Gothic Series

[Elemmire]

I thought I had a thread I made about this but I couldn't find it XD soo I'm making one now since Gothic 3 was released a few months ago and the whole series is so awesome. For those of you who don't know, Gothic is a free-roaming RPG with a very fun style of combat. Similar to Oblivion I'd say but I find it to be far more interesting.

Since most are prolly not interested in Gothic I and II (even though you really should play it) cause it's older here's a link to Gothic III trailers for those who want to see its smexiness.

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1621 - Gothic 3

For those interested in Gothic I and II, you start off in Gothic I as a nameless prisoner, you see, the kingdom of Myrtana was ruled by a king who had been undefeated in battle until the orcs began to move out from their northern lands and attacking the human kingdom of Myrtana. The King was losing this battle and so he required more magic ore which, at the time (due to the orcs over running the other source), was only obtained from the valley of mines on the island of Khornis (I might have spelled that wrong, lol). So the king forces anyone who does ANY sort of crime, no matter how small, to mine in the valley so his army can have magic blades and armor. And so as more and more prisoners are sent in and try to escape, the king deals with this problem by having his mages of the realm set up a magical barrier to surround the entire valley of mine, but something went wrong and the barrier extended even further than it should. While the barrier was being erected the guards were distracted long enough for the prisoners to take over the area. So the king every month would send whatever they wanted, food, supplies, women, etc to the prisoners in exchange for ore. When you come, you find yourself asked to give a message to the head mage of the circle of fire in the barrier named Xardas. And so you set off on your adventure of trying to escape the barrier and give this message to Xardas uncovering information of khornis' history. In this game you can choose to join the old camp, new camp, or the brotherhood of the Sleeper. While each changes how the story progresses, the end will result in the same (with minor differences )

In Gothic 2 you are freed from the valley after defeating the Sleeper. But things seem to be in chaos on Khornis. You learn that the criminals are free on the island causing havoc, you learn that an orc army has also landed and now pretty much taken over the valley of mines, and the king has sent his finest ship with his Paladin knights to try and gather as much ore as they can to return to Myrtana and supply his army. Xardas has brought you to get an artifact from the paladins so that you might fight the orc army and even the dragons that control them. You can join three factions (like before), the mages, the rebels, or the paladins. Again, each will progress the story in a different way but the end will be the same. The game allows you to travel through-out ALL of the island which is HUGE as well as the Valley of Mines from the first game.

That's the Gothic series so far personally, I think it's one of the best PRG series out there. Anyone else play it here?

 

[Pompidou]

I was looking for a new PC game last week, having Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights II already, and looked up Gothic III on Gamefaqs. It seems alright - I hear mixed reviews on the subject, though I imagine the naysayers are the hardcore Gothic junkies. Every game has its hardcore purists who think X series has been going downhill since s/he started the series. I might pick it up. I enjoyed Oblivion, and that game got tons of hate by Morrowind fans (another game I loved). Gothic III and the upcoming Fallout will probably end up on my harddrive sooner or later. Hopefully compatable w/ Vista.

 

[Elemmire]

Gothic is fun they say it's not as large as Oblivion but I don't really notice, the details far more interesting too, the AI's better than Oblivion too, I think. But meh, some people are just insane about things.

 

[CmdrFly]

I played Gothic 3 for a bit and had to give it up. The battle system is pretty lame, and the inability to drink healing potions in a jam is a real bitch. I died so many times I just gave up.

I'm sure as you get later in the game it gets better, but being new to the Gothic universe I just didn't have the patience.

 

[Elemmire]

you'd expect it to be easy as you are low level? XD

 

[Strid]

I played Gothic 3 for a bit and had to give it up. The battle system is pretty lame, and the inability to drink healing potions in a jam is a real bitch. I died so many times I just gave up.

I'm sure as you get later in the game it gets better, but being new to the Gothic universe I just didn't have the patience.

Did the "man porn" sound of attacks/actions give you a stiffy at all?

 

[CmdrFly]

Did the "man porn" sound of attacks/actions give you a stiffy at all?

Well... maybe a little.

What really irked me is that you can't steal from bitches. WTF? I see a chest that's unlocked, you damn well better expect that I'll open it. I did that in the rebel stronghold near your starting town, and the damn merchant went apeshit and tried to shank me.

Needless to say I stabbed him somethin' fierce. But now he won't talk to me, I can't buy his goods. Will he eventually warm up to me again or do I just keep stabbing him and gankin' his dough for shits and giggles?

This honesty thing is going to be very difficult.

 

[Elemmire]

you realize they were trying to make it more realistic right? what the fuck person in the world would let you steal their shit, beat them up, and then talk to you like you were their favorite person in the world >.> they actually require you to do some skill you want that chest? you gotta wait for night or when the guy's not looking and sneak up to it and get it but that requires the proper skills, see, it's more realistic

 

[CmdrFly]

what the fuck person in the world would let you steal their shit, beat them up, and then talk to you like you were their favorite person in the world >.>

Ideally... everyone.

Is there actually a nighttime where you can sneak up on these dudes? I could have sworn I was in the rebel camp at night and the damn merchant was still up and moving around. But of course I was so focussed on that shiny crate I could have been mistaken.

The alchemy system is kinda neat, albeit expensive as hell to learn the recipes. I'm gonna give this game some more time after I finish Supreme Commander, it seems pretty vast overall.

 

[Elemmire]

it's a large game they say it takes 40-50 hours to just complete the main storyline (well one of them as you can choose from 3) and if you throw in the 500+ sidequests it's a LOT more. And yes, each NPC has "routine" but even then it's not always the same, unlike Oblivion where the NPCs are ALWAYS the same place the same time of day, if the NPC gets whatever done it does it might go do something else it choses to do. It feels more real