A so called "Playable Teaser" of Gothic just appeared on Steam that you can download and play.

Not only that, but it hints to a full blown Gothic Remaster. Exciting times ahead!

Here is a link to the Steam store.

At first, I thought you were talking about the Silent Hills related P.T. and got a little bummed. That said, I'm pretty excited. I never played the other games in the series, but I really liked the first Gothic when I played it a few years back, and would be open to the idea of a remaster type thing.

Wow! This is great news. Hopefully the demo's good... would love to see a full remaster of the early Gothic games.

The press release:

"Is it a Gothic Remake? Not yet, but it can become one!

Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019 - „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.

But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?

Here’s the Trailer for the Gothic Playable Teaser: https://youtu.be/HuuUaHa3_sg
Check out the comparison video: https://youtu.be/Crc2iO_-LR8
Steam store link: http://n.thq.com/cLPi30q1AWK

To find out what the true Gothic fanbase thinks of a modern remake of the cult classic RPG, THQ Nordic and it's new Spanish development team, THQ Nordic Barcelona, will start an experiment. Today, a free playable prototype (Gothic Playable Teaser) of what a new Gothic could look and feel like will appear in the Steam Library of everyone who owns a game from Piranha Bytes, be it Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, or ELEX. They can play the yet-untitled Gothic Remake project and roam around the Mining Colony of Khorinis. After that, THQ Nordic is eager to learn from the players through a survey following the completion of the prototype, whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic Remake, or leave the heritage and the great memories associated with it untouched.

You want to learn more about the Gothic Playable Teaser? Check the official website: www.gothic-game.com

FAQ

We know you must have a thousand questions– we’ll try to cover a few in this FAQ:

Q: Who is developing this project?
A: THQ Nordic Barcelona. You can find out more about the studio at www.thqnordicbarcelona.com (Hint: We are looking to grow our team)

Q: Is Piranha Bytes involved in the project?
A: No! Piranha Bytes is working hard on a different project, which will be announced in 2020.

Q: Wait, why can we only play two hours?
A: Because it’s just a prototype, done by a new small team in Barcelona and we wanted to do an unusual approach and give this into the hands of players early. What you are going to play is all we have to show you at the moment.

Q: Ok, got it. But if we want the full game, how long do we have to wait?
A: Quite some time. We will only start full production if the community demands a Gothic Remake. In order to do so, we will need to grow the development team and rebuild Gothic from scratch.

Q: This can become a remastered HD version of Gothic?
A: We’d like to call it a remake. We are using a completely new tech (Unreal Engine 4) and so basically nothing but the story, the setting, the atmosphere, the music and the world of Gothic will remain. The whole tech, all graphics, the sound, different systems will be recreated according to modern high quality standards.

Q: Can I buy the prototype?
A: Yes and no. Everyone who owns ANY game from Piranha Bytes will get it for free - so if you don't have either Gothic, Gothic 2, Gothic 3, Risen, Risen 2, Risen 3 or ELEX you can buy one of them now and the prototype is also yours."

Is the gameplay gonna be modernized?

I was going to test this and then I've read this: No, not everyone who owns any game from PB. Anyone who owns a PB game on Steam.
I've already got 2 copies of Gothic, 3 copies of Gothic , 2 copies of Gothic 3, 2 copies of Risen and 1 copy of Risen 2 - none of them on Steam, so I can't play the prototype. And I don't feel like buying yet another copy (I know it's really cheap right now, but the only thing that I would be really buying would be a 2 hour work in progress demo).

Cool I guess, Gothic series was never my type of RPG but it was still a good game.

Wonderful, I love the Gothic series. Looks good so far just give our nameless hero an updated hairstyle:)

GoG please may we have the teaser here, that's where all my Gothic games are, besides the ones on my bookshelf.:)

I like to call the Gothic protag "skinny german dude".

Does sort of fit:)

But they must not change anything in Gothic except the graphics, it's perfect otherwise.

I think that the dev teams best approach toward the whole thing is to look at the entire dialogue of Gothic 1 and modernize it. Get a writer who can add new characters to complement the already excisting ones. Perhaps make quests regarding the rivalries of the three camps. We have the technology now to create believeable RPG worlds much quicker than 20 years ago, this shouldn't mean that THQ Nordic Barcelona can't implement the simple-yet-effective inclusion of a simple day/night circle that works through a simple timer.

My perfect Gothic 1 remake would look this way.

- Dialoguetrees just like in Gothic 1, you can read/pick through dialogue options and the Nameless Hero responds exactly of whats chosen.
- Branching out questslines that gives the player incentives to roam the open world. A good choice would be quests similarly to Gothic 2, because Gothic 1 was way too linear after act 1.
- Just like with Gothic 1, going into forests should mean VERY BAD NEWS.
- Talking to teachers to learn skills.
- Gothic 1s dark humor was always about abusing drugs, they should go all the way again
- Make the Gothic 1 remake more accessable by changing the controls to be Witcher esque.
- Modernizing some things regarding the flavor of the world to make it gritty and believeable. For instance, create a minigame surrounding mining and making weapons. Give the player the ability to make all sorts of weapons, from Swords to Bows to Crossbows. Look at Mordhau if you want to get a hang on the UI.
- Give the Barrier a kickass effect. Make the Colony a shitty place to live in but a pretty place to look at. Perhaps give the Barrier appearing a thunderous roar whenever it appears and create a quest where you have to give NPCs sleeping potions so they can sleep at night. What I mean is that devs should be able to reinvent some things such as adding new quests that make the world more believeable so the player can feel immersed.

Unless THQ Nordic Barcelona pulls off a Risen with this game it should be fine. Risen basically ruined itself by changing the gameplay to feel more cartoony with much less feedback. I get that you should reinvent the wheel quite often to feel unique but you can do that without changing "everything".

I disagree, Gothic 1's controls were sub-par to say the least. Gothic 2s slightly changed control scheme was a good improvement.

I'd rather want them to make the game feeling a bit more Dark Souls-y, simply because Gothic 1 and 2 were the Dark Souls of the past, the combat was quite similar, so much in fact that its impossible not to draw connections with both games. They even had stuff that gave the player feedback that wasn't even in Die by the Sword, the game which basically layed the way for games like Gothic/Dark Souls.

It may feel stiff, but dodging (sidestepping) and knowing when enemies attack was part of the appeal of classic Gothic games. They simple must modernize the gameplay a bit to make it more fluent and the game would automatically turn into Dark Souls. So telegraphed enemy attacks should be a must for the new Gothic. That and the glassic Gothic queststructure that you see with games such as The Witcher 3 as well. IMHO the quests being as Gothic 2-like as possible would be the best approach. If they played through these games they know exactly what they're diving into.

You make it sound like beamdog are doing this re-release...hold on, there is a fan mod which improves gothic....

I don't see any problem with releasing a remaster... as long as the original can be purchased and played as well. But that's just me.

Of course, I fully agree and that’s why the baldurs gate purchase link is....