Like its predecessors, Gothic 3 can be lots of fun, but you’ll have to look past some major problems to enjoy it.
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Playing through this game, you will find yourself alternating between delight and frustration. One moment, you’re at the top of a mountain viewing a breathtaking landscape or completing a fun quest. The next moment, you’re watching a slide show or getting killed by a stupid wolf and staring at a three-minute loading screen. For that reason, Gothic 3 isn’t as much fun as it should have been.
Gothic 3 picks up immediately after the end of Gothic 2. You have escaped from Khorinis to the empire’s mainland, which has been taken over by orcs, thanks to the shenanigans of the mysterious Xardas. If you don’t recognize “Khorinis” and “Xardas”, then quit reading now and go back and play Gothic 1 and 2, because the story in Gothic 3 won't make much sense to newcomes of the series. The game throws you into the action right away and you are fighting orcs within seconds – at level 1. There is no explanation for why your character is suddenly level 1 again, which creates a continuity problem with the last game. If you played Gothic 1 and 2, you’re going to have to look past that contrivance.
Gothic 3 has a much different combat system than the first two games. It’s a lot more action-oriented. It’s also a lot more flawed, and the best technique for winning most battles usually is to spam your basic attack by furiously clicking the left mouse button. The game has shields, but parrying seems underpowered compared to just clicking away. This is a big disappointment for a series that has always emphasized depth and skill in the combat system. Combat with humanoids is still pretty fun though.
However, combat with animals is where the game almost comes apart at the seams. This part of the game isn’t just flawed. It’s completely broken. It’s pathetic. Incredibly bad. God awful. All creatures charge at you and head butt you or sting you with rapid fire attacks that repeatedly stun you and keep you from using your own weapon. Even if you’re high level, a single hit from a bloodfly or wolf can trap you in a cycle of “stun, hit, stun, hit” that costs you half of your health. I once massacred an entire army of orcs without breaking a sweat and then struggled to kill two simple wolves. Armor doesn't seem to help. If you aren’t convinced, you can find a handful of hilarious videos on youtube that showcase Gothic 3’s often horrible combat. It’s extremely frustrating to play the game for 20 hours and still have to quick save your game when you face a single boar. On the positive side, archery is vastly improved. You can actually aim your shots this time, and there are different types of arrows. .
Problematic combat isn’t the game’s only major problem though. Gothic 3 is saddled with an inefficient and poorly optimized engine that constantly chugs and hiccups as you roam the world. Like other Gothic games, Gothic 3 boasts a huge, seamless world that has no loading screens. The previous games didn’t have much of a problem maintaining a steady frame rate, but Gothic 3 constantly sputters and chokes. The game frequently locks up for four or five second periods when it loads a new area. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in combat or just running by yourself. It also doesn’t matter where in the world you are – the game grinds to a halt once every few minutes. The game is always running like cold molasses. The game takes a at least a few minutes to go from Windows desktop to actually playing. “Quick” saves are anything but, and save games take a long time to load. This game has some of the worst loading times that I have ever experienced. My rig ran Oblivion on high settings almost perfectly. Why can’t it run this game? Tweaking your graphical settings does little to improve performance. Apparently, having 2 GB of RAM makes the game better. I’ve only got 1 GB of RAM. Regardless of what you have, it's very hard to look past this game's enormous performance issues.
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If you can get over the problems with combat and performance, then you will find that Gothic 3 offers a lot to enjoy. There’s a huge open-ended world to explore and hundreds of unique NPC’s to talk to. Most of them have unique dialog, instead of repetitive, generic lines that they all repeat. There are over 100 quests to solve, and if you were to do all of them, it would take 100 hours to finish this game. The Gothic series has always excelled at not only providing a large open-ended world, but also making it immersive by simulating it in detail. Slaves will sleep on makeshift beds at night and then labor away during the day. Animals roam the plains and settle down to sleep at night. NPC’s perform their routines and then settle to bed at dark. Occasionally, you’ll see unscripted interactions between animals, like when a wolf attacks a pack of scavengers. .
Gothic 3 has the most versatile and robust role-playing system of the three games. Skill points are much more abundant this time around, and that’s a good thing, because you have a lot more abilities to spend them on. Once again, you must find some friendly to train you, a nice touch that adds to the game’s immersiveness. Gothic 3 also easily has the biggest world of the series, but the size does seem to come at the expense of depth in a few ways. Loot is randomly generated this time, and towns and merchants are more generic than they have been. The AI is generally pretty good and it acts believably, although NPC’s are way too willing to let you in their houses. You can rob most cities blind by pillaging peoples’ houses as they stand outside clueless.
This game still sports a very immersive and often beautiful world though. Some of the scenery is excellent. In particular, the vegetation looks amazing, and some of the creatures, like the scavengers and trolls, are stunning in how realistic they look. Graphics are a mixed bag though. Indoor areas look plain and outdated, and so do humans. Water has some ugly effects and the ocean looks downright awful. The previous Gothic games sported a great but subtle fantasy soundtrack, and Gothic 3 might have the best yet. There is a huge score of music for this game, and it's all very good and approprate for each location. Every line is voice-acted, and most of it is competent. The nameless hero has a new voice, which might be better, but it also creates discontinuity between the previous games, since the charming corniness of the previous voice actor is gone. .
A make-or-break feature of any RPG is the interface, and they finally got it right in Gothic 3. Gothic 3’s interface has been completely reworked from top to bottom, and this time, it’s excellent. A tap of the “I” key brings up your inventory, along with a hotkey bar at the bottom, which shows you what actions have been bound to your number keys. Your inventory is sorted into different categories, and with a mouse click or two, you can access all sorts of other functions like your role-playing stats, your map, and your quest journal. The interface is a lot more mouse-friendly and icon-driven than the previous Gothic games. If you’re looking for the best feature in the game, this is probably it.
These positive features mean that Gothic 3 is good enough to overcome its rough spots, but not good enough to recommend to everyone. And thus, the Gothic trilogy comes to an end, never having realized its full potential. If I had to rank the three games, I would put #2 as the best, and then #3 and #1 tied for second spot. I would love to have scored this one as a 10, but I have a hard time giving Gothic 3 any better than 7.9. Terrible combat with animals and poor technical performance really drag this game down. For that reason, Gothic 3 probably won’t appeal to you unless you’re hardcore into RPG’s. It’s very enjoyable at it’s core, but you’ve got to look past some major problems to enjoy it.