Gothic 3 - Initial Impressions Review
kryyst
Ontario, Canada
If you aren't familiar with the Gothic series it's an 1st/3rd person RPG made by Piranha games out of Germany. It's an open ended fantasy setting that has similarities to both Fable and The Elder Scrolls Series. In terms of values it hits some where right in the middle of the two and yet overall has elements that are better then both. But it's definitely not a game for everyone and the game does appeal more towards the hardcore gamer over the casual.
Graphically this game has a similar look to Fable. The environments are gorgeous as well as the models but everything has a sort of cartoony look to it. Personally I think it looks fantastic but it's certainly not as realistic looking as the recent Oblivion. But that doesn't mean the demands on your system will be any less. This is a very hardware demanding game but if you like the general look a cutting edge system will reward you well with fantastic lighting and beautiful effects.
You don't have the freedom of character selection like you do in Oblivion. Instead you are presented your character and have no initial input. Again familiarities to Fable abound. From there as you gain experience you earn training points that can be spent on developing your martial, magical, or rogue like abilities. Each path has it's own strengths and weaknesses and it's far to early for me to tell how they play out. But from what I've seen so far all are viable thus far.
The world itself is extremely open allowing you to go and do pretty much what you want. While it's not quite as explorable as an Elder Scrolls game it is infinitely more open the Fable. However unlike the recent Oblivion game this game doesn't scale according to your character. So if you walk into areas you shouldn't go there is no mercy. For many players that will be a welcomed breath. For casual gamers that could lead to endless frustration. But for anyone up the the challenge your going to love it. You can become badass and wade through the folder something that I really missed doing in Oblivion.
The game controls work fairly well using the keyboard to move up/down/strafe and the mouse to look around. The mouse is used to attack/parry and unleash other sort of special attacks and has an arcade feeling to it which for me is rather welcoming. Oblivion tried to make hack and slash more fun but still it was off the mark. This game has it down pretty good. You can time your power attacks based on how your enemy's are moving. There are a few times where the auto-targeting can get in the way but so far they haven't been frustrating.
For anyone familiar with the Gothic series the Orcs have won and many humans have been enslaved. You start out in a slave village and basically the story unfolds from there. You pick up quests, find tips and rumors and just go from there however you want. One issue for these sorta games is that you can get caught up in so many side quests it's sometimes hard to keep them all sorted out. The quests are journalized by location but there is no good auto mapping feature. You do find maps along the way that give you more detailed views but an auto mapping feature would be great.
As I progress further I'll put up more reviews. But so far this is a fantastic game.
Graphically this game has a similar look to Fable. The environments are gorgeous as well as the models but everything has a sort of cartoony look to it. Personally I think it looks fantastic but it's certainly not as realistic looking as the recent Oblivion. But that doesn't mean the demands on your system will be any less. This is a very hardware demanding game but if you like the general look a cutting edge system will reward you well with fantastic lighting and beautiful effects.
You don't have the freedom of character selection like you do in Oblivion. Instead you are presented your character and have no initial input. Again familiarities to Fable abound. From there as you gain experience you earn training points that can be spent on developing your martial, magical, or rogue like abilities. Each path has it's own strengths and weaknesses and it's far to early for me to tell how they play out. But from what I've seen so far all are viable thus far.
The world itself is extremely open allowing you to go and do pretty much what you want. While it's not quite as explorable as an Elder Scrolls game it is infinitely more open the Fable. However unlike the recent Oblivion game this game doesn't scale according to your character. So if you walk into areas you shouldn't go there is no mercy. For many players that will be a welcomed breath. For casual gamers that could lead to endless frustration. But for anyone up the the challenge your going to love it. You can become badass and wade through the folder something that I really missed doing in Oblivion.
The game controls work fairly well using the keyboard to move up/down/strafe and the mouse to look around. The mouse is used to attack/parry and unleash other sort of special attacks and has an arcade feeling to it which for me is rather welcoming. Oblivion tried to make hack and slash more fun but still it was off the mark. This game has it down pretty good. You can time your power attacks based on how your enemy's are moving. There are a few times where the auto-targeting can get in the way but so far they haven't been frustrating.
For anyone familiar with the Gothic series the Orcs have won and many humans have been enslaved. You start out in a slave village and basically the story unfolds from there. You pick up quests, find tips and rumors and just go from there however you want. One issue for these sorta games is that you can get caught up in so many side quests it's sometimes hard to keep them all sorted out. The quests are journalized by location but there is no good auto mapping feature. You do find maps along the way that give you more detailed views but an auto mapping feature would be great.
As I progress further I'll put up more reviews. But so far this is a fantastic game.
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