VD's Gothic 3 impressions

[hiciacit]

I ran like a madman: out of the lighthouse, passed the orcs swarming Wenzel, across the arena, and made myself scarce for the hills. I got ashamed of my own cowardness and returned, posiotioning myself behind the pack of orcs and mercenaries that were relentlessly beating down on Wenzel. Llike, we had them surrounded. We then wreaked some serious havoc up on that hill.

Liberating Cape Dun was quite a fight, but very entertaining indeed.

 

[Claw]

While you can play a "double-agent" for a reasonably long time, sooner than later you need to make a choice. Either you liberate the orcish town or kill all the rebels in that camp.

Hmm, I am uncertain about the meaning of this statement; it seems to be in direct opposition to what I said.

I've just finished wiping out the orcs/mercs near the lighthouse. Tough battle of several reloads.

I softened up Cape Dun by luring several mercs and orcs into a dark corner to murder them.


PS:
The greatest fight I had so far was with a Paladin called Karlen. I had to sprint away and drink a health potion several times; also, never forget to put your sword away first, or you'll stand there, put your sword away, drink the potion and draw your sword again. That's not good.

 

[Magistrator]

Although the average gamer will hate it, slow loading times are good IMO. With this in mind, fights are more tense. You'll also think twice before challenging a stronger opponent. I hope it won't be fixed.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

While you can play a "double-agent" for a reasonably long time, sooner than later you need to make a choice. Either you liberate the orcish town or kill all the rebels in that camp.

Hmm, I am uncertain about the meaning of this statement; it seems to be in direct opposition to what I said.

I've just finished wiping out the orcs/mercs near the lighthouse. Tough battle of several reloads.

I softened up Cape Dun by luring several mercs and orcs into a dark corner to murder them.


PS:
The greatest fight I had so far was with a Paladin called Karlen. I had to sprint away and drink a health potion several times; also, never forget to put your sword away first, or you'll stand there, put your sword away, drink the potion and draw your sword again. That's not good.

Karlen? Where was he? I've retrieved all the Fire Chalices, and now need to return them to the Paladins... I still have three left, and no idea where to take them.

Im sure there must be an alternate way or that item may not be essential. Otherwise they would not give players the choice to piss off the orcs.

It WAS on his corpse. :D However, the liberation of the city appears to be bugged... the place certainly wasn't liberated, battle music keeps playing even though I can't find any more orcs, my companion keeps accusing me of murder (OF ORCS) and standing frozen in a battle pose.... stupid thing.

 

[hiciacit]

Although the average gamer will hate it, slow loading times are good IMO. With this in mind, fights are more tense. You'll also think twice before challenging a stronger opponent. I hope it won't be fixed.

I disagree; that's just bullshit. A difficult game, one where you can expect a severe ass whooping for being careless or cocky, is what realy makes the fights more tense and engaging. Slow load times are nothing but a proverbial pain in the ass. When I spend 50 euros on a game, I do not want to be staring at a loading screen half of my playing time. My spare time is a little too precious. In fact, I stopped playing Gothic III out of sheer frustration until the noCD patch came out (which solved the rediculously long loading times in my particular case).

 

[Magistrator]

... When I spend 50 euros on a game, I do not want to be staring at a loading screen half of my playing time. ....

If that's the case, you should play more careful, and think before acting. It's also better for your personal development in real life. :wink:

Although everybody (including me) is used to quick restoring saved games, I believe in the end the experience is more intense when there's some sort of penalty to reloading a game. Although slow-loading is probably not the best example, I admit...

 

[Whipporowill]

Hum... After clearing the village, they tell me to talk with someone near the beach. When I arrive there, the guy just says we'll talk later, can't initiate a dialogue. I've tryied to wait 'til other hours of the day, but nothing. Is it a bug?

Try coming back later - I remember him not instigating the auto-dialogue until he was sitting by the fire.

B t w - game owns! Archery is great, animals are hard (even if boars are a bit too rough for me even at lvl 6) as should be. Not a top of the line comp (2,66 ghz, 1 mb ram, 9600 pro 128 ram) but it does run in a somewhat decent state on medium detail.

 

[Bah]

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I decided to just kill him.

I killed him too. Then I walked away and he got up, and when I came back to finish him off a 2nd time he initiated the conversation. :\

 

[Whipporowill]

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I decided to just kill him.

I killed him too. Then I walked away and he got up, and when I came back to finish him off a 2nd time he initiated the conversation. :\

You don't "kill" people unless you use the killing blow. You just knocked him out.

 

[Bossman]

Well, from what I've played so far I can probably safely assume that if you have enough patience and arrows you can kill anything in Gothic 3.

So far I've slayed ogres, boars, orcs, wolves, goblins, a rhino, Ortega, Lurkers and two dragons without losing a single HP.

Actually, it's kind of fun being on an elevated position and watching an Ogre trying to reach you, with 20 or so arrows sticking out of his forehead

 

[whatusername]

Gah, I need help on trying to liberate Montera.

I've given the sacks of wheat.
I've given the barrels of milk.
I've done the quests for Marik. (collect rent from farm, tell the lazy-arse mercenary to go away)
Beat everyone at the Arena.
I let the rebels take out the slave camp guards one-by-one.
Figured out who the rebel agent is.

Yet my reputation is only 67. Arrgghh...

Btw, does it seem odd to anyone that the Flame Sword costs only 1000?

 

[Bossman]

Btw, does it seem odd to anyone that the Flame Sword costs only 1000?

Does the word BUG ring any bells? :D

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Gah, I need help on trying to liberate Montera.

I've given the sacks of wheat.
I've given the barrels of milk.
I've done the quests for Marik. (collect rent from farm, tell the lazy-arse mercenary to go away)
Beat everyone at the Arena.
I let the rebels take out the slave camp guards one-by-one.
Figured out who the rebel agent is.

Yet my reputation is only 67. Arrgghh...

Btw, does it seem odd to anyone that the Flame Sword costs only 1000?

Hmm. Did you do the Mercenary Loyalty quest? Find Ashton's embezzled gold?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Did you swap the slaves for bradley as well.

 

[whatusername]

Hmm. Did you do the Mercenary Loyalty quest?

Ye, but for some reason, I can't report what the mercenary in the grain farm thinks of him.

Find Ashton's embezzled gold?

Never heard of that quest.

Did you swap the slaves for bradley as well.

I was feeling too lazy at the time I got the quest, so I told the lazy fucker to do it himself. Am I screwed now?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Never heard of that quest.

Um. Well, it is one. One of the slaves you swap for Bradley tells you about it... as you told him to do it himself, I think you've done yourself out of two or three quests.
Yeah, you're probably fucked. Just liberate the town.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

If you search behind the arena for his chest, then you might just be able to finish a quest.

 

[whatusername]

Ah! I remember that chest. Damn it. I should just start attacking everyone like crazy now, since I have no chance at getting a reputation of 75 now?

 

[Gwendo]

Hum... After clearing the village, they tell me to talk with someone near the beach. When I arrive there, the guy just says we'll talk later, can't initiate a dialogue. I've tryied to wait 'til other hours of the day, but nothing. Is it a bug?

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I decided to just kill him.

When I reloaded the game, the guy talked to me. It was a bug.


BTW, am I the only one annoyed by the fact that the only way to kill a person is by stabbing him in the ground? If it's to prevent acidental deaths (that would be too hardOBLIVION!!!), then we shouldn't be able to hit someone by mistake, as happened to me in the rebel camp. A better system would be: when the life bar is almost empty, the guy could fall unconscious. If the blow is too hard, it might kill the man standing.

 

[suleo]

There is also a "wolves in a cave" quest from one of the farms. As for the embezzled gold, the hint is given by one of the slaves in a farm, but it might be that to initiate this line, you need to have the "swap the slaves" quest active.

 

[suleo]

BTW, am I the only one annoyed by the fact that the only way to kill a person is by stabbing him in the ground? If it's to prevent acidental deaths (that would be too hardOBLIVION!!!), then we shouldn't be able to hit someone by mistake, as happened to me in the rebel camp. A better system would be: when the life bar is almost empty, the guy could fall unconscious. If the blow is too hard, it might kill the man standing.

It only happens if they are "green" (friendly) or "white" (neutral). If they are "red", they die. Try it on a bunch of orks that are white. Kill one with coup-de-grace, everyone else screams "murder", they turn red, and then you dont have to cdg them anymore; they just stay dead.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Updated my impressions.

 

[denizsi]

I also like the armor thing as well, but I think it might be better if there was a skill to maintain that, kind of which I've suggested in a thread of mine.

You try to adjust the armor to your body. You can try until you screw the armor up, lowering the efficiency (not permanently) with each try in case, or just wear it with penalties since it's not tailored to your body. If you take it to blacksmith however, (s)he will fix and adjust it to your body.

But even without such a thing, it's good imo.

 

[Jasede]

Wow, VD, with all I have been hearing about bugs and the like, your impressions sound really intriguing. You changed my point of view of this game from "will pick it up in ten years" to a definite "will pick it up in four years" (when my computer is good enough and when I have enough time to spare). Good job! I did not expect Gothic 3 to be good.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Wow, VD, with all I have been hearing about bugs and the like, your impressions sound really intriguing.

Glad to be of service.

I did not expect Gothic 3 to be good.

Neither did I.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Being cynical, I refuse to believe that I can stick with the orcs till the end, but if I can, then this is one hell of a game.

Well, apparently there are three different endings. I assume that's an Innos/Rebels one, a Beliar/Orcs one, and a neutral one, but I haven't got far enough to say yet; though, judging by the responses to my pleas for help on other sites, I've gotten farther than most people. Le sigh.

 

[Monica21]

Updated my impressions.

Thanks, VD. This is looking better and better.