VD's Gothic 3 impressions

[HanoverF]

Screw Xardas, I figure I gotta kill him one of these Gothics anyway, must give a crapload of xp, dudes livin on borrowed time.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Screw Xardas, I figure I gotta kill him one of these Gothics anyway, must give a crapload of xp, dudes livin on borrowed time.

I haven't actually tried killing him... might give it a shot, just to see what retarded line he spouts off. Onward come the meteors!

 

[suibhne]

MAJOR GOTHIC 2 SPOILER:

Has everyone just forgotten that Xardas played you as a fool in G2 to facilitate his own transformation into the avatar of ultimate chaos and evil? Mentor my ass.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

MAJOR GOTHIC 2 SPOILER:

Has everyone just forgotten that Xardas played you as a fool in G2 to facilitate his own transformation into the avatar of ultimate chaos and evil? Mentor my ass.

Apparently, that wasn't what he actually did. Was just using Beliar to get more power or something... since he takes a decidedly neutral role in G3, I'm assuming that's the case.

 

[suibhne]

Hmm, maybe he's been manipulating Beliar himself all along and actually serves Adanos.

Better yet, maybe he is Adanos.

 

[Shagnak]

MAJOR GOTHIC 2 SPOILER:

Has everyone just forgotten that Xardas played you as a fool in G2 to facilitate his own transformation into the avatar of ultimate chaos and evil? Mentor my ass.

Fuck!

I cruised right past the boring looking caps and into the interesting looking little greenish print.

 

[Vault Dweller]

MAJOR GOTHIC 2 SPOILER:

Has everyone just forgotten that Xardas played you as a fool in G2 to facilitate his own transformation into the avatar of ultimate chaos and evil? Mentor my ass.

So he's an evil fucking mentor, but mentor nonetheless. He taught me everything I know *sobs*

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Hmm, maybe he's been manipulating Beliar himself all along and actually serves Adanos.

Better yet, maybe he is Adanos.

Wellll.... he doesn't TELL you outright, but I have a good idea of who he is.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Luke...

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Well, I suppose they DO both have neatly-styled facial hair...

 

[Stauff]

Hey Vault Dweller, do you have any plans to post a full review of G3 on Codex site. You may be surprised but after Oblivion review quite many people at least around me said something like this - "Damn that review on RPGCodex is the only one true to life ever placed on web. I bet I will consult this site more in future". In fact some of my friends are even waiting for your review before getting the game themselves. So .. do you plan to do it in near future? Please

 

[Elwro]

Well, I think he said he'll do it approx. 1 month after getting the game...
I will get the game when it's finally released in Poland (translated + all the patches), but I'd certainly like to read VD's review.

 

[Stauff]

I will get the game when it's finally released in Poland (translated + all the patches)

Yep, the game is not available in Russia as well still, no talks about CE at all. But what a surprise in Czech there was both a CE and normal game the same day as in UK and DE! And price was really affordable, approx. ~ 30Euro for CE.

 

[Twinfalls]

Considering his love for the combat, theres deffinetly something 'Fisty' going on.

oh my

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Considering his love for the combat, theres deffinetly something 'Fisty' going on.

oh my

I thought he said "fishy", and I thought it was a witty Piranha reference. ):

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hey Vault Dweller, do you have any plans to post a full review of G3 on Codex site. You may be surprised but after Oblivion review quite many people at least around me said something like this - "Damn that review on RPGCodex is the only one true to life ever placed on web. I bet I will consult this site more in future". In fact some of my friends are even waiting for your review before getting the game themselves. So .. do you plan to do it in near future? Please

Yes, absolutely.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

VD, when you have some time, could you comment on the following critical points I gathered from different (german speaking) forums? Provided your advancement in the game allows for a judgement already.

- Repetitive, short, simple quests. Get 10 Wolf cloaks, 15 swords etc. Very little complex quests which consist of multiple subquests like in the previous games.

- Very thin, almost non-existant story-line. Unimportant side quest NPCs have more to say than main characters like Rhobar or Xardas

-Repetitive town liberation. Get there, make repetitve mini-quests, start revolushun, next town.
Coming back to a town later on is pointless, since nothing changes, no new developments or quests emerge. Once you have done a city you can forget about it for the rest of the game

Besides the bug discussion this seemed to be the problems many people discussed.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Those are all pretty true, unfortunately, though I did always enjoy the town liberations.

 

[Vault Dweller]

- Repetitive, short, simple quests. Get 10 Wolf cloaks, 15 swords etc. Very little complex quests which consist of multiple subquests like in the previous games.

I'd say that 90% of quests are repetitive, short, and simple. However, the odds are you already have all that stuff in your inventory, so solving a quest is as simple as saying "sure, here is what you need", so at least you don't need to run around a lot looking for some items.

Sometimes, it's even frustrating as quests like "bring roasted meat to some guard" are absolutely idiotic. There are slightly more complex, multi-step quests (the liberations quests, dealing with all the northern clans, etc), but they are rare.

- Very thin, almost non-existant story-line.

As expected. I don't think that the previous Gothic games had better stories. The game isn't about some plot, but about you trying to find your own place in the world and this aspect Gothic 3 does well.

Unimportant side quest NPCs have more to say than main characters like Rhobar or Xardas

I haven't spoken with Xardas yet.

-Repetitive town liberation. Get there, make repetitve mini-quests, start revolushun, next town.

True. However, that's a fun element, and that's where multi-step quests are. Since it's an action game and you have to fight a lot, liberating towns and organizing the resistance is way more fun than simply attacking orcs on sight.

Coming back to a town later on is pointless, since nothing changes, no new developments or quests emerge. Once you have done a city you can forget about it for the rest of the game.

True, however that's true for 99% of games, so it's a bit unfair to present that as one of G3 weaknesses.

Overall, yes, most of these things are true, but they don't make it a bad game. Daggerfall was a great game, yet it could be easily described as repetetive game with simple quests and non-existent until the end storyline. What I like the most about G3, and which is why I'm still playing it with interest, is the living, believable, different from most RPGs world that occasionally offers me some choices to make. It's a worthy sequel to the first two games, and it's a much better game than Oblivion; however, it's still an action game, focused on killing things, and it doesn't try to be anything else.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Thanks for that insight. So I assume it boils down to liking/disliking different RPG design concepts.

I didn't like the Daggerfall concept too much, as I have difficulties to buy a open ended, big gameworld for the price of a certain repetivenes and a generic touch these games tend to have.

However, would be correct to say that for those people who loved Daggerfall Gothic 3 is the not-dumbed down, non- morrowind/oblivion retardodized, quasi-sequel they were waiting for?

 

[elander_]

It's different. Daggerfall had a very complex main quest but one that roleplayers did not like much because it forced the player to be a certain char to finish it. The side quests were self-service templated quests to generate quests for dungeon crawls, thieving opurtunities, unlock new books, etc. Daggerfall faction interaction was not as complex and immersive as in Gothic1/2 and other games that focused more on the social side like Ultima7.

However in Daggerfall every quest was a bit different every time you played it. It offered a piece of the lore puzzle or had an interesting quirk so once you made enough quests you start to connect the puzzles of information and get a good idea about whats going on and how to take advantage of it.

I supsect that Gothic3 factions have more subtle interactions and the story is at least as complex or more than Oblivion but you aren't thrown into a linear plot for every guild like in Oblivion which gives the illusion the plot is bigger than it realy is. Instead the game allows you more freedom but you have to collect the pieces of the puzzle yourself, which often gives the impression there isn't a plot and that all quests are the same. If you just rush into the final you get a lousy idea of what's going on but if you take your time and do all the quests and talk to everyone you may get a much better idea. If it is like Gothic 2 plot(s) and expands on it im already satisfied.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Nope. Sorry. I can see how you get that idea, but there really isn't much of a plot at all. The element of choice throughout was satisfying, but the plot itself boiled down to first "kill the other doods" followed by "teh chosen one must choose".

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks for that insight. So I assume it boils down to liking/disliking different RPG design concepts.

Yep.

However, would be correct to say that for those people who loved Daggerfall Gothic 3 is the not-dumbed down, non- morrowind/oblivion retardodized, quasi-sequel they were waiting for?

Yep. It's definitely the best game out of the three, and it's a very good game overall. What I like the most about the game is that I actually like the orcs. The human vs orcs conflict is not another good-vs-evil scenario. The orcs are well designed as a different culture, and siding with them is very easy and even appealing.

 

[Ladonna]

Siding with the orcs is....appealing? You mean those screaming green horrors from 1 and 2? The screaming horrors that worshipped the Sleeper? :shock:

Wow, it seems the orcs have changed dramatically since the last 2 games.

Don't tell me how its explained, just tell me if its explained how the orcs turned from being 'Kill all humans on sight!!' to 'We are now your friendly overlords, and won't kill you unless we have to'?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

The ones on Khorinis were sort of like the creepy uncle you keep in the garden shed so he doesn't embarass you at parties.