Gothic II: Night of the Raven - Part 1 - No Commentary

Описание: Gothic II is a role-playing video game and the sequel to Gothic, by the German developer Piranha Bytes. It was first released on November 29, 2002 in Germany, and in North America almost one year later on October 28, 2003. The game was published by JoWooD Productions and Atari, Inc.

Gothic II was a commercial success in Germany, and became JoWood's biggest hit at the time of its release. By 2004, it had sold over 300,000 units when combined with its expansion pack, Night of the Raven. Sales of Gothic II alone ultimately surpassed 400,000 units by 2007, following its re-release as a budget title in Germany.

Like Gothic, Gothic II is set on the medieval styled isle Khorinis. Places include the City of Khorinis, the monastery of the fire mages, farms and woods. The mine valley of part I is also in the game, though it has changed. Of the old camp only the castle remains, the new camp has turned into a region of ice, and the swamp camp is made inaccessible by a fence built by the orcs. The final place visited in the game is Irdorath, a dungeon similar to the temple in Gothic.

Khorinis is a rich area with beautiful farms and dense forests. The main trade resource of Khorinis is the magic ore delivered from its prison colony to the King, who is fighting the orcs on the mainland. Most of the farms in Khorinis are owned by one landowner who has hired mercenaries to protect him and his farms from the militia when they try to collect taxes from the farms. This has caused Khorinis to be on the edge of a civil war. The city is low on food and relies on travelling merchants as the ships from the mainland have stopped coming because of the war.

People in Khorinis believe in three gods. Adanos, the god of water and balance. Innos, the god of fire and good. Beliar, the god of evil and darkness.

Gothic II: Night of the Raven (German: Die Nacht des Raben) is the expansion pack of the role-playing video game Gothic II. The expansion focuses on further enlarging the story already presented in the original Gothic II game, by adding a world called Jharkendar and new attributes, items, and weapons.

Upon its first release in 2003 the game was available in the German language only, the English version only being released in 2005, as part of the Gothic II Gold package.

The expansion brings many significant changes to the gameplay. A major change can be seen in terms of difficulty, where the developers had rebalanced the whole game and made it harder, after this was requested by the community.

This increase in difficulty is done by adding new, more powerful animals, reducing the number of potions, and special plants found in the game, making attributes and items more expensive, and reducing the effect of permanent potions.

An addition brought by the gameplay consists of a few new skills, and special items. The player now can learn the language of the ancient people which inhabited the newly introduced city of Jharkendar, giving him the possibility to read the so-called Stone Tablets. These can be found across the whole Khorinian island, and have the property to increase the player's attributes.

Night of the Raven also introduces another skill, Acrobatics. Unlike in Gothic, this skill is learned when reaching 90 points of dexterity, and cannot be learned otherwise. Acrobatics is not present in Gothic II.