Gothic (Gameplay #3) - A Mine Forever Voyaging
4The sweeping design as well as impressive attention to detail which characterize almost every environment in a Gothic game is one of those key elements which make the series stand out in the frequently dull subgenre of open world RPGs. Even the first Gothic offer some truly breath-taking environments despite belonging to the ill-fated first few generations of fully polygonal 3D games.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the central theme of the Old Mine featured in this video is verticality (and not claustrophobia, which deep underground networks are more commonly associated with). The player is constantly moving either up or down, and one wrong step can mean the difference between life and death for the main character. And just when you thinks you've seen everything, the level designers decide to throw in a heavy dose of sexy Giger-esque curves for good measure. Minecrawlers were mostly annoying in Gothic 3, but the strong Aliens influence at display in Gothic 1 sure makes things a bit more interesting...