Gothic vs Mount & Blade
Gothic
Gothic is one of the few rare dark fantasy games that is ruthless, cruel and challenging enough to truly put you in your place in life. You are not the hero; you are not a chosen one; you are just some miserable wrench who found himself in the penal colony in Myrtana, mining for ores day in and out with the rest of the wrenches in there. The colony is filled with tons of AI characters, including both guards and the prisoners, that you can interact and gradually work together with in order to secure some extra benefits or eventually find a way to break out. Oh, and expect to get beaten up a lot.All in all, Gothic is not your average rose-glass-tinted RPGs and surprisingly, there isn't a lot of this sort of games out there. However, our list of similar games should provide you with the best similar games that you'll ever find.
Mount & Blade
Mount & Blade is the first game in a highly popular game franchise that boasts of being an RPG with one of the most sandbox-like gameplay ever. In this game, you can play as anyone you like be it a lone adventurer, a military commander or even the "mayor" of a small town in Calradia. The game also provides a rich and open world, allowing you to travel anywhere you like and discover all manner of points of interest ranging from farm villages to massive castles. You even have the freedom to interact with hundreds of characters, some of which will likely be hostile towards you. Due to this, the game provides you with an intuitive combat system that includes both sword-fighting and fighting on horseback that you can use to dispose of the hostile.Mount & Blade is an old game, and as such, its graphics may be a bit dated and its controls feel rather clunky. Thus, the game by itself might not be worth the money, but if you can get it along with Mount & Blade Warband or Mount & Blade With Fire and Sword - the two other and much better games in the series, then it'll be worth getting it.