an OK game to pass few hours however it is pretty shallow and cannot scale. It offers some challenge while you struggle to buy first trucks but after that you have to manually control all trucks, the UI is poor for that. Contracts offer no variety. My game hit some sort of bug and crashed every time one contract is fulfilled. or probably it happened because I had to many trucks and contracts. Anyway by that time game overstayed its welcome so I just moved on. Works on Linux with wine (dxvk, dotnet 4.8) out of the box.
I can already see how PB fanboys will downvote my review right into Beliar ream, as if doing that makes mediocre game any better. If you're new to Gothic and other games from Piranha Bytes, I'd suggest to start with Gothic 1, continue with Gothic 2 NOTR, Archolos (free mod +100 hours of playing) and then, if you developed much unconditional love to PB, try their worst selection: Gothic 3, Risen and step-kid Arcania what are my complaints? why such low rating? - old annoying mechanics carried over, I can't take it no more: screen shaking like in older Gothics, can't find free bed without being lectured and booted by peasants (and can't have own bed, like in Gothic 3), annoying weather (constant storms, flickers) - visually unpleasing. bad LOD, everything blurred to the point of nausea. together with storms, being wandering in a swamp in green mist, I can't recall any other game with such ugly visuals. probably Witcher 1. I'll take old choppy Gothic 1's looks over this travesty. - combat resembles Gothic 3 (in its stupidity and complexity), going melee is suicidal. as in every PB game it screws you with auto-lock on enemy. when you fight 4 critters they tend to surround you. 1 critter moves aside, game catches it and 3 remaining critters can freely attack you from behind. dodge needs double tap on direction key (folks, you don't mind doing double tap with a stick, right?) parry needs you to tap your shield key right when enemy attacks you. that's a mockery because if you're late you will be kicked in the nuts and will suffer big health loss. but if you keep shield weapon pressed and attack when there's an opening, you'll be fine. archery and magic aren't viable for controller (no aim assist) and that's a drawback since Gothic 3. G1 and G2 had nice system where you can stick projectiles and magic. - questing, world is tiny and on rails. you have no freedom and have to spend the beginning in bogs, fighting tough enemies or you won't progress in the game.
old classic, still holds up. Had to reboot my PC few times because game started to hog 100% CPU (no idea how it can do it, haven't seen such hog in years). Had to use hex editor to correct disposition for quest NPCs (imp in particular). I know the issue with imp is old and supposed to be fixed but not in my case. Once had to reload older save because main quest NPC stuck in his coffin and failed to finish his move properly. Save scummed my way thru the game because I had no other choice. I needed to survive and I played dagger class. Ended up as summoner and magic damage dealer because daggers suck and it's impossible to find even decent one without save scumming. Playing a mage would be same pain. Best staff I saw does miserable damage and there are no means to enchant your damage output except for class skills or good drops. If you want to breeze thru the game go for warrior with axe, game gives many good axes or swords, not so many daggers, bows, staves or anything else. Music is godly in this game and it's included in mp3 format in download section. Despite the flaws this game kept me engaged and it was fun. I liked how you can find old ruined house and furnish it, moving items, combining them to create new one isn't a part of RPG genre but it feels natural and well thought. You might ask why I'm giving 5 stars while there are technical issues and balance flaws. Because Larian haven't abandoned the game and they tried to support it, issued patches and have helped people with bugged saves. One star out of 5 goes for ongoing support and efforts to preserve this gem.
I have no idea who are these people who praised CDPR for their "great games" and what are these "games" because this one is clearly isn't that great (and I played all games in the Witcher series), I'd say it is one of the worst experiences I ever had with action-rpg game. One hour of gameplay and it already got on my nerves. Why 1 star? 1. Ridiculously small font and no settings to correct that. I literally can't read anything on small PC screen I have, and my eyes isn't that great. had to use mod to fix that. 2. Controls and UI in general are meant to work with controller and it works better (especially in fights, no input lag on controller). I can manage playing with controller but there are no auto save button, no way to assign it from settings. some other useful commands are also missing. On the other hand when played with controller you pick up dropped loot with simple X. on kb-mouse you would need to press pick up button and then click on screen popup to actually collect it. I can't believe CDPR had no skills to code it in 1 click. such lazy attitude! 3. Stupid quick time events everywhere. I'm more than 1 hour into the game and I still can't get out of one nasty opening scripted crap where I should mash button fast, or else I will be attacked. I already repelled more than 20 waves and still I can't mash fast enough? Look, if I'll want to play insane clicker games it won't have "RPG" and "best game evah" tag. 4. UI, inventory is user-unfriendly and it feels like they made it intentionally that bad. I can't effectively check and compare what my char is wearing because inventory bag and character doll are awful. 5. Game mechanics with potions to drink between battles is a joke. I've been assaulted for more than 20 times and I can't drink a fkng potion? If you have this game in your library - let it rot, if you're looking to purchase it, don't be a victim of hype, you'll get better games for a dollar.
the game is old but good (if you enjoyed Morrowind, Oblivion, Gothic and similar old titles). you can try to role play any class but eventually you will finish game as melee character because magic and archery is not very viable end game. game has robust potion making system, you can improve your stats by brewing nice perma boosts. Equipment is easy to find, nice way to upgrade it. As a result if you invested in alchemy and have decent upgraded melee weapon(s) you can proceed naked because you'll be able to tank with all these perma boosts. There are still hard enemies end game, but you can run away from them. performance isn't great, some choppiness during fights, open world has to be read from hdd and it adds 1-2 seconds freezes when you run from area to area. had no crashes or game breaking issues. Linux port is broken and unusable. I had to play Windows version in wine (which strangely enough had better performance than on Windows 7 on same hardware, visually less choppy). developer published working beta version for Linux on steam, but it's not available in gog downloads yet. when questioned about availability for gog developer said to ask TopWare or on gog forums. clearly they won't upload that beta to gog so if you're Linux user and expect this game to be playable - don't keep your hopes high or be prepared to use wine. gog should remove Linux tag from this game because it's a lie.
Kalypso studio, publisher of Tropico games. Do they always publish worthy games? NO. In this case we have failed attempt to create successor to Dungeon Keeper. Developers used Unity engine to deliver this game and it shows. Awful controls, complete inability of developers to create simple interactions with your units. In addition your units are so stupid that will disregard your command to move away and will die in battle. You research spells but they do almost no damage and clicking on spell icon usually does not work. after you click it 4-5 times maybe it will fire, or maybe not. Sending your troops outside is the most infuriating task. You have to grab every critter, drag it to the cave exit, hold it over exit so it will get highlighted, drop your unit and it will appear outside (on the ground map) and you will be switched from cave view. click on your cave map to return to it, grab next unit... oh wait, the first unit already died because of the attack of human patrols. How someone can create such lame game? How developers would expect people to enjoy such controls in RTS game? I give it 2 out of 5 only for an attempt to create dungeon game. But we have to be honest here, this game is a big let down. There's not a single sane RTS/RPG/Action game created in crippled Unity because of its bad controls. When developers pick Unity for their new game they already have to be aware what kind of turd they're going to create.
