In the land of Myrtana, King Rhorbar has defeated all of his kingdom's enemies but one; the orcs, who wage war continuously on the inhabitants of Myrtana. To win against the foul orcs, Rhorbar must equip his soldiers with the best of weapons and is dependant upon the magical ore mined from a small area. This ore produces the best swords and armour and gives his troops an edge over all foes.

In an attempt to keep his armies at full strength and beat the orcs, the king forces criminals to work in the mines instead of going to jail and no matter how petty the crime, all are sentenced to a living hell below the earth. To protect these mines he sends 12 wizards to set-up an impenetrable barrier to hold off the orcs. However, the spell backfires and traps all in the area inside, but does allow entry. In the confusion, a prisoner named Gomez leads an armed rebellion and slays all the prison guards. Unable to send in troops the king is forced to trade with these prisoners for the ore, for without it his kingdom is doomed.

Within the barrier the prisoners begin to divide into factions and three camps form. In the old camp the six fire wizards reside and Gomez's viscous followers enforce order, whilst in the new camp the six water wizards reside. The new camp has an ore mine of its own and is populated by evil rogues who wish to escape. The water wizards plan to use the magical ore to blast the barrier apart and gain freedom. Finally there is the sect, which believes their God will awaken and lead them to freedom.

You are a new arrival, who must join one of these camps and eventually unite them. With over 100 hours of gameplay, this is a long task - you really get your money's worth with this game.

You play in the third person perspective and combat requires direct control of the character. The game is very action based and yet is a stats-based role-playing game too. It combines the properties of action and role-playing and does so admirably. This has been done before but I felt previous attempts did not give the role-playing elements high enough priority. This game has developed a non-linear plot that allows so many different paths and has many surprising and very real scenarios. The designers succeeded in capturing the feeling of lawlessness and despair within such a land. The many plots and sub-plots are ingenious and events are both sensible, but also surprising at times and all events can easily be traced back to your own actions.

Unlike many role-playing games there is no class system. Instead you receive skill points as you go up levels and can spend these as you wish and so develop an individual character. All the NPCs (non-player characters) have been given believable personalities and always act according to these. Each also goes about a daily routine and has a memory of your actions and those of others towards them.

The graphics, sound and music are as good as you could ask for. I just love the sky that shows the constant crackling of the barrier and the detail of characters is such that you can easily identify all of them by sight. They also have a certain style about them, each camp looking like the type of people you would associate with that group and it all combines to make the society within the barrier feel totally real.

In addition there is no text to read, it is all recorded speech and though some characters sound the same this goes far in making the game even more absorbing and real. The controls are simple and unique; it is impossible to describe quite how good they are, but suffice to say it will only take you minutes to master them. The game is difficult too, providing a real challenge and you are unable to resort to combat to get your way, for others can be as skilled as you, or more so. The difficulty also makes it feel more real and as a stranger at the start you will find it extremely difficult to work your way into acceptance in any of the camps.

With amazing and very atmospheric graphics, sound and music, an original plotline, the perfect mix of arcade and RPG gameplay and an intelligent game engine generating unpredictable non-linear gameplay, Gothic is something very special. I only hope more games will be like this in the future.

Reviewed by Gavin Udall for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).