I really liked Gothic 1 and 2, both were and still are great RPGs, so i was looking forward for third one. When it came, i was slightly worried about the whole situation, when every second person was complaining about bugs etc. But when i tried it myself and i have to say i played the vanilla version, i think i never encountered any bugs, certainly not any game breaking bugs. And if there were some other tiny bugs, i didn't even noticed them. So either i was very lucky, or others were very exaggerateing the whole situation.
In any case, i really enjoyed the third Gothic as much as the first ones. Perfect gameplay, hardly compared to anything else, it has its own style. Nice world, music, story, everything you want from good RPG. Try it, it is definitely worth it.
Gothic is a quirky series about a nameless prisoner who has to make a name for himself. You start out weak and helpless but climb up through the ranks until you can take your revenge, or forgive them and save the world, possibly both. This series certainly seems to reward the morally flexible. Want to beat someone up and take all their stuff, it not only permissible it's encouraged! Just make sure you're either stronger than your opponent or you're sneaky about it. The base game doesn't penalize you much over this though madders try to patch consequences back into the game. I say that borders on re-writing the game as this revenge theme has been a staple of the series since the very opening seen of Gothic 1.
The above applies to all the Gothic series but the reason I say Gothic 3 is the pinnacle is the graphics are beyond all the rest and the interface and combat is much easier to pickup and run with. Yes it's full of bugs but the community fixed most of them. Despite this I have to say this is by far the most playable and the second most epic (It's huge but there is no "epic" threat) of the three and It's the one I would recommend to an outsider.
I have not played the Risen series but if I did it would be because of Gothic 3.
A very good game where you can do what you wants, with a great feel freedom and a very immersive mediaval-fantasy atmosphere. I suggest to download and install the community's patch to avoid the bugs.
Just wanted to mention that the edition currently on sale for the 2014 holiday season seems to be 1.74.14, which means it includes the mentioned community patch.
I ran the patch and it showed the version was already there, so I un-installed the game, re-installed and without the patch, the main menu does show this version.
So, for $1.49 US, it's probably a steal, even for its flaws. I'll update this when I put some time into it, but just wanted to mention that GOG seems to have rolled in the patch for you.
This Game came out and was measured vs Oblivion. I think while Oblivion has it's own unique perks such as copy and paste towns and dungeons, in Gothic 3 the copy and paste is at least less obvious. The World is Huge and has 3 different Areas, Varant the Desert and Nordmar the Ice Wastes as well as of course Myrtana the Grass Steppe 08/15 in every RPG with dense/thick forests, lush grasslands and a corresponding Fauna as well as Flora. Nordmar and Varant corresponding to the themes, but going into detail would be just what I can say about Myrtana, swap some words and adjectives and there you go.
The Game allows you to (finally imo) go your own way and really forge your own destiny, where G2 still kinda forced you around (even with Night of the Raven <-<) this game says "Lol let's go Full Bethesda".
And so it does, the only closed areas are those where you need to be all the whiz with the corresponding Faction.
Quest wise, Gothic 3 on it's own is insufferable and quite frankly, horrible and positively ridiculous. The Questpack solves this Problem. Another Mod - for Content called Content Mod - solves the problem and adds more items and a few other niceties, Gothic 3 on it's own is pretty Horrible.
All Hail the worldofgothic site and other fanpages that developed the Community Patches and the above mentioned mods, Piranha Bytes was once again forced to Release earlier (way too early) and caused the Prior Abomination Known as "Gothic 3" heck, when I bought it and played back in da day, it already had the Community patch on it, and I was grateful for that.
The Leveling System this time around doesn't give you +12HP every level, but rather gives you the option to Level this. With a pretty tight 10 LP per level (1LP = 1HP) and a very big Amount of other Perks and Skills to be learned, you're forced to do some Planning ahead quite often.
The Story itself is very simplistic, but allows you to forge your own Path.
If you're unsure wait for a GoG sale, but give it a shot.
