Review Gothic 3 Review

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Gothic III; Piranha Bytes

I humbly submit our Gothic 3 review to your attention:

The orcs in Gothic 3 are not some wild beasts, roaming the land, but a well organized tribal society that knows nothing but war and respects nothing but strength. No wonder they have finally won. The buggers have always dreamt of world domination, but were defeated and stopped at every turn, from The Lord of the Rings to Warcraft 3, until Piranha Bytes developers of equal opportunities gave them a chance to run the show. And you know what, it kinda worked. The war is finally over - a fact noted and appreciated by many humans who were sick and tired of it. The towns and settlements are properly guarded and managed. The slave business (trade, management, and hunting) is a booming industry that has even brought the hashashin experts from the south. Great employment opportunities are available for human mercenaries who don't think that hiding in caves & forests, playing Robin Hood, is a good career path.​

Don't forget to take a look at the screens. My character risked his life many a time for them.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

*leaves temporary lurk*

spot-on, buddy. I feel the exact same way about the game. If PB had more time to polish, it would easily top my list of favorites. Too bad it seems PB is in a troika-ish route. Hopefully their large german fanbase can keep them afloat. Can't wait for some patches to sew up the rough edges and then bam, it'll be gaming orgasm.

Seriously...so good.

*lurk lurk lurk*

post lurk: holy fucking shit does the game look amazing in those screens. I've been running it at the maximum possible low with view distance at medium and i thought it looked alright but mother of cheese, it's beautiful.

 

[Inziladun]

Jeebus, you need to drink a strengthing potion you 'tard. By the way, the second picture of the first group doesn't work, the third picture of the fifth group doesn't work, and the skeleton house maid in the Xardas series of pics doesn't work.

To the north lies the land of frozen plains and tribal hunters - Nordmar. Nordmar has ore mines and quite a few orcish war parties fighting the human clans (Fire, Wolf, and Fire) for control of the mines and the land.

Don't you mean Fire, Wolf and Hammer?



But the review itself is good. Good job, Volourn should pop in and accuse you of kissing ass anytime now.

 

[Vault Dweller]

post lurk: holy fucking shit does the game look amazing in those screens. I've been running it at the maximum possible low with view distance at medium and i thought it looked alright but mother of cheese, it's beautiful.

Yep. One of the most beautiful and stylish games I've ever played. The attention to details is fucking amazing and unbelievable at the same time.

By the way, the second picture of the first group doesn't work, the third picture of the fifth group doesn't work, and the skeleton house maid in the Xardas series of pics doesn't work.
...
Don't you mean Fire, Wolf and Hammer?

Fixed. Thanks.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

So, Vault Dweller, when will we see NWN2 review? I am itching to see the Codex's point of view on this game.

 

[Eclecticist]

I agree with 99% of what you said. Kudos.

 

[Micmu]

Hey, nice review.

I don't wanna be a smartass, but judging by the grey endurance bar on every screenshot of yours, you haven't discovered the Strengthening potion yet, eh?

 

[Greatatlantic]

So, Vault Dweller, when will we see NWN2 review? I am itching to see the Codex's point of view on this game.

Gah, with thinking like that we just might become a hive mind, with VD as the queen bee. I certainly respect VD's opinions and the thought that goes into them, but the Codex doesn't speak through his one voice. There have been different threads about NWN2 posted with lots of opinions given. Some people were generally pleased, others less so.

 

[amurath]

VD - would you say that a high processor clock frequency is needed for the game - I noticed you have a 3Ghz Pentium D 930 - or is it mostly RAM+graphics card limited.
Does anyone know how a (supposedly) higher end Core 2 Duo E6300 or E6400 does versus a higher freq Pentium D (without taking overclocking into account)?

 

[Country_Gravy]

I am glad you listed your specs. I have the exact same set up with only 1 GB of memory. Now I know that when upgrade at the beginning of next year the stuttering that I had on the demo when I maxed out the settings. The demo was awesome and your review and screens definately has me wanting to get this game and play the crap out of it.

Nice Review

 

[Twinfalls]

Awesome.

Once again the Codex distinguishes itself. This time by being the only review on the net which actually bothers to focus on all the various faction conflicts in the game - a key aspect which distinguishes G3 from every other current 'rpg', yet is blithely ignored or glossed over by all the reviews I've seen thus far.

It's a shame to hear about the changes to the skill system though - I will miss the careful placement of those precious and hard-won skill points that characterised the first two games.

Also: does anyone know if another major patch is on its way? I recall a lengthy, frank forum post by a PB developer who acknowledged the game being rushed, with bugs and balance problems - and iirc he suggested major work was yet to be done on combat in particular...

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Gah, with thinking like that we just might become a hive mind, with VD as the queen bee.

Vault can be my queen everytime he wants.

 

[hiciacit]

Pretty spot on review, although sometimes (I'm about half way through, I think) I get the feeling that the only decissions with actual consequences are which towns/settlements to take down.

P.S.: What about that strengthening potion and relation to the endurance bar? My endurance bar is yellow...

 

[Vault Dweller]

So, Vault Dweller, when will we see NWN2 review? I am itching to see the Codex's point of view on this game.

Well, I'm still playing Gothic 3, and that put a lot of AoD stuff on hold, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I simply can't afford to get another game at this point, time-wise. Hopefully, Spazmo will get to it.

I don't wanna be a smartass, but judging by the grey endurance bar on every screenshot of yours, you haven't discovered the Strengthening potion yet, eh?

What the fuck is a strengthening potion and why the game hasn't told me about it? See, that's why every game needs a magic compass.

I certainly respect VD's opinions and the thought that goes into them, but the Codex doesn't speak through his one voice.

I agree, which is why I recruited Role-Player and Suibhne to provide different opinions and educated guesses.

VD - would you say that a high processor clock frequency is needed for the game...

I'm not an expert, but I'd say it's mostly about RAM.

Awesome.

Once again the Codex distinguishes itself. This time by being the only review on the net which actually bothers to focus on all the various faction conflicts in the game - a key aspect which distinguishes G3 from every other current 'rpg', yet is blithely ignored or glossed over by all the reviews I've seen thus far.

*bows*

It's a shame to hear about the changes to the skill system though - I will miss the careful placement of those precious and hard-won skill points that characterised the first two games.

Yep. When I finally became a master in G2 it was a major achievement that my poor character worked very hard for. G3 dropped the ball in this area.

Also: does anyone know if another major patch is on its way? I recall a lengthy, frank forum post by a PB developer who acknowledged the game being rushed, with bugs and balance problems - and iirc he suggested major work was yet to be done on combat in particular...

I'll bug Kai today about a follow-up interview, so hopefully we shall find out soon enough.

 

[Naked Ninja]

Nice review that. Pretty spot on, from the admittedly short time I've spent on it so far. Especially about the quests. Although they are pretty simple, they "fit" well. Its not just that some NPC gives this random stranger who wanders by the task of transporting his vitally precious X to some other guy 10 minutes brisk walk away. They dont feel so artificial.

 

[Elwro]

A very interesting review, only strengthening my desire to buy the game immediately when I get back to Poland. I always like CDProjekt's voiceovers and German game prices are insane anyway.

It was very cool to read the bit about the possibilities of disclosing secret information... that's one of the things I expected from the game.

BTW, the German Gamestar published a "post-patch review" claiming that many, many bugs are disappointingly still left untouched.

 

[Naked Ninja]

I haven't yet encountered any of these bugs, although I did see a tree floating a foot above the ground.

 

[Nedrah]

Is it true that the game will be over in a fraction of the time it would take you otherwise if you chose to go with the rebells?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Since the game is non-linear, it really depends on what you do. Take Fallout 2, for example. The game was huge, yet someone could speed run it in 18-minutes or something. Same here. If you doing the 12 chalices quest, that alone would take a really long time.

 

[Naked Ninja]

I'm going with the Rebels, I've played a good chunk this weekend and I'm barely out of the starting coast area, haven't liberated any towns. I can't see how joining the rebels means significantly less time, the game world is huge.

 

[Littlefizz]

Yep, good review VD.

Overall, more skills is good, but the system lacks focus. It’s way too easy to gain Learning Points, and unless you want to master pretty much everything, soon you wouldn’t know what to do with all the points and will probably just keep bumping up your primary attribute and hit points. When you reach this point, you’ll most likely lose all the interest in the character development, which is a shame.

I'm actually at this point right now, I decided I would go for a strong rebel soldier/blacksmith and all I can do now is put more points in strength since I've got almost the weapon skills I need. No more character decisions for me and I'm halfway through the game.

I really hope they make a NoTR-like expansion that rebalances it and fixes some of the gameplay issues it has. I haven't experienced any of the problems people seem to have, thats probably why I have a better opinion of the game than most and still think its really a great rpg even with its abundant combat and simple dialog and quests.

And... you didn't say anything about the music right? I thought it was great.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I usually don't mention music, voiceovers, etc in my reviews, but yeah, the music is great.

 

[Naked Ninja]

I'm going the mage/alchemy route, so I probably won't run out of skill options as easily :D.

 

[Trash]

The gothic series have been awesome for me so far. Glad to hear that number three is another diamond. Cool review VD, thanks.

 

[The_Nameless_Prick]

Awesome/accurate review VD. I do think you should have spent more time as a magic character though. It might have given you a different perspective on the "overallness". Maybe not though, I have yet to play a magic character myself, but it seems magic doesn't have as strong as a presense in this one as opposed to G1 and G2.