Dunno why I missed the Gothic series when it was released - I play RPG since ages and played all the great classic ones, from Bards'Tale to NWN, still play BG2 with a ton of mods, Wizardry8, M&B etc.
So I just discovered the Gothic series here, bought the game 2 days ago, costing less than a pack of cigarettes here (7$ with Jowood promo is less than 5 euros). Since then I spend my nights on it !!
Really superb story background, nice enough graphics (just adapted to my old system!), tons of NPC with dialogues, lots of things to do, and most of them logical - no stupid puzzles.
The combat system is quite frustrating, sort of like Mount& Blade but much less convenient, but I can't refrain from trying again when I got beat , so it's not that bad ! The tjing is that not only the PC starts weak, the player also starts uncompetent in fights, so both have to "level up" and it gives a sense of achievements.
My only complaint is with the really bad interface, that can discourage many people (like 99% of players I first thought I had a problem when the menu appeared with .. no mouse pointer ! In a 2004 game !!). The manual is rather bad too, so using the interface is a trial-and-error thing, and you must understand the games basics (combat, skills, magic) either through experience or by Web searches.
HC players can live with it, change the controls, more casual players will certainly be pissed off. But they don't come here at GOG lol !