Disclaimer: I have never played "Gothic" or its sequels. My PC Specs are as follows: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.36Ghz; 4GB RAM; en9600GT 1TB; Realtek HD Surround on board Gigabyte 5 Series Running WINXP SP2. Since this is an RPG, quite a big one, it's based on what I experienced.
This is the last thing i typed: I couldn't write about everything, I've left a buckload out!
Apparantly this game has been in the making for quite a while, I'm glad that I only heard about it two months ago, because the screenshots and the gameplay videos are very enticing!
I bought the game last friday, installed it (no cd-key; no DRM; good old PC game) and have been playing fervently since so, here goes.
You didn't lose your memory. You weren't an heroic knight who was stripped of all his skills. You were an absolute nobody (apparantly, so far).
And in all honestly, you look like you were mounting up to be nothing more than a farm hand or a commoner, back where you came from.
Stowing away on a ship presumably escaping the "Engulfing Dark", or "Dark Wave" that has screwed up most of civilized Earth (earth?) you make your first appearance hiding in the shadows of a cabin with quite a hot CGI chick beside you. Something happens (spoiler) and the boat is engulfed by a tidal wave.
Beach. Storm. Forest. Dead people.
You wake up on a debris-strewn beach and find gold and a club and some corpses and the CGI hot chick unconscious. You wake her up and she serves a full twenty minutes at being a kind of tutorial program showing you how the 'game' works, without losing immersion.
Skipping a bit on, so as to not spoil anything, the game reaches a sort of crossroad (sort of, because you can pretty much do what you like), where you have to basically choose which Faction (Mages (apparantly); Bandits and; The Order) or 'Fraction' to join... Wait, that sounds too linear... it's a bit more complicated than that.
i.e You can't choose to be a mage, warrior, or whatever the Order counts as. It's about what choices you make in the game. If you head into the swamp you're entering the Bandit's Area (no 'hostility' from them though, you're a nobody) where there are plenty of beasties, caves, quests, politics, jobs, items and gold waiting for you. After this, and doing a bunch of quests, I willingly walked into The Order's excavation site. They kidnapped me (ala 'the others' - cause you dont know why) and a few 'days' of active training, via a multitude of unrepetitive quests, I was sent down to Harbour Town - which is a city (ironically). More on this later.
The biggest surprise I had in these opening stages of the game was the fact that when I levelled up I received 10 learning points to spend on different attributes (the usual). The surprise was, I spent half an hour trying to figure out how to increase my Strength, realizing later, with no big thanks to the manual, that you had to be trained to be stronger, increase dexterity, etc. at a price.
In other words, it costs gold to level up. Which is the best thing an RPG could have really.
Some of you are now saying "Duhh... that's old news... Gothic!" or "What!? That sounds pathetic!"
But believe me... It works! It makes levelling up more challenging AND it gives gold (in all it's scarcity) real meaning. This mechanic has probably been used for quite a while and I think it's perfect!
But that isn't the only way to increase your attributes, books help too! So do the Items! (Helm; Armour; 2 Rings etc.)!
Moving along to quests. I have done quite a few, but I haven't had one case of repetition so far! Each and every one has different outcomes... Based on what happens in a conflict situation could turn some NPC's against you, and some in your favour - adding to your reputation which is more felt than measured by any in-game feature.
The world. Absolutely stunning with Ruins hidden away, caves with mega beasties inside, 'dungeons' and much much more.
All fit together in a lush, vibrant world with beautiful vistas, waterfallls and disgusting bogs. What can I say to make you understand? Ah! A better world than Oblivion... for sure!
The Game itself? Well... Just when I thought killing wolves, giant moths and gnomes was all there was, I ventured into a ruin which turned out to be an all-round bad idea. Scorpions - ones that Scorponok(c) would be afraid of- ripped me to shreds in seconds. I had to quickload and lure each one out one at a time, which is about how good you are at timing video games.
Combat: R-Click lets you block. L-Click lets you kill. Whilst utilizing WASD throughout the game to travel, AA'ing lets you side-step left, and DD'ing lets you side-step right. SS'ing means you duck back. Very useful against giant-ass scorpions who want nothing more than to eat you, but, timing.is.everything. and simply using wasd will maneauver you wherever you want to go - even in combat - should you wish.
Against the first scorpion: I quick-saved/loaded fifteen times. Each beastie has a different way of attempted murder ie fighting.
So the second scorpion wasn't that bad. Once the temple was 'cleared' of these beasts, I ventured a little further in. Used my Telekenesis to deactivate a trap that you have to be caught in to realize is there. As i came around the next corner there were two 'humanoid' things there. I saw something about 'Elite Warrior' and died quick-quick.
I quick saved back to a couple of seconds before and got my ass out of there.
I could tell you about how cool this game is for hours. It's cool. It's so cool that it plays like a 'completely finished and developed Hellgate London' (to put that straight, let me explain: Had the boys at Flagship put another year or so into HG:L... something like RISEN is what they would have struck. Just cuz the controls and camera-usage are the same)
But I'm gonna rather tell you what I don't like about this game.
1. There was no Hype - not even a bit of sensationalism.
2. It's not for everyone (if you like games that tell you what to do - switch to FPS)
3. You can do whatever your heart desires:
explained:
You can kill anyone and if you don't concentrate on the task or quest at hand you can fail> to such an extent that you won't be able to complete the main quest!
4. The PC got it first - apparantly in the Xbox version some aspects (see above) will be revised.
5. You, a clear fan of RPG's hasn't bought it yet.
Before I close I'd like to say that the big boys of gaming can take a feather out of Piranha Bytes' cap. They know what an RPG is.
Picking up in Harbour Town and Closing this review I would just like to add that at this time I was playing for roughly 15Hrs altogether (save games labels) and was still on chapter 1. Apparantly there's 5.
In Harbour Town I screwed up. I didn't pay attention to the game and completely failed a very important, very long quest. I couldn't load back.
So i did what all RPG fans do - I checked the internet, found someone with a similair (yet, not the same) problem but no answers.
So I restarted the game. Happily.
Cause there's no way I'll be able to remember to do everything exactly the way i did before. I'm taking another path. Bacause I can.
I am so glad they've made a good game ^^.
When I saw this, I was like "Huh, that kinda looks like Gothic 3".
Then saw the developer, and now I HAVE to buy it.
And btw, if you like Risen, I'd also highly recommend Gothic 3, it shares many of the same mechanics, and the same unrepetitive storyline.
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Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
I downloaded the Demo for Risen and im playing it now... I might get the full game later. I also played Gothic 3 and i liked it, Risen looks so much better.
G3 was a lame foot, everything else was good and I'm sure Piranha is back to normal... JoWood screwed them up with G3 and paid for it, now they're stuck with Spellbound.
Gothic III was the worst in the Gothic series. Gothic I and Gothic II are alot better in terms of polishing. Story and gameplay are great in all of them. And the world is (except G3 partially) so believable and intense that you'll feel "at home" while playing it.
Well of course Gothic 3 wasn't that good, I still thought that the storyline was quite incredible, along with all the options available to you.
I really wish they hadof released it after a bit more polish, that game did not get the praise it was due.
Several community patches fixed the endless torrent of bugs and glitches though, it's quite playable and enjoyable once you download them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
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Gothic III was the worst in the Gothic series. Gothic I and Gothic II are alot better in terms of polishing. Story and gameplay are great in all of them. And the world is (except G3 partially) so believable and intense that you'll feel "at home" while playing it.
totally agree. gothic 3 sucked... twas a big disappointment.
hopefully arcania, the the next gothic game will be better
That review nails it - in a way. I'm still playing fervently and now in Chapter 2: My Mage (who also wields a blade) makes quick work of the wildlife - but I've got bigger things to worry about...
Look, the game takes awhile, I'll admit. But I'm not bored. Head out to their site and download the demo. It's a gig.
My PC Specs are as follows: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.36Ghz; 4GB RAM; en9600GT 1TB; Realtek HD Surround on board Gigabyte 5 Series Running WINXP SP2.
Since this is an RPG, quite a big one, it's based on what I experienced.
And in all honestly, you look like you were mounting up to be nothing more than a farm hand or a commoner, back where you came from.
Stowing away on a ship presumably escaping the "Engulfing Dark", or "Dark Wave" that has screwed up most of civilized Earth (earth?) you make your first appearance hiding in the shadows of a cabin with quite a hot CGI chick beside you. Something happens (spoiler) and the boat is engulfed by a tidal wave.
You wake up on a debris-strewn beach and find gold and a club and some corpses and the CGI hot chick unconscious. You wake her up and she serves a full twenty minutes at being a kind of tutorial program showing you how the 'game' works, without losing immersion.
i.e You can't choose to be a mage, warrior, or whatever the Order counts as. It's about what choices you make in the game. If you head into the swamp you're entering the Bandit's Area (no 'hostility' from them though, you're a nobody) where there are plenty of beasties, caves, quests, politics, jobs, items and gold waiting for you. After this, and doing a bunch of quests, I willingly walked into The Order's excavation site. They kidnapped me (ala 'the others' - cause you dont know why) and a few 'days' of active training, via a multitude of unrepetitive quests, I was sent down to Harbour Town - which is a city (ironically). More on this later.
In other words, it costs gold to level up. Which is the best thing an RPG could have really.
Some of you are now saying "Duhh... that's old news... Gothic!" or "What!? That sounds pathetic!"
But believe me... It works! It makes levelling up more challenging AND it gives gold (in all it's scarcity) real meaning. This mechanic has probably been used for quite a while and I think it's perfect!
All fit together in a lush, vibrant world with beautiful vistas, waterfallls and disgusting bogs. What can I say to make you understand? Ah! A better world than Oblivion... for sure!
Combat: R-Click lets you block. L-Click lets you kill. Whilst utilizing WASD throughout the game to travel, AA'ing lets you side-step left, and DD'ing lets you side-step right. SS'ing means you duck back. Very useful against giant-ass scorpions who want nothing more than to eat you, but, timing.is.everything. and simply using wasd will maneauver you wherever you want to go - even in combat - should you wish.
Against the first scorpion: I quick-saved/loaded fifteen times. Each beastie has a different way of attempted murder ie fighting.
So the second scorpion wasn't that bad. Once the temple was 'cleared' of these beasts, I ventured a little further in. Used my Telekenesis to deactivate a trap that you have to be caught in to realize is there. As i came around the next corner there were two 'humanoid' things there. I saw something about 'Elite Warrior' and died quick-quick.
I quick saved back to a couple of seconds before and got my ass out of there.
But I'm gonna rather tell you what I don't like about this game.
2. It's not for everyone (if you like games that tell you what to do - switch to FPS)
3. You can do whatever your heart desires:
explained:
You can kill anyone and if you don't concentrate on the task or quest at hand you can fail> to such an extent that you won't be able to complete the main quest!
4. The PC got it first - apparantly in the Xbox version some aspects (see above) will be revised.
5. You, a clear fan of RPG's hasn't bought it yet.
In Harbour Town I screwed up. I didn't pay attention to the game and completely failed a very important, very long quest. I couldn't load back.
So i did what all RPG fans do - I checked the internet, found someone with a similair (yet, not the same) problem but no answers.
So I restarted the game. Happily.
When I saw this, I was like "Huh, that kinda looks like Gothic 3".
Then saw the developer, and now I HAVE to buy it.
And btw, if you like Risen, I'd also highly recommend Gothic 3, it shares many of the same mechanics, and the same unrepetitive storyline.
I downloaded the Demo for Risen and im playing it now... I might get the full game later. I also played Gothic 3 and i liked it, Risen looks so much better.
I was on the fence about the game, but now I'll probably pick it up on Steam along with my L4D2 preorder.
Well of course Gothic 3 wasn't that good, I still thought that the storyline was quite incredible, along with all the options available to you.
I really wish they hadof released it after a bit more polish, that game did not get the praise it was due.
Several community patches fixed the endless torrent of bugs and glitches though, it's quite playable and enjoyable once you download them.
totally agree. gothic 3 sucked... twas a big disappointment.
hopefully arcania, the the next gothic game will be better
Risen is way much better than gothic 3
Look, the game takes awhile, I'll admit. But I'm not bored. Head out to their site and download the demo. It's a gig.