The Gothic 1 Remake that has been in the works since at least 2020 has finally been officially revealed by THQ Nordic. The reveal came as part of THQ Nordic's Digital Showcase last Saturday.
Unfortunately, the Gothic Remake doesn't have a release date yet, but a playable demo is available on Steam for anyone who owns at least one game by its original developers – Piranha Bytes. However, even then, the remake isn't actually being worked on by the original devs. With THQ Nordic purchasing Piranha Bytes back in 2019, they have instead been busy making ELEX games. Meanwhile, THQ Nordic has tasked an entirely different studio – Alkimia Interactive – with developing this new release.
Gothic is an action role-playing game set in high fantasy settings. The original Gothic had a complex and deep story, and interesting relationships between its fleshed-out characters, where players control a personalized character that completes quests to level up and learn new skills and abilities. Even back then, Gothic had a refined system in place already that allowed players to interact extensively with their environment, pretty much how games like Divinity: Original Sin work today.
In Gothic, players take on the role of an unnamed prisoner sent to the ore mines. As the human race is being run down by a ravaging orc invasion, the king has decided to send all criminals to the mines to extract magical ore that can be used to forge magical weapons. However, an unforeseen accident allowed the prisoners to take full control of the mines, forcing the king to treat them as a different entity to trade various resources and materials for the magical ore they mine.
Gothic went on to become a successful series, with two more sequel games and multiple spin-offs following it.
The game is currently expected to launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series X.