alkimia, I will give you a quick spoiler: I love this game! So, this will be a review of whether or not you should even attempt the game now, or whether or not this is a game you’ll also love.

Before playing Gothic 1 Remake, I had never played any Gothic games or even any Piranha Bytes game (I didn’t even know about them before!); however, after playing through the very early, very broken demo, I knew I had to play the Gothic 1 Remake.

The Elephant in the Room (there are no elephants, sorry)

Performance. It sucked. Huge. I was fortunate enough to play the Gothic Remake just a few days before release, and I completed the game after several patches. Playing Gothic on my PlayStation 5 Pro was not ideal. Not only did it not feature any frame options (it runs at 30fps, which personally did not bother me), but it also had crashes, several deleted saves due to bugs (now fixed but were still present after release), and weird stalls that forced me to soft-reset the game, hindering my progression. Given these obstacles, I find it difficult to recommend this game. However, even though I was under an obligation (sort of) to complete the game to review it, I would like to say that this is a game I would have still played even without the obligation. When the overall package is great, these are obstacles I am more than willing to push through. However, as I will always say, games will be there when you’re ready to play them, or when they’re ready to be played in better condition. 

Welcome to the Colony, you Weakling!

You start the game as a nameless hero, a prisoner, tasked to mine ore for a never-ending war in the kingdom of Myrtana. The Hero is literally thrown into “the Colony”, trapped there along with everybody else, and when you first land you receive a knockout punch to the face! Welcome to the Colony, piss off, no one cares about you here! 

Perhaps, you can get other people to care about you in this place by joining one of the three main camps: Old Camp, New Camp (they have some real creative people here), and Swamp Camp. All three have their own goals. However, to survive, you’ll need to slowly make yourself useful by doing their bidding and by learning some tricks so that you won’t bite the dust at every molerat, scavenger, or wolf that you see! And in Gothic, you will die, OFTEN! Luckily, enemy scaling doesn’t exist in Gothic 1 Remake, so take note of all the enemies you want to take revenge on once you finally git gud.

Progression – Narrative Style

As I have mentioned, I have never played Gothic before. It is important to know what you’re getting into before you dive in. This is not a Western, open-world RPG for the faint of heart. Gothic is a remake of the original game that was and is unapologetically unafraid to be what it wants to be. 

The game expects you to pay attention and to think. It doesn’t hold your hand, but it gives you the tools to figure it out. Small puzzles within the game will give you their solution if you pay attention. For example, you see a cave entrance with seemingly no way to enter, but you see a bow with a bunch of arrows on the ground. Maybe you need to shoot something!

The game also offers you a detailed glossary of items, enemies, and NPCs. What I found interesting is that the information it gives you is from the Hero’s perspective; this means the more information he gathers, the more you can read about it later on. 

The quest log is presented in a journal style, instead of giving you the task you need to complete it in a checklist form. It also won’t give you map markers telling you where to go. Heck, the game won’t even give you a map until you find the guy who sells it! 

In terms of how the story is delivered and how your actions affect the world, you’ll have three main playthroughs that are dependent on which faction you choose. These story beats are delivered through well voiced and animated NPCs. Though one specific NPC (there’s an achievement/trophy associated with him), you’ll never want to hear or see again. 

The story of Gothic 1 Remake and its delivery is fantastic. Chapter 1, especially, gives you a wonderful introduction to the game. It forces you to brave The Colony, as you try to gain the trust of your chosen camp. You learn about their relationships and its main players. As you progress, their relationships intertwine and deepens. It’s a story that left me wanting more; not because I didn’t get enough, but because I really want to know what could happen next, and I wanted to immerse myself in the world. 

The Colony

The world of Gothic is my favourite part of this game. Looking at screenshots and videos of people playing the original, one can easily tell that it’s true to its source while also being a beautiful reimagining. It is amazing to see a game from 2001 turned into one that looks like it belongs in 2026. The Colony is a small map by today’s standards, but it is still larger than its source material. It’s perhaps because of this that the world feels full of things and places to discover, and encourages you to do so. It does this by featuring interesting landmarks on the horizon, piquing your curiosity to visit. Also, the lack of pre-made map markers showing points of interest makes the game feel player-driven and, in turn, more immersive; you aren’t running around to complete a checkmark. 

Oh boy, is this game immersive! The world is beautiful (curse you/thank you for not adding several hours to my playtime by not having Photo Mode!) The day-and-night cycle, weather changes, sound effects, and lighting bring me joy every time I run from New Camp to Swamp Camp for the 10th time (a hyperbole). Running through a cave without a torch results in a pitch-black screen, making a light source a necessity. The enemies you’ve killed will slowly decompose over time. Your bloody body will wash itself if you enter a body of water (and you can see the blood you’ve washed away on the water!) You can light campfires or torches with fire spells. Oh, and you can transform into as many enemies as there are in the game, allowing you to use their attack repertoire and can even give you alternate access to areas you couldn’t otherwise!

This adventuring style isn’t perfect, though. While you’re given a map to look at, you aren’t able to fully interact with it. Aside from four map markers you can place yourself, and some notes that NPCs can sometimes give you, I wish we could place notes on the map as we do with our journal/glossary. Something simple, like adding more map markers so we can label them, or the ability to zoom into the map (maybe someone sells a magnifying glass lol), wouldn’t break the immersion or the “spirit” of Gothic. 

Combat

We’ve established that this game and everyone in it hates your guts. You will die often, and you will like it, maybe. This means we will need to defend ourselves and accept that you’ll either have to change how you fight an enemy or run away altogether! Gothic gives you a hero who is unable to do anything. You gain the ability to fight properly by spending Learning Points (LP) gained through levelling up. Each level up gives you 10 LP. You can spend it to learn 1-hand melee weapons, 2-hand, bow, crossbow, etc. You can also get the ability to be a magic user by training with the mages. The NPCs that will teach you these skills won’t always present themselves to you. You may never learn to wield a crossbow or fight with your fists properly. The really cool thing about learning these fighting abilities is that it isn’t just attack power getting higher once you become more proficient in these skills; it’s an actual change in animation. Level 1 in 1-handed weapons will allow you to have faster swings and perform combos. Mastering it will allow for ripostes and the performance of finishers. It’s changes that you’ll not only see, but also feel; a hero that evolves not just through numbers, but through actions.

But how does combat work? Physical ranged weapons are basically what you’d expect: one button to aim, pull back and release with another button to shoot. Melee weapons, however, are slightly different. If you don’t have combat assist activated (which is what I would recommend for more engaging play), square, cross, triangle, and circle turn into different types of swings. Typically, triangle will be a thrust or upward swing, cross is downward or leaping, and square/circle is a side swing. Performing continuous combos increases the chance for critical hits, stunning enemies, and an increase in attack. Melee combat may seem janky in this regard, but properly stringing together a combo is so satisfying, especially once you’ve attained Master proficiency with a weapon type. 

I mostly played Gothic with melee in mind; however, I did dabble in a bit of magic. Magic is used in two forms: Runes and their consumable version, scrolls. You equip a rune/scroll, and you cast it as long as you have the MP to do so. There are different elements and types of spells: charged, channelled, and normal. Some spells even have some neat usage. Telekinesis, Charm, Control and the Transform line of magic add such an interesting layer to the game in both combat and traversal! And of course, you’ll want to use the right element for the right enemy.

Traversal and other skills

Staying alive in The Colony doesn’t just happen through fighting. You’ll also need an efficient way to get around. You’ll need to learn to climb, swim properly, and survive a fall better. You’ll also want to learn how to efficiently earn ore (the game’s currency) by learning to make use of every piece of the monsters you kill, pickpocket, and lockpick! Regarding lockpicking: not all locks are made the same. Similar to other action RPGs, some will be harder than others, and you might not have the ability or patience to complete them. You might need to spend more LPs to master lockpicking to get through the more difficult ones. I have one small gripe: I wish the NPCs didn’t have such a bad memory. The AI didn’t get improved, so stealing from NPCs and getting caught is not an issue, making stealth nearly pointless. However, from my understanding, this is how it was in the original.

Menu, Item Management, User Experience

Yes, I know, I know, Gothic Remake and the original Gothic were made with PC gamers mostly in mind. The game was not optimized for controller play. The menu uses L1/L2/R1/R2 too often to navigate the tabs. To make matters worse, there’s no way to sort your items, so you have to painstakingly look through every item to find what you’re looking for. If you have a build that focuses on magic, good luck, as going through your spell runes and scrolls will be a nightmare. 

Something else I found was an unfortunate choice, especially for console/controller users: many 1-time-use items need to be “equipped” before you can use them. Teleport Runes shouldn’t have to be equipped to be used. Scrolls like Light as well. Food can be consumed or equipped in the menu, and my experience would be improved if this were applied to more items as well. 

Managing your health and magic points is also more time-consuming than it needs to be. Potions in Gothic are expensive to buy or to make, and many are not that effective, with the best potion only healing you for 100 points. They are best used in combat because the heal is instant and the animation is less intrusive. So, out of combat, you would think that it’s best to eat food! Unfortunately, the most economical food to make heals for 15 points (or so), and the best one needs oddly rare strong beer or onions. To make THIS matter worse, you will need to spam the consume button to eat grilled meat and replenish your health. I get that our hero is eating; I don’t mind sitting through the animation of eating 20 meat, but please let me queue up the 20 instead of making me spam a button unnecessarily. Honestly, this made cooking, or food in general, pointless to me. I would’ve loved more and better cooking recipes, or even cooler, a cooking skill that makes my cooked food better! Also, I wish fishing were a thing; to be fair, it should be in every game!

How to make a Remake, according to Toasty (To get new noobs into The Colony while retaining its identity):

If you’ve read any of my reviews of remakes, you’ll know that quality-of-life features, especially those that don’t break immersion, are important to me and encourage more people to join The Colony. I understand that it’s important not to lose the identity of the original, especially for a proud game such as Gothic. However, I will continue to wish that developers are more willing to change and recognize the difference between maintaining identity and less-than-ideal game design. The goal of a remake is not only to cater to gamers who played the original but also to create new gamers and fans of your game, within reason. Gothic 1 Remake was able to achieve this to a decent degree. 

I am happy to announce that I am a new fan! I was willing to adapt to what the developers wanted me to experience, and even to the hours I lost due to bugs. Gothic is an open-world action RPG that I want to recommend to everyone without an asterisk. It’s a fantastic and beautiful world, filled with challenging enemies, engaging gameplay, and a sense of wonder I haven’t felt in a long time. However, playing on console was less than ideal, and in my opinion, it should’ve been released only on PC as a timed exclusive so that a proper console version could be released later. I feel like I’m saying this too often lately, but this game is a must-play for fans of this genre. Just wait a bit until it’s been ironed out. 

Gothic Remake was reviewed on PS5, Gamer Social Club would like to thank the devs and publisher for the code.

Gothic Remake was released on June 5, 2026, and is currently available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.