Jim Kata
Arbiter
Elwro said:Jim Kata said:I read it, and I completely fail to see how that review makes a good game, or makes an rpg at all.Missed these parts?The real depth is in choices and multiple ways to get things done, generously offered by Piranha Bytes. Nothing is forced on you, nothing is mandatory - NOTHING AT ALL - so everything is in your hands and up to you.
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1.Gothic 3 offers you to take sides in several active conflicts.
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2.These conflicts can easily change the entire playing field. You can liberate all towns from the orcs (and one from formerly human, currently undead guardians) and repopulate them with humans, or you can wipe out all the rebels, destroying all hope.
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3.Gothic 3's quests are more dynamic, allowing you to double-cross easily. In Oblivion, I was often asked not to tell something to other people, but I couldn't do it anyway, since a dialogue option wasn't provided. In Gothic 3, such options are plentiful – in fact, every bit of information that could be beneficial to several parties is immediately turned into 2-3 quests, allowing you to decide what to do with it.
The rebels asked me to find a local resistance guy in a nearby town. When I found the hidden rebel, I went to a mercenary leader and to the orc commander in that town, and was able to tell both of them about the rebel.
A hashashin merchant sells artefacts from far-away lands in an orc-controlled town. I found his brother in a cave nearby digging for artefacts. A quest to confront the merchant was added. I talked to the merchant who paid me to keep my mouth shut. A quest NOT to keep my mouth shut was added immediately. I talked to the orc commander and told him that the there are artefacts in that cave.
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6. Gothic 3 offers you a huge truly living and breathing, very atmospheric world that actually looks like a recently conquered world with ruined towns, crumbling fortresses, burning capital, and crucified paladins and rebels. People go about their daily chores, cutting wood, working fields, hammering anvils, cooking in large pots, mining ore, sitting near fire, cooking meat, and even smoking weed, effortlessly creating an atmosphere the overhyped RAI had failed to.
Goddamit, I think I start to know what Volourn felt when he was defending NWN1 and yelling "all facts were already given!"
So what? these are very superficial choices. It is nice to have a choice, but again, so what? That is a nice feature, but in and of itself it is nothing. It's also very formulaic in the choices possible, and how is it a real difference if you can basically just hold off and choose at the end what ending you want?