RPGWatch Feature - Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Review

Historically, many of us became associated with this site through the Gothic series. The Forsaken Gods expansion marks the first release in this franchise without Piranha Bytes - does it bring some polish to Gothic 3 or sink to new depths? A snip from Michael Anderson's review:

I say 'Forsaken Fans' because this was an opportunity to make up for past misdeeds on the part of JoWood: all they really had to do was release the expansion in a relatively bug-free state and with the performance optimized based on learnings from the release of Gothic 3. Had they done that, fans would have forgiven many of the flaws of the game itself, saying that while it really is nothing on the level of Night of the Raven, at least it was a fun little quest to immerse us back in the Gothic world. Instead we have been dealing with patches, apologies, more patches, excuse heaped on excuse, still more patches, and open letters from the publishers.

Read it all here.
More information.

Nice article.

"With JoWood working on Gothic 4 and Piranha Bytes developing Risen, neither one was in the position to have their * tarnished further by having the expansion for Gothic 3 released in sub-par form"

* I think there's a word missing.

Yep … I was deciding between 'image' and 'reputation', and apparently never did … fixed now!

First review of this I've taken the time to read— now I feel bad for everyone who actually bought and played the game. Having played a few true bugfests in the past, I know you can sometimes have a love/hate relationship going on and still end up feeling like your time spent was worthwhile(I'm thinking of Wizards and Warriors atm)

But with this mess you've described, it really doesn't sound like there was any saving grace.

A few other typo's in there. There's a "something something" in there. Also, the last paragraph:

"I believe that my ability to see the bottom of a cloudy pool was sharpened by al the time I spent analyzing Dungeon Lords … and guess what? Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods will never be a great game regardless of how many patches or bug fixes or performance improments are don, because at its' core it is just a pretty lousy game. And that is a sad thing for us forsaken fans."

Understandable, though, after trudging through a game like this. Thanks for the review! I hope you don't have to burn your hard drive to make yourself clean again.

Is the game so bad even the review is full of bugs?

I must have rushed the proof-read - not sure how I missed those but apologies.

Originally Posted by Dantre
Is the game so bad even the review is full of bugs?

Kinda funny. Fine review though.

The review goes along with the game so it works.

Hmmm … my spell check must also have been feeling buggy …

We still love you Mike.

Ehh, what's a few mistakes between friends. Well in this case a few mistakes between the whole world and you

Great review by the way. Your review gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling because I never did buy the game and now I'm glad I didn't.

It's just so sad that Gothic has come to this.

I think the game had a bad influence on you Mike, your reviews and spelling are ussually better than this.

It's just so sad that Gothic has come to this.

Indeed, it is really sad, the big question I have is why ???? I do not think they could have earned so much money by this ????????

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I think the game had a bad influence on you Mike, your reviews and spelling are ussually better than this.

Maybe when someone links to it they'll call it our buggiest review yet … but seriously, while there are some typos I think the review is decent - unlike the game which is rotten to the core.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Indeed, it is really sad, the big question I have is why ???? I do not think they could have earned so much money by this ????????

Because they could and it was cheap. They reused most everything from Gothic3 without fixing anything, broke a few new things, hired a storywriter who flunked out of grade school, tossed in some bad new voice acting, all done by cheap Indian labor, and VOILA!

And we all thought Ultima IX was a hokey installment in the series. FG certainly raises the hokey bar to new heights…

I've been contemplating trying this out after the recent patch, but I must say your review thoroughly convinced me to stay away for good.

Thanks for saving my money, and especially so because I'm loathe to put money into the pockets of people who would willingly release something like this and call it an expansion.

I'd gladly pay ten times normal price for a Gothic 3 as it should have been - and which I'm still hoping the community patch might make possible - but I won't pay a penny to support ubashed greed like this is a clear example of.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
And we all thought Ultima IX was a hokey installment in the series. FG certainly raises the hokey bar to new heights…

I enjoyed U9 despite all its problems

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I enjoyed U9 despite all its problems

I enjoyed U9 too in spite of its hokyness.