VD's Gothic 3 impressions

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Example 4: Your enemies also do not particulary react to your deeds. You can start revolutions in multiple orc towns, kill hundreds of them, still the orc leaders will accept you, and not attack you on sight, only treating you with more suspicion.

WRONG. After three towns, not counting Ardea, talking to any orc leader will result in every orc town going instantly hostile.

 

[Vault Dweller]

-Unreactive, illogical gameworld.

It's the opposite, in fact.

Example 1: You have a extremly high reputation with the rebels, freed some cities from the orcs, but when you talk to them, they still treat you like a suspicious foreigner. "Bother someone else..you surely have something to do?!" "You better don't make any trouble here"

Freeing *some* cities doesn't give you high rep with all the rebels. The one-liners change when the overall reputation changes (and I guess when you can no longer work for the orcs).

Example 2: Rebels inside the camps generally do not participate in city revolutions. (Dont know if this is correct, as I said Im just quoting complaints I have read from others)

I liberated a mine from the orcs (one of the Nordmar's quests), I attacked with a few people from the lower entrance and the hunters attacked the upper entrance. So far I liberated only Cape Dun, and I had more than enough help to do that.

Example 3: Dead Paladins hung by the orcs are not removed and buried when a city is freed from orcs. (come on, even baldurs gate 2 had this, when you freed the D'Arnise castle from the troll threat).

True.

When you speak to slaves in freed cities they still say things like "psshh..go away or we will get in trouble both"

Didn't notice that. Could be true though.

Example 4: Your enemies also do not particulary react to your deeds. You can start revolutions in multiple orc towns, kill hundreds of them, still the orc leaders will accept you, and not attack you on sight, only treating you with more suspicion.

I didn't liberate enough towns for that, but even "treating you with suspicion" is a reaction, no? Someone posted here that after liberating more than 3 towns the orcs turn hostile and attack you on sight (which is why I decided to delay the liberations to be able to avoid combat and see more of the orcish culture).

As for the reaction, I stole some stuff in one of the towns. One of the guards approached me and told me that a lot of valuable stuff has gone missing, and since I'm new... I had 3 options: bribe, talk my way out (I didn't have the skill to lie convincingly though), and tell him to fuck off. I managed to talk my way out, and the guard told me that I'll be watched. So, I stole some more stuff later, a different guard told me the same line. I tried talking my way out, but failed this time -> combat -> daring escape. I reloaded, and tried bribing (500 bucks). The orc got pissed off about me bribing him -> combat -> untimely death.

Connected to the last example, the next point:
-No real story/faction branching: You can basicly work for all three factions all the time, the end sequence is deus-ex style chosen almost at the end of the game without being influenced by your previous behaviour.

It's possible, I suppose, although you can't build up your reputation unless you directly act against a faction (either liberate towns or wipe out rebels nests).

No replay value - in other words Oblivionitis.

I disagree here. You can role-play your character, you can make different decisions (the options are there). You can try to get every drop of XP, but you can do that in most games too (you can work for all factions in New Reno too), so it's not the game's fault if you are a powergamer. The difference between Oblivion and G3 is the conflict. It's not Deus Ex where you make a choice in the end. Looks like you can do it too in G3, but ONLY if you do only minor quests deliberately avoiding choosing a side and quests associated with such a decision.

 

[Needle]

Well, Ive been browsing the Gothic forums a bit more since I actually consider(ed) to buy the game, so here more stuff coming:

-Unreactive, illogical gameworld.
*snip*

Those are true. However, I don't think its overly unrealistic that you are not recognized by orc occupators/rebel camps you haven't visited yet, even if you did a lot of things for their faction somewhere else. I mean, how could they know you? This is a medieval realm. It's not like they could fax a photo of your around or something. And besides, the orc leaders DO mention that there is a human making trouble. They just don't realize it's you (at first).

What bothers me more is the fact that everyone just seems to be waiting for a complete stranger to walk into town so they can ask him to go on an absolutely crucial mission for them. "Why, of course you can harvest the power of our ancestor stones, complete stranger! I was thinking about giving them to my best, most trusted warriors, but giving them to some tight-lipped jerk that just wandered in here and keeps asking people 'What's in for me?' seems to be a so much better idea." Ugh. But then, it's like this in most RPGs, so I can live with it.

-No real story/faction branching: You can basicly work for all three factions all the time, the end sequence is deus-ex style chosen almost at the end of the game without being influenced by your previous behaviour.
No replay value - in other words Oblivionitis.

I guess that's right too. But only, of course, if you specifically avoid to do anything that might turn one faction against you because you've read about it on some internet forum. If you play from the very start like you're actually really supporting one side, you might very well miss a LOT.

I can't shake the impression that a lot of criticism this game is getting right now stems from the overly nostalgic and idealized memories people have of gothic 1 + 2. Those games never had deep plots or fascinating dialogue or complex quests. And the heros companions that everyone claims to miss so much have always been pretty bland and unimportant.

Really, there are only a few mayor differences in G3. One thing is that there are many small places that you complete and leave behind forever instead of two or three big places you keep visiting again and again. Doesn't bother me all that much, but I can see how some people miss the familiarity of a town like Khorinis from Gothic 2.

The other thing is that there are no chapters anymore. This is kinda sad, because now the game feels a bit like it's lacking some of the narrative qualities of its predecessors. Remember when those Seekers kept popping up all over the world in Gothic 2? Something like this won't happen here. This I miss the most, but the huge world makes up for it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

"Why, of course you can harvest the power of our ancestor stones, complete stranger! I was thinking about giving them to my best, most trusted warriors, but giving them to some tight-lipped jerk ...

The first guy who mentioned the stone offered me to go into the cave and restore it, because the cave was filled with undead and he wasn't very eager to meet all his dead relatives. Sending a stranger there kinda makes sense under the circumstances.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

"Why, of course you can harvest the power of our ancestor stones, complete stranger! I was thinking about giving them to my best, most trusted warriors, but giving them to some tight-lipped jerk ...

The first guy who mentioned the stone offered me to go into the cave and restore it, because the cave was filled with undead and he wasn't very eager to meet all his dead relatives. Sending a stranger there kinda makes sense under the circumstances.

You were "meant" to talk to the Fire Clan leader to get the quest first. He sends a stranger out to find the stones and restore them.

 

[Needle]

"Why, of course you can harvest the power of our ancestor stones, complete stranger! I was thinking about giving them to my best, most trusted warriors, but giving them to some tight-lipped jerk ...

The first guy who mentioned the stone offered me to go into the cave and restore it, because the cave was filled with undead and he wasn't very eager to meet all his dead relatives. Sending a stranger there kinda makes sense under the circumstances.

I can see how he has no problem with letting you kill all those undead, but giving the ancestor stone to some complete stranger in such times of trouble seems to be really, really stupid to me. But then, those Nordmar people are probalby not the brightest battle axe on the rack, so...

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Ok thanks all who replied. I'm just trying to doublecheck complaitns I read on other forums with other sources to get a better picture of the game.

Anxious to read VDs review.

 

[suleo]

Well, you're not a complete stranger. The leader of the fire clan does hint that you're TEH CHOSEN and this is why you need to pick up the stones. Besides, he ALREADY gave them to his best warriors and those guys failed somehow.

 

[Elhoim]

One thing that bothers me is that the armor you are wearing doesn´t have any effect on the factions.

 

[Littlefizz]

Well, even if you want to see g3 as Oblivion without hand-holding that would make it a much better game. Overall I'm enjoying it a lot more (which is not very difficult), it's more or less what I expected having played the other 2.

About the chosen one thing... well it was pretty clear you were going to be something like that after g2, it's a shame they couldn't keep the "average guy trying to survive" thing they did in the first game, but that has been said before.

I can't shake the impression that a lot of criticism this game is getting right now stems from the overly nostalgic and idealized memories people have of gothic 1 + 2. Those games never had deep plots or fascinating dialogue or complex quests. And the heros companions that everyone claims to miss so much have always been pretty bland and unimportant.

Couldn't agree more. Gothic 1 and 2 were far from perfect games, and not really RPGs... dialog was really linear, most NPCs just gave a couple of quests and that's all and the game got extremely linear towards the end, but they had excellent exploration and an interesting world. Gothic 3 fixes some of the flaws but not all of them, but I don't think its worse in any really significant way.

 

[hiciacit]

Example 4: Your enemies also do not particulary react to your deeds. You can start revolutions in multiple orc towns, kill hundreds of them, still the orc leaders will accept you, and not attack you on sight, only treating you with more suspicion.

WRONG. After three towns, not counting Ardea, talking to any orc leader will result in every orc town going instantly hostile.

It's not necessarily just three towns, but it appears it's affected by your reputation.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Example 4: Your enemies also do not particulary react to your deeds. You can start revolutions in multiple orc towns, kill hundreds of them, still the orc leaders will accept you, and not attack you on sight, only treating you with more suspicion.

WRONG. After three towns, not counting Ardea, talking to any orc leader will result in every orc town going instantly hostile.

It's not necessarily just three towns, but it appears it's affected by your reputation.

I've always seen and heard that it happens after three... :\ and the "suspicion" messages hint very strongly at it.

 

[Helioth]

One thing that bothers me is that the armor you are wearing doesn´t have any effect on the factions.

I found that really annoying too, I was even holding out on buying rebel armor and bought the assassin light but. . . after a while it dawned on me that It just didn't have any affect.
Atleast in gothic 2 if you wore bandit armor people actually behaved differently.

 

[suibhne]

Atleast in gothic 2 if you wore bandit armor people actually behaved differently.

In G2 with NotR, in fact, there were consequences for wearing Bandit Armor, Ring of Water Armor, and Pirate Armor (or w/e it was called).

 

[Helioth]

Atleast in gothic 2 if you wore bandit armor people actually behaved differently.

In G2 with NotR, in fact, there were consequences for wearing Bandit Armor, Ring of Water Armor, and Pirate Armor (or w/e it was called).

Reading apparently is hard. . .

 

[Drakron]

Indid, because that happened ONLY with NotR installed ... there are no such consequences in G2 WITHOUT that installed.

 

[suibhne]

Atleast in gothic 2 if you wore bandit armor people actually behaved differently.

In G2 with NotR, in fact, there were consequences for wearing Bandit Armor, Ring of Water Armor, and Pirate Armor (or w/e it was called).

Reading apparently is hard. . .

For you, perhaps. I was simply affirming and extending your point.

But as Drakron points out, there were no such consequences in vanilla G2. Maybe PB put that on the list for an expansion pack. :wink:

 

[Human Shield]

A Gothic 3 add-in expansion sounds like it could be super great.

 

[Stauff]

A Gothic 3 add-in expansion sounds like it could be super great.

I 've read on one of Russian gaming sites the work is already under way on add-in. Anyway they have a lot to patch still, so this will be delayed a bit.. But probably we will see 'new and improved boars' sooner or later

 

[Whipporowill]

Uh... the boars were fixed in the 1.08 patch. The still pack a punch, but they're no insta-death killing machines anymore - which is a good thing.

 

[Ahzaruuk]

Uh... the boars were fixed in the 1.08 patch. The still pack a punch, but they're no insta-death killing machines anymore - which is a good thing.

Yeah. I can almost imagine how it would go...

Hero: None can vanquish me! I am all Might- HOLY CRAP A BOAR!!! RUN!!!!!!!

 

[Elhoim]

There is a funny thread at WoG that is called "X things you didn´t know about boars". Here are some posts:

1 : Boars are in fact peaceful creatures until you violate their personal space which is around 500-1000 yards.

2: Boars would rule the world if it wasnt for their lack of communicating. Last meeting about world domination went with nothing but grunting.

3 : Boars are stealthy killers and can sneak up on you in the forest and kill you before you notice it (ok I guess you knew that)

6: A meteor didnt wipe the dinosaurs. Boars did.

7 : The developers of gothic 3 had to tone down boars in the game since they killed the beta testers who were in ..... godmode.

9: Guns dont kill people. Boars do.

10: Number 1 cause of death in Gothic is ..... boars.

14. A few days ago it was not a nuclear test explosion in Northern Korea, but a boar riot in one of the forests there.

 

[The_Nameless_Prick]

VD, have you crafted the Nordmarian Sword yet? If you have, i would like to know where to find a component called 'Magic Ore Blank' THNX

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yes, I've made two. One for the smith, one for me. I have 4 or 5 magic blanks, but I don't recall where I acquired them. Exploring, most likely.

 

[Whipporowill]

I've found 2-3 random magic ore blanks and I haven't come to Nordmar yet.