Gothic 3 follows the trend of the rest of series in presenting a dark medieval setting in bright, epic color, only this time with an ambitious, much larger scale. The game stands out for its immense open world where you can explore three kingdoms with their cities large and small, their political agendas and cultures. As far "openness" goes, Gothic 3 has it covered. You can explore the vast world in any order, and it's LARGE without being overwhelming or impractical, while also not feeling somewhat clustered like Oblivion where you can literally spot most cities of the realm at the same time from a tall enough mountain. The possibilities are many: liberate human cities from orc domination (or crush the human resistance), talk to kings, hunt wolves in the frozen steppes, worship gods, unbury treasure in caves in the desert, climb, hide, steal, attack, run, hurl spells. It's just pleasant that it offers so much to do. Also like other Gothic games, Gothic 3 has a high challenge throughout most of the game, which is just awesome. You can go anywhere, but opposition strength will vary and you WILL die. What I think is much inferior to other games in the series is combat. Other Gothic installments had a challenging (and rewarding) combat system where you had to time defense correctly to overcome the strongest orcs. Also, tackling too many enemies could overwhelm you quickly. Both these things rarely happen in Gothic 3. While you (Review clipped by length limit, have a nice day!)
