(Or swords slashing, I suppose.) Get surrounded and you're done for, so most times you resorted to picking individuals off from afar with your bow before wading in with a blade. At times, it felt more like picking away at the edges of the game to find an unguarded weak spot, than to go in guns blazing. Unwieldy melee-combat and unrelenting beasts, coupled with a slow levelling up system, meant progress was somewhat tardy. Those who've experienced Gothic numbers one and two should realise that they could be a bit of a tough cookie on occasions. For one, because the opportunity to confidently shoot off a few spells doesn't occur until a lot later on, and two, because you need all the help you can get. It's nowhere near as dynamic as Dark Messiah, however and, in the world of Myrtana, circumstances tend to dictate becoming a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. You're then given the choice to specialise as a warrior, hunter, or magician. Ostensibly, Gothic 3 plumps you with one unalterable character - a bland, bearded nobody with little in the choice of class or weapon skills. Because while there's plenty of room to manoeuvre and missions to undertake, in terms of character-building, things are vastly reduced. Yet, for all its go-anywhere charm, unlike 'that-game-beginning-with O' (we really can't escape these Elder Scrolls references, can we?), it's not overwhelming in its scope. If you're one of the many who are committed to holding out for Vista before taking the plunge, and hence have a graphics card that runs on coal, prepare to lose quite a bit of detail. If you've already upgraded your system to make the most of Oblivion or equivalent you'll be well-serviced. The graphics engine's a bit of a system-hogger and on lesser computers can chug more than a charity worker at a frat party. It's a beautifully rich free-form environment, as much a pleasure to explore without resorting to combat as is World of Warcraft's or Oblivion's, even if that natural splendour does come at something of a price. So what exactly makes the archetypal Gothic games such a respectable yet undervalued series? Perhaps, chiefly, because of its open-ended world, a vast potential of lush greenery sculpted lovingly by the designers (joined this time by obligatory desert and ice landscapes). Rural Warrior If this were any other game, I'd take my chances. Such a conventional RPG format (talk, get quest, do quest, repeat) and an admittedly pedestrian script make characters mere conduits for quests rather than people you actually care about. As per bloody usual.Īgain, don't worry: names and places aren't important. All the while there's the whiff of something bigger beneath the surface, a dangerous element that threatens to rear its head the further you progress. It's up to you, then, whether you work on uniting the rebels to liberate the land, or side with the mercenaries and kiss some scaly green bottom for a share of power and one of the alternate endings. Here's all you need to know: you've just returned from adventure and intrigue on the island of Khorinis only to find your homeland of Myrtana conquered by orcs (and your stats inexplicably reset to zero, coincidentally). This time, however, by concentrating on evolving in its own niche, number three succeeds on its own terms: an interface that actually works, a modern lick of paint, and an (albeit misfiring) attempt to revise its fighting system now's as good an opportunity as ever to step onto that carousel of orc-bashing familiarity.ĭevoid of reams of back-story and supplementary literature, don't worry, it's as easy for newcomers to jump in as it is for veterans - maybe a little too easy for those who invested their hard-earned time in its prequels. And while it did gain some popularity on the continent, we'd gather it passed a lot of you by. In a sense, that's its own reward: the first two in the series fell in between the pre- and post cracks of Morrowind, usurped by that game's scale. Instead, Gothic 3 is an attempt to successfully improve on both the ancient fantasy template and its own personal formula. Given the latter's pedigree, that would have been foolish. In other words, Gothic 3 isn't an exercise in pushing back against the colossus of Oblivion, that RPG that now pretty much defines the fantasy genre in Europe and the U.S. In essence, it's a sequel that's returned home from a stressful term at university, older and wiser, prepared to spend a week snuggled up in its Transformers duvet as the smell of its mum's home-made macaroni cheese wafts under the bedroom door. Such well-worn tasks so early in the game can only indicate that we're back once more into a comfortable, traditional role-playing territory we know like the back of our hand. In order to set the scene, let's go back to the first couple of hours in Piranha Byte's third-person swords and goblins adventure and take a gander at my mission list:
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