I'll start my review of Gothic 3 by saying that I found it to be a huge improvement over the first two games. The pace of the game is now much faster, and it has much better voice acting and controls. It's also much better at immersing the player because it gives you a huge world and encourages exploration, something I complained about a lot in the first two games.
There are tons of side quests to do in different towns and villages and you don't even need to do them all. You can take your time and do them in the order you want, or even ignore them completely.
Gothic 3 definitely managed to capture me in this regard. There's a certain amount of freedom, but at the same time the game doesn't lose its sense of direction. There's still the main story going on in the background, which you can go back to if you want, but towards the later stages the difficulty starts to escalate and so you may be forced to do side quests to level up more and improve.
The combat system is not as bad as in the first two games, but it's quite problematic. You get used to it though, so I don't think it's much of a drawback. The game also has a really great soundtrack that definitely creates a nice atmosphere while exploring. The whole continent is divided into 3 main regions, Myrtana, a beautiful grassy area with lots of forests and open spaces, Nordmar, a snowy region in the north and finally Varant, a hot, desert region in the south.
Now, even though I consider Gothic 3 to be a better game compared to the other two games, there are still a lot of little issues that I haven't mentioned. One of the things I really want to criticize is the lack of character customization. I think the game could have greatly improved my view of the game if it allowed the player to create their own character.
Other drawbacks: Some parts of the game are very frustrating, some of the map is confusing and disorienting, and there are occasional problems with the AI of the NPCs.
For example, at the entrance to one of the villages, there was a tamed Ice Golem that kept trying to attack me every time I walked past it, even though it wasn't aggressive and I don't recall ever making it aggressive or anything like that. As soon as I approached it, it senselessly literally saw me as an enemy.
Other than that I didn't encounter any major bugs and the game never crashed. Overall, Gothic 3 is enjoyable and I think it surpasses Gothic 1 and 2 in every aspect. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably a fan of Gothic 1 and 2 and has nostalgic memories of those games.
Nostalgia is a big weapon for game companies and some gamers can be blinded by nostalgia. They can't see reality. As an objective eye, even if I played the first two games in today's conditions, after what I saw, if I had played the first and second games in their release years, my opinions would be more or less the same.
The Gothic series isn't as good and polished as the Elder Scrolls games it's trying to be, but they can be fun in their own way, and if you really want to get into the series you can skip first and second and start straight from game third.
There are tons of side quests to do in different towns and villages and you don't even need to do them all. You can take your time and do them in the order you want, or even ignore them completely.
Gothic 3 definitely managed to capture me in this regard. There's a certain amount of freedom, but at the same time the game doesn't lose its sense of direction. There's still the main story going on in the background, which you can go back to if you want, but towards the later stages the difficulty starts to escalate and so you may be forced to do side quests to level up more and improve.
The combat system is not as bad as in the first two games, but it's quite problematic. You get used to it though, so I don't think it's much of a drawback. The game also has a really great soundtrack that definitely creates a nice atmosphere while exploring. The whole continent is divided into 3 main regions, Myrtana, a beautiful grassy area with lots of forests and open spaces, Nordmar, a snowy region in the north and finally Varant, a hot, desert region in the south.
Now, even though I consider Gothic 3 to be a better game compared to the other two games, there are still a lot of little issues that I haven't mentioned. One of the things I really want to criticize is the lack of character customization. I think the game could have greatly improved my view of the game if it allowed the player to create their own character.
Other drawbacks: Some parts of the game are very frustrating, some of the map is confusing and disorienting, and there are occasional problems with the AI of the NPCs.
For example, at the entrance to one of the villages, there was a tamed Ice Golem that kept trying to attack me every time I walked past it, even though it wasn't aggressive and I don't recall ever making it aggressive or anything like that. As soon as I approached it, it senselessly literally saw me as an enemy.
Other than that I didn't encounter any major bugs and the game never crashed. Overall, Gothic 3 is enjoyable and I think it surpasses Gothic 1 and 2 in every aspect. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably a fan of Gothic 1 and 2 and has nostalgic memories of those games.
Nostalgia is a big weapon for game companies and some gamers can be blinded by nostalgia. They can't see reality. As an objective eye, even if I played the first two games in today's conditions, after what I saw, if I had played the first and second games in their release years, my opinions would be more or less the same.
The Gothic series isn't as good and polished as the Elder Scrolls games it's trying to be, but they can be fun in their own way, and if you really want to get into the series you can skip first and second and start straight from game third.