Now, I have never played Gothic or Gothic 2, but I did attempt to play Gothic 3. I use the word attempt, because the game ran so terribly, and felt so clunky, that I couldn't get anywhere with it. At first I thought it was simply because my hardware at the time was only mediocre, but after trying it on my friend's rig I discovered that it mostly was just because Gothic 3 runs like crap. That aside, the little of the game I experienced piqued my interest in the series a bit, so I am curious as to just how the original and the third compare. Clearly I am not talking in terms of graphics or other superfluous factors, I mean comparing their value as an enjoyable title.
Actually, I'd also like to hear opinions on Gothic 2, if anyone has played it extensively enough to comment on it in detail.

I had never heard of Gothic until discovering Gothic 2 in one those bins full of $9.99 software you see in malls. I purchased it, and played it, and to this day consider it the best game I've ever played on ANY platform. That good, IMO. Never have I discovered a game that was so immersive, it felt like I was THERE. The story, the combat, the world, the humor (there is LOTS of humor in it), it was the best gaming experience of my life. So, as soon as Gothic 3 came out, I was there.
Terrible. Utterly terrible in my opinion. I couldn't play it past the first few hours, it just wasn't the same to me. Not even close. It seemed to become more of a hack and slash type RPG in version 3 to me, simply using the mouse to click made combat unfun, and like you said, it didn't run very well. I've since uninstalled it from my machine.
Then recently I learned of this site and purchased the original. Wow. I'm back in love again. The immersion is back, the humor, the intense world, it's all there. I might still prefer 2, but I'm finding 1 to be a close second, and because of this and because of how closely 2 ties into 1, I would HIGHLY recommend playing 1 prior to 2. Also, if or when you decide to get 2, there is an add-in that makes the world even bigger called Night of the Raven. Highly recommend going that route, in fact you can purchase the Gold edition which includes Gothic 2 and the Night of the Raven add-in.
These games are the best I've played, and when I configured them for my gamepad, it was like gaming heaven. I use the direction arrows on my gamepad for movement, and all the buttons are configured for everything from Action to Jump to Inventory to Combat to... well everything, the only thing I can't do with my gamepad is sneak, because I ran out of buttons LOL. This is simply the best gaming experience on any platform I've experienced and highly and enthusiastically recommend 1 and 2 (not 3) to anyone.
EDIT: Oh, almost forgot. If you do purchase this game, IMO it's fun to go into the Gothic.INI file and change the level of blood (By changing the line "BloodDetail=1" to a 3). It's really fun seeing the blood fly when you land a critical hit ! ! ! :)

Thank you very much for the input.
I've been a third key manager at a GAMESTORE* for four years now, and I've been eye-balling a copy of Gothic 2 we've had buried in our $9.99 PC section for most of that time, and kept putting off trying it. You've made a most convincing argument in its favor, so I think I'll go ahead and buy Gothic 1 now, and Gothic 2 my next shift at work.
Blood Detail trick... definitely going to try that!
*Apparently against company policy for employees to reveal that we work at that GAMESTORE.

Well, good luck. I will tell you that the controls are going to be, most likely, unlike anything you've tried. This is the main reason why I use the gamepad, because with the keyboard it just feels "klunky" or awkward or something. To pick up or speak to anyone (or to use an item in inventory) requires pressing 2 keys simultaneously, as does combat. Another reason why I find the gamepad much more enjoyable. IIRC in 3 it was mostly a mouse game (it's been awhile since I played it, but I think it mostly using the mouse), so in that sense both 1 and 2 will be different from your experience with 3.
Gothic 2 has built in gamepad support (after making a change to the INI file), so it's just a matter of going to the in-game settings menu and assigning gamepad keys to each function. Gothic 1 doesn't have built in support, so I had to use the Logitech software that came with my gamepad and assign each button on the gamepad to a keyboard button. But after doing so I can do anything, even conduct dialog (which requires pressing the Enter key) and back out of menus (which requires the Esc key). I just LOVE the way the game plays with the gamepad much more than the way it felt so klunky using the keyboard. Attached is an image of the keys I assigned if anyone is interested.
EDIT: LOL, somehow I attached it twice and now I don't know how to delete one. Sorry. Plus, not only that, it doesn't show which buttons are assigned to which keys in the picture, so it doesn't do any good. If anyone can tell me how to delete these two worthless pictures I'll do so.
EDIT2: Nevermind, figured out how to delete them after all. Just hit the tiny "x" next to it. LOL

Gothic 1 is mouse based as well. Just do not try the default settings, go to options and configure the controls for yourself.It's easy as pie :).

Gothic 1's mouse controls are horrible, in my opinion. Even at maximum sensitivity I have to drag my Logitech G5 across the entire pad to do a 180. When you consider that the same amount of motion in Quake or Half-Life 2 has me spinning like a blender that's pretty bad.
Not that it needs to be answered anymore, but the main topic of this thread: Gothic makes Gothic 3 its bitch. Gothic 3 was without a doubt the worst game I have played in years. Even the horribly broken (and laughably bad) Two Worlds couldn't compare to it in terms of sheer awfulness.

I never had problem with mouse in G1, and I finished it twice. I have Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 and acceleration disabled.The sensitivity was always perfect.
And as for G3, it is not that bad at all.I actually played that game for about 100 hours and I liked it a lot..I even finished it. It has worse story and quests, but on the other hand there is so much content....and its world is the most beautifully realized fantasy world ever created for a videogame.Myrtana is heavenly....Varant and Nordmar were a bit worse, though.I was searching for Xardas's tower for about two hours : ).

I played the German version of all three Gothic games. Gothic 1 and 2 were just mind-boggling. Great dialogues, cool NPC characters, a huge environment and a very enjoyable storyline. Gothic II plus Night of the Raven really was a challenge but soooo much fun.
I played G3 a few months ago. By that time it had been thoroughly bugfixed and my MacBook Pro was strong enough to deal with the graphics.
G3 was great fun. However, it does not surpass Gothic II gameplay-wise. The world is still vast and beautiful and there is a lot going on, but you still feel that there is not as much love in G3 as in the previous games. The thing I missed most was a more believable town live and truly complex NPCs (dialogs, behavior, daily routines, interaction among them). In Gothic 1 and 2, I enjoyed going back to places/towns were all quests were solved. They felt like home and like a save haven. In G3, the towns become pretty boring and static after you freed them.