I don't normally makes threads like these so early on but some things about the beginning really stood out to me.

Oh, also I started with Alternate Balance & AI.

THIS IS NOT A HELP THREAD. I AM NOT ASKING FOR YOUR HELP HERE. I AM SIMPLY RELAYING MY EXPERIENCE.

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The game starts and IMMEDIATELY I'm thrust into a large-scale fight before I have any idea how ANYTHING works. This is REALLY jarring- even more so because I'm struck with the sense that I should be doing something but then my progress is halted by a textbox.

The textbox gives me a large amount of information in too little space, and I end up knowing less after reading it than I did before! LMB AND RMB attack? RMB ALSO blocks? Direction keys can attack? What, huh?

I turn those off and engage an Orc fighting Gorn. I try to alternate LMB and RMB (because the textbox did not help in understanding the mechanics) and then the Orc knocks me flat. I've already been beaten in a fight and I'm 10 seconds into the game. Oh? What's this? I'm regenerating! Oh, I got back up! Interesting.

I finish off the Orc this time and turn to help another of my companions.

I get knocked out again and then get back up.

At this point I find out breakfast is ready so I turn off the game and realize the biggest difference between G1/2 and G3:

The sense of distance.

When I fight in G1/2 I FEEL things happening in the game. If someone is attacking I KNOW they're attacking, if someone is blocking I KNOW they're blocking.

In G3 everything feels so distant, like I can't tell when someone is throwing an attack or blocking. Things happen and I can only wonder at the result.

I'm sure I'll get better at gauging these things as I play, but this was a really jarring beginning to a game.

Heya, I have read your other topics as well, I won't spoil anything, just trying to give you a bit of guidance with the game.

The modding bit in the sticky area is slightly outdated and incomplete. The latest community patch goes by the version number 1.75.14 as opposed to 1.74. You can even go a step further and try the 1.75 update pack which introduces quite a few bug fixes and game play changes over the community patch.

You can also add fan-made content by installing the Content Mod (I think 2.6.3 is the latest international version) along with the latest Questpaket. New dialogues are voiced in German only, but you have the option not to install it during the setup so you can simply go with English subtitles. Some are hilarious and add a massive amount of lore to the game, definitely worth installing.

What I recommend is try playing it WITHOUT AI first. Alternative balancing is great even for first timers, but turning AI on makes the game really tough and combat-focused. I completed this game over a dozen times, and believe me, I still find things I never encountered before; I would rather immerse myself in the world on the first occasion. Combat can be challenging on hard difficulty (3 opponents can attack at the same time) enough to keep you on the edge, and the sheer amount of enemies in the game makes the brainless original combat element a necessity if you want to finish the game this year.

Good luck and happy exploring, if you don't find any of the mods do tell, I'll post links.

Whatever anyone might think about G3, there's no question it makes a horrible first impression. It's so bad I tend to disregard it when evaluating the game. You just have to grit your teeth and plow through that first battle. Nothing that happens in that battle matters anyway.

Isn't it funny that the first thing your character does upon returning to the mainland is go ashore without any of your artifact-level weapons and armor from G2? Oh, and then your ship is stolen by pirates. Oh, and magic is dead, and he's forgotten all the skills he used to complete G2. And he can't climb or dive underwater anymore. And orcs have evolved into Klingons.

If you can set aside all that silliness, G3 isn't too bad.

Haha, quite. :D

Once I get my desktop computer fixed up I'm going to play it, hopefully it'll lag less than it does on my laptop.

Can you spell, "hurry up and get it released! No time to think!"?

In a way I give them credit for that opening battle - at least they tried to do something different.

It didn't work. At all. But they tried.

A tutorial on the cheap, me thinks :) I still think it was a desperation move - PB was going broke fast and needed quick cash. They ended up selling the franchise shortly thereafter. No condemnation and the game, after unofficial fixes, turned out quite well; they did what they had to do.

Jowood rushed them into releasing the game in its then current buggy form because the development took longer than PB expected. They went separate ways afterwards and Deep Silver signed them up in a month or two for Risen. This was the story according to Michael Hoge :)

I've also heard JoWood was responsible for the rushed release.

Gothic protagonist's *forgetful* skills is clearly explained in Gothic 2 by Vatras the Water Mage.

If we assume that the Sleeper and Dragons were the beasts created by Beliar and protagonist is the human chosen/sent to slay beasts by Innos himself, then after slaying the ultimate beast as Vatras says: "...Adanos saw that Order and Chaos were now unequal and he bade Innos to take his divine power from the human."

Even Xardas gives hints that protagonist (Rhobar?) is no more a chosen hero of Innos than he of Beliar. For me denying that is the all proof I need ;)

It makes sense in Gothic 2.

It makes no sense in Gothic 3.

That's true of most things in those games.

So much for infallable gods; wrong twice! (I think not). It was and is a huge stretch, basically a fail.