Gothic Remake is committed to the original's immersive open world: 'You don't have a minimap, we very strictly kept that'

The ghost of Gothic is everywhere. A direct ancestor of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and The Witcher, Gothic was the ultimate eurojank RPG, an ambitious if flawed reminder of a school of open world design that predates maps full of repeatable activities. Gothic's map didn't have icons on it. It was a believable in-world item you had to acquire by paying for it (or threatening the cartographer, if you were roleplaying as a big meanie).

In remaking Gothic, Alkimia Interactive kept that element of realism a priority. "You don't have a minimap," says game director Reinhard Pollice, "we very strictly kept that. We were thinking about making it optional, but we felt like even that doesn't feel right. If you want to know where you are, just open your map. You will find out."

And though they considered adding more activities, they decided not to overstuff that map. "We were debating about doing some minigames to fill it up more," Pollice says. "Having a card minigame, or maybe some fishing minigame. Who knows what the future holds for Gothic, maybe we'll do them one day. But we didn't see them as a priority thing. We felt like they're not really needed for the core experience."

The core ...