Gothic 3

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.