Gothic 3 - Review Flood

A gazillion Gothic 3 reviews have been posted on German sites since the release last Friday:

• Fan site World of Gothic has posted a thorough examination of the first 20 hours. They put all the positive and negative points in context. No score is given.
• gamona gives it a "Gold Award".
• The freenet = 4Players reviewer continues his crusade against Gothic 3 (please refer to his late preview of the GC version when everybody was already discussing the recalled gold master) with an 68% score.
• Extreme Players is on the other end of the spectrum and thinks it deserves 9.3/10.
• Freemail provider GMX loves it. Despite its problems Gothic 3 is "an absolute top title".
• T-Online writes it´s a great RPG for experienced explorers but problematic for beginners.
• Onlinewelten says the unfinished balancing and the weak AI drag the game down. The rest is good to great. 83%.
• GBase.ch thinks it´s not a finished game. 7/10.
• DemoNews gives Gothic 3 84%. It´s very good but not more.
• Print mag PC Games raises the score for the patched 2nd gold master to 88%.
• Sister mag PC Action likes it too. 87%.
• And finally Gameswelt sees a lot of pros and cons. 81%.

More information

Any news about a possible patch flood anytime soon?

Only that the priorities will be on bugfixing and AI.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Only that the priorities will be on bugfixing and AI.

Well, that's where priorities should lie, shouldn't they? I haven't played the game myself, but am unwilling to as long as it's so bug-ridden as it is now.

Thanks for the heads-up, anyway

Itīs not bug-ridden. At least for me.
But the AI is weak compared to the older Gothics and the balancing sucks.

I get like MASSIVE stuttering on it. I wish they would have optimised it more.

Originally Posted by whatusername
I get like MASSIVE stuttering on it. I wish they would have optimised it more.

How much mem do you have ?
Did you raise the resource Cache option ?
Recently defragged (and after your install too) ?

Originally Posted by Gorath
Itīs not bug-ridden. At least for me.
But the AI is weak compared to the older Gothics and the balancing sucks.

Well those are both fixable by patches at least.

But How about Story/Dialogs ? I've seen some concerns raised there…

I've read Maylander's opinion back in the dot. How do the rest of you
brave souls (those not waiting for the atleast 2-3 still-necessary-by-the
-looks-of-it patches) rate the quality compared to G1-2 (G2 minus NOTR
already signalled a plunge for these features imo) ?

No Spoilers please.

Well, I havent got G3 yet, and after all these reviews I cant imagine myself getting it anytime soon. Or at least until a patch is released and some "real" positive feedback is said. I love G1&G2, and I allways knew G3 will be worst, but with better graphics. Incidentally, I noticed Oblivion recieved a higher praise than G3 when it first came out. It would appear that Oblivion beat G3 in the market, but its yet to be determined.

If I would have to review the game as it is now, my rating would be in the lower 80s as well. Once they have fixed the balancing (top priority) and AI (high priority), it would be close to 90, if not slightly above.

I think i'm gonna wait a couple of month's before playing G3. I'm still saving up for a new PC that I want to buy in Q1 2007, and i'll entertain myself with The Temple of Elemental Evil + Co8 mod and Neverwinter Nights 2 the next couple of month's!

Really Rendelius?? around 90?? From what i've read combat seems worse than in G1 and G2, balancing aside. And as everyone knows, G1&2 was legendary for its combat, at least in the RPGDOT community.

I am still highly excited about this … but more happy than ever that I'm in the US and patiently waiting for Aspyr

I agree to this 100%, Rend.

The harsh reviewers forgot how much fun the game is despite its problems. Even with crappy AI, ca. 300 small bugs, and terrible balancing itīs far better than all these faceless, average games we see every year. If the three mentioned issues are fixed it has the potential to become one of the best RPGs ever.

Originally Posted by nameless hero
Really Rendelius?? around 90?? From what i've read combat seems worse than in G1 and G2, balancing aside. And as everyone knows, G1&2 was legendary for its combat, at least in the RPGDOT community.

The combat system is good, dynamic and more complex that the old one. The problem is the balancing.

But do you guys think it's patchable? Or is it a design flaw? (I haven't played G3 yet) If it's just the animal combat 'problem', that should be 'easy' to fix I presume, but if it's the new combat system that makes it so easy to kill entire Orc camps with your character (remember how multiple orcs were still a challenge in G2, allthough your character was quite strong?) it will demand a major overhaul.

Originally Posted by nameless hero
Really Rendelius?? around 90?? From what i've read combat seems worse than in G1 and G2, balancing aside. And as everyone knows, G1&2 was legendary for its combat, at least in the RPGDOT community.

From the Little I've played combat is not THAT bad…
Its just the balancing and silly issues like the Stunlocking
from some beasts (Dying from a bloodfly while fighting an
Orc seems easy !) That turn the action in a right click
buttonmashing (So you get the initiative and survive).

It can be both tactical and "elegant" I think if the above are fixed.

My main Concern was story and overall quality.
Rendelius and Gorath's comments do put my mind at ease a bit…

Originally Posted by nameless hero
Really Rendelius?? around 90?? From what i've read combat seems worse than in G1 and G2, balancing aside. And as everyone knows, G1&2 was legendary for its combat, at least in the RPGDOT community.

Melee combat takes a step down from G1 & G2. Although I would like to
wait until everything is fixed before I give my fiinal judgment. I don't
think I'll ever like it more than G1 & G2, but it can be close if the enemy AI improves
such that you can't just win every battle by furiously left clicking.

Archery, on the other hand, has definitely changed for the better. Not only can you
aim your bow manually now, but arrows now make a natural arc towards thier target. There are more arrow types to use and you can forge your own special arrows if you learn the right skills. But even with those great improvements, archery is still not without its problems. For instance, it was mentioned in a lot of the previews that you can do headshots for massive damage. Well either I suck at aiming, or I just haven't hit a head yet. I just don't see it. I am wondering if it is bugged or just not implemented (yet).

Also — and this is a big one — I really don't see how gaining new
levels in Archery actually effects combat. It seems that bow damage
is soely a function of hunting skill, the weapon, and the arrow. Raising
my perk from "Bowman" to "archer" did not add any new techniques
or speed to which I could draw back the bow (at least that I noticed).
I am now a master archer but am at a loss as to what that got me other
than a prestigious title.

Anyway, I am forging on because the world is huge & beautifully made and
the touches of Gothic are definitely there in the dialogue and characters (though it
is spread too thin now — more characters & bigger world means less depth).

Just for the record, I am level 25 now and have been playing since Saturday. Half of Myrtana is still unexplored and havent' even visited Nordmar or Varant. There is just so much to do around each area and the famous "Gothic density" is there in spades. I have only touched a small part of the main plot so I can't really comment on that aspect. It definitely keeps me coming back, though

The quests so far are mostly clear this out/get this for me type things. However, there are other more interesting ones as well. You might feel they skimped on this if you just play around in the early areas (Cape Dun & Ardea). But once you get to Montera you'll see more variety and depth.

That's all for now … I still have a lot more to play before I can give true judgments.

I wonder if they'll optimize the engine further in patches as well. From what I gather, the engine is slower than many other current ones. This could be due to the seamless world, but having smooth play on high settings only possible on very recent hardware would be such a shame (for me ).

I've been playing (more toying around) with the UK version of the game since Saturday. While the core game is there and looks to be amazing, G3 was released too early IMHO. The combat and balance is just not there yet.

I mean, I shouldn't be able to decimate the entirety of the first town by simply punching everyone rapidly with right-clicks - especially at level 0. I try the same thing with a sword and a lowly slave, or a wolf can kill me outright. IIRC, most of the NPCs in G1 and G2 would flat-out destroy me well into level 20…

Sadly, I really miss climbing as well, if only for the fact that it's now much easier to exploit the AI since they can't climb after you. Archery + high perches = shooting fish in a barrel.

There are lots of technical bugs as well - audio and sfx are severely broken and the interface is lacking a lot of polish. I realize that G3 is a technology pushing game, but the world streaming still feels like some optimization can be done to make things more playable. Currently, running anywhere in the wilderness isn't really feasible due to hitching/loading pauses.

The game has the potential to be amazing and I plan on waiting for at least another patch or two before delving into it further. I absolutely believe Aspyr made the right decision in holding off a bit further for release in the US.

why rush things? wate for the patch and then play it. the game will be much more enjoyable that way.