我们想打造一个真实的世界,所以我们决定设计出一个丰富有趣的小天地,而非单调乏味的大世界。我们决定摒弃童话般明快的色调,改用阴郁压抑的基调。两相结合,一个由魔法屏障四面环绕的看守营地就此诞生。
We wanted to create a living world, so we decided to make it small and interesting, rather than very large and boring. And instead of a bright fairy-tale atmosphere, we preferred to create a dark and gloomy setting. Combine these two things and you end up with a prison camp surrounded by a magical barrier.
Alex Brüggemann,
Piranha Bytes 联合创始人、《哥特王朝》设计师Alex Brüggemann,
Piranha Bytes co-founder and Gothic's designer
《哥特王朝》另一个优点在于角色系统,它与游戏玩法、剧情叙事紧密相连。诚然,只要杀怪物、做任务,你就能获得大量经验值,但升级后,你会发现,自己的角色并没有任何战力增幅,只是获得一些技能点而已。要想将其转化为战力,还得拜访能传授技艺的特定训练师。如果你能一见面就赢得对方的好感,那么他们会将平生所学倾囊相授。
此外,虽然主角一开始是个平民,但游戏有三方阵营,只要加入任意一个阵营,主角就能获得一个特定职业。各阵营都有对应的专属流程任务。这种设定很巧妙,不仅将升级与叙事联系起来,致敬以往的 P&P RPG 游戏[3] ,还让玩家面临重重选择,这些抉择都会对剧情进展产生深远影响。例如,你也许对头一个阵营心生认同,但如果加入这个阵营,就无法从第二个阵营打听情报,或无法完成第三个阵营的支线任务。
The final outstanding quality of Gothic was its character system and how it tied into the game and story themselves. Sure, you could gain massive XP from monsters and quests, but once you levelled up, essentially nothing happened. You only got a bunch of skill points that required visits to specific trainers that would teach you, but only to the best of their capabilities – if they even respected you in the first place.
Furthermore, while your character started as a classless bloke, to actually acquire a specific class you needed to join one of the three very distinct factions, each of which had its own agenda and quests. Not only was this very neat because tying the levelling to the narrative was a nice throw-back to P&P RPGs, but also because it piled up many layers of choices and consequences. You might agree with one faction, but joining it will prevent you from learning something from another, or completing quests for the third, etc.
要是我说自己不是 Piranha Bytes 的死忠粉,那我一定在撒谎。我依然记得,第一次接触到这款游戏,我是如此地赞不绝口!惊叹于它难以置信的开放性、惊叹于它给人带来的幽闭感、惊叹于野外求生的艰难。我还记得,得知《哥特王朝 2》继承前作一切优点,并将其发扬光大时,我是多么地欣喜若狂。虽然在此之后,《哥特王朝》系列,连同这个开发团队的发展道路都谈不上一帆风顺,但对我来说,无论以后发生什么,都不会动摇这两部作品在我心中的地位。
虽然从各方面来说,续作都比本作要优秀得多,但如果抱着“1 和 2 一模一样,甚至还比不上 2“的念头,而不玩初代《哥特王朝》,我觉得有失偏颇。说实话,两款游戏都是《哥特王朝》系列[4] 的重要组成部分,二者缺一不可。
模组:
非官方补丁(Unofficial Patch):修复大多数现存 bug。
玩家编辑器(Player Kit):一款好用的 mod 管理器,玩家可以运行、管理已有模组。游玩部分模组时必须安装。
材质补丁(Textures Patch):给游戏提供更高分辨率的材质,以《哥特王朝 2》的材质为基础。
黄金模组(Golden Patch):恢复删减内容,增加炼金术,新增一些支线任务、道具,并开放一张新地图,改善游戏线性叙事的单调性,适合多周目玩家。
试炼(The Trial):新增一个短篇支线任务——一位伯爵被控犯下大屠杀的罪名。玩家可以招募 NPC。
黑暗之谜(Dark Mysteries):《哥特王朝》的民间扩展包,开放新地图、增设新支线、新道具,新角色与新功能。
迪柯里克(Diccuric):大型 mod,采用全新的世界观与战役,与原作规模相当。采用《哥特王朝 2》的画面,视觉效果得到大幅提升。
I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't not an obnoxious fan of Piranha Bytes' RPG formula. I remember how amazed I was by the openness of the world, the feelings of seclusion and the brutality of the entire setting in just about all aspects when I played it for the first time. I also remember how glad I was when they took all that and made it even better in Gothic II. After that, both the series and the developer would start meandering, but, no matter what happened, it would never take away the first two games from me.
And while the sequel very much improved everything from Gothic, skipping this one “because it's the same but a bit less” would be criminal. Honestly, both games are just parts of one great whole, and you can't have one without the other.
Mods:
Unofficial Patch: Fixes most of the few bugs left.
Player Kit: A handy tool that allows you to run and manage Gothic's mods. Required for some mods.
Textures Patch: Offers higher resolution textures, mostly made based on Gothic II's textures.
Golden Mod: Restores cut content, adding alchemy, a few new quests, items and a new area, while also making the whole game less linear. Great for a replay.
The Trial: Adds a new short adventure about a Count accused of massacre and allows you to recruit NPCs.
Dark Mysteries: A fan-made expansion for Gothic, with new areas, quests, items, NPCs and features.
Diccuric: A huge mod with an entirely new campaign and world, both about the same size as the original game. Uses improved graphics, taken from Gothic II.
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3 译者注:P&P RPG 游戏,即 Power and Perils,“权力与危机 RPG 游戏”,由 Richard Snider 编写的角色扮演桌游,于 1983 年盒装发行。
4 《哥特王朝》重启版(Gothic Reloaded)是一个工程量颇大的民间项目,旨在全面提升原作的画面效果,有新建模与新 UI 界面。目前正在开发中。