Gothic 1 and 2 are definitely less combat orientated than Divine or Beyond Divinity are. If you play it correctely. The environment is absolutley lively (especially in Gothic2) and there are lots and lots of interaction possibilities.
I love the way the NPC AI acts in Gothic games. The AI is always alive, immersive, and whatnot. Every NPC's is under a schedule, which rules. And often when you get near certain NPC's, if they together, the game will play a sound and it'll sound like they are in the midst of a conversation.
Gothic 1 and 2 play in a world that is very much orientated on the Middle ages up to Reneissance in Europe. There is very few room for females in both games. Piranha bytes faced harsh criticism because of how females are treated in Gothic, but in my opinion this criticism is pointless. The medieval world was a world dominated by men and why, by all means,shouldn´t the developers be allowed to create a fantasy world dominated by males. I definitely don´t see this as an affront towards women.
I never took offense to it, either. But, yes -- it was a male dominated world in Gothic 1. Hell, it was a PRISON COLONY. Who was most likely then to be in Prison then? Males, I believe.
There are more women in G2, since the world is open now that the Penal Colony's barrier is gone.
It is possible to play both gothic 1 and 2 as a brutal killer who does not live the world but fights almost all NPC´s for Xperience points. This was not the intention of the game. However if you kill all non mainquest related NPC´s in Gothic2 (which must be far over 200) you gain lots and lots of XP making your character even stronger. (and that is absolutely unnecessary maybe except for the addon of Gothic2- we talked about the difficulty level already)
When visiting the gothic forums you often find gamers only talking about combat. They simply do not understand the impressive work that was done towards fantasy feeling, game balancing, world creating...
@Alrik: I would strongly suggest you to buy gothic2 and play it. You should also try out the addon, but use the same cheat that I do. (I´ll give you the link if you want). If you liked G1 you will love it´s sequel.
bernhard
I'm waiting for Atari to please bring me an ENGLISH translated version of Gothic 2: Night of The Raven.
