Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Interesting RPG that isn't nearly as polished or stable as it should be. I almost gave up early on due to all the bugs, but I'm glad I stuck with it because Gothic 3 does have some nice things to offer.

Pros:
-- Landscape. The continent doesn't feel like it just came out of a terrain generator. There are memorable and unique crags, defiles, passes, plateaus, and valleys everywhere. Very nice organic feel.
-- The score is fantastic, appropriately sweeping and varied according by location theme. None of the locations have a weak "soundtrack," and several have exceptional ones.
-- Open-ended gameplay feels natural. Unlike some games of this scope, you never feel like you've stumbled into the middle of some other quest. There are plenty of fetch-and-carry quests, but also quite a few cross-city quests that nudge the player toward guided exploration without locking him into a plot train.
-- Generally good dialog scripting. The world has a gritty feel, but not too dark. Motivations and reactions of most characters feels right for the setting. Alongside the stereotypical hotheads, sly thieves, and plucky rebels are heroes who have abandoned their faith, and warlords coping with the bureaucracy of occupation.

Cons:
-- Bugs. Everywhere. I played a build patched to 1.6.x, but it still felt like this game was in beta. Most egregious were the hiccups and stutters during area loads. I imagine it might almost have been playable off an SSD, but c'mon, it came out in '06? You learn to recognize when the freeze is coming, take a deep breath, and wait 4-5 seconds to start playing again.

-- Combat is awkward, repetitive, and ultimately boring. Not only are the basic dynamics over simplified, but hit/miss locations are incredibly sensitive to z-axis positioning. If you're fighting uphill, you're practically invulnerable. If your opponent gets below you on a hill or stairway, just run away. Ugh. And somewhere around 20+ hrs, you hit an inflection point where you can single-handedly take out entire towns (30+) of mobs at once... swinging your sword like you're mowing down grass. You run out of stamina about 30 sec in to the fight, but strangely it doesn't matter at all. There are plenty more examples, but the takeaway is the same: combat feels just plain broken.