Game Rant recently spoke to Piranha Bytes game designer Jenny Pankratz and THQ Nordic's Florian Emmerich about Elex 2's anniversary, the re-release of classic action RPG Risen, the upcoming Gothic remake by Alkimia Interactive, and more. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Gothic Remake
Pankratz: This is quite cool, I think. Reinhard Pollice is the Producer, and we know Reinhard very well. He made a new studio Alkimia Interactive, and while they are doing the remake, we can do another role-playing game, a new one. This is good for everyone I think, because we will have two cool games in the end and I like to create new things.
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.
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.
The Gothic remake is coming to PS5, Xbox Series XS, and PC. THQ released a playable teaser of the game back in 2019, and the publisher later announced it planned to develop it as a full game. According to THQ, it won't be a simple remake but instead a "re-imagining [of] the whole thing."
The development for Gothic remake is now handled by the new studio Alkimia Interactive, a department of THQ Nordic in Barcelona. The team plans to reveal the first details of the project in the next few months.
The first quarter of 2021 is already over, and THQ Nordic decided to remind us about the existence of the Gothic remake. After the project had gotten the green light, the next step was to create a subsidiary studio. And now the company announced that THQ Nordic Barcelona was restructured and officially named Alkimia Interactive. The office of the unit is still located in the heart of Barcelona. Development is well underway, and the first results of all the work done by the team will be showcased in the upcoming months.
According to the Alkimia website, the team is constantly growing and still actively hiring for their current project. There are 17 openings, including a sound designer, 3D artist, tester, and visual effects specialist. After the release of the Gothic remake, Alkimia Interactive will move on to the production of "high-end RPGs."
The full-fledged remake of the original Gothic won't be a simple remake but instead a "re-imagining of the whole thing," THQ representatives previously said. Developers plan to stay as faithful as possible to the original experience, but "to transport the atmospheric world of Gothic into a high-quality look," modernizing its certain gameplay mechanics.
THQ Nordic are going ahead with their Gothic Remake, a do-over of the 2001 fantasy RPG. They released a public playable prototype in December and, having surveyed players, today announced reactions were positive enough for them to think it worthwhile. They did note that they're aware that not all the Gothic Playable Teaser's new design decisions and artistic changes were popular, and say they'll have a think about all that before getting stuck right into the remake.
Players who got far enough into the Playable Teaser were presented with a survey asking their opinions, and THQ Nordic have now shared their results. They say that 94.8% of 43,111 responses wanted them to go ahead with the remake. They did also ask questions about specific parts as well as having an open field for other comments, which is where more criticism came in.
The remake will be made by a new studio THQ Nordic are establishing in Barcelona. They first three Gothic games were made by Piranha Bytes, who then went on to make Risen. THQ Nordic do actually bought Piranha Bytes in 2019, in their ongoing mission to hoover up mid-size PC gaming studios of the nineties and noughties, but they probably have more important (and fresh) things to be working on. At that time, Piranha Bytes hinted they were working on a sequel to their 2017 post-apocalyptic RPG, Elex.
In December 2019, the publisher released a playable teaser to those who already had a Gothic game or any other title from original developer Piranha Bytes in their Steam libraries. The idea, THQ Nordic said, was that if the teaser proved popular enough, it would approve the development of the Gothic remake in full.
"The fans are up for a new 'old' Gothic game and the vast majority (read: 94.8 per cent) was in favour to develop a remake of the iconic German RPG Gothic, originally released in 2001," THQ Nordic said.
The original Gothic launched in the early 2000s as an RPG created by developer Piranha Bytes. THQ Nordic announced that a remake project was entering full production last year after a playable teaser garnered the attention of interested fans. You can see footage of the teaser in the 2019 comparison video below, but you should note that it represents a product that was and is far from complete.
Alkimia is the latest addition to THQ Nordic's growing number of studios and follows the acquisition of Purple Lamp Studios, which worked with the publisher on the remake of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Battle For Bikini Bottom.
THQ Nordic has released a short teaser for Gothic Remake, with the video showing a new screenshot as well as a snippet of the soundtrack. The screenshot shows off the Old Camp giving a look at how the remake is coming along. There is also a snippet of the Gothic Remake soundtrack which Kai Rosenkranz is composing, having composed the music for the original 2001 release.
With the colony surrounded by a magical barrier, prisoners go in, but they can't go out. Because of this, prisoners eventually revolted, and the colony was divided into three factions. This is where the nameless hero starts their journey. The "Gothic" remake will have the same story, just with better graphics and a modernized combat system (via TheLoadout), and with updated graphics and gameplay comes a whole new gaming experience.
The remake's showcase trailer was posted on YouTube by gaming console giant PlayStation, showing the massive expanse of the titular mine. Prisoners chipping away at the walls, carrying heavy stones on their backs, and being carefully watched by guards adds to the grim atmosphere. Since it's just the first trailer, there's not much in terms of story, but there were some scares towards the end.
Two prisoners are exploring deep into the mine when they're suddenly attacked. Two giant spiders emerge from the shadows and eat one of the men, then proceed to follow the other trying to run away. There's a good chance the nameless hero will have to face monsters like those and many others on his quest to freedom. Though the "Gothic" remake doesn't have a release date yet, it will be coming to Steam and possibly other consoles in the near future. Old and new fans are sure to enjoy it.
Building on the original gameplay, the "Gothic" remake is modernizing it. THQ Nordic, the remake's new publisher, said that the game will be faithful to the original (via TheLoadout) in addition to getting a face-lift in graphics. There hasn't been a lot of gameplay shown yet, but if it's anything like the original, combat and such will have a familiar look and feel. Since players will have to face both humans and monsters, they will need a varied skillset. Physical weapons and magic will be key to player survival. When in combat, health bars will appear above the player and who they're fighting.
On April 27, a remake of the classic Japanese role-playing game LIVE A LIVE will be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC, Square Enix announced. It appeared on the Nintendo Switch last summer, where it sold 500 thousand copies in the first month.
It's hard to say when that will happen, because in the game's FAQ updated today on Discord server of the Gothic Community states that: "there is no scheduled release date at this time. It will be announced when the developer and publisher are 100% sure of it." For the same reason, the price of the remake of Gothic - on Steam etc. was not provided (in its place it stands that the title "will be available soon") - although, of course, it apears for preorders.
Alkimia Interactive's involvement in the creation of the iconic game's remake was revealed last year. As THQ Nordic's development studio, it is still working on the game and provides regular reports on the development process.
The publisher THQ Nordic announced on their twitter[1] that a remake of Gothic will soon be available. The game was released on Steam, and every owner of any game from Gothic, Risen or ELEX franchise has a free access to the game, which is a two-hour demo, that upon finishing will ask the players to fill a survey regarding the future of the project.
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