I added only 2 mods, the update of the community patch (Update Pack 1.04) & the parallel universe patch (v1.0.5).
Thanks to GOG & the Community for making this possible!
Back in the day I bought the CE edition of this game only to realize that it was unplayable. I tried again later with an early version of the CP but the game still crashed all 1-3 hours (sometimes more). I also started to free all the cities right from the start so at some point all orcs that saw me attacked, what made the game again unplayable for me.
Now I was finally able to finish it and while it is still the weakest game from the original trilogy I still liked seeing all the locations & talking to all the chars.
As already mentioned by others Gothic 1 & 2 are better. Gothic 1 gets a remake soon, which will hopefully be good...
Gothic 2 looks amazing with the Gold Remaster mod.
G3 still looks nice to me with the patches & mods, but if one is not a fan of the world & chars then there are probably better RPGs to play out there. I enjoyed playing it though.
The game is really good, I even think its better than Gothic 2, which is the holiest title from the series which everyone seems to worship.
Gothic has always been about exploration of its massive sprawling game-world, with the story, dialog and quests having always been something I would never considered to be remarkable among the series. Yet these are the exact things criticized in Gothic 3, with little to no consideration giving to this games superior and massive world-design. I find this to be somewhat silly.
The world of Gothic 3 is quite literally among the best of all RPGs. However the areas which you start in are not too impressive. I suppose this can be discouraging to perfectionists. You must venture out further into the world to truly appreciate it.
The landscape is phenomenal, and always offers something new to discover. I would even consider the overall experience to be better than Skyrim.
Yet coincidentally, both Gothic 3 and Skyrim share many similarities. Most of which were original to Gothic 3. For example, Gothic 3 was the first 3D-RPG you could hunt wild animals such as deer, it was also the first to offer arbitrary interactions with certain objects in the world which would allow you to chop wood, or rotate a roasting pig over the flame, or sweep a floor, or mine ore from a cave. This game also seems to be the first RPG with crafting stations you could interact with. Really quite remarkable to think all these things were done 5 years before the release of Skyrim. Yet many seem to forget this.
The criticism for this game is certainly legitimate. The quests seem to be a just little more generic than its predecessors but nothing is a deal breaker for me. The actual game-world more than compensates for this. I believe many people are overacting here. There are of course other things which seem to be designed poorly. The character models and animations in particular are also quite ugly. But again I am personally not too discouraged by this
This review is for the version 1.75 without any additional content, no alternative balance.
Gothic 3 is at the same time fun and frustrating to play. There are two viable builds: warrior and mage; other playstyles (ranged, stealth) should only be considered as side activities. Gothic 3 partly consists of grinding for exp and gold (quests, killing mobs, freeing cities) and the part where you do stuff for fun that will never repay the gold/exp investment.
Bows in Gothic 3 are terrible: drawing takes a lot of time, there is no support for aiming, damage is laughable. The best bow I've found (115 dmg) with all perks learned can't one-shot a goblin or a wolf unless you aim for the head.
The game has lots of small issues which add up: the way enemies block is annoying, animal attack animations and hitboxes, generic quests, generic loot, shallow characters, occasional bugs and the fact that there is no good map for Nordmar.
In fact Nordmar is also dull visually: it's just snow everywhere in a way that is almost unrealistic. There's a similar problem with Varant: sand and more sand; there is a nice buffer area between Varant and Myrtana and the habitable desert regions should resemble it in some extent.
The music is good and settlements vary in flavor. There is a lot of memorable dialogue lines despite the overall genericity of the narrative. Also I like that the game tells you what's it's all about right off the bat: you arrive at Ardea, kill all Orcs and loot all houses; that's what Gothic 3 is ultimately about.
I picked up Gothic 3 back when it first came out. Having finally burnt myself out on far, far too much Morrowind, and wanting another epic open-world RPG to fill time until the (ultimately disappointing) next installment, Oblivion, I purchased this game based on the breathless previews. I was disappointed.
General bugginess aside, Gothic 3 really only does one thing wrong. Unfortunately, that one thing is going to be a majority of your gameplay: Combat. The combat system is at the same time both very simple and hair-pullingly frustrating. It is, in essence, a stunlock race. Both you and the enemy has 'strong' and 'fast' attacks, and whoever spams 'fast' attack first will stunlock the other to death. No ifs, and, or buts. If you get in the first blow, you win. If they do, they win. Combine this with the incredible fragility of your character versus every enemy in the starting areas, and it becomes exceedingly frustrating.
What's worse, while this style of stunlock combat is just barely bearable one-on-one, Gothic 3 almost never affords you that luxury. You are expected to fight enemies in groups ranging from a mere handful up to dozens at the same time. You say you want to find and defend a chokepoint? Too bad, attacking forces you to also lunge forward with each swing, and the movement controls in combat are atrocious, so good luck getting back to your doorway.
And yet I'm still giving this game 3/5, after all that passionate ranting. Well, once you look beyond the combat, the picture brightens. Gothic 3 provides you with a staggeringly vast and completely seamless world (at the expense of astonishingly long load times whenever you load) that is fully open to exploration, with enemies, secrets and treasures scattered liberally around the landscape, which itself varies from mountain peaks to forests and rolling plains, snowy tundra, and arid deserts. Only 'important' NPCs can be interacted with, but a large number of faceless nobodies populates the world, following a scripted schedule that enhances the immersion as they eat, sleep, work and so on (better than Oblivion managed). There are also a multitude of quests, often tied in to the goals of one faction or another, and giving you broad freedom to undertake them.
My recommendation? Set the game to 'easy', rely heavily on ranged weapons, and be prepared to reload quite a lot until you gain a dozen levels or so. Underneath it all there is a fantastic world to explore and discover. It's just a shame the game tries its best to force you away.
The world of Gothic 3 is huge, and diverse. I still remember the thrills I got when my hero laid his foot in the desert of Varant, and in the snow hills of Nordmar. World is crafted brilliantly, and vistas are breath-taking.
Music is superb and adds to the atmosphere of the game.
The story of the game is intriguing, and the many possible endings make the game worth replaying. The best aspect of the story is that there is no good and bad side. You start on the side of the rebels against the orcs, only to discover slowly that rebels are not as good as they look, that they pillage peasants, and orcs do not treat humans badly after all. The Hashishin are only intrested in money and slaves. Xardas have plans of his own, Water wizards are back with other ideas for what is good. All these leave the player to carefully think which side to join.
This game must be played with the Community Patch installed. I raise my hat to the CP team, and they have my utmost respect for the marvelous job they did, and the many hours they sacrifised. The CP turns Gothic 3 into a brilliant RPG.
