This series is like the Elder Scrolls games except it generally uses massively overpowered enemies to keep you out of areas you aren't supposed to visit yet.
The original Gothic is insanely dated looking and I got annoyed at the constant onslaught of stupid fetch quests and dealing with stupid buffoons before the first chapter was out (and that first chapter seems to drag on forever).
Gothic III is the latest and most modern-seeming of the games in the Gothic Universe pack (which includes Gothic II's expansion pack - I've played very little of that one - but not Gothic III's upcoming expansion, of course, which is apparently to be named "Forsaken Gods" and be released later this year).
Essentially, Gothic III is like a streamlined Oblivion without fast travel, with an insanely limiting skills system, and with less content overall. It also seems to have the cold north/ forests but it's got a DESERT, HOORAY. Except that desert sux.
The end.
Wait: Oblivion got pretty much completely bugfixed years ago.
I'm on my first playthrough of Gothic III and even using the patch from Feb. of THIS YEAR (nearly one year and three months to patch it at that time) it's still giving up crashes to desktop and vultures ski across the sand.
No stability, no stabby missions, no service.
All you were wondering about Gothic
I tried playing Gothic II for a bit but gave up after screwing around with the horrible control scheme for an eternity. Is III any better in this regard?
We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
I bought Gothic III on release and it was simply broken. The bugs were a complete joke and even now with all its patches it's lamentable. My tolerance level for the game died and I really have no interest in the series now. To release a buggy piece of shit software in that state was inexcusable.
It has its hardcore fans but i'll stick with the brilliant Morrowind and Oblivion.
It has its hardcore fans but i'll stick with the brilliant Morrowind and Oblivion.
Ikaruga review now up in PLASMA BLOSSOM
-
Nuke
- Posts: 1439
- Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:26 am
- Location: Lurking at the end of the starfields!!
- Contact:
Here's hoping though that Fallout 3 won't be just a post apocalyptic Oblivion.
Trek trough the Galaxy on silver wings and play football online.
-
Gwyrgyn Blood
- Posts: 695
- Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:48 pm
I actually finished Gothic 2 not too long ago. I guess it was a pretty decent game, but unfortunately most of the good content is all towards the beginning. By the end of the game, it's mostly just running around and killing things and being massively overpowered.
Gothic 3 was unfortunately a pretty big trainwreck, just with all the bugs and unbalances and all. I don't get the people who complain about the combat system though... the combat in Gothic 2 was completely broken as well, so 3 didn't really feel that much worse to me (just broken in a different way).
Oblivon's problem was that the content was pretty weak. The main story isn't real exciting, and the assorted quests are pretty bog standard. The leveling system is of course totally broken, as is the enemy scaling, but both of those are easy to fix with some simple mods. Shivering Isles was definitely a massive improvement, although the 'crazy' factor was really quite weak.
If you want a game with a similar feel as Gothic you can try The Witcher, which is a fairly decent game and has that similar 'doing shit in a dirty medieval town' feel.
Gothic 3 was unfortunately a pretty big trainwreck, just with all the bugs and unbalances and all. I don't get the people who complain about the combat system though... the combat in Gothic 2 was completely broken as well, so 3 didn't really feel that much worse to me (just broken in a different way).
Oblivon's problem was that the content was pretty weak. The main story isn't real exciting, and the assorted quests are pretty bog standard. The leveling system is of course totally broken, as is the enemy scaling, but both of those are easy to fix with some simple mods. Shivering Isles was definitely a massive improvement, although the 'crazy' factor was really quite weak.
If you want a game with a similar feel as Gothic you can try The Witcher, which is a fairly decent game and has that similar 'doing shit in a dirty medieval town' feel.
I'm kinda interested to see how the expansion turns out. Then Gothic IV.
Oblivon's problem was that the content was pretty weak. [...] Shivering Isles was definitely a massive improvement, although the 'crazy' factor was really quite weak.[/quote]
Is the world DEVOID of hammers and tongs?!?!
Morrowind/Oblivion always had a rather understated feel to the dialogue, which is pretty good regardless. Of course, both the Elder Scrolls games and Gothic III use name-brand voice actors, which makes the dialogue pretty hilarious. I always lol when the History Channel's Modern Marvels narrator is talking about orcs and joining up and shit.
You're right though, if the game's supposed to be insane then it needs some bad acid trips or sumthin
Massively overpowered in a Gothic game?! Man I gotta see this...if I end up caring long enough.Gwyrgyn Blood wrote:I actually finished Gothic 2 not too long ago. I guess it was a pretty decent game, but unfortunately most of the good content is all towards the beginning. By the end of the game, it's mostly just running around and killing things and being massively overpowered.
Oblivon's problem was that the content was pretty weak. [...] Shivering Isles was definitely a massive improvement, although the 'crazy' factor was really quite weak.[/quote]
Is the world DEVOID of hammers and tongs?!?!
Morrowind/Oblivion always had a rather understated feel to the dialogue, which is pretty good regardless. Of course, both the Elder Scrolls games and Gothic III use name-brand voice actors, which makes the dialogue pretty hilarious. I always lol when the History Channel's Modern Marvels narrator is talking about orcs and joining up and shit.
You're right though, if the game's supposed to be insane then it needs some bad acid trips or sumthin
Yeah, that one's been at the back of my mind too. I picked up the little mini-novella thing before release at a local store.If you want a game with a similar feel as Gothic you can try The Witcher, which is a fairly decent game and has that similar 'doing shit in a dirty medieval town' feel.
-
Gwyrgyn Blood
- Posts: 695
- Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:48 pm
Yeah it's very odd. The game goes very quickly from you being very underpowered, to being insanely over powered. It also doesn't help that there's a lot of really abuseable stuff in the game.Ed Oscuro wrote: Massively overpowered in a Gothic game?! Man I gotta see this...if I end up caring long enough.
I played thru Gothic 2 earlier this year and as it was such an amazing game i instantly started on Gothic 3. the big flaw with G3 is the fightingsystem... i really wish they kept the one from G2 wich made you to be in more control of the fights insted of like in G3 you just push the left mousebutten while walking forward to the enemy 
But still the overal experience is better than G2, it has some really great details and it's imressive how they manage to do such an big game without doing it the random way like elder scrolls... the variation of quests is unbelievable good in G3, it's just too bad the publisher rushed the game out before it was finished but with the latest patch it's fine.
But still the overal experience is better than G2, it has some really great details and it's imressive how they manage to do such an big game without doing it the random way like elder scrolls... the variation of quests is unbelievable good in G3, it's just too bad the publisher rushed the game out before it was finished but with the latest patch it's fine.
I actually have been playing Gothic 3 a lot this week, and my initial impressions changed somewhat.
Aside from the fighting system (WHY does my ore two-hander sometimes miss enemies on every swing??? And then I'll switch targets and start getting hits, very odd), the other major problems are:
- Missions breaking all over the place
- Pathfinding
- Pixel-hunting activities (it feels like I spend 25% of my time just collecting shit off the ground, looking for that white word to appear on the screen that means something's to be had nothing to be had NOTHING MORE TO BE HAD THERE nothing to be had
- Related: Horrible, horrible fetch quests where you have to look all over the place for milk barrels or "his goods" or boxes of steel (I wonder where that slave was hiding it?) or whatever.
- Not enough updates in the status window
- TWO map views for no particular reason, and the minimaps aren't very reliable either
When somebody gets stuck you have to position yourself along the route they keep running back and forth on to bump them back. Orknarok was a huge pain because I took him to the wrong temple site and kept losing him. Then there's three guys I took along for fighting the orcs, only problem being I had already cleared the area and so now I get a message that they're waiting for me whenever I teleport. Nefarious, who I'm done with, also seems to be waiting for me, but the option to make him join is disappeared from dialogue. And then some NPCs won't join in the first place, like when one of the five runaway Silden slaves wouldn't join. The other four did, so it's just a huge pain.
Doing things out of order. You have to run here, there, and everywhere to get shit done, and usually the game is pretty good about calling on a quest and moving along the dialogue when you finally find the quest giver. When the game's working right you get all the experience you normally would, so it's alright. But too often it doesn't.
Outright crashes aren't so common. I seem to get these in Verant (the southern desert, which isn't very green) most often.
One good thing about the game is stealing; when some jerk in town starts getting angry at you because you stole the Demon Mushrooms in his cave then you can just pummel him unconscious (with some exceptions; don't do this to people who you can be tasked to assassinate but want to deal with, like the leader of the rebel camp). They won't like you but that's not such a big loss. Of course, you can win it back by increasing your reputation.
On the whole, I still want to see how it all turns out but if the game keeps breaking my missions it won't be possible. Either I'll install the community patch or wait for the expansion pack to hopefully have another patch released aside it.
Aside from the fighting system (WHY does my ore two-hander sometimes miss enemies on every swing??? And then I'll switch targets and start getting hits, very odd), the other major problems are:
- Missions breaking all over the place
- Pathfinding
- Pixel-hunting activities (it feels like I spend 25% of my time just collecting shit off the ground, looking for that white word to appear on the screen that means something's to be had nothing to be had NOTHING MORE TO BE HAD THERE nothing to be had
- Related: Horrible, horrible fetch quests where you have to look all over the place for milk barrels or "his goods" or boxes of steel (I wonder where that slave was hiding it?) or whatever.
- Not enough updates in the status window
- TWO map views for no particular reason, and the minimaps aren't very reliable either
When somebody gets stuck you have to position yourself along the route they keep running back and forth on to bump them back. Orknarok was a huge pain because I took him to the wrong temple site and kept losing him. Then there's three guys I took along for fighting the orcs, only problem being I had already cleared the area and so now I get a message that they're waiting for me whenever I teleport. Nefarious, who I'm done with, also seems to be waiting for me, but the option to make him join is disappeared from dialogue. And then some NPCs won't join in the first place, like when one of the five runaway Silden slaves wouldn't join. The other four did, so it's just a huge pain.
Doing things out of order. You have to run here, there, and everywhere to get shit done, and usually the game is pretty good about calling on a quest and moving along the dialogue when you finally find the quest giver. When the game's working right you get all the experience you normally would, so it's alright. But too often it doesn't.
Outright crashes aren't so common. I seem to get these in Verant (the southern desert, which isn't very green) most often.
One good thing about the game is stealing; when some jerk in town starts getting angry at you because you stole the Demon Mushrooms in his cave then you can just pummel him unconscious (with some exceptions; don't do this to people who you can be tasked to assassinate but want to deal with, like the leader of the rebel camp). They won't like you but that's not such a big loss. Of course, you can win it back by increasing your reputation.
On the whole, I still want to see how it all turns out but if the game keeps breaking my missions it won't be possible. Either I'll install the community patch or wait for the expansion pack to hopefully have another patch released aside it.