A condemned slave woman on another delivery of prisoners and goods ends up at the Barrier. She is walking under guard to the Old Camp when a group of the rogues leap onto the road, killing the guards and kidnapping her. A sack lands on her head, and when she regains her orientation in space, she sees a lake in front of her. Then the rogue Lewus throws her to the ground, and just as she is about to fall victim to him, Horatio appears; who knocks all the ideas he might have had out of his head…
Gothic: A Prequel Story is the total-conversion modification to Gothic II: Night of the Raven by Jaserinou, in which you take on the role of a woman who seeks her place in the Colony after being kidnapped by the New Camp hoodlums.
A woman
In Colony, what you’d expect to happen when you get a woman into an enclosed area with almost only men, happens. At the start of the game, I kept getting the feeling that they wanted to assault me. Despite being instructed by the scraper Horatio to go to the Free Mine first, I explored the area, still taking my chances. And having this impression, I wasn’t wrong, as, descending to the bottom of the future lake around the inn at New Camp, I came upon a recent abuser. I had already invested in a club by this time. I have a weapon, the opponent is lethal – sufficient conditions to defeat him.
Unlike Velaya, Serafia and Natalia, the protagonist can choose – whether to take the easy way out or to fight for better treatment. One has a choice during the tasks and it often requires cleverness. A woman will never be treated equally to men in the Colony, but she does have certain unwritten privileges that can be used in the storyline.
The Colony before Nameless
By the appearance of the Colony, it is quickly apparent that the action of the modification takes place before the arrival of the Nameless. There is no gate, which in the original leads to the rice fields. After walking further towards the New Camp, we notice that the fields themselves are not there either. This is because the dam has not yet been built. A river flows through here, and that means no water collects around the inn. And the buildings, which in Gothic I are submerged, here are inhabited. It was there that I came across Lewus, on whom, compared to Bullit, I was able to take quick revenge.
Another consequence of the lack of a dam, is the lack of alcohol in the tavern. There is nothing to make alcohol out of here. The rouges and scrapers are in a terrible situation. In trying to carry out the water magicians’ plan, they didn’t take care of the basics. So they did not expect to stay longer.
It is useful to know the character of the Colony characters, which is obvious among Gothic fans. We will come across people from the first part of the series, but still in a different hierarchical position or situation. The encounter with Gorn will be a surprise for everyone. We will find out what Kharim has a grudge against his father about. It will be explained how Aidan ended up outside the New Camp.
The Free Mine will only be under construction. In our search for further deposits we will come across the ruins of a temple. Surely this thread will be continued in the full version of the modification.
We can meet almost all the characters from the demo in and around New Camp, as well as in the Hollow and the mine. However, we can explore the entire area, limited by a transparent barrier marked ‘DEMOWALL’. The modification is rewarded by climbing over hard-to-reach areas; moreover, one of the tasks requires exploration of a relatively remote location.
With the exception of one location, almost all of the music comes from Gothic I, hence playing it felt like I was going through the first part of the series. However, I was annoyed by the lack of a seamless transition between the soundtracks – they started and ended immediately. There wasn’t the transition between them that we know from the original, or perhaps don’t even notice because it’s so seamless. Or at least almost always.
As the game went on, I began to regret starting it rather than waiting for the full version – because I would no longer have the impression, at least in the first chapter, that I was discovering a new story. I hope the full modification will be at least twice as long as the demo. Once it’s released, I’ll be making different decisions as the main character than before.
Installation
The modification demo is created in German. To play it in English (automatic translation) you should:
- install Gothic II: Night of the Raven
- install the modification using the installer available on World of Gothic: [link]
- extract the automatic translation to a folder named ‘Gothic II’: [English version]
Credits
Plot — Stubenfly, namenloserChad, Jorgenson, Jase (Jaserinou)
Level design & 3D — namenloserChad, Jase
Scripts — Jase
Dialogues — namenloserChad, Stubenfly, Jorgenson, Jase
Dubbing (mastering) — Jorgenson
Animation videos — Stubenfly, Jase
Technical support, game installer — neocromicon
Temple’s Soundtrack — German Club Mafia
Quests inventors — yeagerGate, Uranos, Splatterguy
Testers — namenloserChad, Stubenfly, yeagerGate
(full credits can be found in the modification’s Outro)
