THQ Nordic arrived at this year's Gamescom with a whole fleet of its developers, including the Barcelona, Spain-based Alkimia Interactive, which is currently working on the Gothic remake. Local media seized this opportunity to chat up the studio's representatives, who revealed a lot about the current state of the project which started active development last year, in addition to confirming it's still too early to commit to a specific release window, let alone a release date.
Launched in 2001, Gothic is widely regarded as one of the most iconic turn-of-the-century CRPGs. THQ Nordic gauged public interest in a Gothic remake with a playable teaser released via Steam in late 2019. The publisher officially greenlit the project two and a half years ago, and Alkimia has been gradually growing its team ever since.
German gaming outlet Rocket Beans spoke with Alkimia reps at Gamescom earlier this week. One of the central topics that were discussed was the Gothic remake's combat system. While the 2019 playable teaser was heavily criticized for its generic, Dark Souls style of combat, the studio is now assuring fans that the fighting mechanics in the remake will be much closer to the original game, which required players to seek out expert trainers for specific weapon classes and spend learning points on unlocking faster animations and new combos. The color palette should be more faithful to the original game as well, which is something that was already seen in the creepy new gameplay footage from the Gothic remake shared at the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase earlier this month.
The recipe-based alchemy and cooking mechanics are confirmed to be making a return, with the developers aiming to deliver a slightly more complex system that can produce more powerful potions and food. The overall world layout will stay the same, though some areas of the map have been scaled up, whereas a few new locations are also on their way. Any planned dialogue changes will be comparably additive in nature, so all lines from the seminal game should still be part of the package. As for who will be delivering them, the Spanish developer said it did its best to recruit as much of the original cast as possible. A number of unspecified roles still had to be recast due to actors passing away, retiring, or switching careers. The once-revolutionary AI system from the original Gothic will remain as close to unchanged as the engine switch allows it to, according to the developers.
Finally, the studio's Gamescom appearance included a confirmation that it hasn't even committed to an internal release window just yet. This makes it unlikely that the Gothic remake will launch prior to 2024, at the earliest.
Gothic is currently in development and expected to release for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
