Monsters in Gothic do not respawn only if you enter a new chapter and if you finish the game you cannot continue. I would say that these are the biggest differences between these two games.

These are two absolutely different games, in a Gothic will be more difficult and not convenient fight.
But both games definitely should be played!
The main thing to get used to management, be patient and you fall in love with a Gothic as well as Morrowind :)

A lot of people seem to compare Gothic to Morrowind but they really shouldn't. Gothic is a great game and Morrowind was not only one of the most disappointing games I ever played, it was the single most disappointing game I've played in all my years of gaming. I started TES with Daggerfall and even with the bugs, Daggerfall was more vibrant than the static and lifeless Morrowind.

As for comparing the two however, Morrowind is the more "accessible" of the two. Morrowind got too easy too quickly and encounters became more an annoyance than anything else. Morrowind essentially turns the PC into a virtual god that could destroy everyone in the game, even after only playing for a few hours.

In Gothic, you start the game as a total wuss, you'll get pushed around and get the crap kicked out of you if you act like idiot. To get around this, you have to work your way up but thankfully, not as quickly and not to ridiculous levels like Morrowind (well, okay, at the end of Gothic 1 this happens). Gothic starts off really rough and some people can't get past the initial stages of the game because they want to head out of the old camp and start killing stuff as soon as possible. This doesn't work in Gothic.

It comes down to this, if you have patience and are willing to give Gothic a chance, you'll be in for a very rewarding gaming experience. If you're one of those that get's frustrated easily and needs the game to guide you to where you are supposed to go and are happy when the difficulty curve all but disappears after a few hours of gameplay, skip Gothic and stick with Morrowind.

It's hard to say whether you personally will enjoy Gothic as much as Morrowind. The Gothic games are my all-time favoirite RPGs, but I would say that they aren't for everyone. One major difference between the Gothics and TES games is that there is no level-scaling. Things can and do kill you regularly if you wander too far too soon. However, as for atmosphere and immersion, I found Gothic to be far superior. The worlds are smaller, but more interesting to explore. I personally find the artwork in the Gothic games infinitely better than TES, but that is just an asthetic thing. Plus, although I've played all of the TES games, I've never finished one - I always get bored at some point and just give up. I'm probably one of those goal-oriented people. That's not to say that Gothic is linear at all, just that the goals are somewhat clearer. Gothic is 3rd person, not first, although you can play it in first person if you prefer that. I don't, as I recall Morrowind particularly gave me motion sickness. Anyway, I always recommend Gothic. Just be patient with it and it is a really rewarding experience.

I can second everything that was said above.

You cannot really compare TES and Gothic games. Yeah, both are huge open world RPGs but it is about all that they have in common. If you enjoyed Morrowind for its hardcore RPG qualities you will like Gothic. However if you like Morrowind for any particular feature it is very likely you will find the same feature desinged from the opposite approach as far as game design theory goes.

Besides that bear in mind that Gothic hames are *hard*, and I mean punishingly hard at times. Considering your age it might not be a problem at all (I wish I had monkey reflexes I used to have). Anyway it is part of the charm.

Tip: You might want to start with G2 or G3 or even Risen 1 to get a feel of the gameplay.

Having said that I am a big fan of the series. There is a reason these games are somewhat niche appeal but it only makes them better for those who do decide to play them.

Thanks for the reply. I loved morrowind because of the lore and the old school almost d&d feel to it, not because of anything else. I really don't like skyrim or oblivion, so I'm sure I'll greatly enjoy gothic. Thanks again.

I'd definitely start with Gothic 1 in that case.

I'm loving Gothic. I hated Morrowind. To me:

Gothic:

Fascinating open-world with engaging characters and a lore and story and world that unfolds beautifully. It's a piece of art.

Morrowind:

Just a bunch of landscapes and locations that have no atmosphere and are connected in an aimless and empty world with not a single memorable character, scattered AND cluttered lore, where there is nothing for hours and then they vomit a bunch of information from an NPC that feels like it should be interesting but the context of it makes me feel like "take it or leave it it doesn't matter, we just wanted a spot to dump all of this information and WE don't even care if you read it or not." I played for 50+ hours (never finished) and barely ever saw the main story line and never really cared.

I'd have to disagree with your views on Morrowind drealmer7, stating that Morrowind is a just an atmosphereless and world is extremley false. The alien world is full of atmosphere such as mushrooms the size of trees aswell as the ashstorms are all part of the atmosphere.

Also, stating that there are no memorable characters is also false, characters such as Dagoth Ur, Caious Cosades and of course Fargoth are all very memorable, I find it hard to believe that with those 50 hours of gameplay, you haven't encountered any of these characters (or just didn't find them memorable)

Really I could go on and on about how false your statements of Morrowind are.

Well, they're false to you, you realize. They are true for me. Try to believe it, because it's true. I do (barely) remember the names Dagoth Ur and Caious Cosades, as far as remembering the characters, not in the slighest bit even a little. To me, giant mushrooms the size of trees and ash storms (there were ash storms?) doesn't = atmosphere. I roamed and roamed and roamed the world and, yeah, it was mostly a big bore to me. Nice that you like it so much, I suppose, I wish I would have.

I Suppose that tastes will vary from one person to another. I just dont understand when you said the world was empty, because, like many other western RPGs of that time, the world is filled with bizsre events and random encounters. I'm not saying your oppinion is wrong or anything though.

Perhaps empty was too absolute/not the right word. Of course there are things in the world, lots and lots of things. I do remember doing lots and lots and lots and lots of quests, but I honestly I can't remember a single one, and I have quite an excellent memory (which is probably the only reason I vaguely remember the names you mentioned.) What I do remember is feeling like the quests were filler and "empty", as in, they had no essence, they didn't make me feel, care, wonder, get excited, or anything. There was no soul or spirit, just vacant busy-work/filler that is not connected and had no meaning. Also, as far as "empty", I remember running around the world a LOT (lots and lots of running around aimlessly, which, I thought was going to be fun going in to it, and then didn't have fun) and feeling like there wasn't much going on, even though there were lots and lots of areas and quests, it felt like they wanted to waste your time with tons of open space and slow running, and I don't remember any feeling of awe at any time, which, when exploring a huge strange world, well, I'd like some awe. The most interesting aspect of the game to me were those giant beings that allowed you to travel from place to place.

I can name one, after stepping out of the prison ship and looking at the world for the first time after a fresh install. The fluidity of the water, the size of the silt strider, the view, it was breathtaking to say the least and was eager to see how the game compared to Daggerfall.

But after a bit of exploring and getting to Balmora, that's when things started going downhill. After mapping out Balmora, I wondered where the rest of it was. Surely all the "cities" in Morrowind couldn't be this dinky. The next thing I did was join the fighters guild and hoped to start a few quests and build my rep up with them like I did in Daggerfall, only to find out IIRC there were only 3 quests before getting told to piss off to another "town" that was even smaller than Balmora. I WTFed so hard when there were no more fighters guild quests, I WTFed even harder when I went to that other place (I think it began with an A, I can't remember the name right now) that only has 10 or something buildings!! I'll stop here as anything I say after this point will just be ranting. Still, it's hard to get any awe again after this.

As for your post, I +1ed it. Everything in it was true except for the last part. Looking at the silt striders for the first time was awesome............only to find they never actually moved............just like every other non hostile in Morrowind............then they lost their appeal, just like everything else.

Dagoth Ur was memorable only because of what he was wearing. For the big bad to be wearing a horny mask and a loincloth was absolutely hilarious.