If you can get over the pretty hard beginning of the game..you will find a jewel.
Like a fat kid chasing the ice-cream truck, I went back to the game (started all over again) about 1 month ago. What followed is 40+ hours (probably 70-80 hours total)of swearing, evil laughter and overall bliss ;)
Im going to cut this 'review' short (who has the time to read through page in and page out of drivel anyways)
The good:
* Story
* Open ended world (atleast it felt that to me)
* Character buildup is (imho) very good (although abit confusing at the beginning)
* Attention to details
* It's huge
* There are things to do besides hack n' slash (mining, alchemy, hunting, smithing and sidequests)
* The music (First game in a long long time where I didnt turn it off)
* Difficulty (I played on normal...and it was hard. I can imagine the Hard setting being nasty)
* Meteor and mana-regeneration...Kaboom!
* Diversity of places/towns/caves
* You do get pretty powerful at the end
The not so good (And what can turn you off):
* It takes time to get in to (give it atleast 5-6 hours before you give up)
* The graphics aint exactly what I would call mind-boggling.
* The start is very hard. You have problems with just about everything (especially combat/healing/locks) and _you will_ die alot.
* Loading time can be frustrating at times (after you have died)
* The AI isnt' the greatest ever (still, Ive seen much worse)
* The ending was abit....wierd if you ask me. I was bracing myself for pure evil terror...but it sort of never came (if you're not counting my Meteors ;) ).
* Once you get mana regeneration and Meteor (or any other 'instakill' ..or even Fireball), the game becomes pretty easy imho.
* It does get abit repetative after awhile (a long while) and you want to see what comes next so you will start skipping mini-quests and so on and just 'hunt the big game'.
Compared to Morrowind or Oblivion, I'd say that Gothic as a game wins hands down. Compared to The Witcher I'd say The Witcher is slightly better due to the 'no real good vs evil' world (questionable morals) and that The Witcher is better looking..more polished and more...hmm...sinister.
Replay value is....well, I dont really know. The time it takes to complete it the first time is probably going to be a turnoff...so Im guessing its pretty low.
I crashed 2 or maybe 3 times during my whole Gothic 3 experience, so I guess its pretty stable once it's patched.
Overall a great game that I would recommend to any RPG player out there looking for something to play besides MMO's.