I've played just about every commercial single player PC RPG under the sun, except for the Gothic series. It's always been set on my gaming back-burner for years, something that I've meant to get to, but never have until now. I know, I know, I should have started with Gothic 1, but I've heard most say that Gothic 2 is the better of the 3 in the series so I wanted to make my debut with the cream of the crop.
Gothic 2 is, simply put, a diamond in the rough. It came out only a few months after TES 3: Morrowind, but has gameplay elements that were clearly copied in TES 4: Oblivion. The sad thing is, is that most people who've played Oblivion don't even realize that "Radiant AI" and "NPC Schedules" had already been done in Gothic - and to boot, are far superior to Bethesda's disappointing attempt.
Prior to playing Gothic 2, I had always perceived Morrowind and Daggerfall as the pinnacle of open-world, free-form PC RPGs. I had no idea that Gothic rivaled, and even surpassed them in so many ways. Inch for inch, the world is about the same size or slightly smaller than the Island of Vvardenfell, but yet full of much more life, immersion and believability. I have never played a single-player game that made me feel more apart of another world than I have with Gothic 2.
To get this out of the way, something must be said about the difficulty that I've seen so many people complain about. First and foremost, I have never experienced a game that made me believe that my character was truly progressing as an equal among the world at large. To clarify that statement, while playing Gothic 2, I've felt like I was simply one of the NPCs trying to get along in a difficult, brutal world. When I started the game, through the way the world reacted to me, I really felt that my character was a nobody, a peasant, a peon that was barely able to scrape by. As time went on, and I began to accomplish more, the world actually began to respect my character more. No game has ever succeeded so well in this regard, even Morrowind left me feeling that the NPCs and world was a static lump of clay, with no regard to my character's achievements and progression. Nobody's asking my character to slay a dragon, nobody's asking him to save the world, my character was told only to shut up and get out of the way.
The feeling that nearly anything can kick my character's butt in the beginning is incredibly refreshing. Unlike most RPGs, my character doesn't start out as some tough fighter ready to take on the world. No, in Gothic 2 I start as a street rat, and if I manage to find employment, work hard and long enough, I get to be a farmer or blacksmith. Finally, if I'm lucky enough, I may get to join a lowly militia or magician apprenticeship. Only after hours and hours of play, do I finally get to become the "hero". To be able to slowly grow and master the world around my character is a uniquely awesome sensation.
About questing, I like they actually require you to think things through to solve them. Unlike Oblivion, there is no magic arrow pointing you down the right path, and there is not always a "give me directions" option like Morrowind. Sometimes things must be really worked out as a puzzle to solve a problem.
What also excites me is the fact that the game may not actually be winnable if you don't play smart enough. If you spread your skills out too much, or waste too many of the finite resources, succeeding as the hero is not guaranteed. This is refreshing to me. I would actually prefer that the game take a few tries before winning, because when I do I will know that I truly deserved it. The game rewards intelligence and playing smart, rather than grinding and endless respawns of monsters and loot.
About combat: I love it. Each creature has a different strategy. Some give you fair warning first, others will attack you on the spot. Some are very quick, some are slow and lumbering. Each takes a different, unique, strategy to take down. You can use the world around you to defeat your enemies, such as other creatures, or you can simply use trickery or diplomacy to win. There are so many options, it's incredible.
The world feels truly alive in Gothic 2. Creatures appear to live lives of their own, and take notice of others around them, not just my character. There is no jarring "wait" key like Morrowind or Oblivion to get you through a dark and stormy night, there is no auto-travel feature. The world can be terrifying at night, especially when your torch runs out and the city is far away. NPCs have real schedules, hold conversations with each other, and get bothered by you when you act strangely around them.
I actually think the voice acting is superb. I don't believe I have run into an NPC who has shared the voice with another. I found myself chuckling at some of the voice acting of the poorer/less fortunate folk who do an excellent job of sounding schizophrenic, speaking with a lisp, or have some sort of mental disorder. From what I've seen these voices were performed by a large variety of "actors" rather than the 3 tiresome "line readers" in Oblivion. I also get a kick out of how much the residents of Gothic 2 have a love affair with the word "basterd". :)
The game isn't perfect though. The inventory could be organized a bit better and I certainly wouldn't mind a mouse cursor, but it's certainly playable without one. Third-person combat can get pretty tricky, I find myself wanting to fight in first person at times. I think I still prefer TES's versatile character creation system as well, though forming your class along the way is still pretty fun. A lot of people knocked Oblivion for it's cookie-cutter "medieval" setting, but I'm finding that this setting can be perfectly fun as long as the mechanics behind it work, as Gothic has proven. I'm finding that I actually prefer fighting Orcs and Dragons over Kwama Foragers and Daedra.
Overall, I'm loving this game. It's too bad it never really caught on with the mainstream as the TES series did, as I think it does a lot of things TES failed at. I have to admit, though, that one of the biggest reasons why I stayed away for so long was the name itself. The word "Gothic" is simply a turnoff for a lot of people, maybe not as much outside the USA, but here it has come to evoke images of underachieving black-clad high school kids smoking in the parking lot at lunch time.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants something in the vein of TES. But to give advise from the wise, when you begin to feel the difficulty, perceive it not as a flaw, but as an asset to the game's flavor and personality.

As a fellow Elder Scrolls player, I appreciate the perspective. I'm playing through Gothic 1 right now, and I am really enjoying.
The series must have made quite a leap between the first and second games, because I am not finding the first one terribly immersive. I can't place my finger on it, but I'm constantly reminded that I'm playing a game and it kills my suspension of disbelief. Conversely, this rarely occurs to me in Morrowind or Oblivion.
That's not to say it's still not a great game. I'm glad to hear that the sequel plays so well.

Gothic 2 is still in my top 5 games list. It's not perfect but there are no perfect games. Despite the bugs and technical problems this is 10/10 game for one reason only: the athmosphere. A true masterpiece.

There are several NPCs that do share voice actors in Gothic 2, though. I think that they are more spread out and are more than 3 voice actors like in Oblivion, so you don't notice it. What they do is give one voice actor some NPC with a name and one random militia/mercenary/mage. It's not like Oblivion where all the NPCs sound the same.

I am a long-time hardcore fan of this series. I personally enjoyed Gothic 1 a lot more. However, maybe that's because it's the first Gothic I played and I was already spoiled when I started Gothic II. Being objective though, Gothic II is superior, just that it didn't feel like such a big leap for me, as Gothic 1 did.
Unfortunately for the developer, they never really managed to get their game out there. It's remarkable however that a team for 20-odd people were able to introduce some new concepts better than someone like Bethesta, and all that seven years sooner.

This should really be a user review, huh?
I don't see a huge difference between the two...they feel like two parts of one huge game. Starting with the cream of the crop is rather...odd, since the appeal I think is largely in the characters and atmosphere, and G1 is quality in those regards.
Overall I have to say I think Risen is heaps better. Gothic games are just so antiquated now.

Gothic series seems a huge game for me too. Even G3 fits somehow in the story despite its bugs and easyness (which was a bit repaired with CP patch - try now as mage on hard and AB and AI activated).
Risen is what G3 should have been in matter of combat. If G3 had this kind of combat and lack of graphic stuttering it should have been my top game ever.

Well, Radiant AI was actually present in Gothic 1 and the 3 camps in that game are stunning in terms of autenticity.
If you liked Gothic 2 Night of the Raven then maybe you should play Gothic 1 and Risen.

I am a fan of Gothic 2. I must admit I have never completed it, or really progressed that far, but someday.
Just to nitpick. NPC schedules have been around a lot longer than any Gothic game or Oblivion. They have been around since at least Ultima V, circa 1988. Possibly longer, that is the first one I can think of off the top of my head.

NPC actually buying and eating food are there since Ultima VII, which had also an awesome NPC schedule. And in many cases, NPCs would say different things whether you were talking to them whilel they were at the tavern, at home or at work.