If you all solemnly swear that Gothic II is much better than what its successor has become, though, I’ll give it a try.

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Really? I stopped going to the movies in Gerrmany when the voice actor of Sean Connery said “Willkommen auf zze Rock.” (welcome to the rock). No more localized movies or games for me. I watch everything in the original with subs now, including asian and martian stuff because I can no longer bear localization. German localization usually sucks badly.

Gothic is a great series, a shame that III is bugged. I like the big world, it provides great hunting ground for -er- hunters with herds of animals roaming about.

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Gothic II I had succeeded in establishing a baseline save where I did all the non-faction quests early on and levelled up a bunch without much allocation of points so as to have a starting point for playthroughs for each of the three factions….and then I lost my save. And Night of the Raven saw US release. Now I really ought to get back to it sometime, but the distractions…ever present.

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(I didnt’ know it was a standalone game until now. I thought it was going to be like Night of the Raven – the G2 add-on-, that integrates itself with the original game, in the same way that the Morrowind or Oblivion expansions work. Having finished G2 just three months ago, I was waiting for the release of this before playing G3, but if it’s going to be more a Gothic 3.5 and less an ‘ordinary’ add-on…).

Also, to all the people who want to try Gothic 2 after reading all the well deserved praise, I would seriously recommend them to get a copy of the first one as well. It surely looks older and a bit rougher, and the controls and interface may be too much offputing to some people, but you will enjoy twice as much the story of the second game (don’t forget to get also the addon) if you have played the first and met all the recurring characters that reappear again, because they will remember the Unnamed Hero and treat him accordingly to what happened in the previous story. (There’s always the option in the dialogue to say “I don’ remember you”, and then they will briefly do a recap of your previous meetings, in order to not completely alienate all the people who never played G1, but it’s just not the same…).

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The Pros:
- Everyone who knows the DSA universe will love the optic. I especially like the Dwarf Prospector, the Elvish Spellweaver and the Mittelreich Thief. The world also looks very beautiful, very medieval, although there’s a faint air of 80s airbrush about in the setting: bright, “pretty” colors.
- They implemented the whole DSA system. While you can not put together your character from scratch, there are ~20 templates which you can change as you will, attributes, skills, advantages, disadvantages, maneuvers, all yours to customize. But you can not build the character from scratch: race, job and cultural background are predetermined in these 20 templates. DSA 4 also has a points system instead of that pesky dice rolling forcing you to spend 5 minutes to get good attributes. Good stuff overall.
- Real time with pause. I like it, and it’s pretty intuitive, complete with a quickbar for special combat maneuvers and such.

The cons:
- The mission dialogue tree is not very extensive. Most options only seem to include I’LL DO IT and FUCK YOU. Still, small talk options are available, and skills sometimes give you access to more favourable options.
- Some skills are not lovingly included. The pick pocket skill for example has no consequences if it fails, except the one that you will never be able to steal from that particular NPC again. I ran a little amok and stole from the captain of the guard until he noticed me, no reaction. Sucks.
- The world is not particularly alive. There seems to be no day-night cycle and people stand around alone or in small groups, and sometimes wander about aimlessly in a small area.
- Most NPCs only have voice for the first sentence they speak, the rest is soundless textbox (exception: In game cut scenes and an old woman in the first village ranting on about how everything is crap). And the German voices are pretty good. A shame.

All in all, I’ll play on, because combat, graphics and story made a favorable impression.

Ah, I forget: The German version’s extra gimmick is the Basic Rulebook of 4th edition DSA as a PDF. Smart move.

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When I meant Mass Market, I was referring to the new direction for Gothic 4(and Fallout 3), not Gothic 3. Sorry for the confusion. All this talk about Gothic 2 makes me want to go buy it, which I think I’m gonna do right now

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The first one in particular was great in how it made Orc’s to be unbelievably bad ass, and the first time you take one down feels like a major accomplishment.

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I could get it, when i was a level 1 nobody at the beginning, but when i spend over 25 hours questing and getting equipment (had the best paladin armor on me, mind you) and STILL get anally pwned by a single orc, logic kind of makes an exit. In a way, it’s just like Oblivion – combat-wise there’s almost no point in levelling at all, since every new story area is consistently populated with monsters who can rip you in half without so much as breaking a sweat.

All of this says not just “broken balance”, but “balance, that’s been beat to death with a sledgehammer”. Though i could have endured it, if the action was moved along by an interesting story or some engaging quests (like those in The Witcher), but there’s none of that either. Which is why the game became downright unplayable for me.

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