Gothic 1 Remake Demo Now Available on Steam

From February 24 to March 3, 2025, a demo version of the Gothic 1 Remake, titled Nyras Prologue, will be available as part of the Steam Next Fest. In this demo, players take on the role of a new character—an inmate named Nyras—offering a fresh perspective on the events of the original game. The developers at Alkimia Interactive have aimed to preserve the classic atmosphere while enhancing the graphics, combat system, and animations. The demo features full Russian localization, including voice acting and text. The full release of Gothic 1 Remake is scheduled for 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Personal Impressions of Gothic 1 Remake

The demo version of the game feels extremely raw and far from ideal. While it does contain traces of the original Gothic spirit, the developers still have a long way to go to make the game even average in quality. Many aspects of the demo are lacking, including optimization, graphics, animations, bugs, color correction, and the user interface.

As for the combat system, it looks decent overall, but it requires significant refinement to become truly smooth and enjoyable. Typically, a demo showcases the best a developer has to offer at that stage, and if the final game is released in this state or anything close to it, it will be disappointing for Gothic fans.

Considering that development began in 2019 (and this isn't even a completely new game but a remake following the blueprint of the original), it’s concerning that after all this time, the beta version still lacks polish. Given the short time left until release, it's unlikely that drastic improvements will be made.

Hopefully, things will improve, but Nyras Prologue left a bitter aftertaste that won’t be easy to forget. That said, this is just the personal opinion of the author—a devoted fan of the original Gothic series and some of the former Piranha Bytes games.