june gloom on 12/10/2009 at 22:09
Stop doing this.
driver on 13/10/2009 at 02:21
Having a go at the Mage route now. Bit disappointing that the start is identical to the Inquisition route. Gothic 1 & 2 had three very well defined factions and while the stories converged fairly quickly, you got a very different introduction depending on whom you sided with. I'm hoping that the differences show up a bit later.
mothra on 13/10/2009 at 09:29
yeah, the mage/inquisition fighter route is similar. you only get magic crystal as a mage although it's worth it. since I went mage last time, I'm going hunter-warrior this time and will join theDon to see all the other quests locked to me last time. I'll see how combat fares, I will put all talents into strength/sword skill, mage was so easy once I had fireball > 5.
driver on 13/10/2009 at 13:12
When I played as Inquisition I put all my points into Freeze and maxed it early, the rest of the game was a breeze compared to my Bandit run. I was beating up Ashbeats and Ogres in chapter 2.
Going with Fireball this time. I'm only putting points into Alchemy, Gut animals and Magic/Mana so it'll be interesting to see how easy it is.
To those who've completed it, what level were you when you finished and how long did you take? I was level 27 and spent 1 day 4 hours fist time, level 27 and 20 hours the second.
mothra on 13/10/2009 at 13:32
my first playthrough took 60 hours. how did you do it in 27 ???? did you just click through all the dialogue like crazy ?
Camus on 13/10/2009 at 14:25
Lvl 25 i think, and around 29 hours, and i don't feel i was rushing it.
Though i did miss some places i think due to forgetting to get back to places i couldn't check since the enemies were to tough for me in chapter 1-2 which is when i did most my exploration. (an ability to mark your map would have been nice)
I did skip some dialogue sometimes when i read there lines much faster then they spoke them but not very often.
mothra on 13/10/2009 at 14:41
i didn't go anywhere near the east/northeast coast in the first chapter since all animals there were just too strong for me and some places could only be reached by fighting more than 1 ghoul, they were just too strong for my in chapter 1. so i explored or sneaked by as much as I could, was a long time in town, then in the swamp until ultimately deciding to help the mages and spent another time in the vulcan castle before hitting chapter 2. in chapter2 I explored the rest of the island. I did replay a few sections of the game, but nothing major and steam reported that I used up 60hours when I finished it.
I must say I forgot which level I was when I finished the game, I only knew that I had 15 learnpoints left which I did not spend since my main weapon (fireball) was maxed out and I had enough manna to kill 3 enemies without having to drink a potion. I'll tell you when I get home which level I did hit.
right now I'm playing it again as don fighter/hunter and I already played 10 hours in the first chapter and did not even get near harbortown or did any mission for any faction.......maybe I just suck, it takes long to kill a group of birds in the beginning without using up potions, I try to fight taking almost no damage as a challenge.
driver on 13/10/2009 at 15:31
Quote Posted by mothra
my first playthrough took 60 hours. how did you do it in 27 ???? did you just click through all the dialogue like crazy ?
Nope, sat through it all. I joined the Don's faction pretty much from the off so I could get myself some better armour before exploring. I did as much as I could but like you I had to back off when I met something too strong (Usually a ghoul). By chapter 2 I'd cleared out most places and done all of the available side quests that I could manage, from then on it was a fairly straight path to the final chapter.
I think I spent most time on the first chapter, about 16 hours or so. I was somewhat disappointed with the rather rushed climax, the box stated around 60 hours of play, so I was expecting a few more chapters.
Second time round I did skip a lot of the dialogue that I'd heard before, also I knew where I was going, what I was doing and the (somewhat overpowered) magic helped.
As an aside, I found the Smith skill to be a bit too specialised for my liking. The only weapons you can create from it are swords so it's not so useful if you're using any of the other weapons. Crafting jewelry is nice, but you've got to sink in quite a few skill points before you can do that. Would have been more interesting/worthwhile if you could have made any type of weapon. Other than that, it's just a money source and I never really had any cash troubles.
GRRRR on 14/10/2009 at 01:45
Clocked in around 25 hours. Its definitely smaller than Gothic 2 and wayy definite smaller than Gothic 3. About on par with Gothic 1. Feels very compact but you can see that every nook and cranny was made with consideration. Found jewelry pretty useful, used a selfmade strength amulet for quite some time and two +8 armor rings all the way to the end, but yeah there should be craftable axes too. Awaiting the expansion. :cheeky:
PS : XD
mothra on 14/10/2009 at 07:50
I reloaded my save before the last endboss and I hit level 29, with measly 15.000 xp before 30. maybe that explains that I played 60 hours and not 27. and although the chapters get smaller over time, you still have sidequests in ch3 and ch4 like finding all teleport stones and getting all the different lizardfolk after mendoza opened the vulcan cave. I also completed as many quests as possible before going either route so I had 3/4 3/4 for don/inquisition and most of the sidequests started/finished beforehand. once a chapter starts, a few animals respawn and a few caves get different protection, so I revistited pretty much anything numerous times.
Well, right now I am on my crossbow/swordsman (for the don) playthrough and although I leveled up much quicker and better (because I knew what to do how) I still can't take on a Ghoul even with this character specialized in brute force. just not enough protection/health to survive more than 2 hits or his freeze-attack....and still in ch1 and steam says 18hours.
PS:
i maxed out smith/jewelry and expect to forge my own special swords soon (there are 2 sidequests for special swords and obsidian swords which you need max swordsmith for). I doubt I will put talents in alchemy although you can do those permanent stat boost potions you only find a few of during exploration of the map.
