Gothic 3 was first RPG that I played in childhood. And it is the reason why I still love RPGs. Firstly in 2008 my PC couldn't even start this game, because of graphic optimization and bags, but after some time Pyranha Bites fixed everything.
Nowadays thanks to community and developers who decided to put their game on GOG that I can play this awesome adventure again!
I played Gothic 3 many times since it first came out and I must tell you that it is quite a different game today. Much less bugs and problems, more immersive, runs better, and all thanks to the community giving it new life with different patches and mods.
Just type "Gothic 3 in 2024" and you'll find guides on how to make everything install and run properly. Good luck.
I bought this game right at the release day, even the collectors edition for about 60€. To make it short: The game was nearly unplayable in the retail 1.0 condition.
I loved the prequels and some of those great features were still there: The atmosphere, the art style, the rough and funny conversations.
But there were two main problems: On the one hand the game was a disaster on the technical aspects. The engine was poorly optimized and responsible for countless graphical glitches and bugs. A floating hero, caverns were you couldn't see anything...just to name a few.
The other problem was the large world. It was TOO large, as even the developer later admitted. They were unable to fill the gigantic world with quality quests and story in the time they had for development. I think that at the time they realized that it was already too late to postphone the release, as just another few months would've changed nothing. The game was messed up from ground up!
Ultimately they also lied, in not communicating these problems prior to release. People bought the game based on promises and based on the fame of the prequels and Piranha Bytes was lying in their customers faces until the end. It was only a few weeks / months later that they finally admitted their failure.
I have to be fair though. They learned from their mistakes. And should one day "Risen" be released on GOG - the unofficial sequel to Gothic, developed by Piranha Bytes - I will surely buy it. Let's hope the company learned this lesson for good!
PS: I'm quite positive about the community patches. Though I never tried the game with them installed, so its just hearsay...therefore two stars as my final verdict.