E3 2002: Gothic 2 preshow report

JoWood Entertainment will unveil Gothic 2, its upcoming role-playing game sequel. Like its predecessor, Gothic 2 will take place in a medieval fantasy world. In the new game, the magical barrier that surrounded the prison colony featured in the previous game has been destroyed by a massive earthquake. While most of the prisoners flee immediately, you will assume the role of a prisoner trapped in a cavern by the earthquake. When a magical portal opens in the cavern and unleashes an army of demons onto the land, you must join a demon charmer in a war against hordes of marauding green-skinned orcs. The demon charmer later becomes possessed, and it is up to you to close the demon portal and save the world.

Gothic 2 will feature a minimal interface similar to the one used in the previous game, which gave you visual feedback on your characters' abilities rather than using a traditional numbers-based role-playing system. Similarly, you could gauge the dispositions of nonplayer characters through their facial expressions.

Gothic, which was created by Piranha Bytes, was released in the US last November by Xicat Interactive. We'll post more information about the upcoming sequel as it becomes available.