Gothic 3

 PC
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 39
  3. Negative: 7 out of 39
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  1. IGN
    49
    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.
  2. Worth Playing
    45
    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.
  3. VGPub
    42
    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.
  5. games(TM)
    40
    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]
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  6. GameSpy
    30
    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.
  7. Game Revolution
    25
    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.
  8. RewiredMind
    20
    Rating this game has never been easier. Stay the hell away from Gothic III. The amount of glitches in this game instantly ruins whatever experience it aimed to achieve. There are not enough patches in PC gaming history to sort this one out.

Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Most Discussed PC Game of 2006
10
#10 Most Shared PC Game of 2006

User Reviews

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User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 898 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 552 out of 898
  2. Mixed: 234 out of 898
  3. Negative: 112 out of 898
  1. MatDerKater
    Jun 19, 2012
    10
    The largely negative reviews that this game received upon its release, were largely justifiable at the time due to the bug ridden train wreckThe largely negative reviews that this game received upon its release, were largely justifiable at the time due to the bug ridden train wreck of an unfinished game which Jowood decided to release. First thing to make clear, is the game which I am awarding a 9/10 for, is not the game as it was released back in 2006, but the game as it is now thanks to the Community Patch 1.75 and the Community Mod Pack 2.4. Gothic 3, running smooth as silk on a decent 2012 gaming PC, more or less bug free, with overhauled combat mechanics, is nothing less than a stunning work of electronic art. This blows every other single player RPG right out of the water bar none. Although the graphics may not be as advanced as the graphics in more recent titles such as Skyrim, the world of Gothic 3 is somehow much more appealing to the eye than that of Skyrim, with the Gothic 3 world having a much more handcrafted quality to it, with huge attention having been paid to the tiniest of details. Whilst the world of Gothic 3 may not be quite on the same scale as the world of Skyrim, it is nontheless massive and distinguishes itself head and shoulders above the world of Skyrim due to the fact that the Gothic 3 world is immensely interesting to explore as opposed to mainly serving as a Bethesda style space/time barrier between the cordoned off towns and dungeons. Whilst the Gothic 3 towns/camps are indeed the main components of where the story unfolds, they blend seamlessly into the rest of the stunning, dark, but majestic world of Gothic 3, in which dozens of hours can be spent immersed in sheer exploration. In addition to the beautiful and captivating landscape, what Gothic 3 masters more so than any other game is providing for an interaction with the flora, fauna, and minerals of the world, in a way that the player is always on the look our for certain combinations of potentially character enhancing resources and facilities. The combination of loot driven kleptomania and danger lurking around every corner and in every nook n cranny of a masterfully crafted world, makes 'exploration' an absolute delight in this game. Indeed, due to the clever placing of some highly valuable objects in various secret and also not-so-secret, the course of the game and the decisions that are made can be hugely influenced by the fruits of exploration. One of the proclaimed weaknesses of Gothic 3 when compared with its predecessors (G1 + G2), was the simplistic nature of the quests, or in otherwords, the sheer volume of 'go there, kill them, get that' quests in the game. Whilst this may ring true when analysing the game close up, if one takes a more macroscopic view of the quests then what emerges is an epic power struggle in which the gamer must ultimately weigh up the pros and cons of some crucial decisions. Whether these decisions reflect the desires that the gamer has for particular individuals or factions in the game or the need for expediency and sacrfice of otherwise favoured characters and units in the Gothic 3 world, as the game progresses the gamer will increasingly find that no decision is to be taken lightly and will have the constant urge to postpone certain things, in the hope of alternative solutions opening up (which they often do). The whole shebang culminates in the Nameless Hero rising to the position of a demi-god, in which his will (and thus the will of the gamer) decides the fate of the entire continent upon which Gothic 3 is based. There are three possible 'Grand Finales' open to the Nameless hero depending on his actions througout the course of what is probably the most open ended RPG game ever made. With that said, the 'openess' of the Gothic 3 world also contributes to one of its potential flaws whereby if the game fails to understand the mechanics of the 'in-game poltics', then he can make the game practically incompleteable at a very early stage. This was particularly true in the unpatched version of the game where it was possible to start 'liberating' towns or 'crushing' rebel camps from the very outset of the game. However, with the CP 1.75, the stun-lock click fest combat (which made simultaneously wiping out dozens of human/ork foes possible in the unpatched version) has been completely fixed. Thus it is no longer possible for the gamer to successfully embark on such uninformed rash decisions at such an early stage of the game.

    With almost 6 years having passed since I purchased Gothic 3, I have just completed the game for the first time ever and have got to say it ranks amongst my most pleasureable gaming experiences ever.    … Full Review »
  2. FaceCommander
    Jun 11, 2012
    10
    Maybe it's worth 9/10 but ill give 10 just to balance negatives. Yes it was buggy in release but now all of it was resolved by patches made byMaybe it's worth 9/10 but ill give 10 just to balance negatives. Yes it was buggy in release but now all of it was resolved by patches made by community. The combat system standardised same click left in oblivion whats up with comments about combat. Huge world with beautifull scenery. Epic music ,nice atmosphere. Game lacked on actual story line though. Playing it patched with alternate AI on hardest is just enough challenge for anyone. 3rd game lacked some things what first 2 parts had , but this is definitely worthy to play game , atleast 2 times better than oblivion (unless you love to run first person around every 15 mins to sell crap and encounter bandits on same road again) .… Full Review »
  3. Sirik_Matak
    Sep 8, 2014
    2
    It's terrible.
    It was terrible back in the 2006 when it came out, and it still is a terrible game that probably shouldn't be made.
    The game    It's terrible.
    It was terrible back in the 2006 when it came out, and it still is a terrible game that probably shouldn't be made.
    The game is huge, but outside Myrtana it's just big, empty spaces that just annoy you, have no real purpose being in the game and doesn't really fit in the theme Gothic 3 should look like. Besides throwing in more unispired slashing thousands of enemies and making game unnecessary longer. And no - killing an entire orc army all by yourself is not epic.
    Myrtana looks amazing and has it charm, but it's an empty shell. Quests are few and most of them don't make any sense, main quest is a mess. 3 different areas tend to contradict themselves, since you can ally with orcs in Myrtana and kill every single orc in Nordmar. Khan will still love you after you return to him all like "oh hai, I just killed all your armies just up ahead in the mountains". Side factions are forced and useless (why would anyone use druid stones?). The overall theme is ruined. Orcs are turned into some kind of parody of themselves. The game tells us that they've learned human language only for basic communications with their new slaves and mercenaries but... all we hear of their native language is "mora" and they speak with eachother in english. Yeah. Weird design decisions (reworked magic and teleport stones lying around just for you to pick up).
    The game is entertaining to the certain point, where you run around Myrtana and do basic stuff, but after you enter Nordmar or Varant you can turn it off, loosing nothing of value. The game is artificially prolonged beyond any reasons - we're given "collect X quest" which is all about killing hundreds of undeads in plain desert and badly designed temples made from 3 corridors.

    Aside dreadful fundamental flaws, the game is full of game breaking bugs that are impossible to fix. Fan made patch makes things a little better, but it's still a mess. Content packs just make things worse, throwing in some balance breaking stuff and one of the most infantile fan-made quests I've ever seen that absolutely break the game in terms of the entertainment. The quest-pack and content-mod feel like made by 8-years olds.    … Full Review »
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