Hold on, I remember writing something about this... (google search) ...TEN YEARS AGO? I am so fucking old.
Whoa reading posts from years ago on a forum feels like you have schizophrenia.
https://www.gamespot.com/forums/pc-...on-vs-gothic-3-compare-and-contrast-26273422/
Okay so I know this is old news but I was playing both of these games again recently and couldn't help comparing my experience between them, and thought I'd share my thoughts here. If you believe this is pointless and/or these games are like an apple and an orange, that's great; but your opinion has no use in this discussion.
The idea is to break down the games on a feature-by-feature basis.
e.g.
Characters:
-Oblivion lets you freely make a customized character of any in-game race, gender, and class and change their appearance as you see fit. However, you are completely mute, and communicate with the world by writing single words on a chalkboard ala Anthony Hopkins in Legends of the Fall.
-In Gothic 3 you play The Nameless Hero; aka "Beardo." He is voiced by Crispin Freeman (yay!) but pretty much says the same five things to everyone in the world.
I think you get the point.
Graphics:
-Oblivion features a lush, huge, fully 3d world.
-Gothic 3 features a lush, huge, fully 3d world (if you double the system reqs and sell your soul to satan).
Okay Gothic 3's graphical problems are well documented, moving on...
Story:
-Oblivion: you must find the lost emperor's heir and prevent the invasion of demons from Oblivion.
-Gothic 3: you must find the 5 lost *yawn* artifacts before their fall... into the... wrong....... hands... zzzzzZZzzzz *snore*
Oblivion's plot has a serious case of second-fiddle syndrome (Martin is the main character, you're just his
sidekick), but it beats the overly complex and nigh-incomprehensible plots of Morrowind and Daggerfall. And Gothic 3? Find the
Artifacts?!?!? You've got to be joking.
Difficulty
-Oblivion: All enemies are scaled automatically to be challenging to your level, adjusted via a slider in the options menu.
-Gothic 3: AH! BOARS! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Okay so the unstoppable murderous rampages that Gothic 3's fauna are capable of certainly makes the game a frustrating experience at times, I question the logic of Oblivion's difficulty slider; gaining levels, stats, skills, equipment, et al have little effect on the game's challenge. The slider outweighs all other character decisions.
Classes
-Oblivion: become a warrior, mage, or archer, or combination of all 3.
-Gothic 3: become a warrior, mage, or archer, or combination of all 3.
Pretty similar really. However:
Character Advancement
-Oblivion: skills increase through direct use. Gain a level every time you increase major skills 10 times. Increase minor skills to gain more attribute points on level up. Plot all skills on a 10x21 excel spreadsheet grid. Add all attribute-similar skills up, discard numbers over ten, divide by 2, carry the one, spin around in a cirlce, then press pound. Do any of this wrong and your character will suck by endgame. Time to hit the difficulty slider...
-Gothic 3: Gain experience points to level up.
Alright I'm being mean; Obilvion does win some points for originality, but sometimes it feels like gaining levels is a separate game from the actual game, and that's no good.
Side Quests
-Oblivion: Remove the curse on a town which has rendered all inhabitants invisible. Enter a magical painting world and kill paint-trolls with a turpentine-covered weapon.
-Gothic 3: Kill boars. Collect furs.
Oblivion had some pretty creative ideas in it. There are plenty of mundane quests too, but I can't think of any in Gothic 3 that were as original.
Quest rewards
-Oblivion: quests give you the thanks of videogame people and paltry amounts of gold.
-Gothic 3: quests give you sweet, delicious experience points.
Seriously, for all the great ideas in Oblivion's quests, there's hardly any motivation to actually do any of them, when you can get more gold and better items from five minutes of random dungeon exploration.
Melee Combat
-Oblivion: use weak, quick strikes or slow, strong attacks. Use special attacks to knock down or disarm your opponents. Blocking leaves your enemy open for attack. Kung-fu mudcrabs.
-Gothic 3: use fast or strong attacks, use special attacks to stun or knockdown your enemies; but these are worthless. Normal attacks will kill any human/orc enemy in the game, with any weapon, at any level. Blocking is useless. Melee is suicide against boars.
Yeah, gothic 3's combat is a mess. Totally unbalanced. Still, I think its pretty funny when a mudcrab blocks a sword with its pincers...
Magic
-Oblivion: cast spells with the touch of a button, even with a weapon out. Multiple spells to buy, or create your own. Offensive spells either weak or too expensive in mana to actually use.
-Gothic 3: Switch to spellcasting mode to cast spells, getting hit interupts the spell. Magic is devastatingly powerful. Higher level spells can kill entire towns with 2-3 castings.
Magic is more tricky in Gothic 3 but TOTALLY worth it, to the point of being completely broken, but oh-so-fun. EAT METEOR, BOARS!
Freedom
-Oblivion: go anywhere in the world at any time. Join four different guilds. Guilds have linear quests. Main plot has a railroad-linear plot. One ending.
-Gothic 3: Help the humans take back the kingdom from it's orc conquerors, or help the orcs complete their domination. Help the nomads free the desert from tyrannical rule, or wipe out their cause. Serve the evil wizard, or supplant him. Commit regicide. Multiple endings dependant on player choice.
Oblivion's freedom is shallow. Sure you can choose different quests, but most of them allow little choice. Gothic 3 lets you make some pretty serious decisions with massive effects on the game world. Still, your progress through the game is restricted by its boar population... *sigh*
