Call me crazy, but I'm thinking of giving Gothic III another try...first time, gave up after 20 hours or so, felt like it was too much collect x/clear y filler, but the world, as beautiful as it was, lacked that charm and personal feel of it's predecessor.
I remember something about artifacts and finding Xardas, probably tied with your rebel/orc rep, but It dragged on too much without any direction. Does it pick up at some point, and Diego/rest of the crew/ play some part in it? Any chance of kicking Rhobar's ass (with Lee, preferably) along the way?
AFAIR you can indeed kill Rhobar together with Lee. The story doesn't really pick up though. If you got to the inside of the country in your 20 hours and still didn't like it enough I would just leave it be.
I wish Wolf would still post here… The guy knew ins and outs of gothic story and he could provide a much better answer than I.
Anyhow Gothic 3 has an intresting story and it is worth of exploring if you liked g1 & g2 storylines. Otherwise don't bother. However this grand story is sort of "hidden" in game. You see, Gothic 3's main flaw is that npcs don't provide much backround info or share too many details about the main story. The plot is not really told through dialogs. This is due to pbs running out of time while developping g3.
Just by playing the game and exploring the gameworld and speaking to npcs, you will ofcourse get a good sense what is going on in this war-torn world. You will learn about the war and the factions this way. Speaking to faction leaders important. And you'll get to choose which one of the main three faction you want to ally with (orc, rebels or hashishin). In addition there couple of other factions (Rangers & druids, Nomads lead by water mages and The clans in Nordmar).
However it doesn't explain why all of this is happening and how it is linked to Gods, ore war, sleeper, dragons and all that good stuff from previous games. Zuben, Rhobar, Xardas etc don't really explain their motives and thoughts. Piranha bytes must have realized this and thus Gothic 3 has various bookstands placed all over the world. When player interacts with these stands he may sometimes learn few verses of this mythical story. I will post all of these "verses" below if you're just curious and don't want to play the game. Naturally these spoilers are as heavy as spoilers can get, so read at one's own risk
In the beginning, the nomads roamed the land and the Eternal Wanderer lead the way.
And Innos spoke to the Eternal Wanderer : "Lay aside your staff." And in its stead Innos gave him a scepter. And the Eternal Wanderer became his servant.
And Innos gave to him a part of his divine power so that he might curve the doings of Beliar. And the power was fire. And he controlled it as he saw fit.
But some among the Nomads would not follow Innos.And the people of the Nomads were divided.And those who had followed Innos errected great temples and they became the people of Varant.And the scepter became a token of their rulership.
And Innos spoke to his servants: "Erect a portal for me!". And the servants did as they were bidden.
But when Beliar saw what the servants of Innos were doing, he screamed with rage. And a being of ancient power heeded his call and arose from the earth. And some other great beings arose as well.
But the time of great beings had come to an end. For thus was the will of Adanos. And Adanos called a flood. And the being was washed off the earth.
When the servant of Innos realized what was happening, he had the five divine artifacts brought into the temple. And the people of Varant perished. Staff and Scepter sank down into the waters.
And Adanos said to his brothers: "Nevermore shall you set foot in my land, for it is sacred, and so shall it be!".
The barbarians lived in Nordmar and Rhobar was one of them. He wandered through the ice without fire or weapons and the beast was hunting him.
Rhobar hid in a cave. But the beast tracked him down. And Rhobar fell behind him, and there he found a sword. He took it and killed the beast with one stroke.
But the sword was surrounded by fire. And Innos was with it. And Innos said to Rhobar: "Descend from the mountains and defeat my enemies!".
And Rhobar waged war against the Orcs. And the wrath of Innos descended upon them. And Rhobar was victorious. Once his enemies were defeated, Innos said to him: "This is where you shall establish your kingdom!". And Rhobar did as he was bidden.
After the first great war, the Orcs ruled the kingdom of Myrtana.
And the humans were their slaves. But the fighters were their gladiators.
One of them was Zuben. And he fought well. For he shared the beliefs with the Orcs.
And the Orcs granted him his freedom. And Zuben wandered south.
But on his journey he found the staff of the eternal wanderer and he took it with him.
And Beliar said to him: "Now, proceed to the country of the Nomads and establish a realm for me!".
And Zuben went to the desert. And there he draw his staff into the ground and said: "This is where I shall build my realm for you.".
And the faith of the orcs became the faith of the humans.
————
As you can see, some of it is quite cryptic, but it all makes sense for a gothic junkie
G3 is definitely worth playing, but not for the story. It has one of the most beautiful game worlds in any RPG, and it's a lot of fun to explore even if it's not quite on the same level as Gothic 1&2.
Good direct, honest post by JDR. I'd agree, but I'd also hasten to add that I think if you're a fan of the previous games, you really do owe it to yourself to see it to the conclusion of G3 just the once, as it will seal the deal and give a nice sense of closure on the trilogy for you as a player.
I wish I could say the same thing about Forsaken Gods. Unfortunately I couldn't stomach that one past half way and was almost happy when a show-stopping bug cut short my progress. Whilst I've not had the guts to try again even with the most recent enhanced patch, I can't see it improving the core experience enough to justify the hard-drive space.
Yeah thats the point I was trying to make. Gothic 3 still gives a decent closure to someone who has played and enjoyed previous games. Even if main story is sort of "hidden" and not very well executed, it is still there in a way. Ofcourse story is not the main reason to play g3. The main hook is this open majestic epic world that you just want to explore.
As for FG. I have only only one advice: Avoid. When I watched the forsaken gods release trailer video on youtube, I knew right then that I would not touch on Forsaken gods even with 10 feet pole. FG is a pure cash grab and not a very entertaining one.
Agree with JDR and the others ... and I have reinstalled it to run through it again, as I am a fan. But for someone who put that much time in, no the story isn't worth forcing a re-try.
As for Forsaken Gods ... in my review way back when I called it 'Forsaken Fans' as it was a great example of 'fan DIS-service'!
Until I finished Risen 3, I had never completed a PB game. I did put a ton of hours into Gothic 3 though. To me, as an open-world fan, it was the best of the Gothics.
Eh...now I'm curious. What exactly goes on in that expansion? I don't mind the spoilers...for some reason, everyone is muttering curses under his breath, when mentioning it.
It can't be THAT bad... Come on, PB games are not exactly known for their stellar writing.
Forsaken gods is not a piranha bytes game. Jowood hired some unknown indian studio to do an expansion for gothic 3 with little budget. This happened after JW and PB parted ways and few months before Jowood went bankrupt. Piranha bytes had nothing to do with that expansion.
) along the way?
