Gothic 3

Gothic 3 is an action RPG in which you can choose to side with Orcs or Humans, deciding the fate of the two races.

Story

Gothic 3 opens with the Nameless Hero and his friends sailing to a new continent overrun with orcs, arriving in the Myrtana, the central region of the continent. Presumably this is the source of the Orc invasion that was launched on Khorinis during the second chapter. These lands have no physical connection to Khorinis or the ruins of the penal colony. In these mountainous forests the orcs have enslaved the human kingdom with only a few free humans living in the nearly uninhabitable icy Northlands of Nordmar and the southern desert of Varant. The hero must decide whether to join the rebellion and stay true to the deposed human king, serve the Orcish usurpers in their quest to topple the last remaining human stronghold, or choose a path that serves his own ends. Throughout the story, he is accompanied by a number of NPCs, some of whom are old friends. While this chapter brings forward friends from the previous title ( Xardas, Diego, Milten, Gorn, Lester, and Vatras) it also introduces two new major characters; King Rhobar the Second (Who ultimately was responsible for sending the Nameless Hero to the penal colony in the first game) and Zuben. While the king has a strong past as a bold leader, he now faces a near defeat; his fame on the decline. Zuben leads the Hashishin that inhabit the southern region of Varant.

Gameplay

The player must complete quests and slay wild animals and monsters to earn experience and improve skills. The game is reputation centric allowing the player to side with the Orcs or Humans or a little of both within the quest and faction systems, or just battle it out. The player is able to take advantage of missons to allow either side to take over towns. Dialog changes according to in-game actions and behavior. The game places a special focus on the interactivity of the environment. The game claimed to employ an unusual combat system which emphasizes carefully timed combinations of strikes, requiring the player to read the body language of attacking opponents. However, in practice, many players found the combat system lacking such unique features and have been known to describe it as a "button mashing clickfest." This was due to the fact that the most successful strategy during combat seems to be to just click the left mouse button as quickly as you can, if you time it right at the beginning you are able to defeat any enemy with relative ease. The controls have been altered slightly with a stronger focus on action. Navigation and combat are more mouse-centric, with each mouse button having a different combat action. The Nameless Hero can also now wield dual weapons or use a shield.

Reception

Gothic 3 was met with a poor reception in the US, attracting negative criticism for numerous and significant bugs, poor voice-acting, and performance issues.The game has received numerous patches but continued support has ended due to the split between JoWooD and Piranha Games.

In the central and eastern Europe, however - especially in Germany (the home of the developers), Poland and Russia - it received very favorable reviews, ranging from 7 to even 9 on a 10-point rating scale. The game was far better treated there because of much greater attention paid to the voice-work, faster patch releases, better franchise recognition, and overall greater publisher and community support.

The game is now supported through community patches. The so-called "Enhanced" version of Gothic 3 resolved most of the bugs, balanced the combat and trading systems, and improved memory and graphics card utilization.