Gothic 3

The wait has come to an end. Three years after the release of one of the best RPGs ever, Gothic II, Piranha Bytes brings forward the newest addition to the 3D-fantasy-RPG-series, Gothic 3. Fans everywhere have now a good reason to celebrate (by playing and populating the dedicated sites of course).

The nameless hero returns from the island of Khorinis. He is renown for his wits in combat as he's the one to slain the Sleeper (Gothic) and battle the fierce dragons (Gothic II). His ship's arrival causes joy and worry in the land of Myrtana. Every living speaking creature is curious to know what the redeemer sees fit to do, what fate will he decide for the two races. Unaware of the events on the mainland the all mighty hero discovers the story along with his most trusted friend and ally - YOU.

Story Arriving to the village of Ardea the hero is surprised to see that the order of the world as he knew it was long gone. The orcs are now in power and the humans are nothing more than their slaves or (the lucky strong warriors) mercenaries. The only free humans are the rebels, forced to hide in underground caves, usually badly supplied with weapons and food rations, always in need for new people, just waiting for you to take the first step in liberating the nearby settlement.

How could this have happened? The emperor had powerful Fire Mages and blessed paladins. There seemed very little chances of the humans being defeated. Yet the fate of the war was decided by betrayal: Xardas, the Dark Mage as he is known, destroyed the rune magic that allowed the mages to cast spells and the paladins to fight better. Without their prime source of power, humans lost to the orcs and were given two choices: be slaves or fight for their new masters as mercenaries.

The military regime the orcs established seems to bring out the cooperative side of the humans when it comes to the rebel camps or their slaves, yet does nothing but instigate their mercenaries to do whatever possible to secure their own wealth and serve their interest best. The hierarchy is the most important thing for the orcs. Their way of life is very strict. They are a race of warriors (not very bright, but strong and committed to their cause). Their leaders usually lack the spark of leadership genius, but they rely on the wisdom of their (few) shamans and the "kindness" of helping characters, such as the Dark Mage Xardas. They rule the realm by fear, they prize the battles and the greatest honor for them is to die fighting. They appear to be incapable of thinking of something to do with their newly acquired lands and working force so they keep following Xardas' advice.

On the other hand, there are the humans. The weak, skinny ones get to do the hard work as slaves. The more skillful humans get paid as mercenaries while the really lucky ones are merchants. They all work to sustain the orcs' kind of life. They take care of the food supplies, the booze (highly rated in the realm both by orcs and humans) and also they are in charged with the orcs' entertainment by fighting in specially designed arenas. Just like in the real world, when the conditions become this harsh there are people standing up, eager to liberate the human kind one settlement at a time (of course that would be their town, not a chance of getting them involved with neighbor cities).

Except for the capital city, Vengard, that's pretty much the humans' kind of way. One of the great wizards of the kingdom has successfully cast an energy barrier to keep the orcs at bay thus protecting the king's life. Most of the paladins retreated to the castle - the final bastion of the humans - to better defend their leader. Some of them got left back and are having big troubles in getting to the castle due to the groups of orcs that managed to get to the city before the barrier was up. Of course it's up to you again to kill all the orc commanders in the city. Here you meet (again if this is not the first game in the series that you play) king Rhobar. Just as expected he has a lame excuse for his guards past harassment, but you should probably wait a while before paying him back as paladins have no sense of humor and our hero finds himself surrounded by the bravest warriors the humankind has to offer.

As you can see the situation in the midlands is rather gloomy. The kingdom is not the only land that had to suffer from the orcs. When traveling to Nordmar you realize that the northern clans' lives have been shattered here too thanks to the orcs. The three clans are determined to eradicate the orcs. The hero finds here some of the best allies to his quest, strong, reliable hunters and fighters and the best weapons there are in the world. Aside from the clans, the icy slopes of the mountains also the make way for the Fire Mages Monastery. Here is where you get to decide the fate of humanity - the magic can be restored or lost forever.

The Hashishin give the orcs free access to all parts of the Varant Desert, the southern land that is, and support them in their excavations. Don't think that things are clear here either. All through the desert are bands of raiders. Some bands only deal with thievery, while others will fight (just like the rebels in the midlands) for their and their city brothers' freedom.

There wouldn't be much fun if there weren't lots and lots of monsters all throughout the map, varying according to the region they dwell in(some seem very much alike but they'll feel pretty different in combat). No matter where the quests lead, the hero is bound to face tons of goblins. These are the small, fragile, crudge using creatures that camp where you least expect them and ambush the adventurer on sight. Just like any other creatures, they act as a group - you can't take down one goblin at a time, they'll surround you and swing every bat there is at you. Be sure to watch out for the fireballs their shamans cast (the orcs' shamans also deal only with fireballs, I guess it's the oldest trick in the book and a very useful one I may add), other than that they won't do much damage later in game.

There you have it. There is an immense diversity of creatures and hundreds of NPCs to talk to. Almost everybody will have a task for you to accomplish (and yes, you are once again the only person that can do it all) and lots of them will share with you the "history" of the war between humans and orcs. You'll also meet with some of your former acquaintances from Gothic II, but don't worry they'll remind you what happened, in case your memory is fading or it's your first game in the series.

I wouldn't want to spoil the fun by revealing the whole story, but you should know that you're looking for artifacts of the Ancient Ones and your final target is to find Xardas (you'll decide later whether to kill him for causing so much trouble or join him). The artifacts are scattered throughout the country so be sure to check every cave and talk to every NPC you can find. You never know who might come across an old object they just want to sell or trade for a favor.

Every corner of forest, every house, farm and waterside illustrates a view of the cruel war that fell upon the land. The land is filled with long forgotten supply chests, skeletons of fallen heroes and beasts attracted by the smell of death. The whole atmosphere is sad despite the beautiful colors that nature has to offer. In the Myrtana all human cities are in ruin and need to be rebuilt (if you decide to conquer them back from the orcs). The story adjusts magnificently to all this and shapes accordingly to the hero choices.

Concept First of all you should keep in mind that every action has repercussions and news travel very fast. Thus by helping a rebel camp (to liberate a city occupied by orcs or just providing them with the much needed supplies) you increase your reputation with the entire rebel faction. Just as well you can make yourself known to the orcs, the rangers, the hashishin, the nomads and also to the northern people in Nordmar. Depending on your reputation within a certain faction the hero gets minor favors (as to be allowed to visit high ranking people of that faction). The same thing - acknowledgement of the hero's deeds - goes for visiting the chiefs of a city. You do a good job for the people, they respect you a little more and once you reach a high level of trust (usually 75%) you get to talk to the big boss.

If you ever hated that your inventory is too narrow, you can now relax and enjoy the infinite carrying capability. You probably won't keep much of the unnecessary items however as money is hard to gain and the best equipment - worthy of a real hero - is rather expensive. Nevertheless you'll want to stock up on different plants as you can prepare your own potions (with the right skills) and that is a lot cheaper. As expected you can also use the meat of slain monsters to regain your health. But raw meat is not that healthy so it is advisable to roast it by the camp fires you come across all through the map - that'll give you a boost of health.

Any respectable RPG grants the player with a suitable skill tree and Gothic 3 is no exception. There are certain quests that increase the hero's attributes, but don't expect to gain anything else then experience out of fighting all day long. Every level gained comes with 10 experience points that you can use to increase one of your stats or gain a new skill, either way you'll have to pay for that and, more importantly, to find an adequate character that can teach you.

Everything is well organized and you have several fields you can specialize in (usually you'll need a little bit of everything, but that's up to you to decide). First of all there are the fighting skills influenced especially by strength. This allows you to improve your mastery of swords, large weapons such as axes, crossbows and parry tactics. In addition you can develop special skills such as orc slayer - increased damage to orcs - and paladin - better protection.

Then there's the hunting section (corresponding to the hunting skill) where the hero learns how to use the bow more efficiently and increase your odds when hunting animals. As a bonus you'll have (again) the possibility of orc slayer ability, sneaking past the wild beasts and grabbing skin, teeth and claws from the dead animal victims (a special ability to skin reptiles).

Next are the magic skills allowing you to use staves, wear magic armor and developing your intelligence by learning faster. For these the hero needs to be educated in the art of ancient knowledge, which will also allow the use of spells.

Smith skills are rather useful, although you may not think that the first time you notice them. Being able to sharpen your blades and use a pickaxe to collect ore turns out to be effective. With a lot of dedication you can build your own weapons, even magical ones, following a traditional recipe (which you buy from a more experienced smith, of course). And if you just hate to throw away money on fashionable suits of armor, all you need to do is learn how to make your own.

Are you tired of always doing the right thing? Check out the thief skills. Improve at picking locks, performing pickpockets and, why not, sneak pass the enemy, knock 'em down and bargain for the cost of your crimes.

Alchemy skills are all about brewing potions and enchanting your weapons - fire and exploding arrows, poisoned arrows and swords. This is also the place to learn how to brew transformation and permanent potions (yes you can increase your attributes using potions, but you'll first need to find the necessary ingredients and that will be quite a challenge as they are very rare). In order to make use of the alchemy skills the hero needs a recipe, ingredients and an alchemist bench.

The damage the hero receives is based on his armor protection against weapons (blades, impact and missiles) and magical damage (fire, ice and energy). The definitive attributes of the hero (constantly shown during a fight) are the life energy, mana and endurance. These attributes can be individually increased when praying to the gods (Innos and Beliar). The gods are the only ones that allow the learning of spells (yes you need to pay and yes you need learning points) since the mages were only able to cast spells using the rune magic.

Indispensable are the main quest objects that (fortunately) don't show up in the trading menu (I would have probably sold them a thousand times to get the money for that fancy armor). Speaking of trading I must say this is a very interesting aspect of the game. You can trade with almost everybody you can talk to, seems like trading is an important custom both for humans and orcs. It doesn't matter what you want to sell, the price is always the same and nobody will refuse any of your wares. You can only make a deal with the NPC as long as the value of the two bunches of goods is the same (no worries, there is a button to fill up the rest with gold).

Gameplay The world in Gothic 3 is as real as possible. NPCs, animals and monsters sleep at night and pretty much have a life of their own - they talk to one another, panic when you take out your weapon or go to a restricted area, work (slaves especially and merchants occasionally), eat, drink (there's a lot of drinking involved in the lands of Mytrana) and all of them have important info on the recent events or desperately need your help (you wanted tons of quests, you got it).

At times it may seem that the game is a little too realistic as certain quests you get are rather ambiguous and you are not really sure of what you're supposed to do (like the find Xardas quest - where do I look, who do I need to talk to, is it OK to ask just anybody). This kind of quests tends to unravel themselves once you progress through the story, so the main thing about the game is to be a little patient (more or less whether your goal is to enjoy a few jobs well done for the community or untie the secrets of the events). You'll also need the patience skill for running around all over the map as the teleporter stones can only take you to main settlements and they can only be found in the vicinity of the given city (be sure to search every corner as each settlement has it's own teleporter stone and they are usually unique items).

You wonder what the atmosphere is like in the game. Huge! Majestic landscapes accompany your every step and when you see how slowly you seem to move on the world map (better be on the lookout to get one, else you'll only benefit of general impressions about the cities in the world but no way to see your current position) you realize how big the realm is. The story also reveals to you few local maps (example a map of a few northern caves) and several notes/letters.

There are few places on the map where you can relax and enjoy the view, as the monsters rule the wilderness (wild animals, ogres, trolls, gargoyles, golems, summoned demons or goblins). One solution is for the hero to take the lives of the unfortunate creatures and find a cozy spot (perhaps a bench or a camp fire) to admire the landscapes. The good thing is that once you kill certain animals they'll stay dead (and they'll be on the ground anytime you decide to plunder their corpses).

Interesting is the combat system. You should familiarize a little with it (well, you'll be able to test your finger skills from the very beginning as you drop right in the middle of an orc versus man fight). It all relies on how you click your mouse buttons while using the directional keys (good old WASD) to determine the opponent to strike at. A swift left-click offers a standard attack, while a long left-click enables the power strike, but be careful as it needs time to charge. A short right-click provides a quick attack, while holding the right mouse button allows you to parry. Combining these in addition to changing the angle of attack offers a good fighting experience and adequate battle schemes (I really enjoyed the fight scenes - especially the ones where I don't end up dead). What's more if the character was a friend, in order to kill him the hero has to perform a finishing move (long left-click) that allows him to stab the collapsed enemy, otherwise the character will get away with a minor headache. Fights among friends are allowed, but once you take a soul be prepared for his friends to try to do him justice. If you want to avoid a fight all that needs to be done is backaway as far as it takes for the attacker to calm down.

You will be very happy to know that your party members (yes there can be more than one) finally learned to stick by your side, at least when it doesn't involve too much jumping around and you can really rely on their skills in combat, enabling you to make good use of your ranging skills. Some of them have their own health potions, others will wait patiently for you to heal their wounds or offer them a potion.

Given the immensity of the world, it is natural to say that the loading time seems to take forever. The bright side is that it only loads once. The down side is that you need to save a gazillion of times - low level monsters might cause troubles if they are part of a bigger group (especially goblins) and, well, you may run once in a while into big nasty monsters and you might be sorry you didn't take the time to save - and that takes a few precious seconds (kind of like minutes).

Video Breathtaking environment, highly detailed buildings (more than 21.000 polygons each as Piranha Bytes says), good characters design. This would be the first impression on the visual aspect of the game. On a second look you may notice similarities between the present orcs and their predecessors from Gothic and Gothic II, suggesting an evolution of the race.

While admiring the landscapes one can be amazed by the high level of details in the near surroundings, leaving the furthest visible regions blurry as if a watercolor painting. The tricky part is that this visibility distance also applies to enemies, so you might want to think twice about wandering through the lands looking at the stars, waterfalls and sky high mountains - tripping on a pack of wolves is rather expectable, but you survive with a few scratches, unlike meeting a troll let's say that would literally rock your world.

Death in the game occurs in a very Salvador Dali style. I mean they all seem to melt in some sort of way - their muscles relax so much that they appear to have no bones left in the body. But it's not a vital aspect and it's a positive fact that they tend to mold over the terrain they fall over. It still feels extremely good to hack your way through enemies and the combat animations cover for the unappealing final sleep.

There seems to be an everlasting breeze in the world of Gothic as the grass and trees never stop swinging. The water doesn't impress either as it is perfectly still, no ripples and no waves unless you go for a walk.

Sound The respected Bochum Symphony Orchestra has performed 60 minutes for the game. The music theme varies accordingly to the region you travel (north, south or midlands) and on whether you're under attack or not. In addition the voice acting was absolutely fabulous. Approximately 25.000 lines of dialog sum up to about 18 hours of mere dialog. Joyful, upset, serious, cheating voices present you the story of the horrors of the war and consequences (some of them are familiar to you from the previous Gothic games and lots of them are brand new).

Multiplayer Well, if you decide to play on the side of humans and then start another game in the service of orcs, you could compare the output of the two decisions? Just kidding! No multiplayer.

Conclusion All in all, the graphics of the game may not be quite categorized as cutting edge, but along with appropriate sounds, an immense world, hundreds of interactive characters, tons of beasts and scary monsters and a catchy storyline all cooperate to offer the perfect support for a very exciting gaming experience. Whether this is your first Gothic title or you already are a series' fan, you'll be pleasantly impressed with this RPG.

Gothic 3 presents a long lasting activity for the winter days and nights to come. Minor setbacks due to bug problems will probably be rapidly fixed through patches (the first one already made it to the download section of the official site). Unfortunately nothing can be done about the high resources requirements for a relaxing hero cruising, but it's certainly the kind of game that is worth upgrading your system.