Good. Gothic is a fantastic game. Gothic 2 improves on the first in every imaginable way (emphasis is placed on the fixing of the first's messy and confusing controls [although you will be comfortable with their weirdness by game's end]), but it IS worth playing them in order for the continuing story.
Piranha Bytes are clumsy developers, but a lot of the problems and faults that end up in their games almost come off as...charming. But it's probably just the nostalgia talking.
IMO, beware of Mud when you play. He's a sneaky little bastard. Just be very cautious around him, or you could get in trouble.
Also take the ballsiest route and become a mage (I think you have to join the new camp? maybe old does it too? I haven't played in years...just be sure to stay away from the stoned out swamp warriors). It's the hardest in the beginning, but my god it's satisfying to rain hellfire down on an entire town before going on to kill the main boss.
I want to replay it...

I hope you got it / them. :P
Once you get over the HORRIFYING SHITCONTROLS in Gothic 1, the game is a blast.

The story itself is good. The game on the other hand... not so good. Not horrible or anything. It could just have been alot better, even it a little effort.
First the combat is all about who gets the first hit. Then you just keep clicking that B-i-atch till your opponent is dead.
Since its a German game the english voices are kinda corny and emotionless. But hey thats just part of the experience... :D
But its still worth it, i enjoyed it. Even with the horrible controls and combat.

Let me know how you like it after some playtime..I'm in a similar position. Trying to get into the genre/series..found it difficult based on the demo..but I'm still determined to like it..:)

You're describing Gothic 3's combat, not either of the two offered on GOG.
About the voices...yeah, those are one of the things I think of as somewhat charming. I really liked that they had 3 voice-actors with pretty unique, if emotionless, voices for 70+ characters! :D EVERY MAGE IS XARDAS HOLY DICKS.

I was on the fence a long time about Gothic, I finally took the plunge when I found out it would run fine on my Asus netbook. To my surprise, the graphics looked much better than I expected based on the screenshots posted here on GOG. Also, the controls, while clunky and confusing at first, work OK once you figure them out. (Reading some of the tips threads here or elsewhere will spare you some pain.)
I have not gotten very far yet, But the whole "feel" of the game is very cool and unique. The gritty setting makes for a very different game than most RPG's. The "sword and socery" mix is good and well done. The character interactions are pretty good. (Save early and save often, though.) All in all, it's shaping up to be a very enjoyable experience and I can now understand better some of the rave reviews.
What I did was to start a "trial" game - knowing I would abandon it and start over - just to learn the controls and get a feel. I had so much fun, I just kept playing. ;)
But I know I could now improve my standing a lot if I went back and started over, so I might
At the price being asked, this is well worth getting if you like RPG's at all.

Buy it, change controls in the menu to WSADQER+TAB+SPACE+MOUSE, install modkit 1.8 and fpscap remover, and PLAY THE SHIT OUT OF THIS AWESOME GAME.
And people that complain about controls are probably people that do not know that there is an options menu in the game.

good game, controls are strange (inventory even stranger)... there are also side ways attacks, besides the two forward ones you mentioned, which tend to be more useful early on that the straight ahead attack as the sideways ones are faster.
In the beginning you'll get beaten by everything and everyone, even the scavengers. the name of the game is mob control, you'll have to draw monsters to you one by one and defeat them rather than try to run into the middle of 4 of them, which will automatically kill you.

Gothic is one of my favourite games ever, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes challenging RPGs. While it is quite difficult at the start, you will become much more powerful over time and be able to take on enemies that you previously had to run away from. The complete absence of classes allows you to make your character however you want; there's nothing stopping you from being a mage who forges weapons in his spare time, or a fighter who uses a bow to attract or weaken enemies before rushing in with a giant axe, or any combination of these. Gothic II expands on this freedom with a full alchemy and forging system and other great additions.
If you choose to play Gothic II please note that the Night of the Raven expansion (which GOG's installer installs by default) makes the game insanely hard--far beyond even the initially punishing difficulty of the first game--and is most suited for veterans of the series or those who always play games on Hard or the like on their the first time through. Despite this, Night of the Raven adds a stunning amount of new content throughout the world--including an entirely new area to explore--and makes Gothic II an overall better game, so if you're up to the challenge it's certainly worth it.
GOG's screenshots are taken with the game running in 16-bit color and are horribly compressed. They are a mishmash of actual game shots, bogus made-for-screenshots scenes, and even a pre-release screenshot showing the old health bar. They are not at all representative of the game's quality. If you force antialiasing and antistrophic filtering at driver level the game looks even better.

I played Gothic not too long ago and really enjoyed it. Before that I tried Fallout 3 and left it after pouring at good 8 hours in it, but Gothic kept me interested.
Controls are a bit unusual but felt natural pretty fast. I actually like the fact to use one action button and directions keys to do anything. Something rare for me: I only used the alternate layout and did not feel the need to remap any of the keys, and it was all comfortable.
It doesn't use the retarded real-time wannabe turned-based system of BG, that's for sure. You only play alone, though for brief moments you can have companions but they either escort you or are escorted by yourself and will attack enemies on their own accord. Combat can be hard at first, because you need to learn how to do it correctly, but also because your character simply sucks at it. It's quite a nice mix of combat driven by character skill and player reflex, where learning a new skill level will improve your speed and practicing your reflexes will let you move your character around and do some combo more easily. So supposedly you could attack enemies a bit stronger than you in the beginning if you have been practicing with the combat system, but you still need to invest points in combat skills and attributes to attack the strongest enemies and hope to survive large groups of them.
The start of the game is pretty cool, especially when you have to figure the world and how it works. It isn't very big, but feel coherent enough. Monsters respawn only when you advance the story and pass a new chapter, which means that you won't have to clear the same areas over and over, and only a few monster respawn, so if you cleared a group of 10 wolves, maybe you will find only 2 or 3 later. You get a few choices, like which camp to chose, but they do not amount to very much in the end as you will still do the same things whatever side you pick. As others mentionned, the story is linear but quite enjoyable at first, until it falls down into the "ancient evil comes back" and "you are the chosan one!!!11!!1" territory. But the exploration is very cool, and areas that are off-limit at some points are mostly done because you will encounter powerful enemies there, which you can still try to outrun or sneak by if you really want to explore the place. The map system was mentionned and it also a great touch.
All in all, not perfect and with some rough edges, but overall well-done and enjoyable. If you like exploration, finding small secret places out of the way, you will probably like this game.
Icewind Dale? Baldur's Gate 2? Play mostly the same, have the same combat system, mostly turn around dungeon exploration ...

get number two

No. The controls are horrible. Once you start to play you will see. Gothic 2's controls are just as bad. I'm not kidding, it really ruins what may have been a really good game.

Well, I'm pretty sure that the "people who complain about the controls" are people who have enjoyed games with much better controls, dude! ;)
It's not just remapping the controls - I'm sure we all did that 5 seconds after we started it up. It's the clunky mechanics of how some of the things work, like picking something up and putting it in your inventory. Fine once you grok it, but confusing at first due to the crummy manual.

If you are going to play a Gothic then go with 2. It controls great compared to the first one. Neither are very good as far as it goes but the controls for 1 are overcomplicated to put it nicely.

I must be the only one who enjoyed the controls in G1. Had a few frustrating moments but overall it was ok. I wonder if I am really that hardcore that I am almost in another dimension or if people just like to whine for the sake of whining.