Not impressed with the half an hour that I played. I like the original Gothic games and this is NOT a remake, it's a complete reimagining. The developers have changed a lot and so far none of the changes have improved this demo over the original game. Here are my thoughts:

- The overarching plot has been kept the same but the characters, the story and the world have been redesigned. The introduction has been completely reworked. I expected the world would be made to match the layout of the original game, but it's totally different. I got lost several times, whereas that was not an issue in the original game.

- You can't use the mouse cursor in the menus or while selecting dialogue options, the game has clearly been designed to be played with a controller. Navigating the menus while only using WASD is clunky as hell, especially when there are several tabs to click through and a large number of items to select. I'd much rather just be able to use the mouse.

- The game is riddled with unskippable cutscenes. In the first half an hour there are like 20 minutes of cutscenes. The cutscenes are too long and the story is filled with B-movie action and writing. The voice acting is not particularly good.

- The protagonist narrates every one of his actions in the opening scene, even though he's alone. It's really weird and uncomfortable to listen to. In the original he is more of a blank slate but in this demo he's a scaredy cat who mutters to himself.

- The combat system in the original Gothic isn't good, but this combat system is just as clunky. The combat system in this demo is similar to For Honor with multiple blocking/attacking directions, which is great for one-on-one fights but in the first fight you take on multiple enemies and it quickly becomes annoying to deal with. I'd much rather a regular third-person action RPG fighting system.

- The lighting is awful, it's too bright and saturated during the day and then it's pitch black at night. I had to fight some enemies at night and my character put away his torch, so the screen was literally entirely black except for the UI, it was ridiculous. Torches should cast a larger light too.

- The menu options for graphics are very limited, for example there's only a generic "Post Processing" option so if you want any post processing effects you also have to put up with frankly horrendous camera blur and chromatic aberration. I'm not playing this game at 30 fps, I don't need camera motion blur. Let us adjust individual options!

- The game doesn't teach you combat or other mechanics in a natural way, it just pauses the game in the middle of the action to basically show you a five slide long PowerPoint presentation explaining how the game works. I can't think of a worse way to teach mechanics, it's really jarring.

- There are obnoxious markers and highlights on top of all collectible items that can be seen from metres away and can even be seen THROUGH WALLS, so the UI just gets cluttered with these markers and highlights that tell you exactly where to go and what to interact with, instead of getting to discover things yourself.

- A minor annoyance, but in order to vault up ledges you need to stop under the ledge and then hit Space - if you hit Space on the approach then your character just jumps towards the ledge and doesn't climb it. It makes exploration particularly stilted and annoying.

- Finally, the game locked up when I opened the quick menu and tried to equip a torch. It wouldn't let me close the quick menu or open the game menu so I had to Alt+F4. What a terrible ending to a terrible experience.

Not impressed with the half an hour that I played. I like the original Gothic games and this is NOT a remake, it's a complete reimagining. The developers have changed a lot and so far none of the changes have improved this demo over the original game. Here are my thoughts: - The overarching plot has been kept the same but the characters, the story and the world have been redesigned. The introduction has been completely reworked. I expected the world would be made to match the layout of the original game, but it's totally different. I got lost several times, whereas that was not an issue in the original game. - You can't use the mouse cursor in the menus or while selecting dialogue options, the game has clearly been designed to be played with a controller. Navigating the menus while only using WASD is clunky as hell, especially when there are several tabs to click through and a large number of items to select. I'd much rather just be able to use the mouse. - The game is riddled with unskippable cutscenes. In the first half an hour there are like 20 minutes of cutscenes. The cutscenes are too long and the story is filled with B-movie action and writing. The voice acting is not particularly good. - The protagonist narrates every one of his actions in the opening scene, even though he's alone. It's really weird and uncomfortable to listen to. In the original he is more of a blank slate but in this demo he's a scaredy cat who mutters to himself. - The combat system in the original Gothic isn't good, but this combat system is just as clunky. The combat system in this demo is similar to For Honor with multiple blocking/attacking directions, which is great for one-on-one fights but in the first fight you take on multiple enemies and it quickly becomes annoying to deal with. I'd much rather a regular third-person action RPG fighting system. - The lighting is awful, it's too bright and saturated during the day and then it's pitch black at night. I had to fight some enemies at night and my character put away his torch, so the screen was literally entirely black except for the UI, it was ridiculous. Torches should cast a larger light too. - The menu options for graphics are very limited, for example there's only a generic "Post Processing" option so if you want any post processing effects you also have to put up with frankly horrendous camera blur and chromatic aberration. I'm not playing this game at 30 fps, I don't need camera motion blur. Let us adjust individual options! - The game doesn't teach you combat or other mechanics in a natural way, it just pauses the game in the middle of the action to basically show you a five slide long PowerPoint presentation explaining how the game works. I can't think of a worse way to teach mechanics, it's really jarring. - There are obnoxious markers and highlights on top of all collectible items that can be seen from metres away and can even be seen THROUGH WALLS, so the UI just gets cluttered with these markers and highlights that tell you exactly where to go and what to interact with, instead of getting to discover things yourself. - A minor annoyance, but in order to vault up ledges you need to stop under the ledge and then hit Space - if you hit Space on the approach then your character just jumps towards the ledge and doesn't climb it. It makes exploration particularly stilted and annoying. - Finally, the game locked up when I opened the quick menu and tried to equip a torch. It wouldn't let me close the quick menu or open the game menu so I had to Alt+F4. What a terrible ending to a terrible experience.