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Does Gothic 3 get any better ?

Explorerbc

Arcane
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,170
I had already heard that G3 was a bit of a decline compared to earlier titles but I never expected this, especially after reading a lot of threads here praising some aspects of the game.

The world is huge but feels empty and not handcrafted like the previous titles. Walking through the large distances sucks. The chest system feels unrewarding and loot so far sucks. Towns are filled with generic look-alike NPCs with nothing interesting to say.

The story so far is non-existent. I walk from town to town doing the same things: Meet the local rebel camp, do some fetch quests for the orcs, fight in the arena, find the spy, liberate town. Rinse and repeat. Even the king didn't have anything interesting to say. I am starting to wonder if I missed triggering a main quest other than "Find Xardas"

Combat is a click-fest. I only smash the left mouse button and slaughter armies of orcs. I still use the very first sword the game gave me. Initially I was afraid when I met things like shadowbeasts in the wild, but nvm I can just stun lock them and beat them to death. I also just bought my paladin armor which is the best I can get in the entire game and I haven't even finished Myrtana yet.

Orcs don't care I'm dressed as a rebel, I enter people's homes and steal everything without a problem, and while using glitches to cheese enemies was always a guilty pleasure of mine, this games takes it to another level. And I don't even care about the shitty performance of the game and the constant fps drops.

The game still has some of that gothic feel that draws me in, but the more I play the more I feel like it should have ended hours ago and I still haven't visited the desert and nordmar. I really hope something more interesting happens later but I am starting to fear there are only more desert and mountain towns waiting for me down the line. :negative:
 

sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
It lasts far too long for its own good and you'll get completely exhausted after a while and then you'll just rage quit and do the final quest.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
I'd say speedhack it so you can go to nordmar/desert to check them out.
I found nordmar pretty neat, it had a nice atmosphere to it.

The desert place (varant?) was pretty nice I think too. It was a giant vast desert that was mostly empty apart from some pockets of civilizations and ruins here and there.
 

eric__s

ass hater
Developer
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
2,301
That ice tunnel in Nordmar with like 200 orcs in it is probably the worst part of any video game.
 

Skittles

He ruins the fun.
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
983
It doesn't, really. If you're already sick of it, you probably shouldn't push through.
 

Keppo

Arbiter
Joined
May 15, 2015
Messages
385
Location
Internet
Fuck, i need to back to this game.. I ditch it after maybe 50 % of the game few years ago because bug fucked my progression. I enjoyed it and liked the atmosphere from what i remember, but even with the mods is more bugged than Gothic 1 and 2.
 

Lambach

Arcane
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
12,730
Location
Belgrade, Removekebabland
Does Gothic 3 get any better ?

I also just bought my paladin armor which is the best I can get in the entire game and I haven't even finished Myrtana yet.

Well.... no. Varant is kinda fun, but if you've already managed to afford Paladin Armor and have no problem with Shadowbeasts, it will probably be too easy for you. Nordmar, on the other hand, is a complete fucking mess of an area that's impossible to go through without getting lost several thousand times. In addition to that, you'll be forced to slaughter a couple million Orcs and couple hundred thousand beasts of all shapes and sizes every step of the way. It's just grind with no end in sight. As you've rightly noticed, the story is largely non-existent (no, it doesn't get better) so it won't motivate you to go further.

Gothic 3 is at its best when you're still a wimp figuring out how to survive. Everything after that just fails to keep you hooked because you lose all sense of progress and the plot itself is boring as all shit.
 

Orma

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
1,698
Location
KrakĂłw
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Just head straight to varant after Kap dun, it will be much more enjoyable.
 

Haplo

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
6,138
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Not really. But with the community patch hard-mode you can't really click your way to victory. Enemies will gang up on you and you'll be forced to kite to face them in smaller groups/single. So there's that.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
Gothic 3 is the child of logical thinking in an illogical world. You see, Gothic 1/2 developers thought to themselves back in early 2000s, hey, we make pretty great cRPGs, and people that play them love them, but we get lukewarm reviews, and make almost no money. On the other hand, Bethesda makes crappy games that a hardcore player would cringe at, but they get rave reviews and sell like hotcakes. WE KNOW! We must make games like Bethesda!

And so they worked night and day, crafting their own game in Bethesdian style. They made it huge and generic, and mostly pointless. They pushed out all the good stuff from their previous games and patterned it after the Elder Scrolls behemoths. And just to put the icing on the cake, as a final touch, they added a Bethesda-style combat.

They expected great things, but got none. Who is to say why one turd sells like fried chicken and another lies forgotten in the dust bins of history. The world is a complicated place.
 

Explorerbc

Arcane
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,170
So, after liberating Myrtana I visited Varant. The different atmosphere was a nice change initially, but after walking the barren wastelands to do the first town quests I got so bored that I decided to leave and never come back unless the main quest desires it. I read I don't even have to liberate cities and do water mages quests which is good.

And then I visited Nordmar. I prefer the design but why did they have to fill every single corner of it with hordes of mobs. They put so much stuff in so little room that aggro-ing a single enemy can break the entire ecosystem which ironically is starting to become the only reason I keep playing. My brilliant guide Mort after dragging me through every pack of feral beast imaginable decided it was time to go through an orc camp next. A few moments later I had orcs fighting sabertooths, wolves, black goblins and a troll all the same time while I was sitting back watching the show. I get quests completed in areas of the map I haven't visited because the chain of events made npcs and mobs meet and kill each other.

I'm just doing the main quest and I'm done with this thing.
 

waveplay

Literate
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
17
On a related note, as I haven't played Risen yet: does Risen 1 actually improve on Gothic 3?
 

Explorerbc

Arcane
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,170
On a related note, as I haven't played Risen yet: does Risen 1 actually improve on Gothic 3?

It is not generic like G3. The world design and faction system are much more similar to the first games. It is a good PB game.
 

passerby

Arcane
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
2,788
MP regen and fire rain is the only way I could suffer the end game of Gothic 3.

This, plus don't use alternative balancing, or AI changes from the community patch. I would finish the damn thing 2x faster if I hadn't made that mistake.
Hiking sim aspect is the main reason to play and mage with mana regen build, will make everything around you just die, as you hike around.

I don't think the setting, story, writing are that much worse than in G2, just stretched thin on the massive area.
All in all I enjoyed it some time ago, probably wouldn't stomach it today, though. Objectively speaking waste of time.

It provides this strange kind of entertainment when you turn off your brain and just go through the motions for 100 hours.
Good for wasting time and teleporting into the future during depression episode.
 

waveplay

Literate
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
17
I remember back in the day when I played Gothic 3 on its buggy release. The boars were unbeatable, but I could comfortably take on an entire settlement's worth of orcs. They would surround you and attack you one by one Batman Arkham Asylum style. You just had to swipe with your sword in all directions equally. It was so broken but also a lot of fun because of it.
 

CreamyBlood

Arcane
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,392
On a related note, as I haven't played Risen yet: does Risen 1 actually improve on Gothic 3?

Nothing really improves G3. I've tried a few times since the original disaster release and a several of the community patches. It's possible that if you like Oblivion then you might get some mileage out it but I never could. It's fun for a few hours until you burn out on how shallow and pointless it all feels.

As to Risen 1? I liked it but you can find many threads on this. It's all been discussed a million times and beaten to death but I suppose it's hard to stop talking about fun things. Plus there is always a current thread somewhere in here talking about PB and Gothic and Risen.

Try typing this in google:

site:rpgcodex.net gothic risen

Here's one to show how hopeful and naive some of us were a few short years ago:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/risen-the-last-two-chapters.67416/

Welcome alt/troll and good luck.
 

waveplay

Literate
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
17
On a related note, as I haven't played Risen yet: does Risen 1 actually improve on Gothic 3?

Nothing really improves G3. I've tried a few times since the original disaster release and a several of the community patches. It's possible that if you like Oblivion then you might get some mileage out it but I never could. It's fun for a few hours until you burn out on how shallow and pointless it all feels.

As to Risen 1? I liked it but you can find many threads on this. It's all been discussed a million times and beaten to death but I suppose it's hard to stop talking about fun things. Plus there is always a current thread somewhere in here talking about PB and Gothic and Risen.

Try typing this in google:

site:rpgcodex.net gothic risen

Here's one to show how hopeful and naive some of us were a few short years ago:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/risen-the-last-two-chapters.67416/

Welcome alt/troll and good luck.

Haha thanks for the link. I'm genuinely a new member of the forum, so not an alt or troll. Apart from the over-the-top negativity (elitism doesn't feel like the right term) around these parts, it's a good place for RPG discussion, I find.
 

Old One

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
3,679
Location
The Great Underground Empire
Haha thanks for the link. I'm genuinely a new member of the forum, so not an alt or troll. Apart from the over-the-top negativity (elitism doesn't feel like the right term) around these parts, it's a good place for RPG discussion, I find.
FWIW, I liked Risen. It's not as good as Gothic 1 and Gothic 2, and the ending is pretty bad, but the first three-fifths of the game are very fun.

Risen 2 is much worse, but if you're still desperate for a bastardized Gothic experience, it can scratch that itch a little. I haven't played Risen 3.
 

Miner Arobar

Educated
Joined
May 28, 2015
Messages
64
This thread almost wants to make me defend Oblivion.

I mean, what Gothic 3 undoubtedly does better is landscaping, making cliffs that look like cliffs, beaches that look like beaches, etc. Not just gently rolling hills with random boulders thrown in. Cape Dun area is a good example.
Voice acting and dialogue is also a lot less grating in G3 than in Oblivion to the extent I heard (the guy in the beginning who wanted me to kill "bilge rats" actually had me looking for rats, but the Orcs, the desert guy in Cape
Dun, they're all better than anything in Oblivion).

Then again, in Oblivion, the basic combat gameplay works. I press a button, my character does something, I press another button, my character does something else. Stealth gameplay works as well, if we discount a bandit going
"Must have been the wind!" with three arrows sticking out of his arse. With Gothic 3, I never got beyond smashing buttons at random, seeing my character make some unlikely manoeuvres with his scythe, and enemies falling before
him. If with Oblivion, you forget it's supposed to be a TES game, treat it like an action game for sneaking and killing things in a not very inspired fantasy world, close your eyes everytime a NPC comes into view, it's not too bad.
With Gothic 3, the world sure seems a lot more interesting but basic gameplay mechanics, not so sure.

In terms of NPCs, you basically choose between a world inhabited by talking potatoes and a world inhabited only by orcs and skinheads. The latter reminds me just too much of my hometown. And the talking potatoes I can at
least tell apart. You won't easily forget Glarthir, or the Adoring Fan, or the cases of advanced inbreeding guarding the Bruma gates.

Look, Oblivion is an awful successor to Daggerfall and Morrowind, it's a harbinger of decline, it introduced quest compasses - all that is true. But I have played worse RPGs. Ultima 9 definitely qualifies. G3 I would have to play more
of (and I have no desire to do that at the moment) but it might.
 

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