Since The Witcher 3, the series has become one of the most well-known in gaming. However, the creators, CD Projekt RED, had a very specific inspiration for the first installment: Gothic, the dark RPG from Germany, which still impresses today with its iconic voice lines.
The Witcher 3 is considered one of the best role-playing games of recent years, and for many, it is the best before Baldur’s Gate 3. Even now, over 9 years after its release, there are still players discovering almost completely unknown content in the game.
For many gamers, the third installment may be the first and perhaps even the only point of contact with a world that is much larger. The underlying books by Andrzej Sapkowski were already published in the early 90s, and there are still new novels. The first Witcher game was released in 2007.
The studio, CD Projekt RED, had already gained experience with video games before. The company translated games into Polish at the time and distributed them in Poland. However, one game from Germany left a particularly strong impression.
“Our dream was to take what we know from Gothic”
In 2001, the German studio Piranha Bytes released the first part of Gothic. As the “nameless hero,” you are thrown into a magically sealed mine colony and attempt to make your way through it somehow.
One of Gothic’s biggest unique features at the time was full voice acting. Every dialogue, even conversations happening around you, has its own text lines – and iconic phrases like, “Put the damn weapon away!”
CD Projekt, at the time without the RED, translated Gothic into Polish and engaged well-known actors to meet the quality. With success: Gothic was so well received in Poland that even the German studio co-founder Björn Pankratz was surprised (via YouTube).
In an interview, the studio head of CD Projekt, Adam Badowski, explains that the developers at the time wanted to emulate Gothic with their first own game, The Witcher (via YouTube):
Our dream and goal was to take what we know from Gothic. It is a legendary series, at least for us.
Adam Badowski
Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, who was primarily responsible for creating the quests in The Witcher 3, explains that Gothic 2 is one of his favorite PC games of all time (via TechRadar). Some reasons are the NPCs and the immersive world.
Gothic is smaller than other RPGs, but that’s what makes it better
Compared to the recently released The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall or the later released Morrowind, Gothic does not rely on a huge world full of randomly created interactions. For reference: Daggerfall is 600 times larger than GTA 5 (via GameStar).
Instead, you play in a relatively small area with special locations and follow a fixed story that the game wants to tell. The Chief Designer of The Witcher, Michal Madej, explains in an interview with IGN: “Gothic, although it had open endings, was story-driven. Oblivion had no story at all.”
Gothic is considered a masterpiece by many, robbed me of my youth, and came with revolutionary features for its time, such as:
- Full voice acting for all dialogues, including those of the player character – something that The Elder Scrolls still does not have and that not even Baldur’s Gate 3 offers
- NPCs who follow a daily routine, with work, leisure, and sleeping places
- an AI that “remembers” what you do: if you hit one person, another might be pleased, whose friends may not be
- a game world where you can move seamlessly and (almost) without loading screens
In Gothic, you can explore the entire world at any time, but you have to expect to venture into areas that are not meant for your level. The Witcher has already incorporated many of these features in the first installment and has expanded upon them over the years.
A huge fan community in Poland
To this day, Gothic has a massive fan base in Poland, which often humorously claims that Gothic is the best Polish game ever made. What is certain is that everything around Gothic draws more attention in Poland than here.
A live-action roleplay of Gothic, short LARP, has been taking place in Poland for years and has had over 200 participants at times (via Reddit). A comparable German project is currently struggling to find even 30 participants for it to take place (via WorldOfGothic), while another is planning with 70 players and NPCs (via Facebook).
The original creators of Gothic, Piranha Bytes, unfortunately, no longer exist. The studio was dissolved in 2024.
The first two parts of Gothic are still regarded as the best, and Part 1 is even getting a remake, which is set to be released in 2026 after several delays. Some of the sequels, such as Gothic 3, ArcaniA, the later Risen titles, and Elex, never reached the popularity of the first parts.
Nevertheless, Gothic still generates excitement in Germany, perhaps due to the dark, rugged world that is often missing in modern, polished fantasy games. One studio is even trying to follow in its footsteps: A small team from Germany wants to rival Gothic, and you can now test the game on Steam
