Gothic 3

The Good
Gothic 3 is the final installment of the original Gothic saga, and by far the most ambitious one. The German developers clearly tried their best to achieve the monumental goal of creating the biggest and baddest modern RPG.

The game world is much bigger than that of the second game. The difference in size is also much more significant than it was between the second and the first installments. The world of Gothic 3 consists of three countries, each complete with several cities and villages of various sizes. You'll easily lose yourself in this vastness.

Gothic 3 is non-linear. You are free to go wherever you like right from the beginning. The enemies are pretty much the same everywhere - easy and tough enemies are mixed, and the game doesn't impose restrictions on your exploration process. The gorgeous world is open to you, all you have to do is explore.

You may compare this game to Elder Scrolls, but in fact Gothic 3 does the whole "do whatever you want" thing better. It deliberately recreates open RPGs of the past, where you couldn't tell the main quest from optional ones and actually had to explore in order to complete the game. There are no convenient quest sorting or magical map-hopping that takes you to any location. Teleporters are there to spare the tedium of backtracking, but you'll have to discover the location first. There are no gimmicks like scaling enemies or any other artificial stuff (well, except the bottomless inventory) that makes the game seem too neatly tailored for your needs, too catering to the player's laziness.

If you have enough patience to play until you are able to branch the storyline, you'll be rewarded with some standard good/evil/not sure of the answer decisions. Helping the orcs or the hashishin, siding with Xardas or becoming the Chosen of Beliar - there are all kinds of twists late in the story, and you can decide which one of them you want to happen. Also, the conflict shown in Gothic 3 is of gigantic proportions. Liberating entire cities from orcs, seeing them flee to the sounds of fanfare, seeing the human slaves applaud to you, returning to the same city several days later to see how peaceful it has become - this is fun on epic scale.

Right from the get-go, you are presented with selectable difficulty level, a feature I really missed in the two previous installments. I liked the challenge they offered, but I prefer to decide myself how challenging I want my games to be.

Graphically and musically, Gothic 3 is outstanding. You could probably find games with technically better graphics that were released at the same time; but in all Gothic games, there is a certain warmth to the graphics, something that unmistakeably proves that they were created with love. No matter where you go and what you look at - the game is beautiful.

Gothic 3 has a typical medieval-sounding orchestral "movie" music. I absolutely love this style and I think nothing fits a grand epic free-roaming RPG better than this. The main theme with its characteristic motives is instantly recognizable and has a huge impact, comparable to the theme of Lord of the Rings movies. The soundtrack is rich and is full of sensual beauty, almost like in Mahler's music or in the grandfather of all movie music, Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre Lieder. By the way: go listen to it if you like epic movie soundtracks - that's the best of the kind, written when there were no movies at all. Like a colleague of mine said: "it's more Wagner than Wagner" - very similar to Wagner, only better.

The graphics and the music of Gothic 3 are so magically atmospheric and so sensual that I felt almost drunk when I was playing the game. The size and the beauty of the world called me back whenever I exited the game. I found myself circling around the same area and just nearly physically enjoying the alternate life in a virtual world.

Let's also get the bug issue out of the way. I don't want to argue with all those people who complained about bugs. I played the game on a shiny new computer, with the (then) latest patch installed. So I have no idea how the fully unpatched version plays like (I tried it only on an older computer, which was incapable of handling it). If everyone say it was terribly buggy, it probably was. But I can't force myself to write long essays about the evils of capitalism and how unforgivable it is to sell a game that is so buggy. I bought it, I downloaded the latest patch, I played it on a good computer, it wasn't so buggy any more - that's a fact. Frankly, if I had a choice between buggy games I enjoy and perfectly smoothly running games I don't enjoy, I'd choose the first. If you say: "but I couldn't enjoy the game precisely because it was so buggy!", I can only answer - download the patch. Yes, the game shouldn't have shipped this way. It should have been bug-free from the beginning. But what's the point of saying that? If there is a way to enjoy the game after all, why to prevent this enjoyment from ourselves? It's like not enjoying a second meal in a restaurant after the waiter has spilled the first one over our clothes.

The Bad
The bugs were, however, so serious that some people could barely play the game properly when it was out. The awful combat was an even more serious issue. Only the latest balancing patch corrected most of its glaring flaws. The clumsiness of combat, the absolute reliance on attack moves, the weird and downright idiotic behavior of opponents - for some inexplicable reason enemies would not surround you, allowing you to slaughter them one-by-one - were close to ruin the game for many people. Humanoid (human and orc) opponents were underpowered beyond belief. During my first playthrough I was killed several times by some lizard without even being able to strike at it just after raiding an orc camp and single-handedly eliminating a dozen of orcish warriors armed with huge axes. Wild beasts had the infuriating habit of going backwards all the time. When they were biting, they did it several times, and so rapidly that they could easily kill the player character just because he had absolutely no time to react. They also paid no attention to your levels and the armor you wore.

In short, combat was an unbelievable mess. It was so bad, in fact, that even the latest patch couldn't make it fully satisfying. Still, it's heaps better than the sorry state it was released in, to the point of making Gothic 3 feel like a different game. So, once again - download the patch.

I feel they could have invested more into designing the game world. It has little personality and at times resembles too much those copy-pasted, identical locations of older free-roaming RPG. The cities don't really feel alive. Neither do the characters. I'm sure the rushed release is to blame, just like with Ultima IX.

Most quests are yawn-inducing. "Hey, my friend here needs 243 pieces of raw meet, 21 stews, 7 tusks of demonic skeleton mages, and 14 nose hairs. Bring it to him and your reputation will increase by one point!". In every city, you'll have to do those stupid quests, working on your reputation. What reputation, what the hell, this world needs liberating, I want my fellow human rebels to take arms and to help me fight the orcs! Why should I, a hero who defeated dragons in the previous game, humiliate myself and do moronic tasks? Didn't I liberate a village in the tutorial? So what are you waiting for? Hey, in Oblivion I was just a nobody, a prisoner, and yet since the emperor trusted me, I could go and find friends and defeat evil without the need to collect toad mushrooms for rebel cooks.

And what's with the bottomless inventory? Come on. Sure, it beats the stupid ubiquitous "you can carry 5 super-heavy shields but 10 potions is the limit" system most other modern games use, but everyone know that the best way to limit inventory capacity is by weight.

The Bottom Line
Gothic 3 went through some difficult times when it was prematurely released. With all patches applied, however, it turned out to be a satisfying and engrossing open-ended RPG. If you are willing to forgive the rough edges, you'll find the closest modern-day equivalent to non-linear role-playing games of yore.

The Good
The graphic environment and musical score is beautiful and probably the best I've seen and heard (more realistic than Oblivion), I especially enjoyed the part when you just enter into Nordmar and hear the Scottish bagpipes and it begins to snow.. wow!

The amount of choice and freedom in the storyline is very interesting, allowing you to do basically whatever you want to do. When I first played, I envied a Paladins sword and shield, so I took him out and used the shield to the end of the game.. granted it took a lot of hacking, arrows, potions and running away to accomplish this.

As with other Gothics, the skill up levels are clever and the fact that levelling up does not become progressively more difficult as you proceed through the game, makes it fun. Gothic III continues with the unlimited itinerary stuff which you can carry which although is not realistic, it is way more practical, and not annoying like Oblivion where you may become overburdened and can't move when a minotaur is chopping away at you.

The Bad
Unfortunately I was one of those who played the game without patches (some of us only have dial-up) at the beginning so I experienced most of those critters... and their are plenty of em, but once you patch them, they are no longer such major problems.

Although you have freedom to do what you want, if you go overboard and kill too many Orcs they all want to kill you and you lose the general plot of the game...sometimes you can mess up the main quests or lose the plot. If you can find the plot!

The Combat systems in Gothic 3 is Neolithic (caveman style), a big disappointment when compared to Gothic 2 where you actually had to concentrate and be clever when fighting. Often you end up chopping up one of your buddies by mistake, and then have to knock him out to become friends again!. When you attempt fancy moves your opponent often dodges them so the best method is often slash and hack. Backing away monsters, wolves etc.. is also annoying. If you die, you may as well go and have a cup of Coffee whilst waiting for the game to reload. (even on highspec computers)

Although you do get Teleport stones, it would be nice if their were horses around, sometimes you have to travel loooooooooooong distances to reach a target and back again. Sometimes you have to get teleport stones from rooms and get bust for thievery!! (maybe patches change this)

The main story line is difficult to pick up, and sometimes you wandering around in the wilderness at a loss.

The Bottom Line
I enjoyed this game, but did not feel part of the character like I did in Gothic 2. The storyline was a bit vague.

If you are looking for a fantasy RPG world with amazing graphics and freedom to do what you like then this is definitely a good game to get hold of. It is comparable to Oblivion, but different (you shoot your bow horizontally not vertically)

Good fun, just make sure you load the latest patches and keep all the wolves skins you find!! plenty of folks want them on side quests.

The Good
First of all, I must mention that the graphics of this game are great! Everything looks natural and... well beautiful. Maybe some characters have dumb faces, but that's okay... you can overlook that.

Maybe the best thing in this game is the soundtrack. I never thought I would ever hear such a good soundtrack. I mean... every song this game has to offer is on my winamp playlist, and that says a lot. Most of them have the "repeat" option enabled :D.

The story of the game is okay, nothing new though. You simply go to Myrtana, and as usual, you clean the place of orcs. Wait! There is something. Now, you can join the orcs too. I liked that, even if I never joined the orcs. Maybe someone else did, having enough of the classic "orc hater" hero.

The game also features tons of secondary quests, which will keep you busy until the end of the adventure.

The Bad
That would be all the good things. First of all, Gothic 3 tries to overtake any "enemy" it finds. But unfortunately, Gothic 3's "warfare" requires lots of "ammunition" and it seems Piranha Bytes had no more. Creating something without having the required elements from the "recipe" will ultimately result in a big "crash!". Gothic 3 was made like that. A huge game, that ultimately falls under its own weight.

First of all, I must tell the reader about the new actors, PB used for the voice recording. Maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing after all, if the voices didn't sound stupid. Wait... sorry about that. The voices sound REALLY stupid. The nameless hero, once had one of the best voices I've ever listened to in a game. A voice full of sarcasm and stuff, and any dialogue with the hero was a delight. Some of them were really funny, because the hero used to say lots of jokes. Now, our nameless hero has the voice of a brainless brute. No more jokes, only taunts. Yay! (may some say. I didn't)

The game will drain all your PC's strength. The Graphical engine is badly done and the game will lag a lot even on high-end PC's, but of course if played on maximum details.

There are a lot of bugs and glitches in the game. Oh yeah... I almost forgot. There are bugs that cause crashes. Even with the latest patches, most of them were not fixed.

Usually, while roaming some woods, you get attacked by some beasts. Cool. Crash them all! Yeah, you crash them, but after that you find out that you finished a quest you haven't even started. What the...??!

The game takes a lot of time for loading/saving/ quitting. That is annoying. Really. Even if you can roam trough all Myrtana/Varant/Nordmar without a single loading screen, waiting 5 minutes for first loading is REALLY annoying.

The Bottom Line
First of all, the game is okay, and it's worth to play it. It offers more than 20 hours of gameplay and fun. Even if most of the secondary quests are all the same. But, after some time, you get annoyed of anything you liked in the game... and you begin to feel sorry for playing it.

The Good
First off, I did not touch this game until the Community Patches were available and mature, so my review is based on the modified gameplay, not the original. I got the game to run under Windows 7 64-bit, but it required finding and updating the DRM driver. There were plenty of doom and gloom reviews when it originally arrived in late 2006, but after four years of bug fixing and number tweaking, it's a rather enjoyable, playable game. Parallels to Oblivion can obviously be drawn, much like comparisons between Gothic 2 and Morrowind.

The world of Gothic 3 is much bigger than 2. You can spend days, or even weeks, immersed in the forests of Myrtana, and then realize you have a whole snow-capped mountain range and barren desert to traverse as well. Teleport stones are a blessing in this game -- they're the first thing to find in any new city.

The storyline of the game is dependent on whom you side with. Rebels, orcs, nomads, desert traders, northern clans, rangers.. there is a lot of diplomacy and treachery to be had in this game. Hope you like quests, because there are several hundred of them in Gothic 3. Sure, there are a few shopping and extermination quests, but there really is a wide variety for what the game can do.

The day/night cycle is great; this game is a real treat with HDR and shadows. Lots of ambient sound effects, and a nice, dynamic orchestral soundtrack to back it up.

The Bad
Maybe it's just Win7-64, but the game is very RAM hungry. 2 GB was not enough, had to upgrade to 4, and even then it ate all it could. Lots of HD reading, but that's the consequence of turning detail up to max.

While I appreciate keeping the content focused, I miss a few things. There is little lore in the game, just a background story on the three gods and their factions while you read a few lecterns. Ironic that the towns are full of bookshelves when there are so few books and scrolls. Also, no flying or riding, just a lot of walking and running (and a little bit of swimming, but not underwater). Creatures don't fly either; there are a couple dragons but confined to caves.

Magic doesn't have the attention in Gothic 3 that it deserves. You meet few mages in the game, mostly toward the very end. Spells are fewer than Gothic 2, and not competitive with a sword and bow until much later.

For such a well populated world, there sure are very few women.. all the NPCs are male. There is an enormous amount of spoken dialogue (not at once.. just amongst many NPCs), and not a great variety of actors to speak it. Granted, the game was developed in Germany..

I get really annoyed by the time needed to make swing attacks, drink potions, and use spells/items. I realize it can be considered more realistic, but any attempt to use items near enemies will get the hero sent airborne in a screaming ragdoll death. Then you get to wait for your saved game to load..

The Bottom Line
Gothic 3 is about as non-linear as an RPG can get while having some sense of purpose and an ending in sight. You play the nameless hero, shipwrecked on a new continent with all your former friends. Gothic 3 sticks with the basics. No classes, alignment, elves, dwarves, fairies, or princesses.. Just you, the occasional ally, and a gigantic mass of land, filled with a few factions of humans and a whole lot of orcs, among some other wildlife. The Community Patch team did a pretty good job of bringing the Gothic 3 experience a little more in line with 1 and 2. That apparently changed with Gothic 4: Arcania, so it looks like I'll be trying Piranha Bytes' "Risen" instead.