Gothic 3 - Fast pace action...one click at a time

[TheEdge]

Hey guys,

It's a beautiful monday morning here in corporate slave land and I would love to share with you my first impressions of a game I was playing a little of this weekend....... Gothic 3.

The game itself is very well made. It takes a while to get used to the combat but once you get the hang of it your swashbuckling like a mad man. The game starts out with you and your band arriving on the shores of a fantasy-esq land. You seem to walk in on a band of orcs ransacking a town. The boss orc (the albino one) takes one look at you and then BOOM your in combat with people sword fight all around you. It was a good idea to throw you right into the action. After you defeat all the orcs you then begin to literally finish what the orcs had started by pillaging the town yourself. At this point though the town elder doesn't seem to care. So after your done taking grabbing everything that isn't nailed down you follow one of you chums to the rebel camp. The story then goes into this pseudo-Star Wars-ish storyline with rebels, an evil necromancer Xardas (sith lord), Evil orcs (stormtroopers), mercenaries (Bounty Hunters), and bandits. Right now I'm helping the rebels but I noticed that you can gain reputation with numerous factions so the game isn't linear. Yes, your first quest is going to "see the rebel base" but after that is finished you can be friends with whoever you please.

The Good - The game is beautiful - graphics and detail are superb, the music is epic, the character modification (equipment / skill) is easy to learn, and the quests just keep on coming. There is TONS to do in this game.

The Bad - With the exception of using bows and arrows and magic the combat system is very primitive. You can either click rapidly to do fast attacks or you can hold down one of the mouse buttons and release for a more powerful attack. The right mouse buttonis the parry / quick attack while the left mouse button provides a heavier attack. Also you can hold down the left mouse button to do a devastating blow or hold the right mouse button and then his the left button to do a thrusting attack which stuns the enemy for a second or two. The biggest problem that I have with it is that some AI are so dumb that you can just do quick attacks on them until they die. That doesn't mean combat is easy. Sometimes they will gang up on you and knock your ass down so fast it will surprise you. It works but its a very odd system.

The Ugly - You NEED a high end machine to play this game. Yes, the game came out in 2006 but that doesn't mean your PC system is going to run it like nothing. Your going to need a good video card to play this. Even with my system as it is plus Gamebooster the game still hiccups a bit. At certain loading areas the game will freeze for a few seconds leaving you crossing your fingers hoping the dam thing didn't crash. Speaking of crashing the game is technically sound. It only crashed once on me and I have no idea what happened.

If you have a good PC and love RPG games.....I would definitely suggest you playing it. You can find the 3-Pack RPG bundle for around $20 dollars. Just this game and Loki alone are worth that much but you get Dungeon lords with the deal as well so it's an incredible buy.

Comments? Questions?

[TheEdge]

I'm very displeased by the lack of enthusiasm for this thread / review.........