Gothic 3 better than Skyrim

delete5230

Do I have big boots to fill trying to prove this  



Before I start on Gothic 3 I would like to point out another game that brought me to Gothic 3 

In my quest to study Elex a new game from an old developer called Piranha Bytes,  I found Elex total overall style completely "innovative in every detail", yet so many bad reviews, however this is arguable.  This game has a huge swing between good and bad. Being $50 at release I decided to not take a chance.



So I decided to investigate other games by Piranha Bytes and found Gothic 3.  

Surprisingly back in 2005 Gothic 3 had the same mixed reviews for the same exact reasons.  Being "innovative in every detail" the public had mixed reactions because of this.  

During the Steam Winter sale, I picked it up for $2.95(now I think its $10).  Finally I had some free time I loaded it yesterday morning and can't stop playing. 



About Gothic 3: 
Huge seamless open world, no quest markers instead you talk to npc's and they give you hints as quest.  As you play you naturally complete them as you explore.  The story is amazing and I totally hate story driven games.  Everything is voice acting and best of all, decisions extremely count in everything you do, 10x more than any EA games EVER !! 

As the story progresses you score points with all three factions Rebels, Orc's and later Hashishin.  You talk to everyone and eventually you need to make an over all decision and pick a side ( not that far yet, but I see my faction points building to the Rebels as planed).

Here's the best part.... Abilities !!!!!..... As you level you gain ability points.  This along with level and money you can mold your character in to anything you like.  Two swords, sword and shield, one hander, bow, cross bow, magic, and many more, it's endless on combinations.  All this but you have to find the trainers.  If you talk to everyone this doesn't seem to be a problem. 

Graphics..... Surprisingly better than old Youtube's make them out to be.  Comparable to Dragons Dogma.  

Combat...... Here's where the controversy comes into play.  Three difficulty levels low normal and high.  The game is hard on normal I lowered it to low, and it's still hard and just about right.  Piranha Bytes are the masters of mixing hot bar and real time combat.  It's so much fun switching between bow and hand weapons, yet you have to put it away to loot and enter towns.  It's extremely easy to get an entire town upset with you, then not much more to have to fight them all.  Simply pulling your sward starts a possible mess.  Save often !

Never was a game with better AI !!!!!!!  

Gothic 3 was an original mess for years until they came out with a patch that truly fixed everything. 

Important: 
Refer to this Steam link to download the patch after game. Good news, it auto installs. http://steamcommunity.com/app/39500/discussions/0/612823460277516777/


Here's a video of a guy explaining how it's both a mess and a great game.  I DON'T SEE THE MESS !!  

  

I'm extremely late, I have to go !!  

Have to add this: 
I was just in a deep cave, and it was so scary I almost shit my pants.... Way better than anything Skyrim !

ConstantineMerus

I didn't have to read how you proved it because Gothic 3 is better than Skyrim. 

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Hawkaya399

A lot of times hte newers games are only "better" because of voice acting, better graphics, more female inclusion, more action combat, better AI and less frustration. The problem is they usually streamline character development, simplify conversations (reducing the interactivity), and remove the more frustrating parts traditionally attached to old games, like "repetitive" travel, weight encumbrance and other. With me, the old almost always outweighs the new. I just don't care about graphics or voice acting or "female inclusion " (i'm not female!). Removing the frustration kills its soul, and exposes the wizard behind hte curtain. Better AI is nice, but it's not enough. And I hate streamlined character development. I far prefer more detailed systems. I'd go so far to say I'd rather have too many skills than too few. Responsive action combat can be fun, but how tactical is it? How much does each fight change? That makes all the difference. Unfortunately, linear systems tend to reign because players complain when it gets difficult. That was true in the past, but I think it's worse now because there're more players.

What I think got us here is the growing consumer market for video games led to game developers having to appeal to ever more players, and to lesser extent the increasing technology pushed game developers to hire dozens more modelers and animators and other content makers just to produce large enough worlds. This made it harder for them to make anything resembling an older game, thus it gave them an even stronger reason to change the intended audience for their game.

I will add some of the newer games are good. Most of the really good ones are indie, but maybe not all. That might be due in part to some of the AAA games being moddable and that makes it forgivable. Modding is their salvation. No matter how boring or dumbed down they're, modders can usually fix it.

Just a sad part of reality not easy to change.

EDIT: Skyrim is readily moddable and that's a huge thing for me.

Octagon7711

I really enjoyed the Gothic series.  I like Skyrim better because I can mod out my character to be pretty much what I want it to be then go adventuring.

Sovrath

Better? I thought it was crap. But you say a community patch saves it? Ok I'll bite. If it's not I'll leave it on your doorstop in a flaming paper bag.

edit: also that video does nothing to sell it but I'll try it anyway because "patch".

We'll see.

Aethaeryn

I enjoyed all of their games .  Gothic 2 was fantastic.  I still wish for a newer version of Daggerfall with updated controls.  I don't even care about the graphics so much.  

I got Gothic 3 right away and it ran pretty crappy and was VERY buggy.  This turned me off.  I might have another go at it.  As far as immersion it is amazing for sure.  I found Skyrim a few steps forward in ways that I really like  but more than a few steps back as far as an immersive world goes for Elder Scrolls games.   It was a bit railroady.

Flyte27

Ir seems like the first and second game got better reviews.  I'm willing to try them out.  I have a feeling it will be somewhat difficult to play without controller support and dpi scaling.  I do enjoy old games more on occasion.  From a story standpoint, I like the Witcher, Mass Effect, and Baldurs Gate series a lot.  Skyrim had some good sidequests, but the main story wasn't very good IMO.  I'm not a huge fan of other Bethesda Games. 

Albatroes

Better is always going to be subjective when it comes to taste in something. Either some people are slow to realize that or not educated on that matter. Some people like the Final Fantasy franchise over everything and even within that sub-set, you have those who think certain FFs are better than others. I fail to see the point of this thread other than to express a personal opinion which could've been added somewhere else.

Thane

delete5230 said:

i like gothic 3 better than skyrim

there, fixed it for you.

Elvoc

The combat mechanics are very different in each game but yes I believe the game play is very enjoyable once you learn how to fight and block in Gothic 3 

Dvora

What is a sward?

Octagon7711

I did enjoy Gothic 2 the best, then G1, then G3.  I don't think it matters what order you play them in.  I would suggest 2, then if you liked it, 1, then 3 last.

some-clueless-guy

Gothic 3 had bad reviews when it launched because it was very buggy. Parts of the world being locked behind the story and the story being impossible to progress into, bad scores were supposed to happen. They eventually fixed the game with patches.

What really bothers me about the devs, and why I haven't and won't even try Elex, is how in their other series — Risen 1,2 and 3 which had to be rebooted because they lost the copyrights— they thought of just redoing the Gothic series, with no innovation to the combat or the progression compared to the original. You take a look at Risen 2 or 3 and it is basically Gothic with better graphics, 20 years later. 

I think that when one gets something right (Gothic in this case) one should also strive to improve it, instead of repeating the same formula over and over hoping that the players will be content.

Wizardry

Own Elex played two days ,not since.Skyrim, had me pissed,way over rated.

Have not played Gothic 3,likely never will.

I guess this is a bummer for me having played so many different games over a lot of years that i have pretty much seen it, done it,now everything feels boring.

I liked Dishonored because it was different,seriously lost a bit of interest in part 2 because yeah,same old.

Games are just rushed out way too fast,soon a developer sees a gimmick they are making a game based on that one idea.This is the same reason i have less hope for example Pantheon,like what is this team seriously going to do to make the game feel new and creative and not just same old?

There is a HUGE lack of creativity and quality in games right now,tons of corner cutting and cheaper designs to save money.I feel it is an accurate statement to say devs are now putting more thought into their cash shops than their games.

To me,if i see a maximum of 3 creative new games a year,i will be surprised.I expect more same old,mobas and TCG's and WOWesque linear questing mmos,just lots of really shallow game designs.

I spend all my time playing older games i already own because i do not see anything amazing coming out anytime soon.AOE 4 and FFXI mobile that is all i see as guarantee bets,the longshot is Pantheon and nothing else.

AAAMEOW

I enjoy skyrim when it come out.  I think it is ahead of its time.

But what really bothers me looking back is...  I can't remember any story in skyrim.  

I can't even remember how skyrim end... The story is that boring.  

Flyte27

AAAMEOW said:

I enjoy skyrim when it come out.  I think it is ahead of its time.

But what really bothers me looking back is...  I can't remember any story in skyrim.  

I can't even remember how skyrim end... The story is that boring.  

Hmm I remember the various quests that involved being an assassin and eventually being a killer.  I thought that was fairly fun.

The companions quest was involving becoming a werewolf was interesting.

The mage quest was really enjoyable.  Becoming a student and uncovering what was going on in that storyline.

The thief quest was ok, but a bit more forgettable.  Its been a while since I last played, but I know there were some good side quests.  The worst 0part was the main quest with the Dragonborn.  The ending fell flat like with most elder scrolls games, but elder scrolls games were never popular for their stories.  They were popular for their open worlds and modding capabilities.

maskedweasel

I didn't like the combat in the gothic games, I own them all, tried to get into them, gothic 3 I played on launch, it was still pretty bad.  If it's gotten better I don't know but I'm not particularly interested in going back.  Skyrim was great when it released, I enjoyed it a lot.  I'm more of a fallout guy though.

rojoArcueid

I never played the older Gothic games, but i can say Gothic 4 Arcania was not even close as good as Skyrim, in my opinion.

And Risen, which was supposed to be the successor of the older Gothic games, by the original devs, was a bigger joke. Again, in my opinion.

I've always been interested in Gothic 1-3 but never got to buy them because of the bad experience i had with Risen. If they are better than G4 and Risen then i will surely check them out.

Albatroes

AAAMEOW said:

I enjoy skyrim when it come out.  I think it is ahead of its time.

But what really bothers me looking back is...  I can't remember any story in skyrim.  

I can't even remember how skyrim end... The story is that boring.  

I think the real reason so many like Skyrim was because you honestly could create your own story. You could explore and encounter various stuff without following a linear path. Of course some people dont like that kind of thing but honestly, that's how a lot of mmorpgs in the past used to be. Quests were sparce not because the developers were lazy but because they wanted people to tell their own stories. FFXI is a prime example of this because a majority of the game's expansion stories, you were just a merc who did stuff for self interest, not this shining beacon of hope for the world etc. You would do stuff for them in order to gain access to other things and do stuff with your groups for your own gain. Which is a main reason why people feel that mmorpgs "require" so much story? Its honestly never been the dev's job to hold the player's hand into complete immersion but the player and the community's responsibility. It almost feels like today's generation of gamers do not have imagination.

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YashaX

I have wanted to play some games from this series for quite a while, but keep getting put off because the combat looks bad.

I loved skyrim and the combat in that game was not very good, but some aspects of combat were really fun: stealth, bows, and conjuring for example. Also the way the AI reacted to sounds etc allowed for some interesting tactical options to battles.

Is there any similar fun/tactical gameplay to be had in Gothic 3?

delete5230

YashaX said:

I have wanted to play some games from this series for quite a while, but keep getting put off because the combat looks bad.

I loved skyrim and the combat in that game was not very good, but some aspects of combat were really fun: stealth, bows, and conjuring for example. Also the way the AI reacted to sounds etc allowed for some interesting tactical options to battles.

Is there any similar fun/tactical gameplay to be had in Gothic 3?

Real time combat just like Skyrim 

So far I've been putting points into one handed with shield, and no points so far in archery, however I have a starter bow.  I'm trying to decide on magic or archery so that's why no points spent in that yet.  


Yes, you have to time your blocks and strikes when enemies or monsters put up a defensive block, It helps to strife left or right, but I haven't mastered that yet. 

I had to fight a dragon at the bottom of a cave that was blowing fire and the shield blocked the fire. I had to take him out with ranged anyway, because that was early on before I spent points.   

Magic looks cool, here's a video: 

nate1980

I got into Gothic before Morrowind was ever a thing. If you like Gothic 3, I highly recommend you play the first 2 first. I just got a co-worker to try Gothic out and he loves it. Each game in the Gothic series draws from the events of the previous game. They're direct sequels to each other. I mean literally, they take place in the time-line directly after each game and continues with the same protagonist. Because of Gothic, I got into the Risen series too. The Risen series follows the same formula the Gothic series follows. 

While they were somewhat buggy or laggy messes back then, they were very fun games. I'd take that over the new super polished modern games with their easy gameplay and accessibility.

Hariken

The Gothic games to me had weird controls. I know you can sort of change them but i just didn't like them.

ConstantineMerus

Torval said:

ConstantineMerus said:

I didn't have to read how you proved it because Gothic 3 is better than Skyrim. 

There are lots of games I think are better than Skyrim. I actually think their Fallout series is better than their Elder Scroll series overall and I like New Vegas and FO4 more than Skyrim. 

blueturtle13 said:

I really enjoyed Gothic 3 and Gothic 2 remains one of the best single player role playing game I ever played!

I have all three in my Steam library and not played any of them. Does it matter which is played first?

I agree with Fallout franchise being better overall but in ny humble opinion Morrowind is still the best thing they have ever done. 

Unlike Blue, I have to suggest you shouldn't skip 1. Not because I am crazy and can't skip anything myself. I think you'll get over the dated graphics and would enjoy it. Main story is about 20 hours.