Posted on: April 27, 2012
gnossos
Games: 286 Reviews: 6
gotta get me some Nordmar Nogginfog
I just finished Gothic 3. I'm new to the series and have never played 1, 2, or Risen, so I can't speak much to that. But I fell madly in love with this one and plan to conquer G2 & Risen next. There is so much to tell, but I'll try to stick to the main themes that stuck out in my mind. In short, Gothic 3 definitely made my top 3 gaming experiences of all time. Starting off was a bit lack-luster. The engine needed work, something that I'm sure the devs were aware of, and you could tell. There are a few tweeks that they could've made which would have broughten it up to Oblivion-level beauty, if only they had made them. The draw distance looked silly and spackled together versus the immediate beauty of the landscapes nearer to the camera. After a while, luckily, your mind begins to tune them out. Not to mention that it gets much more beautiful the further along you get. Gothic 3 is a huge open world. The battles are difficult, and no matter how powerful your character gets, you can still be killed by petty creatures; I recommend saving often. Learn your F5 and F9 quicksave keys well. The combat is difficult in the beginning, but not impossible. Tackle tough foes from a distance with the bow for a while until you gain experience. There is one maddening bug that persisted to goad me throughout the game, which is that there literally is a bug in how the endurance meter functions. Your endurance level is what determines if you can sprint or walk, and often means the difference between life or death in many encounters. At first it runs out quickly and you find that you move very slowly everywhere you want to go. But watch the color: if it's grey that means you're affected by weakness which can be cured by a cure disease potion. If it's yellow, you're good, but there is still a bug that randomly changes how fast it replenishes. It never gets better. So stock up on endurance potions, and make sure to get the Run Like The Wolf trait from the hunter in Silden. That's probably the most important trait in the whole entire game because it changes a barely bearable experience into a wonderful one. The other thing that is a must, is to set Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering by hand to 8x or 16x in your Nvidia control panel. (usually it says Application-controlled). Once you do this, you wind up with graphics that are Oblivion-level, and often better. (in my opinion). Other areas that shined were the story writing, voice acting, creature animations, and plethora of creature types, and just the vastness of the world. All of which are best-in-class I would say. Oh and I almost forgot the absolutely breath-taking music by Kai Rosenkranz. It's miraculous that such care and craft went into making this game. The dialogs often made my belly-laugh, as well as masterful tidbits like the Nordmar Nogginfog. I can't believe I missed this gem and have become an ardent supporter of the devs and look forward to playing all their games.
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