The early 2000s were an unmatched time for fantasy RPGs. We were playing Final Fantasy X, Morrowind, Diablo 2, and Neverwinter Nights, to name a few. Nestled among these giants, though, was the original Gothic. It's developed quite the cult status in the last two decades, and Alkimia Interactive is set to celebrate that with a fully fledged Unreal Engine 5 remake. You can even play a demo right now on Steam, which Alkimia has massively improved after fan .
Alkimia Interactive's demo for the RPG's infamous prison colony, but you step into the well-worn shoes of Nyras, who's just trying to stay alive. Lasting around an hour, the demo doesn't quite have the same freedom, depth, and progression systems as the full game, but you still get to check out Alkimia's UE5 rebuild.
Now, after a lot of player , Alkimia has overhauled Gothic's demo for the better. If you played the Nyras prologue earlier this year, the first things you'll notice are improvements to how the character moves. Alkimia has also changed the pickup and loot animations to be more agile and reactive, which goes a long way to help Nyras feel more human.
"Our main reference was Red Dead Redemption 2," Gothic game director Reinhard Pollice says, "which is a game that also has a very slow pace in of movement, and the there was that people like [Gothic] more reactive and that certain actions that are repeated over and over again should be rather quick."
Alkimia has also introduced stability improvements across the demo, and a slew of bug fixes to ensure a much smoother experience. The team has rebalanced the bow, too, so you'll now feel much more powerful when taking out enemies from a distance. You can also expect combat magnet behavior to be improved, as Alkimia makes a collection of changes that combine to make your overall experience much better.
If you want to learn even more about what Alkimia is doing with the Gothic Remake, my colleague Ken sat down with the team at Gamescom last year to learn all about it. While faithfully adapting the 2001 classic, the team has a whole slate of modernizations and improvements planned.
Alkimia Interactive and THQ Nordic currently have no Gothic Remake launch date set. You can the demo on Steam right here.
If you just can't wait for the Gothic Remake, we've also got all the fantasy games you can play on PC today.
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