I had to edit my review to account for the huge 1.7 Community Patch which now makes the game reasonably playable.
It took a long, long time, but the latest community patch has proved me wrong where I originally said I thought the game was released in a state where patches wouldn't fix it. The 1.7 CP actually makes game play acceptable, if still not ultra-smooth. That's quite an accomplishment.
Now that the game is playable, I have had a chance to get into it and follow the storyline and explore a little deeper.
Frame rates are never going to be super high, and load times are still a bit long, although DRASTICALLY decreased from what they were circa the 1.6 CP. But with the new 1.7 CP Gothic 3 is actually playable on my fairly dated machine (P4 2.66 MHz, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 7800 GS, the FSB is overclocked approximately 7 percent). I am playing with resolution at 1280x1024, most of the detail settings are medium or high, and I turned the audio settings down to stereo (I imagine that might free up some CPU).
While the graphics do not justify the rather low frame rates, this is really a breathtaking, WIDE OPEN game world. There are no "rails." In my opinion, Gothic 3's world outmatches the Oblivion game world by a fair margin. Now don't get me wrong; Oblivion was a beautiful game too, and in many ways the game play and the mechanics are far superior to Gothic 3 -- and can you say "quick load times, quick save times, and reasonable frames per second"? -- but one of my gripes with Oblivion was that far too many of the encounters were scripted to occur underground or indoors. The Gothic 3 world really is tremendously fascinating and gorgeous to look at. It's hard to grow tired of running around exploring it.
I am still not far advanced in levels, but combat seems sort of dumbed-down to the detriment of game play. Nevertheless, the new patch has options to improve the enemy AI, and the game story, character development system, spells, and overall layout of this fantasy world are more than enough to interest an RPG'er. Just don't expect Blade of Darkness when it comes to combat.
It's just too bad that the developers couldn't have done their job in the first place, and that this game ultimately relied on who knows how many hours of diligent hard work from the community to finally make it playable years after its release.
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EARLIER, "PRE 1.7 CP" REVIEW PASTED BELOW:
[Score: 4.0
"Broken"
Recommended by 4 of 8 users
***DECK: The game is playable, if you do not mind low frame rates that result in eyestrain, and load times that are minutes long.****
I am a huge fan of Gothic 1 and 2 (see my glowing reviews). Therefore, I was horribly disappointed that this third installment was released with a game engine that is basically broken beyond repair.
OK, I admit I do not have the most top-end system on the planet, but it is respectable, with a P4 2.66 GHz processor, a GeForce 7800GS, and 2 GB of RAM. I can play a game like Oblivion with most of the settings up high -- including max textures, 1280x1024 resolution, and HDR lighting -- and get consistently smooth frame rates, in the area of 25 fps or more.
I loaded Gothic 3 and immediately had performance issues. I spent a lot of time poring over posts in various forums, getting advice on how to tweak this game for optimum gameplay. I also installed the latest 1.6 patch. Some of the tweaks made a little bit of difference, and resolved some of the bugs. But nothing I could do would really allow for decent, playable frame rates, especially in cities, where the game went into eye-watering slideshow mode, even with most of the graphics detail settings turned way down or completely off.
Even after patching, the game's performance is so bad as to make playing it a chore and a headache. I don't think this game's engine can ever be patched effectively. I think the core of this game, technologically, is an unmitigated disaster. The initial load time alone, which can be upwards of three or four minutes, should have caused the developers to return to the drawing board.
I repeat: the initial load time is upwards of three or four minutes. Also, reloading in-game takes between one and two minutes. This in and of itself is really, really unacceptable. I mean, come on. We are beyond the era of the 386, are we not?
It's a shame, because the game world is obviously a treasure trove of interesting places and creatures. The art is beautiful and the living, breathing, atmospheric world is true to the Gothic series. But I just cannot see playing a game that stutters and goes slide-show even with lousy-low video settings, and requires minutes to load.
This game should never have been released in this state. Paying customers deserve a product that is technically sound, and fans of this series deserve better.]