The indie project Farathan has big goals: The fantasy open world is supposed to tie in with the successes of Gothic. But there is still a long way to go before that happens.
Although the Gothic series is getting on in years, it still inspires many gamers today. Fans develop multiplayer mods, new addons or even total conversions for Gothic 2.
Reason enough for a small team of developers from Poland to create a brand new game in the spirit of the classic. Their project, called Farathan, is explicitly oriented towards the Gothic series and wants to inspire fans of Piranha Bytes. Find out here whether you should add Farathan to your Steam wishlist right away.
Farathan has big plans
A large, medieval fantasy world reminiscent of Gothic that invites you to explore. Many monsters, numerous quests with sophisticated dialogues. For a team of two developers, Farathan really wants to achieve a lot. After all, thanks to Unreal Engine 4, they were able to build quite respectable landscapes, as a developer video shows. In the meantime, they even want to switch to Unreal Engine 5, the project is finally scheduled to be released on Steam in November 2023.
The open world is also expected to be a big star of Farathan. At eleven square kilometres, it is supposed to reach the size of a Fallout: New Vegas and be fully explorable. Explorers and adventurers who do not want to be taken by the hand should be happy here. The heart of the map is the city of Elion (this video gives you a first impression), in whose province you will travel through several varied landscapes.
There is a monastery, 7 dungeons and numerous side quests to discover. A total of 44 different monsters are supposed to get in our way during our travels, which we fight with sword, bow and magic. However, there is not much more information about the world of Farathan yet. Whether the small team can replicate the strengths of a Gothic remains questionable. Game worlds can still learn from the latter even in 2022!
The Fate of Elion
The story of Farathan strikes big notes, as usual for a fantasy RPG: You are the son of the king who went missing in battle with the orcs and destined to inherit his throne. On your way to the capital, however, you are ambushed and barely survive. Weakened and with incomplete memories, you now set off on your journey.
Of course, it is still difficult to judge how exciting the story and side quests will be. With the missing father and the betrayed heir to the throne, the story offers an interesting, if not extraordinary, premise. During our journey we can join three guilds, but whether this choice will then also unlock three different story paths is not yet clear.
Much remains to be done
What Farathan has shown so far in pictures and videos still needs a lot of work. The animations seem very stiff, even the beautiful landscapes make a partly unfinished impression. Technically, the game still seems to be on shaky ground, as was also shown by a demo that was briefly available in 2021.
The trailers for the game also look like they are from a smaller fan project, which is not really surprising given the size of the team. All in all, the question arises whether the goal of an extensive open-world game for two developers is not simply set too high.
On the one hand, I find it impressive that only two developers are committing to such an elaborate project Farathan. On the other hand, however, I fear that they are setting themselves too big a goal.
Comparable open-world games are usually AAA titles developed by large teams for a reason. For two people with what they claim is a small budget that is supplemented by donations, this is rather difficult. It also seems that a playable product is still a long way off at the moment.
Of course, this does not mean that all hope has to be abandoned. There are many examples of smaller projects that grew in the course of development and were able to achieve their initially very ambitious goals. However, should Farathan continue to develop in this format, I doubt that the game will be able to appear in 2023.
