Posted on: December 6, 2011
nitrogenfingers
Jeux: 330 Avis: 48
Bless it's soul for trying
Before I begin I assume this is played with the community patch- absolutely mandatory for this purchase. I'm actually a real fan of Piranha Bytes, I think they do great work. Risen was a graphical masterpiece and a strangely satisfying RPG- I'd read good things about the Gothic series before I got my hands on this in early 2007 but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The installation touted the soundtrack (which is spectacular) and the graphics (which are also very good), and on paper it looked like a great game. And on paper it is a good game- the screenshots for this one are breathtaking and set that to music and you've really got something. Sadly, once the game starts up so do the problems. To it's credit it's actually very nicely detailed. From the surprisingly well hidden camp of Reddock to the old farmer's cottage near Kap Dun, the world really is brimming with artistic vision of a beautiful game the engine sadly can't do justice to. You'll enjoy shooting down majestic elk in the forest and selling their hides to the local ranger, Jens, and may even earn a few crowns and a slave in the Montera local arena. With a bit of practice you might decide to venture south and learn from the desert merchants of Varant, convene with the Druids to learn the ancient magic or find your way into the capital city of Venguard and make a contribution to the war effort. The RPG and progression system all work beautifully and intuitively, in fact a system the more recent Skyrim has drawn inspiration from to replace it's class-based predecessors. The story is surprisingly engaging with it's painting of moral ambiguity on both sides, something Piranha Bytes seem to do especially well. I loved the setting, the story and the system. So why didn't I like the game? It's a sad fact of life with most games that they are only as fun as the core mechanics, which in this game are just not very well done. Combat especially feels very unfair- enemies telegraph but it's rarely clear if a block or dodge will be effective and it will take some time to get over the haphazard system. Archery and magic are less ambiguous, as they often are, but most enemies attack melee anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference. Repetitive and confusing combat seems like a minor gripe that would be easily overcome if the majestic and sizeable world was as interactive as it seems to promise. At first you almost dare to dream the romping fields and endless forests may house a sandbox RPG but you're quickly brought to the ground with monotonous side quests and poor characterizations. None of the NPC's seem to have much personality, and seem to exist merely to give quests or trade equipment. The quests themselves are extremely repetitive and uninteresting, which is disappointing granted the material provided. Why must I clear another wolf den in the midst of a civil war, when I could be assassinating orcish nobles, freeing slaves, charging castles? Even the epic fights between towns feel monotonous and rather deleterious to your project- complete the same quests for each camp then slaughter everyone in one camp- the second then occupies it and there's nothing left to do but move on to the next pair of towns. This game seems to give the illusion of being a sandbox but it's depressingly linear once you get past the epic scenery. Towns come in sequence through the roughly straight road that runs through Myrtana, and the game expects you to visit the towns and indeed the countries in order. I wanted to visit Varant to learn two handed sword-fighting near the start but the path is filled with monsters that would take many levels playing as a character I didn't want to be just to get there. There are points later in the game you can skip ahead but the sharp difficulty you'll encounter really destroys the illusion this world is one you're free to explore. Yes, this allows for a more graded challenge but as the challenge is already unsatisfying due to the poor game mechanics, so freedom is all that is left. I tried really hard to absorb myself in the world of Myrtana but before long the pretty pictures and the wonderful sountrack were all I had- the rest of the world was impenetrable, uninteractive and devoid of life. Which is such a shame granted the grand vision that Gothic 3 clearly had- a great setting, a good story, every ounce of the game brims with incomplete innovation and untapped ideas. Some of these came to life in Risen, a game I can really recommend. Can I recommend Gothic to the world of 2011? I'm sorry to say that I can't. But if you can see past the screenshots and think there's a great game behind this then please buy it; I can't wait to see what Piranha Bytes come up with next.
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