park_84: Is it recommended to play Risen before playing Gothic 3?
https://www.gog.com/pl/games?developers=piranha-bytes It is from the perspective of having a healthy break from the Gothic series, while a lot of Gothic 2 ideas can be found in Risen like the Monastery, Waterfall cave, chests with locks, way of interaction, power items, and the island itself... yet it gives fresh exotic world you can compare with this superior fanmade gothic2 based story
https://www.gog.com/pl/game/the_chronicles_of_myrtana_archolos , and then you can play really good pirate RPG Risen 2 or come back to Gothic world 3 to do a final deal with orcs
DD & Ji Ji: And the apocryphal games ? ArcaniA , ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif ? =)
Hopefully, the word spin-off would not hurt anyone's feelings, the game looks good yet I never tried but will, I feel the same with Risen 3 which is full of everything, still a good game.