Gothic Remake Q&A – Alkimia Talks About Expanding the Classic RPG with an Extra 10 Hours of Content

Nearly five years after the Gothic Remake playable teaser was released on Steam, I watched a detailed presentation of the project at Gamescom 2024, followed by an in-depth Q&A with the developers at Alkimia Interactive.

To start with, the developers stressed Gothic's importance from a gaming cultural standpoint, especially in Germany and Eastern Europe, where the fantasy role-playing game immediately garnered a huge following. They also immediately clarified that the Gothic Remake Gamescom 2024 demo was not part of the actual game. Instead, it was a sort of prequel featuring another main character rather than the nameless hero. Alkimia Interactive said they were unsure whether the demo would be released to the public.

Related Story Dragon Age: The Veilguard Hands-On Preview – Rook Takes Queen, Checkmate

Even in this demo, the action still took place in the colony under the magic barrier created by magicians to keep some prisoners. The developers said it was very important to keep the original spirit and the daily routines of the NPCs, who do their own things, like having random conversations that you can listen to.

In the original game, the player could dive, but the action was basically useless. In the Gothic Remake, the developers wanted to make this more meaningful, so players can now find loot inside sunken chests. For instance, at the very beginning of the demo, enterprising players can find a sword underwater. Alkimia wants to make the Gothic Remake a highly immersive experience. To that end, UI elements like the health and mana bars will only appear when the character draws a weapon.

If you have played the original, you'll find that many locations are logical extensions of something in the original. Often, there was a blocked path; you would see something behind it, but you couldn't actually go in. Now, the developers have taken these open ends to add more content.

In keeping with the gritty, realistic vibe of Gothic, the main character doesn't really know how