If you ask me what my favorite game of all time is, I might initially drop something likeFinal Fantasy VII, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Half-Life 2, GTA V,World of Warcraft,The Witcher 3in an attempt to pretend that I’m part of the cultural zeitgeist. But if I was being 100% honest, I would tell you that my favorite game of all time is Gothic 2.
Gothic 2 is a game I’ve been replaying once a year for the past couple of decades. While I do prefer the sequel, the original has a warm spot in my heart as well, and I was beyond happy when I learned a few years ago that the game was getting a remake. Those tears of joy swiftly turned to tears of sorrow, however, when I started playing the teaser trailer, which had absolutely nothing in common with the original game. Luckily, publisher THQ Nordic later announced that they would be starting again from scratch following community feedback and that they would be setting up a brand-new studio called Alkimia Interactive to handle the project. So far, so good.
It’s now been more than three years since work on the Gothic remake started, and we haven’t received as many updates as I would have liked during this time. That finally changed earlier this month when the publisher released a new trailer showcasing the Old Camp. I have some mixed feelings about this new trailer. The good news is that the folks over at Alkimia finally managed to nail down the atmosphere. The music and sound effects are also spot-on thanks to the legendary Kai Rosenkranz. The bad news is that the devs seem to be dropping the ball in other areas.
The Valley of Mines, Gothic’s setting, is a prison camp filled with all manner of knaves and ne’er-do-wells where our protagonist, the Nameless Hero, feels right at home. The Old Camp, one of the game’s biggest quest hubs, is (mostly) a lawless hive of scum and villainy where danger lurks around every corner.
Although the Nameless Hero looks a bit off, the Old Camp does feel on point and the trailer perfectly captures the gritty and violent nature of the setting. Kudos to the developers for pulling that off since it’s an important part of what makes Gothic, well, Gothic. Regrettably, now comes the part where we have to talk about some of the negatives.
Specifically, we need to talk about the accents.
Now, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but some time ago a group of highly influential people gathered together and unanimously decided that characters in every piece of fantasy-themed mediamusthave British accents. Moreover, this council of elders also decreed that hero characters can only speak in nice and proper English while villain characters are required to always speak in a quasi-intelligible Cockney accent. Fine, so maybe I made some of that stuff up, but that’s certainly a trope we’re all familiar with. And it kills me to see it in the Gothic Remake.
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Naturally, you would expect British accents in a game made by British people and/or set in a world inspired by British history or folklore. But that’s not the case here. Gothic is a game originally created by a German studio that’s now being remade by Spanish developers backed by an Austrian publisher. Gothic, a game heavily associated with an old Swedish folk song whose biggest fanbase is in Poland. Among the many things that made the very same Gothic so unique is that most characters had American accents. That’s right, American accents in a medieval fantasy game. And no, they weren’t people from present-day New York who traveled back in time.
The Valley of Mines is simply a medieval fantasy world filled with people who inexplicably speak in American accents. Pretty weird, I know, but a lot of things that made Gothic special are weird. Sure, there are those who think that American accents make no sense in a fantasy setting, but why do British accents get some kind of pass? Realistically, both are just as nonsensical, so why not stick with the weird-yet-charming American accents? This is supposed to be afaithfulremake at the end of the day.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good Cockney accent as much as the next person, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table here. We went from only giving these accents to very specific characters like poorly educated pickpockets and Victorian-era gangsters to filling medieval taverns with ambient chatter that sounds like it was recorded in an East End pub during a football game. Go back to the latest Gothic Remake trailer and play it again with your eyes closed. Does the Old Campreallysound like a place filled with tough and dangerous criminals who would bash your teeth in for a rusty pickaxe? Or does it sound like a bunch of hooligans bickering over a couple of quid?
Maybe this is just because I grew up watching way too many American movies, but I find that a good American accent sounds more intimidating in a setting like The Valley of Mines. Waterfront district of a steampunk city filled with cutthroats and vagabonds? Give me Cockney every time. Penal colony filled with hardened criminals, mercenaries, and fanatical cultists? For some reason, American accents just work better. I don’t make the rules. Imagine Prison Break, but it takes place in 19th-century London instead. Sounds interesting in its own right, but it wouldn’t have quite the same vibe, would it?
Sure, American accents make no sense in a fantasy setting, but why do British accents get some kind of pass?
Gothic’s story is ultimately about a man trying to break out of prison. Just like The Shawshank Redemption.Sort of. There’s no Morgan Freeman here, but there is a character just as compelling called Xardas the Necromancer who happens to have a similarly striking voice. Or at least he used to in the original. We’ll just have to wait and see what he sounds like in the remake.
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To be fair to the developers, at this stage we don’t know what most of the characters sound like. The protagonist sounds – and looks – very different, but aside from him, we’ve mostly only seen and heard minor characters so far. The voice acting in the original game was a bit cringy at times, but it had an undistinguishable charm to it. It would be a real shame if they changed that for the remake, especially since certain aspects of the game are shaping up so nicely. Better than I initially expected, actually.
In spite of this lengthy rant, the Gothic Remake is still my most highly-anticipated game at the moment, warts and all. I’m not exactly sure what that says about me.
Anyway, I’m off to play the original once more. I guess I’ll check on the game’s progress again in another year or two when Alkimia decides to give us another small glimpse at the Gothic Remake. By then, maybe we’ll finally have some gameplay and a release date. Fingers crossed.
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