Gothic 3

The sunrises and sunsets as just as beautiful as they were in "Gothic 2." It’s an incredible feeling to contemplate vast landscapes or ruins and people in the distance while sitting on a hill, being gently touched by the rays of the sun, with wonderful violin accords in the background.

Gothic 3 has an amazingly large world to explore and tons of things to do, but also a lot of rough edges. The AI is slow-witted and the combat system is mere button smashing. Still, with some faith, Myrtana is a great place to get lost into. [Dec 2006, p.82]

The vast world offers so much freedom that you could easily think you are lost. But you are not, because you can do whatever the hell you want, so even if you’re not able to complete a quest there will be plenty to keep you occupied until you can.

At times gorgeous, at other times frustrating, it's worth persevering with just to bask in its snug atmosphere.

Unlike the horrific launch of Dungeon Lords, which eventually revealed that there wasn't much of value beneath the buggy exterior, Gothic 3 has a tremendous world of role-play available for those willing to persevere - and I strongly recommend the game to players in this category, who also have the behemoth computer power needed to run the game in the first place.

A technically stunning rehash of "Gothic 2," but that's no bad thing. [Jan 2007, p.82]

A good RPG provides players with the opportunity to role-play characters of their choosing through an experience that's ultimately personalized by their decisions. Judged on that basis, this game delivers in spades. [Feb. 2007, p.60]

It was meant to be the ultimate installment that would bring the franchise closer to the US gamers, but given all the technical errors I'm not sure that's possible.

Gothic 3 is a deep and rich world, waiting for your guidance to free or subjugate mankind. Any RPG lover must have this, but you may want to wait a while for the patches to arrive and then settle down.

Players who enjoy RPGs will enjoy the dickens out of this title, but they need to be sure they have a really awesome system to run it on, and all the patches that go with it.

If you can get past its technical issues, Gothic 3 offers a substantial, open-ended role-playing experience.

If not for the countless bugs, the watered down melee and magic combat, the uninteresting NPCs, the sometimes weak design, the horrible performance, the missing dialogue, and the overall lack of polish, perhaps it could have been.

Gothic III is solidly entertaining, a great upgrade from "Gothic II," but lacks the polish of "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion."

For now, unless you're desperate for a new RPG today, hold fire and see if the inevitable post-release patches will fix up the leaky bits. If so, add 15% or so to the score. [Dec 2006, p.112]

Gothic 3 is a game that punches above its weight. To a certain degree it holds out well against competing RPG games but with so many bugs and lingering issues, it would be wise to hold off for a while until the dust settles.

It's obvious that Gothic 3 needed another six months of work. You're forced to overlook a lot of flaws, and it's extremely hard not to be beaten down by the game as you reach its conclusion. [Mar 2007, p.56]

Gothic 3 takes some role-playing aspects to a new high with its excellent quest system and fully interactive world. Too bad other critical elements, from combat to graphics performance, fall so short.

The core for a good role playing game is evident, it just lacks the polish that we hardcore gamers have come to expect from our RPG's.

Gameplay-wise, there’re a lot of things that might turn off some players, but there’s a lot to go through, and a huge amount to explore.

Ditch your standards and enjoy shaping a mediocre world to your will. [Dec 2006, p.105]

It's unfortunate that Gothic 3 was basically released in an unfinished state. As the game is now, though, nobody should be forced to go through the hell I went through to get to the enjoyable parts.

Gothic 3 feels like a missed opportunity. It's the biggest RPG tragedy I've seen in years, honestly, as this game could have been so much more enjoyable without all of these issues constantly plaguing it.

Ultimately, Gothic 3 is like getting into a cold bath on a hot day - it's refreshing, but somehow painful, and no matter how much you love it, you have to admit that it isn't much fun to do.

More frustrating than fun as we saved, loaded, and crashed our way through this epic, yet tedious title.

The game just feels so dull and a real letdown considering the game’s amazing detail and depth.

A good game still lurks somewhere under all this garbage. Gothic's approach to the open-ended RPG is a good deal more compelling than Oblivion's, and it surpasses it in other areas too. But if there was ever a game in need of a few more months of development, Gothic 3 is it.

It’s a glorious mess of an RPG with incredible potential, but released much too soon, and therefore bound for the bargain bins.

The world of Gothic 3 is filled with bugs you can not slay.

Too many bugs for the Orkin Man to handle, too much amateur laziness in the storytelling, too little character drawn into the cast, and not enough good ideas put to any good use.

Nine patches in, Gothic 3 has a long road to hoe before rating "close enough for government work." Try it if you're hardcore and even-tempered. But yep, here we go again -- closing with another "until it's adequately patched, caveat emptor."

It’s sad to see so many good ideas go to waste. From the exploration of the wondrous world to the intricate political situation of its denizens, Gothic 3 nails a good chunk of the role-player’s wet dream. The character progression is solid and the core mechanics are good, yet I will never ever recommend this to anyone that I even remotely like. Yes, one broken system can ruin a game this completely.

In a game where the illusion of a dynamic, realistic world is so crucial to the experience, technical bugs and awkward design decisions do a marvelous job at hamstringing Gothic III's gameplay.

If the developers give us some heavy handed code-bandages, I predict that one day this will be at the very least an enjoyable RPG, if not the epic and sprawling adventure it was supposed to be.

Gothic 3 is not a budget title, for $40 I expect a pleasant gameplay experience not frustration. That’s like paying a guy $40 to punch you in the face repeatedly.

It’s a real shame that a game with such promise has to be scored so low because of inefficiencies within the industry, especially if the version that’s on retailers’ shelves is now far tighter than the copy in our possession. [Dec 2006, p.125]

The basic design of the game is quite sound and if Piranha Bytes could clean the game up, it might end up becoming a classic. As it stands now, my nightmarish trip through the world of Gothic 3 made me want to send my disc on a one-way trip into an incinerator.

So the world looks great, the people look awful, the factions aren’t paying any attention, the wolves are murderous, the combat atrocious, and the music fantastic. It’s as if a team of good programmers, and a team of evil programmers worked on different parts of the game and then their efforts were combined at the last minute and jammed in a box.