I'm a huge fan of this game and I've heard that Gothic series is very close to the style of this game.

Would you guys recommend it to me?

How accessible is Gothic? I'm not looking for a grind-fest or frustrating RPG experience.

Thinking of picking all 3 when there is a sale.

The Gothic series is really one of my favourites in this genre (even the third one) -- you can pretty much screw Gothic Arcania and the less said about the addon for the third Gothic. the better but apart from that.....

The story is believable (in a way), the characters make sense and it also has the dirty rpg look that most rpgs lacked back in the days. Can't say much about the english version since I played the german original but if they put as much effort in the voice dubbing as they did in the german version then it's bound to be great. And...the best part....you can see that they handdesigned every inch of the world (unlike other rpgs where a randomized editor did all the work).
Also..you don't have a fancy map that shows you where you have to go...you actually don't have a map at all but tbh you don't really need it either.

As for the ploughing part: Nope -- strangely the Gothic series lacks women ;)

The game is neither a grind-fest nor frustrating -- well, you can stray off the path and explore a bit (the game even encourages you to do that) but doing so you might come accross a monster who'd beat the shit out of you. In that case: Reload, explore something else and come back later once you levelled up a bit.
Later in the game combat may become a bit too easy (but tbh thats the same with Witcher 3 aswell) -- if you take all the sidequests, explore every nook and cranny then you might end up at a level where the endgame really isn't all that challenging anymore (might...you can still die if you aren't careful).

To sum it up: When it comes to difficulty the Gothic series is no Dark Souls but it's no Hello-Kitty game either where the mobs fart pink rainbows at you.

The first few hours can be really frustrating for a new player. Bear in mind that the combat controls are a pain in the ass for someone who hasn't played the game and the first five or six levels are difficult to reach due to the fact than even the easiest of the monsters can have a party with your body.

But if you are patient enough you will enjoy the game immensely. It's one of the very few games I can replay at least once a year.

Not sure where you picked up the notion that gothics are close to the style of this game. However I would recommend gothics just because they are good rpg games.

Gothic is not very accessible. It is extremely difficult, clunky combat which you can get good at with a lot of time/practice.

Gothic 1 and 2 are good. Anything after that is absolutely terrible and not worth playing. Watch some let's plays. Its really bad.

Actually I wouldn't dismiss Gothic 3 so fast -- yes, when it came out it was a bugfest: Broken quests, abilities, random crashes. It took a few patches to fix all that plus a rather large community update (which made it into the Gold Edition you now get on sale). All these fixes and tweaks in mind Gothic 3 is the second best part in the series imo (Gothic 2 is still the best).

Just so there isn't any misunderstanding: The addon for Gothic 3 is still utter crap (then again, Piranha Bytes had no hands in that one -- JoWood just wanted to milk the gothic license and handed the task over to some indian programmers who chopped up a hush hush addon.

The fourth Gothic (well....Gothic Arcania..it doesnt really have a number) started with a different hero and although it wasn't all that bad it lacked the Piranha Bytes charm and just didn't feel like Gothic.

I would recommend gothic 2 and Risen 1.

I played the community patch. Still not worth it, IMHO. I also tried Gothic 4 but was so bored I couldn't finish it.

In my opinion, Gothic, apart from Witcher, are those games that try things differently. They somehow managed to make questing interesting and engaging. Not just go from A to B. Kill shit. Come back.

If you enjoy Gothic 1, 2 and possibly even 3 (without the addon), chances are high you are also going to enjoy Risen 1, 2 and 3. The Risen series is practically the successor of the Gothic series. The developer just was not allowed to use the same name. I love the Gothic series, but i think the Risen series is even better. Gothic 4 (Arcania) was made by an entirely different developer and is pretty crappy though.

Witcher is a lot better cuz yis

If you liked Witcher 3, go for Gothic. There are very different, but they have this in common: they manage to be open-world, but with a focused story and a real character progression. You never feel lost in W3 or in the Gothic games (the good ones). Unlike Elder Scrolls, where I (subjective opinion here) feel lost and bored after 2 hours of play, in Gothic the world always felt coherent and my actions were meaningful.

Actually, before Witcher 3, no other open-world game had given so much joy and excitement than the Gothic series. Be sure to play 1, 2 and 3 in that order, and forget about the expansion pack for 3 and Gothic "4" Arcania like other people have said.

Ok thanks for the input everyone. I think I will start with Gothic 2 perhaps.

I loved Gothic 3 when I played it (several years ago). But I've tried going back and the gameplay is simply not any fun. Still a great story with an open world that's very well done, but after playing more recent games, the gameplay just isn't refined enough.

IMO it just hasn't stood up well to the test of time.

Voice acting, animations, combat, etc..., from more recent titles is far beyond what was done back then.

Hard going back after playing Witcher 3, the new Tomb Raider, Dying Light, Far Cry 3 and 4, etc..., etc..., etc....