Posted April 19, 2015
I'm not terribly far in but I have to say, I'm really enjoying the experience. I am playing it right out of the box (no questpack or content mods) as I believe the Community Patch is included in the GOG version.
Playing medium difficulty with both Alternate AI and Alternate Balancing on makes the game a challenge...at least so far. I died about 10 times just getting through the first battle.
The monsters I have faced so far are varied and capable, but the AI is not terribly excellent in all respects. I have found it does not do very well against ranged bow attacks. It is far too easy to fire a few shots and run. Unlike Skyrim where enemy archers will lead your movements in order to get a hit, in Gothic 3, when they fire, they fire where you stand, so a slight strafe will make them miss every time. Not always possible, but in some cases, shoot and run has made battles I should have lost, winnable. Blade-on-blade combat is pretty good and damned hard. Beasts just charge, but men and orcs hang back when you swing or parry and lunge in after your attacks. Melee is done with left and right mouse clicks so on the surface the control is easy. But it isn't. Timing is everything. Lunge in at the wrong time and they will take your head off. But it is so satisfying to catch them moving in with a powerful swing and put them down...because you know that won't happen again for a while.
Another interesting thing to combat is that if you shoot a few arrows and run away to the point the enemy stops chasing you and returns to their den, the enemy unit will regen their health. So you cannot shoot from the shadows, run and return later. I think I like this. It forces you to face them fairly.
So far the story is ok. I don't mind the liberation theme at all. I'm just at the beginning so it really feels like I am part of a fledgling rebellion just getting ready to kick off...in my wake, of course. :)
Voice work and dialog is about the same as other Gothic games. Passable with some characters much better than others.
There is some silliness with quests. I found a group of orcs who I thought I had to drive off as I'd accepted a quest to that effect. So I charged in and slaughtered them all. I was quite surprised with they all stood up after a few minutes and started complaining about broken bones and went right back to their camp fire. Turns out...those were not the orcs I was looking for. Later I accepted a different "drive off the orcs quest" and returned to them. This time, when I put them down, they stayed down. Other rpgs have no issues with doing things out of order. Here they do. This might become annoying if I continually kill things that get back up as they will regen health and I'll have to do it all over again.
My two cents
EDIT: Come to think of it...the orcs did not attack me. I attacked them. Later, when I had the quest, they attacked. So I suppose if you only attack things that attack you, you'll be alright.
Playing medium difficulty with both Alternate AI and Alternate Balancing on makes the game a challenge...at least so far. I died about 10 times just getting through the first battle.
The monsters I have faced so far are varied and capable, but the AI is not terribly excellent in all respects. I have found it does not do very well against ranged bow attacks. It is far too easy to fire a few shots and run. Unlike Skyrim where enemy archers will lead your movements in order to get a hit, in Gothic 3, when they fire, they fire where you stand, so a slight strafe will make them miss every time. Not always possible, but in some cases, shoot and run has made battles I should have lost, winnable. Blade-on-blade combat is pretty good and damned hard. Beasts just charge, but men and orcs hang back when you swing or parry and lunge in after your attacks. Melee is done with left and right mouse clicks so on the surface the control is easy. But it isn't. Timing is everything. Lunge in at the wrong time and they will take your head off. But it is so satisfying to catch them moving in with a powerful swing and put them down...because you know that won't happen again for a while.
Another interesting thing to combat is that if you shoot a few arrows and run away to the point the enemy stops chasing you and returns to their den, the enemy unit will regen their health. So you cannot shoot from the shadows, run and return later. I think I like this. It forces you to face them fairly.
So far the story is ok. I don't mind the liberation theme at all. I'm just at the beginning so it really feels like I am part of a fledgling rebellion just getting ready to kick off...in my wake, of course. :)
Voice work and dialog is about the same as other Gothic games. Passable with some characters much better than others.
There is some silliness with quests. I found a group of orcs who I thought I had to drive off as I'd accepted a quest to that effect. So I charged in and slaughtered them all. I was quite surprised with they all stood up after a few minutes and started complaining about broken bones and went right back to their camp fire. Turns out...those were not the orcs I was looking for. Later I accepted a different "drive off the orcs quest" and returned to them. This time, when I put them down, they stayed down. Other rpgs have no issues with doing things out of order. Here they do. This might become annoying if I continually kill things that get back up as they will regen health and I'll have to do it all over again.
My two cents
EDIT: Come to think of it...the orcs did not attack me. I attacked them. Later, when I had the quest, they attacked. So I suppose if you only attack things that attack you, you'll be alright.
Post edited April 19, 2015 by menschenfresser
