Gothic 3 - Was anyone else pleasantly surprised?

Lately I've been looking for a game to pass the time until games like Starcraft 2 are released. I saw Gothic 3 for cheap and I've always liked RPGs no matter how buggy they might be. Before Oblivion came out, Gothic 3 was considered to be Oblivion's rival. But when Oblivion was released, it completely overshadowed the buggy Gothic 3 and it quickly disappeared off the scene. I decided I had to give it a try.

At first, the game was very iffy. The game isn't very well optimized, there's loads of aliasing, and very little polish. But I kept going and discovered a somewhat deep RPG. Instead of the limiting skill structure of Oblivion, you're free to develop any skills you wish. While the animations and character models are somewhat poor, the game has a charm to it. The game's soundtrack is beautiful and fits with the theme of the game very well. I haven't played very long, but it seems like the actual gameworld is much larger than Oblivion's. I'd be willing to say that there's around twice as much "stuff" (land, dungeons, etc.) in Gothic than Oblivion. Each location in the game has a unique feel to it and overall the game is pretty fun to play.

It feels like they rushed the game out. If they refined the animations, combat, and various mechanics - you'd have an amazing RPG. But if you can look past these issues, the game is still a blast.

Anyone else surprised by Gothic 3? If you haven't played it, it's pretty cheap. If you enjoy RPGs, I'd definitely buy it.

I bought it not expecting much, and I really couldn't get into it when I first started...but then I went back to it a month or so ago and loved every minute of it.
I really should get around to finishing it.

I loved the first two games in the series so naturally I ran out and bought Gothic 3 the day it came out. I was dissapointed in the number of bugs present in the game at release but even with the bugs I really enjoyed it. Since they have patched it the game runs a lot better. If you haven't tried the first two games in the Gothic series I'd highly recommend them.thanatose

I remember playing a previous Gothic game at a friends house a *long* time ago. It took place in some bubble (which I think I could see out in the distance of Gothic 3). I remember it being pretty fun. Definitely giving it a try after I finish this one.

I enjoyed the game for a couple of hours, but decided to wait for more patches, maybe now's the time to pick it up again?

I agree with most of your points, GLD, except that the skills-system in Oblivion is limited. I'm a semi-God in that game with almost every single skill at 100. Pretty open system if you ask me...

HAHAHA

Gothic 3 and I had a love-hate relationship. It took me five tries to like the game, but it finally won me over. Now its one of my favorite RPGs. I just love the NPCs, the quests, the combat even.

Its got a fairly steep learning curve right off the bat, but once you find out the right style its loads of fun.

Anyone else find it annoying when you get attacked and fall down your sword always comes out of your hand and you gotta go pick it up and re-equip it everytime???

Or is this part of the learning curve you speak of? :)

It definately grows on you. At first I could barely play it with the bugs and massive system requirements so I shelved it, but after I had upgraded and patched, it was pretty good, and it just got better and better. I've spent about 50 hours on it according to xfire but didn't finish it, unfortunately I formatted and lost my save games so I haven't bothered to get back to it. :(

Good things:
- Beautiful and varied environments
- Huge world that isn't divided into zones/no loading times
- World is filled with life, animals, monsters and other NPCs everywhere
- Leveling your character is very well designed
- The game simply doesn't make compromises like so many others these days / not dumbed down

Bad things:
- Bugs
- System requirements
- Flame Sword was too good / easy to get early in game
- Combat takes getting used to and is still unbalanced in many ways:
* Some animals are over powered
* Orcs are under powered, see below....yeah I killed 'em all

I enjoyed the game for a couple of hours, but decided to wait for more patches, maybe now's the time to pick it up again?

I agree with most of your points, GLD, except that the skills-system in Oblivion is limited. I'm a semi-God in that game with almost every single skill at 100. Pretty open system if you ask me...

artur79

That's not what I originally intended. What I meant is that there's very little skills, and they aren't as diverse as Gothic 3's. For example : Summoning in Oblivion is useless at higher levels and you can only summon around 5 different creatures. It just feels severely dumbed down. I liked how you can get the skills to build your own weapons and armor in Gothic 3. I also liked the thieving tree and things like that. It's just very well done.

I also didn't like how easy Oblivion was from start-to-finish. Gothic so far has the right difficulty and It feels like one of those games that are better when you don't know what to expect.