Amiga

Goblins Quest 3

If you love adventure get this and glory in the joke sand the sheer lightheartedness of it all, adventure without the fear of dying.

Goblins 3 is a big challenge and will keep you playing for weeks at a time. The scenes are full of variety and interesting puzzles. The gameplay is only let down when it is sometimes difficult to complete a combination of actions quickly enough – put some dust down someone’s collar and while he is sneezing, try to get a club from your inventory to hit him over the head with. It is not that it is impossible; it is just frustrating when you are frantically clicking away and nothing seems to happen. If you are a particular fan of puzzlers, then Goblins 3 will not disappoint.

Very, very funny point-and-click game which is wildly inventive, always playable, and has several loveable characters. The puzzles are tricky, but most are logical within the rules of the game. But those that aren't are so stupidly random as to really, really annoy you. And the 'clue' option just gives the solution to the screen. And it comes on six disks but doesn't recognise a second drive. Goblins 3 is a supremely entertaining game struggling against uneven design and dodgy programming. There's a huge amount of silly fun to be had, but you have to put up with a lot of unnecessary nonsense in the process.

Beim Knacken der meist ganz schön harten Rätselnüsse kommt es vorwiegend auf exaktes Timing und das richtige Kombinieren der aufgefundenen Gegenstände an; in verzweifelten Fällen darf man insgesamt fünfmal auf eine Jokerfunction mit der kompletten Levellösung zurückgreifen. Die süß animierte Grafik sieht hinreißend aus und wird zusätzlich von allerlei Zwischenbildern und -sequenzen aufgepeppt. Auch die originellen Begleitmelodien erweisen sich schnell als wahre Ohrwürmer, und die Maus verrichtet brav ihren Dienst. Unangenehm fällt dagegen das Fehlen einer HD-Installationsmöglichkeit auf, außerdem hätten es ruhig ein paar Levels mehr und etwas logischere Rätsel sein dürfen. Doch mit diesen Einschränkungen läßt sich der dritte Goblin empfehlen, es gab schon unwürdigere Nachfolger...

The lack real coherence or continuity in the game makes Goblins 3 a somewhat 'purer' experience again, because the puzzles are everything the game has to offer. These are good enough to make Goblins 3 the 'middle' game of the series concerning quality. It's also obvious the series was in a rut, though. It was probably for the best it wasn't continued anymore - we all know how some seemingly endless series are looked upon quite badly, because the later parts got worse and worse...

It's funny, sure, and mildly entertaining for a while, but without the mind-taxing challenge of something like Beneath A Steel Sky, it just pales and ends up as a second rate adventure. A shame really, especially when you consider that Coktel Vision are now owned by Sierra.