User Reviews (21 - 31 of 54)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

I played it on a great computer and it still doesn't work very well

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just bought a 2500 dollar computer three months ago with a great video and sound card. Nvidia 7900x. Lots of memory. Mystique tower. Oblivion plays great on it. Gothic 3 plays very poorly. Our hero can't even run down the path without jerking around. And I have Windows Pro installed. If I had the media center edition I could understand why it works so poorly. I saved some games. They disappeared. You go to the Gothic 3 official site after installing the software and they tell you that if you bought this game in the US you don't need the bug fix. It's just for the European edition. That's just a ridiculous statement and it tells you just how real these people are being with their customers. I really enjoyed Gothic 2, Morrowind and Oblivion. I can't add Gothic 3 to the list because it is not in the same league with any of them.
And the storyline is all about how evil orcs aren't really so bad. It's all relative depending on your point of view. I can listen to the media talk all day long about the poor criminals and terrorists who had bad childhoods or legitimate grievances. This game has been ruined by the PC crowd. And I see the price has dropped about twenty percent since it came out a few weeks ago. You can believe the market or some of these rave reviews. But I know for a fact that a great computer doesn't fix this turkey.

It's definitely not Oblivion...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: August 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Personally, I'd say the combat system is the biggest difference. In some ways, the fact that no matter how powerful and high-level you are you can get killed by almost any enemy is a refreshing change from Oblivion, in which you can build up over 100% damage reflection by level 20 and sit back while your enemies bludgeon themselves to death.

But when I've just liberated a city from droves of evil orcs, and then get killed by one mangy wolf about 10 feet outside the gate...well, the frustration cannot be placed in normal words. And if it could, you'd all just die from sympathetic misery.

What makes it worse is that in many ways the game is fun. The scenery is terrific, the crafting system is not only novel but fun, and in many ways the NPCs behave more realistically than in Oblivion.

Unfortunately, these few high points are far outweighed by the poorer aspects of the game, which I will now elaborate upon.

1) As has been said, several times by me as well as in many other reviews of this game, fighting animals is a total farce. It seems that the armor bonuses against impact and blades and such have no effect whatsoever on claws and teeth. To repeat what I said above, a wolf can kill you in four hits at level 10. I am in no way exxaggerating in the least. If you want to call your game realistic, then make animal's attacks subject to the phsyical barriers presented by armor (unless, of course, Aspyr is assuming that a wolf which is maybe three feet from head to tail can reach up to attack the unarmored head of a guy who's probably close to six feet in height).

2) Drawing your weapon is infuriation. In several occasions, I have been engaged in combat with my weapon sheathed. I press space to unsheath it, but am struck before it comes out--so the character grunts and attempts to restart the motion. Not only can this go on until your character is killed without getting his weapon out of the sheath, but if you react as most gamers would and hit the unsheath-key again, he puts it away or stops drawing it even if he didn't have it out yet.

3) Since when does being unskilled in the use of a certain weapon phsyically bar me from using it? "Oh no, I don't have enough skill points and so mysteriously a tiny force field has appeared around this Krush Varok, preventing me in any way from holding it or using it!" And this despite the claim that the game is "highly realistic". Oblivion's system is better--a lower skill in an area only affects how effectively you can use an item or weapon. Anyone can pick up a huge metal blade on a stick and swing it in vaguely the direction of the orc charging at you; strength and skill only determine the speed and damage done by attacks, the recovery time, and how quickly and effectively you can parry. If you folks at Aspyr are going to say your games are highly realistic, then take the time to MAKE them highly realistic.

4) Give us more learning points! Frankly, the tiny number of learning points granted after each level is utterly ridiculous. And so is the enormous cost of training! Training should cost 1 to 2 learning points for a +5 skill increase and only cost a full five for a new ability, and ALL training should have its price cut at least in half--why would ANYONE pay 100 gold coins to increase a skill by one point, when a single point makes virtually no perceptible difference?

5) In a way this is similar to 1), but it includes some other comments as well. As others have said, the 'stun-lock' effect induced when an enemy hits you once and then again before you have recovered from the first blow is the most infuriating point of the whole game. Not only do animals not suffer from this AT ALL (literally, an animal can hit you within .5 seconds of being hit itself, while your recovery time from one of THEIR blows is closer to 1.5 or 2 seconds) but humanoid NPCs suffer from this to a ridiculous extent, the player's character included. I would suggest that recoil time for humans, orcs, and the player be reduced to at LEAST that of an animal.

6) If an enemy hits my shield with blunt force, why the hell should it hurt me!? Does the shield have spikes on the back!? And why don't parrying animals get hurt when I strike them? Minecrawlers in particular are bad in this way--by blocking literally with their forearms, they take almost no damage whatsoever from repeated blows from a sword. This makes no sense whatsoever, especially when three or four hits on their body can kill them. Meanwhile, if they hit our armor-clad, shield-bearing hero, they can strike him with lightning fast speed (at some points as fast as twice every 1.5 seconds), pummeling him to death before he even gets a chance to make a single hit.

7) Make the game pause while menus are open. In real life, it doesn't take me five seconds to find a four-foot-long sword in my tiny backpack, during which the enemy closes to range and unleashes a flurry of attacks which start taking effect the instant I close the menu, before I have a chance to draw my sword or raise my shield. This is most annoying when the player is knocked out and must recover his weapon; in some instances the enemy may knock him out again before he can pick it up, and almost invariably he has no opportunity to either recover health or draw his weapon.

8) Reduce the time on most actions. A skilled warrior shouldn't take even a full second to draw his weapon and raise it. Drinking a potion shouldn't take three or four seconds, it should take one, especially if it's equipped to the so-called "quickbar" which would probably correspond to being hung from the hero's belt or something where it would be easily reachable.

9) Get some more variable music. In Oblivion, the fact that there aren't very many different scores is bearable because you don't spend nearly as much time running around in the wilderness. But in Gothic, distances between cities are often far greater, combat times are longer, and overall I get bored sick of the same two or three songs playing over and over and over and over again. In fact, just get BETTER music all around--I don't want to hear some kind of symphony while I'm fighting a wolf, I want to hear something that's dramatic and fast-tempo without being distracting. And I don't need to hear the soundtrack of some cheesy musical involving at best moderately attractive women dancing through absurdly verdant fields of flowers while I'm jogging between a couple of podunk little orc-infested towns. Save the full-orchestra overtures for epic battles; the atmosphere is utterly ruined by the fact that the same music plays while doing battle with a scrawny green-skinned goblin in a grubby loincloth as when overthrowing the orc regime over a whole town with only the help of an AI-challenged rebel or two.

10) Take away the guards' ESP! Even if they notice the stuff disappearing, how do they know who it was when they spend all day standing on the other side of town staring at a wall!? To some extent this is acceptable, but it's just ludicrous to have them come to the conclusion that it was me without gathering any evidence besides their own suspicions and the facts that things are missing.

11) Make the rebels more realistic; who in their right mind would send two or three guys to capture a town guarded by thirty or forty orcs?

12) Allow players to salvage armor off of slain victims. I suppose its reasonable enough to assume that SOME of it gets damaged by your attacks, and that some is even rendered unusable and unrepairable, but I mean, come on! The armor that anyone in the game sells is all ridiculously expensive, so why wouldn't anyone want to salvage what they could from fallen foes?

That basically concludes my longwinded (but fully justified) rant on the failings of Gothic 3. My advice, in short? If you are a person who enjoys migraines, tear-inducing frustration, and banging your head against your monitor until it breaks and lacerates your scalp with shards of plastic, buy it and enjoy.

What reality would be with magic and mythical beasts

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: August 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I deliberately came late to this game because this, like so many games, had obviously been prematurely released. I immediately downloaded the patch. In most ways that matter, the patches have fixed the problems that made this game unplayable early on. I normally couldn't care less about whether a game fails or succeeds. But this game is too good to miss for inveterate RPGers like me, and I want to see more, so here's my two cents.

This is an immersive game. I feel like I am riding on the shoulder of my character, shivering and sweating along with him. There is so much to explore. It is like wandering through a magical, European medieval reality. Here are many towns and villages, camps and caves, all with their own sensibilities and problems. I can count on the arenas to give me gold and reputation, but I always have to do more to prove my worth. Making the choice between orc and human dominance is never easy. This world is complex and multi-layered, and the game gives me an escape to an alternate reality.

Before G3, I loved OBLIVION. G3 is just as good, if not better. My sense of being inside G3 is much greater. This is not about graphics. It is about a world that is somehow more believable.
--The conversations are often stilted, but that is true in most of these games anyway. In G3, it is not what you promise so much as what you do that matters.
--The combat can be oddly frustrating: opponents stun you and that makes the first blow critically important. Fast-clicking the LMB has so far been the most effective means of winning melees, even though the character has several moves available if you can manage to time your mouse click combinations right. But that just means more and better planning is needed, including the use of ranged weapons and magic. The same was true in Oblivion.
--The missions are standard fare for RPGs. But they contribute to the larger struggle for power that is the story of the game. 'Go fetch' also means 'choose sides' or 'be clever'. In addition, much like Oblivion but unlike most other RPGs, you can roam and hunt treasure (and XP) to your hearts content.
--Leveling up is not automatic -- to improve you need to seek help. I liked how Oblivion made you better when you did something a lot ('experience'). In G3, you need to see an instructor to get better ('education'). Neither approach is perfect. Maybe the next great RPG will let you improve in both ways.

That's enough writing -- just go play (with the patch!).

What a shame

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I entirely enjoyed Gothic and Gothic 2. Gothic 3 does not follow in the footsteps of these games. The interface is worse the story is worse, it is overall a big step backwards. It is a shame to ruin a series as good as Gothic but that is what they have done, much as the new Star Wars movies have ruined that series. If you are a Gothic fan then wait until the price drops way down and then go ahead and buy Gothic 3. If you have have not played any of the Gothic games do not start with this one.

Additionally, the game really is buggy. As other reviews have mentioned the game will freeze up from time to time and then there is always the random animal attacks through solid objects (walls and the like).

Don't bother.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: November 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing computer games for a longggg time and this one takes the cake as far as disappointments go. The last games I remember this bad and poorly put together/prereleased were Ultima IX, and Pagan. Take note Gothic programmers, they made a lot of money and put out some very good games before they lost their minds and wasted everyone's time and money. This is only number 3 and I doubt there will be a Gothic 4 after this, planning on Gothic Online next are you? I will not go into everything wrong as most of the other reviewers have covered it well; needless to say, my computer is fine and runs Oblivion with no problems with all graphical options maxed. The main thing is the load and same times, I felt like I was back and the mid 80's waiting for my C64 to start up (I said I've been around a while). It's not just bad, and horrific, it's like watching cable TV, a 1 hour show and 35 minuets of commercials only here you watch they same load screen again, and again, and again. It enough to make you avoid anything that might kill you because you have to "quick (LONG) load" again, that is if you haven't already fallen into some void to the middle of the earth and feel like "nowhere man". If your like me and enjoyed the challenge of the monsters is Gothic II, forget it with Gothic 3, just left click until everything is dead, don't bother blocking, monster and NPC's can't even gang up on you properly with your "super left click of destruction", occasionally you do get killed and get to load again, OHHH fun, think I'll scrub the commode while I wait.
Shame on me for breaking my own rule of ordering before I saw any other users reviews, but I took a chance as I thought that the people who make Gothic II which I thought was one of the best role playing games ever made would follow suit and put out another superior game. Boy, was I wrong. Don't buy it, don't copy it, (which is wrong anyway, and really wrong here) it's not worth wasting a blank DVD. Run away.

Combine "Fable" and "Oblivion" together and you'd get this

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was browsing Best Buy with three $50 gift cards to burn when I noticed this game. At first it seemed like a stab at what "Fable" tried to do but couldn't deliver: a non-linear storyline with a single character that can be customized by the player in regards to what his skills are and whether or not he sides with good or bad, with all his actions having consequences. (ie you kill someone, their family/friends hunt you down for revenge) It focuses on a single character caught in the whirlwind of a defeated human kingdom. The orcs have invaded and taken over most of the land, with the eastern shores the last stronghold of rebel groups. The rebels fight amongst each other, but are awaiting a king to unite them and win back the land. Sounds familiar? Yeah yeah, but what I liked was that the orcs are more intelligent in this: instead of destroying all people/buildings in their path, they choose to subjugate humanity and treat their slaves well to maintain loyalty. In the end I decided, "What the heck? I'll give this game a shot."

After installing and beginning the game, I noticed one major drawback: a long loading time.

And I mean a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong loading time. Seriously. I was having flashbacks of playing "Morrowind" on the Xbox as I sat there waiting for the dang thing to finish. When it finally does you're given the mandatory video intro followed by being thrown into a battle between orcs and rebels. Here is a short tutorial getting you used to the controls, and the combat in the game is all right. Sword fighting is basic, with your attacks and the ability to block. You can use arrows, magic...pretty much any thing you can do in any other roleplaying game.

In fact, after defeating the orcs and leaving the rebel base, I realized this was really more of a Elder Scrolls rip-off than anything else. The terrain, atmosphere, the creatures...I felt like I was playing a low-budget version of "Oblivion." For example, this game follows a classic roleplaying game rule: any living thing out in the wild wants to slaughter you like you killed their sister.

But that wasn't my only problem. This game is, like other reviewers pointed out, quite buggy. The biggest problem I had was a weird video error where the screen would flash blank white. This seemed to especially happen when I targeted something - I don't really know, all I know is that five minutes into my gameplay I had a headache and was on the verge of getting a seizure. This was about two hours ago, and as I write this I still have a headache.

All in all, I grew real disgusted of the game, quit it, and promptly uninstalled it. If I suffer a spaz attack tonight I'm suing JoWood Productions.

great game with great flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This really is a truly great game, but it has some rather impressive flaws. For one, it requires patience. Great patience. Not so much for the game itself, but for all the bugs, and these bugs are going to vary depending on the system you're playing it on. You need a high-end system, but even then, there are going to be difficulties. My main issue is that using a Geforce grapics card seems to cause extreme fluctuations in the time cycles in the game. Thankfully, this doesn't actually affect the game (none of the quests are time sensitive), but I do have to frequently restart it. As I said, patience is required, and because of that, this game is not for everyone.
Now, for the good parts. This is a very detailed world with a great deal to occupy your time. Like the first two installments, there is something oddly realistic and addictive about this game. I really can't put my finger on it, but I find this "world" much more immersive than the Elder Scrolls one, which I also rather enjoy. True, the voice acting is mediocre, but it still feels real. Want to spend your time hunting deer, then do so. Want to steal from everyone in sight, so be it. Though there will be consquences. Want to be a noble warrior, fine. Want to side with the royalists, the orcs (rather well-fleshed out, as villains go), the nomads and water mages, the Hashishim, whatever. You have many choices, most of which will affect the game. You'll need to save often, of course.
The combat system actually is intuitive, though many find it otherwise. It's all about timing. If your gear is up to it, the graphics are gorgeous. Just watch your character's shadow.
A great game with great flaws. It needs to be stressed that patience is required to enjoy this game. I don't mean that condescendingly; just know what you want from a game. This one is great fun, but if bugs annoy you more than immersive gameplay thrills you, then you won't enjoy this.

Where is the guru?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: November 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yes, that's what it says in the box on my screen -- as Gothic 3 crashes. I'd like to know where he is myself, and if I find him, he's in big trouble.

Plenty of bugs in this released-too-early game, and despite what defenders of the game say, they are not all graphics related. Examples: you meet an NPC, and his dialogue is silent (you can't hear it); you select a line of dialogue -- your character speaks a different line of dialogue; no matter what you do, your character can't lock onto the attacking animal -- you clobber a friendly NPC instead or you can't do anything; game crashes; and then there are the graphics related problems -- stuck in solid objects, animals and orcs stuck in walls, point of view spins wildly and you end up looking upwards from INSIDE your character.

Balance is a huge problem. There seems to be no NPC capable of defeating any animal. The mighter hunter of Faren can't deal with a single lurker; Rathgar the mighty warrior can't handle a single wolf. YOU can't handle animals -- the stun lock problem has already been discussed. On the other hand, huge armies of orcs are no problem at all, because you fight them one at a time as you lock on to them, while the others pretty much wait their turn. The problem of locking on to the attacking animal or NPC means that you hit a friendly; and then the friendlies attack you. More amusing, even the friendlies have a problem locking on correctly and then they end up killing each other. After Gotha was all solved, Gorn was killed by orcs when wolves attacked; guess he hit an orc instead of a wolf, oh well. Hope I won't need him for anything else.

And as has been mentioned elsewhere, save and load are iiinnncccrrrreeeddddiiiiibbbbbllllllyyyy slow. You have to play with a good book in your hand or while watching TV, because you'll be saving and loading often.

Many of the quests are either dumb or dumbed down, which takes a lot of fun out of the game. There's nothing puzzling and there is no moment when it is at all unclear what you are supposed to do. Makes things a little tedious.

Combat involves left clicking as fast as you can, or finding a spot to plug arrows into animals and NPCs that obligingly return to exactly the same spot so you can shoot them again. The great horrible demon of Gotha that decimated an entire town of paladins can be killed by a level one player by shooting arrows into him as he stands in the entryway to the castle.

However, the graphics are pretty and the game world is large, which is nice for exploring. I haven't had the corrupted save games problem that others have mentioned, thank Inos. And I keep playing the thing, so I suppose I must be getting some entertainment value of it. But the problems involved keep it from being one of those engrossing games where you get lost for hours. It's more something to do for a half an hour while taking a break from cleaning the kitchen. Too bad.

After installing the latest patch, this game runs great - and is great!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Since everybody wants to compare this game to Oblivion, I'm going to do just that. I played Oblivion for many a day way before I heard about Gothic 3. There are many reviews here that appeared for Gothic 3 when no patches had been released, and granted, the game probably was buggy.

When I purchased the game recently, the first thing I did was load the latest patch. I've been playing Gothic 3 now for over a month and the only issue I am having is... sometimes when my character is speaking to another person, the speech cannot be heard.
(You can read the text anyway so its not like you are missing something)

Now that ALL THE BAD stuff about the game is out of the way, let me give you my review of why I like this game so much, and why I like it more than Oblivion...

Firstly, the interface takes a little getting used to, but once I was comfortable with it it is in essence well designed. Getting the first quest seems a little vague as all you have to go by is the conversation you had with the person who gave you the quest. This makes the game more realistic though, making you seek out clues in what they say and making your mind up for yourself what needs to be done. Once I had gone to Cape Dun and done a whole bunch of little side quests I was well into the flow of the game and loving it.

In my honest opinion, I prefer this games graphics over Oblivions. In general the scenery looks more real. I really enjoy running around the countryside and appreciating the different types of terrain the game has to offer. I really feel like I'm in another world.

My biggest love for this game is the fact that when you have decided to choose a certain path, i.e help the orcs,or help overthrow the orcs, or just do things for your own personal gain, it really feels like you are part of a bigger picture, and not just performing random quests or following some cheesy main storeyline. Every action and sentence you choose with other characters needs to be thought about carefully, as some decisions cause catastrophic repurcussions that can change the way a certain faction feels about you. When I go on a quest for a party I want to help, I really feel that I want to help these people, and not just for the sake of getting more experience points. This has to the be the first RPG game that has given me this experience.

The open-endedness of the Gothic World, really is huge. The detail is magnificent, and looks nothing like 'random generated' scenery. Every corner you turn and every path you take is another little adventure of exploration and often I get a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach not knowing what to expect around the corner..

The skills and points learning system is well designed. When you level up, you gain 'learning points'. With these learning points you use to increase your character attributes (i.e strength, ancient knowledge etc.) and in turn you use learning points to acquire a new skill, i.e Skilled Swordfighter (which requires say a strength of 150). You also pay hefty sums of gold to be trained by NPC's so don't expect easy levelling up. You really need to think about what you want to become as a character and I think this makes the game very realistic and rewarding.

The background music is just that, background music, although there is a lack of variety the songs do blend nicely and help generate the desired atmosphere. The sound effects are well done and the voice acting is pretty solid. There are so many different people and so many different voices the game has done a good job overall in this department.

I can go on forever why I like this game. I really think it has many advantages over Oblivion. I find it more real and more rewarding. The scope of the world is huge. I'm playing every night for a couple of hours and can't wait for the next adventure or detailed quest that I am sent on. This is really a great role-playing game.

Potential Buyers: Read Between The Lines

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: February 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There are many negative comments written below regarding game performance. Many even claimed to have downloaded new drivers and still had poor game play (or they could not even get the game to function). Nobody mentioned that they downloaded the official patch which fixes many bugs.

I am running a very below-par system for this "resource hog": I have an AMD 3000+ 2.0GHz, 1.5gb ram, and a GeForce FX 5500 256mb graphics card. This graphics card is NOT known to be a good gaming card. When I first installed Gothic 3, I patched it immediately, yet my system would crash and go to a blue-screen immediately. So what did I do? Nope, didn't go and bash the game immediately. I updated my drivers, defraged my computer (for the hell of it, too much red), and searched the many posts online regarding my blue-screen error. They all pointed towards new drivers. With all that said and done, I tried to play the game again and what do you know, it plays... and plays... and plays... and I have never had a single crash or error in the game since. Although, at that point, it was horribly slow. I chose to overclock my graphics card (upped my memory clock by 25% and my 3D clock by an additional 45MHz).

I can only run the game on low settings (and it is still a little slow when new scenery is loading) but it has not impeded at all on the game play. I am over twenty hours into the game and loving it. Gothic 3 has really grown on me. In fact, it has occupied the majority of my past two days.

I highly recommend that anybody who owns or buys this game check for the most recent patch at [...] If I can run this game on my graphics card, after some mild tweaking and updating, then you most likely can as well. Just try. People all too quickly give in to the majority position (for example, bashing a game with the same comments). While I agree that the release of Gothic 3 should have been postponed, that is besides the matter when reviewing a game. To me, the content and gameplay is most important.

In comparison to Gothic 2, Gothic 3 has eliminated character classes and allows you to freely decide the future of your virtual world. In my experience thus far, I have posed as a mercenary for the Orcs and gained much respect for them, while actually being a member of the rebels. It's not like other games where when you "sign up" you are immediately chunked into that group, with all AI responding with regards to your label. Gothic 3 is much more dynamic and looks to be a fantistic playing experience.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next 

Actions