Modern (indie) games that are like Gothic?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Almost every modern game doesn't make it happen to capture that feeling of "discovery" these games give me, most of the time because modern games littered with quest-markers minimaps and GPS-systems. Does someone know a modern Action-RPG that captures the essence of gothic or at least an upcoming project that tries to go into the direction of gothics sense of discovery? I can't think of any and I wonder why that's the case when Gothic & Gothic 2 clearly are even still today so high regarded.

Just for example Action-RPG's that are nowhere next to the feel of Gothic:

Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisiton, Elex, Assassin's Creed, Dragon's Dogma (although I like this one for other things), Divinie Divinity, Two Worlds, Skyrim/Oblivion

Someone got an idea?
The only thing that I bought recently, that could go in the direction is "Outward" not sure how i will turn out but it sounds promising from its description.

[Oneeyed]

There are no modern games like gothic. Just old ones.

Risen of course is very gothic-like ^^.

Arx Fatalis is also similar in a way.

Vampire Bloodlines was also very similar for me because of controls, graphic style, basically no UI, no hand holding, replayabilty value even if it is not open world but areas which gets unlocked after you progress in the main quest.

The first half of Venetica is also intriguing because of the exploration part in the first 2 areas in Venice - but it falls apart in the later stages of the game and the starting area is very childish.

Blade of Darkness is another old rpg where the combat is like in gothic but its not open world or with NPCs. Its more like the original version of Dark Souls.

If you dont care about 3D graphics but also try out isometric then Eschalon series gave me the most similar feeling because its single player and not party based. Its also very hard and you really have to work your way up. Nothing is given for free. It also has lots of hidden things you may only find out after you played multiple times. Best of the series is Eschalon 2. You have to know its very oldschool means if you dont specialize you will never see the end of the game.

Other people like Morrowind and Deus Ex but I really could get into it.

If you are also want to try out non-rpgs which gave me a similar feeling then it was Thief 1 and also Omikron the Nomad Soul. But both are more action games.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Eschalon looks very interesting, thanks for the advice I will check it out. It's weird that there are no indies trying to create something similiar if you consider how much becomes copied nowadays. I would basically throw my money to them. Of course I wouldn't want just a bland copy but at least something that has that same premise, you start as no one and have to try slowly to become stronger, while the world is full of danger, rewards, surprises and of course interesting npc's.

Looks like gaming nowadays has not the same focus. D:

[One death guy]

how about Dark Souls?

or Fable? Ashen?

did you try some older classics like Fallout 1 & 2 are games where you relay heavy on discovery

or Dungeon Lords?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

I've played Fable 2 and Fable 3 but these have way too much handholding especially that golden path is annoying although there is quite a lot to discover, sidequests are marked on your map. Also the games are piss easy and dying is impossible.

I don't know if the first game is different from its sequels.
Yes I played Dark Souls and I really love it but it's a different game, more something like an dungeon crawler, but I want to explore a fantasy-like world with npc's and towns.

Yes Fallout 1 & 2 are good although quite different with their round-based combat I like the dialouge system of these games.

Ashen to be honest looks like an Dark Souls clone with all the gps systems and modern standards I despise. Someone described is as an Dark Souls game for people who don't like Dark Souls, fine hopefully they play this instead ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about Dark Souls lack of hand holding.

[Conkwer]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisiton, Elex, Assassin's Creed, Dragon's Dogma (although I like this one for other things), Divinie Divinity, Two Worlds, Skyrim/Oblivion
Someone got an idea?

You've already mentioned most of them.
I'm not sure if newer ones even exist.

If you like Gothic, you can play Gothic 2: Odyssey (a big mod, like a new game, 100 hours) and Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (for Oblivion).

Also,
Ultima 7 is a predecessor of Gothic (You can use Exult to play this, instead pf official engine).
A father of Gothic and Divine Divinity, basically. This games (as lot of others games though) was heavily inspired by Ultima7.

Ultima 9 is similar to Gothic too, obviously. Since it's a 3D implementation of Ultima, but not so successful as Gothic is.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War can be similar to Gothic, somewhat. No one here named it yet.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is similar, but not too openworlded. It's more like a Fable game.

I'll tell you guys a game that no one knows about

https://store.steampowered.com/app/241620/Inquisitor/
Ta-da, "Inquisitor"!
It's a Divine Divinity type of game and not bad at all.

----

Also, I forgot about Sacred1.. It's a huge game and there's a lot to explore. Since you looks for "feeling of "discovery"" you can give it a try too. Not a Gothic-type style of RPG but still similar enough.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is similar to Gothic, somewhat.

Drakan: Order of the Flame is not a RPG, but it's a action-based Gothic-style game. Everyone should try it.

All indie-games from Spiders are similar to Gothic, somewhat.
Of Orcs and Men; Bound by Flame; GreedFall; Faery: Legends of Avalon

Aralon: Sword and Shadow is a Gothic-clone (only for Android and mobile). But Ravensword Shadowlands, it successor, was released on Steam, though

https://store.steampowered.com/app/253410/Ravensword_Shadowlands/

Also, Darkstone is a great game. It is action hack'n'slash, but unlike Diablo, it has a lot of 'not-that-simple' quests that require a brain. Old-school generic fantasy plot with dragons and evil wizards. There is lot of custom quests and mods for Darkstone also,

[One death guy]

Originally posted by Conkwer:

If you like Gothic, you can play Gothic 2: Odyssey (a big mod, like a new game, 100 hours) and Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (for Oblivion).



----

Also, I forgot about Sacred1.. It's a huge game and there's a lot to explore. Since you looks for "feeling of "discovery"" you can give it a try too. Not a Gothic-type style of RPG but still similar enough.

speaking of mods, this one can be also interesting

https://store.steampowered.com/app/976620/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories_Special_Edition/?curator_clanid=3357962

Sacred 1 indeed is a game that gives a sense of discovery, and lets not forget there is a sequel - Sacred 2

(just remember that Sacred 3 is an action hack'n'slash that was given the name Sacred to lure people)

[Oneeyed]

Since Mods have been mentioned:

Yes, Nehrim for Oblivion and Enderal for Skyrim are really good mods with some problems.

I dont care about Oblivion/Skyrim very much. I played them, I had fun but its nothing special to me.

Well Nehrim for Oblivion and Enderal for Skyrim are special to me and I will play them again.

Mostly because they are better than the vanilla games and they are total conversions and not just mods. They have their own problems, though:

Nehrim's story to kill the gods is aweful imho. I cant be bothered to play through it. And the quest design is "limited". But the gameworld, dungeons and so on are awesome and beat even Gothic/Risen.

Enderal also has a fantastic game world design, best dungeons ever in a video game but the story - for me - is even more abysmal. Also the forced dialogue which take ages to get through and you cant skip it. But if you just ignore the main quest it still contains hundreds of hours of fun just exploring..

Then there are mods (total conversions for gothic 1/2).

Some of them are good, some of them are mediocre and some of them are just plain terrible.

Especially the later bigger ones are terrible. And got hyped a lot and I dont understand why. Odyssee is one of the terrible mods. Its a quantity over quality mod. Lods of game worlds, about 300 hours of game play and nothing interesting in it. Well at least its not as terrible as the over-hyped Legend of Ahssun mod. I generally hate the term "walking simulator" because I dont like fast travelling in rpgs and think going/running is part of life. But in Legend of Ahssun they make you deliberately running from one end of the game world to the other just for simple fetch quests about 50 times. And all the quests are really boring. The game world design is not organic but is just made in a way so it serves the creators purpose. Its more like a long tube with some small branches. But I guess if you just want more basic "gothic" then you may be satisfied with these 2.

But for more basic gothic I prefer some older ones like A Pirate's Life, Jaktyl or Velaya.

[Ass Boiler]

Originally posted by Conkwer:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisiton, Elex, Assassin's Creed, Dragon's Dogma (although I like this one for other things), Divinie Divinity, Two Worlds, Skyrim/Oblivion
Someone got an idea?

You've already mentioned most of them.
I'm not sure if newer ones even exist.

If you like Gothic, you can play Gothic 2: Odyssey (a big mod, like a new game, 100 hours) and Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (for Oblivion).

Also,
Ultima 7 is a predecessor of Gothic (You can use Exult to play this, instead pf official engine).
A father of Gothic and Divine Divinity, basically. This games (as lot of others games though) was heavily inspired by Ultima7.

Ultima 9 is similar to Gothic too, obviously. Since it's a 3D implementation of Ultima, but not so successful as Gothic is.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War can be similar to Gothic, somewhat. No one here named it yet.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is similar, but not too openworlded. It's more like a Fable game.

I'll tell you guys a game that no one knows about

https://store.steampowered.com/app/241620/Inquisitor/
Ta-da, "Inquisitor"!
It's a Divine Divinity type of game and not bad at all.

----

Also, I forgot about Sacred1.. It's a huge game and there's a lot to explore. Since you looks for "feeling of "discovery"" you can give it a try too. Not a Gothic-type style of RPG but still similar enough.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is similar to Gothic, somewhat.

Drakan: Order of the Flame is not a RPG, but it's a action-based Gothic-style game. Everyone should try it.

All indie-games from Spiders are similar to Gothic, somewhat.
Of Orcs and Men; Bound by Flame; GreedFall; Faery: Legends of Avalon

Aralon: Sword and Shadow is a Gothic-clone (only for Android and mobile). But Ravensword Shadowlands, it successor, was released on Steam, though

https://store.steampowered.com/app/253410/Ravensword_Shadowlands/

Also, Darkstone is a great game. It is action hack'n'slash, but unlike Diablo, it has a lot of 'not-that-simple' quests that require a brain. Old-school generic fantasy plot with dragons and evil wizards. There is lot of custom quests and mods for Darkstone also,

Perfect taste mate. Amazing list.

[johnohall]

Check out the Chronicles of Myrtana.. Archolos. An upcoming mod for Gothic 2 Gold. Out in early December 2021. It's here on Steam.. and it's free..

[glowsticky]

ELEX is incredible!

[yeK.]

might want to take a look at Drova - Forsaken Kin. its not released yet but I think theres a demo?

[Aigle1705]

id like to add "outward" to the list of gothic likes.
man i luv that game

the game has 4 huge areas in the base game and 1 additional with each dlc

there is a map with some landmarks on it. yet no quest markers and your own location also isnt shown. you have to guess your way via landmarks.

btw you can coop with a friend, local or online.

the game has thirst, hunger, tiredness, heat, cold and carry weight. just like an survival game. also a number of diseases, for example you can get a tapeworm turning you hungry a 100% faster.

in this game you dont actually die. when ever you do, you trigger an event that might turn things even worse. if killed by a predator they will drag yourself into their burrow, were you will awake.

[PancakeMix]

I played Nox Archaist a few months ago, and like it for a lot of the same reasons I like Gothic.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509080/Nox_Archaist/

Since it's Ultima IV inspired It's 2D and turn based so the gameplay is not the same, but the quest design reminded me a lot of Gothic. I wasn't into the old Ultima games, but Nox has a lot of QoL features (Food heals instead of being an annoying timer and shared party XP) that make it way more playable. Only complaint is it runs kinda slow by default, but it runs in an emulator which you can speed up. Also the controls are still oudated like Ultima.

Also it has a companion emulator which adds more QoL stuff to the UI:
https://github.com/hasseily/NoxArchaistCompanion/releases

[Lupmzzcat]

Not an RPG but not a walking sim either, https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/
it has a sense of prograssion similar to Gothic and it's a treat to eplore!

[CzechKronner]

Elex.
Risen.

That's it. The other games named in this thread are nowhere near close to Gothic.