I have never played anything in the Gothic series, but I only hear praise about Gothic 1, 2, and sometimes 3. Which should I begin with?

starting with gothic nowadays is alway hard. if you want the best of the series you should take on g2. all gothics have more or less a backwards ass controll but among them g2 has the best.
doubtless g1 has the better setting but is not as perfected in every other aspect.

the most important thing (despite not staring with g3 ;)) is to let early difficultys not distract you. i remember well when i put the g2 cds into the drive many years ago and encountering the first foe. i had no idea how to fight, thought the control was stupid/unresponsible and put the game away. well, since i've mastered the combat system g2 is and probably will always be my favorid game.

of course, after learning to love g2 i tried g1 and it was a difficult thing to get into the awful control and not as fine balanced combat. but finally i also started to love g1 and actually play it currently.

waht i wanted to say, if you value a good idea over proper execution start with g1. if you want a rather perfected game g2 is for you.
i'd only recommend g3 if you played and really liked the predecessors and being curious how the story goes on but still it'll probably be a disappointment.

If you plan on eventually playing most of the games in the series then I'd recommend starting at the beginning with Gothic 1. Gothic 2 and 3 (particularly 2) draw significantly upon characters and events from the first Gothic so it's nice to have that background. Plus Gothic 2 with NOTR installed can be quite a beast in terms of difficulty, while Gothic 1 at least eases you into things a bit more gently (relatively speaking- it's still a Gothic game, which means a pretty steep learning curve at the beginning).

If you only plan on taking a crack at one of the games, then Gothic 2 is the strongest offering of the bunch. Gothic 3 is also a bit of a different experience compared to the first two games, which a less structured world and story, focusing more on freedom to roam around and do what you like more in the style of the Elder Scrolls games.

Well, personally, I started with Gothic 3, and have a very fond memory of it despite a few bugs.

Storywise, you can begin with any game, yet since there are many recurring characters, you may want to start with the first game. Be warned that it features a very poor ergonomy and a steep learning curve.

If you are into RPG's and are willing to take that little time getting used to the controls (which are really not that bad, I even got to like the G1 "more awkward" ones and missed them in G2), I'd suggest starting with Gothic 1.
Especially G2 will offer quite some G1 nostalgia in terms of both people and places.

G3 has really nothing in common with the 2 previous ones, except for some characters. It is a huge RPG experience, but it's not the same any more.
If you want a modern gothic-feeling game, go for Risen instead.

I suggest you to play Gothic 2 Vanilla, then replay it with the expansion. The GOG installer allows you to install the game without the NOTR expansion. Give it a try!
Also, the first installment could be a little harsh with the controls, but you'll get along in no time. Gothic 3 didn't had the feeling that the other two had, so it's up to you!

Why do you recommend playing it twice?

The Night of the Raven expansion (which the GOG installer installs by default) makes the game very difficult. It's quite a shock to go from the gradually increasing challenge of Gothic 1 to the immediately punishing Night of the Raven. If you're the sort of person who plays games on Hard the first time through you may like the increased difficulty, of course.

You can of course try it with the expansion and then reinstall without it if you are finding it too difficult but note that saves from the expansion don't work with the original game (and vice versa) because everything was rebalanced.

He said it. :D

I would recommend starting at number 1. Gothic 1 is challenging but not unfair, and it will prepare you for Gothic 2 Night of the raven's challenge. Also, I thought Gothic 1 had the most interesting setting to explore.

I'm one of those who never really found Gothic's controls bad, nor the difficulty insane.* There are just a couple of things to keep in mind: combat is largely stat dependant, and you cannot defend at all from some creatures' attacks, such as beasts.

With this in mind, I reccomend starting with Gothic 1, despite the dated look it's still very strong in terms of story and atmosphere (I'd say even better than the sequel). G2 was nice too, but nothing revolutionary. Gameplay wise it didn't bring many improvements, and the story had a few weak points imho.
G3 on the other hand... it was great on paper, but execution was a true letdown. Huge world, but boring. Melee combat was dumbed down, and yet some old balance issues were still there. No memorable characters, the humor from the previous episodes was missing. The main plot could have been intresting, but it didn't have a good pacing at all. In general, progressing through the chapters felt more like a chore than anything else.



*Although to be honest, balance is a little... exotic. Boars are stronger than wolves, and skeletons, hero fodder in most rpgs, are stronger than city guards.

here i have to object. stats can only help, they don't win your battles. if you are too stupid to attack/block/dodge at the right time even in the late game you're faster dead than you'd expect. on the other hand especially in notr if you know what you're doing you'll be able to defeat nearly anything despite being barely able to wield a stick. in g1 it's a different thing, there you need to overcome the armor to do even the least bit of damage but anyways it helps a lot to know what you're doing.

actually i consider the balancing rather reasonable. i wouldn't bet on the wolf if it's only one wolf against one boar and i think if something's already dead but can still wield a sword... well shoving a blade up a guard works most of the time, but some bones without flesh... i'd be careful. i'd guess they "survive" more than typical humanbeings. ;)

ah yes, you can dodge attacks of creatures, it's not easy and in g1 not certain to work but it's possible.

i like praising gothic. :D

You should be able to click the Options button in the installer and uncheck the expansion.

If yours somehow doesn't have this then download it again, because the current version does.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.