Gothic 3

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.