Preview ActionTrip previews Gothic 3

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Gothic III; Piranha Bytes

<a href=http://www.actiontrip.com>ActionTrip</a> has posted a <a href=http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/gothic3.phtml>preview</a> of <a href=http://www.gothic3.com/>Gothic 3</a>. I don't see anything new here, but it's a nice summary for those who didn't pay much attention before:
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<blockquote>In Gothic 3 gamers get to discover a whole new world. The first two games took place on an island, isolated from the mainland. Players had the freedom to go anywhere they pleased, complete any quest they wanted and join any faction they wanted. During your journeys, you often heard talks of the mainland, but you never got a chance to see it. Gothic 2 ended with players sailing away from the island on a ship. Well, Gothic 3 begins as your ship docks onto the mainland. As our hero arrives, he finds that the war has been won by the Orcs, and it is they who control most of the mainland now. A great number of humans are now enslaved and forced to obey the will of their fearsome enemy. Rest assured you won't be bored since there are over 1000 unique characters to interact with, which amounts to a whole lot more than in the previous installment (around 400).
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Once you set out on your journey, there will be plenty of choices to make. One of the first decisions is whether or not you're ready to help the Orcs and fight for their cause. Players can do so if they wish. In which case, you shouldn't expect to find a warm welcome near any human settlements. But if you decide to stay loyal and supportive of the humans, you're bound to get into conflicts with the Orcs. If you're fed up with the Humans vs. Orc war altogether, you are free to tell both sides to sod off, so you can follow your own destiny. Also, Gothic 2 featured two or three factions at the most. In Gothic 3 you'll be able to choose from six diverse factions. Joining a faction, naturally, effects the way other citizens and enemies look upon you. So, think carefully before you choose.
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NPCs usually behave in accordance with your actions as well. If a farmer witnesses you killing his sheep (Or as we like to call it, Vader's 'girlfriend'. - Ed), don't expect him to be friendly and cooperative. He'll also spread the word about your foul deed, so other people will be less helpful too. To avoid this you can kill the farmer and put the lid on the whole sheep situation. Of course, things could get even worse if there were witnesses present when you iced the poor farmer, in which case citizens will once again refuse to assist you. Luckily, there's a way around that. Other people can be persuaded in various traditional ways - you can offer them money, complete a few tasks for them, etc. Once you do that, you'll gain their trust. Basically, there's a solution to every problem, but the ticket is to think before you act.</blockquote>
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I'm really looking forward to this one. Hopefully, it would set a trend and send a message to publishers about treating and developing a franchise.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Micmu]

I'm hyped, so far.

...We were also informed that dual wielding of swords has been added to the game...

OMG!

 

[Balor]

Dualwielding is as POP as katanas shopping thru concrete.
Dualwielding do NOT equal 2x POWAH due to physics involved, and general anatomy of human body.
It does have an advantage against a SINGLE one -handed weapon, of course, but only after extensive training. And mostly in defense, not offense. Well, much better opportunity to counterattack and shit, yet...
Sword + shield style is obviously the best possible.
Yea, shield is heavy and hard to lug around, but...

But, since dualwielding is "KEWL"... *shrugs*

 

[Rehfeld]

I don't know the Sword+Hand Axe combo was very efective, as was the Spear+Net combo. Although I realy don't think an average sized person could dualwield basterd swords ala NWN.

 

[Atrokkus]

Oh come on, Bhalorgh, this is not a historical reconstruction, it's a fantasy RPG. You do realize that we're talking about certain differences between physical universe of Gothic and that of ours. Who knows, maybe soemthing that is so extruciating for real swordsmen, a Gothic one will do without breaking a sweat.
Besides, don't you think that dual-wielding is indeed quite beautiful in terms of horeography? And for an action-combat system it's just perfect (although pretty hard to implement).


Damn, i can't wait for Gothic3... I was totally in love with its G1-G2, and now this more complicated (in a good way) and thought-out.. couldn't ask for more.

 

[Elwro]

I'm now playing G2+NotR (having finished G2 as a Paladin) and the game is even better. Harder, though. I'm looking forward to G3; Gothic 2 alone has a higher replay value for me than TES3. I'm sure I'll play the 3rd time as a Mage and also be a bad guy in some situations in which up to now I behaved "well"...

 

[Balor]

Well, I agree on one thing - dialwield can be quite flashy... yet, emagine how to implement that shit! It not just 'double strikes' - it's VERY complex movements, that are based on movements of enemy weapons as well.
I'd like to see that impelmented too, but making it in a halfassed way and making it easily avalable for everybody - is worse the nothing, I think.

 

[Fresh]

KOTOR managed dual wielding quite okay dont you think?

 

[Micmu]

KOTOR managed dual wielding quite okay dont you think?

Yes, by dual lightsabers owning everything else.

Luckily...

As we understand, the development team is also willing to remove such features should they hinder the gameplay in any way.

G1/G2 were hard games in combat and I would like to stay that way. IMHO, it's a rather munchinkism feature, they should spend their time on some better features because making dual wielding look and feel perfectly might take a lot of precious development time.

 

[Atrokkus]

G1/G2 were hard games in combat and I would like to stay that way. IMHO, it's a rather munchinkism feature, they should spend their time on some better features because making dual wielding look and feel perfectly might take a lot of precious development time.

Wholeheartedly concur. The combat was challenging and rewarding, and the harder the controls, the better. They must resist the dumbing-downism.

KOTOR managed dual wielding quite okay dont you think?

Nah, a very bad simile here, bro. KOTOR is neither TB nor pure action, it's more like RTS: you give an order and watch them brawl. You do not really control the character physically, you don't do horeography. Gothic, however, is almost pure action: you gotta do each action in a sequence, not just select the sequence. Hence the difficulty in realisation of dual-wield combat: there are just too many moves involved. But it's doable, fighting-adventures like PoP proved that.

 

[Lumpy]

I don't get it. You liked Gothic's combat, but complain about Oblivion taking a similar approach?
I haven't played Gothic II yet, but Gothic I didn't really offer the freedom to "complete any quest they wanted and join any faction they wanted". Oh, you could join most factions, besides the Gurus, but they didn't really mean anything. Besides there being no difference between the Water Mages and Fire Mages and the Mercenaries and the Guards, the differences between these two groups were no more than what other games call classes. Basically, factions were classes, and nothing more.
As for quests, you couldn't really "complete any quest you wanted", because you had to complete 90% of them to progress through the story, and the rest were either too simple - "bring me two meatbugs", or didn't make much sense to do, like the join quests for the two other camps.
Gothic 3 seems to be way ahead the first Gothic. What disturbs me is how many new features they can add, and how much they could improve the old ones, unlike Bethesda, who always have to cut old features to add new ones or improve other old features.
If Gothic III turns out to offer even more freedom and quality than Oblivion, and if it sells better, hopefully Bethesda will rethink their priorities.

 

[Drakron]

Gothic combat was "rewarding" because it relied on the player (NOT the character) skill on pressing buttons.

That is a mark of a RPG lite, Gothic 2 is a good game in many department but I suck at racing games and I am pretty bad at fighting games so for me Gothic combat model was pretty much "level up until it makes up from my shitty ability to press buttons at the right time" and when I moved up to another chapter it was "XP farming" again to level up.

I dont want Gothic 3 have easier combat but I do hope they make combat inteface more effection on making the player to effetive control the character without having to be good at fighting games, its a RPG and not "The King Of Fighters".

 

[Claw]

I don't get it. You liked Gothic's combat, but complain about Oblivion taking a similar approach?

I like Unreal Tournament, but I am not advocating the inclusion of the shock rifle in Oblivion.
Besides, the actual gameplay looks very different from Gothic, some technical similarities notwithstanding. Unfortunately, combat in Gothic3's demo does look more similar to Oblivion indeed, and I'm not sure I like that.

 

[Lumpy]

I don't get it. You liked Gothic's combat, but complain about Oblivion taking a similar approach?

I like Unreal Tournament, but I am not advocating the inclusion of the shock rifle in Oblivion.
Besides, the actual gameplay looks very different from Gothic, some technical similarities notwithstanding. Unfortunately, combat in Gothic3's demo does look more similar to Oblivion indeed, and I'm not sure I like that.

Demo? What demo? The only demo I've seen was one with some dinosaurs fighting each other.
And rocket launchers have always been in TES. The problem is that staves only staves can be rocket launchers, and they can be nothing else.