Like the earlier games, Gothic 3 gives you concrete antiplot options. Want to save humanity's sorry selfish butt? Go for it. But you can also side with the orcs or just tell both sides to get bent. In fact, even the alternate paths are now decidedly skewed. "In contrast to the previous Gothic games, we're not nailing you down in terms of how you achieve your goals," says Rosenkranz, highlighting new extensions to the series' already open-ended story system. "Once a quest is accepted, you can freely decide the best way to solve it. So, for example, the game continuously checks if you've done something related to a certain quest, i.e., finding an item, talking to a character about something, and so on. If a number of abstract conditions are fulfilled, the quest is considered finished." According to Rosenkranz, completing certain quests will synergistically activate further plot points and spin the story out in a very nonlinear way. "We've taken care to ensure you never feel overwhelmed by too many options, like dispatching someone who reminds you of the overall goal," explains Rosenkranz. "But the question then becomes, whom will you trust?"​