Gothic I, II, III Bundled Together - Worth Playing?

[Ferrick]

Hey, all. I was over at Best Buy on Monday and I noticed these 3 games bundled together in one box. I have never played before but I have been interested from time to time so I did some researching. This is what I have found so far. Please correct as needed and give your own experiences.

1. That 1 and especially 2 are a lot of fun to play but their interfaces are clunky and fighting is a real challenge. True?

3. The third installment is extremely buggy and even with the latest patching it has a lot to be desired as so does the ending. Thoughts?

Thanks ahead of time.

[Fiberfar]

I haven't played Gothic, but I've completed Gothic II with all classes a few times. The combat system isn't the easiest around. If you just hit the mouse key to attack, most of the times you'll end up dead (parrying attacks matters).

There's some bugs here and there, but I haven't seen any that stops the game or makes it less enjoyable.

[Ergopad]

Gothic III is now working pretty good with newest Community Patch, which is actually put together with help of a new developer of Gothic serie.

Full patch, official patch NOT needed:
World of Gothic

Changelog (beware, this is looong ):
http://dl2.worldofplayers.de/wog/got...angelog_en.txt

PS. Combat in G1&2 gets a little "easier" when you train weapon skills (from trainer as rest of the skills). I actually like it, it is very good and you have to LEARN how to be good at it.

[Ferrick]

Wow! That is one massive fix list! With those massive number of bugs it reminds me of Atari's RPG Temple of Elemental Evil and the bug fest that monstrosity was. When G3 first came out I was excited but after reading all the bugs and the disappointing ending (some stated that the ending felt rushed, incomplete; true?) I avoided this game.

Now it looks like it just might work.

Question: I have Athlon 64 3200+ and a X800GTO 256 meg video card. Think that will do me? (I do have 2 gigs of RAM)

Another Question: Ergopad, from what you wrote are you saying that if I go with the World of Gothic community patch I can bypass the official patchs from the game publisher?

[Ergopad]

Answer to your question: YES. The community patch is semi-official, since it brings together piranha bytes patch (1.12), community patch (quest fixes) and (new developer) Spellbound's patch (better memory handling).

Yes, I too put the game on hold for a year(!). Actually I sold it away, then heard about the community patch and bought it back (cheap budget version).

It's good that you noted that you have 2gigs of RAM, since it still eats up whole lot of memory, because of that awesome world. Sincerely, it as one of the most beautiful (virtual) worlds I've ever seen in a game. Definately the best part of it and worth seeing.

I think you should lower some of the settings (shadows for example) to make it run a bit better. You will have stuttering in the cities, but otherwise it should run pretty good. Try lowering graphic settings and see for yourself. Some details don't actually matter that much, like lowering textures, you hardly ever zoom so close to see it clear enough...

The downside that still exists is the dull combat. Well, the dull side of the combat is that is far too easy.

PS. They are actually still doing continuing developing another community patch, but since 1.6 appeared a week ago or so, it won't most likely appear until summer...

[Nukester]

The first time I played Gothic I, I quit on it because of the controls. A month or so later I tried again, learned to like the controls (except the inventory) and it became one of my favorite games of all times.

I started Gothic II a number of times, but the beginning story of running around to different farms bored me. Im currently giving it another go, and am finally about to enter the Valley of Mines, where Ive read the game really starts to pick up. Still a good game, but I havent found the atmosphere to be anywhere near as good as the first game yet. That may change once I get into the Valley.

I own Gothic III but my computer isnt nearly good enough to actually play it, so I cant comment on that one.

For I and II (I havent played the expansion) once you get used to the controls, they are good games.

[Argosy]

The interface in Gothic 1 & 2 is indeed quite questionable. The controls in the first game are also a bit odd, but you can get used to them. Outside of the inventory, the controls in Gothic 2 are decent.


The combat in the first two games is good, but also takes time to get used to. The open world feel and heavy focus on exploration both add a lot to the game, and Gothic 1/2 are two of my favorite games. They definitely won't appeal to everyone, though. They're love/hate games like none other.


Gothic 3, however is Daikatana-esque in its failure and lameness, and should not be played by anyone. Ever.