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Gothic 3

EMAIL PRINT pc

7.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 39 critic reviews
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Based on 73 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Aspyr Media / JoWood Productions

Developer: Piranha Bytes

Genre(s): Third-Person Action, Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 14, 2006

Summary

You have saved the island Khorinis from the forces of evil in "Gothic I" and "Gothic II." Now it is time to travel to the realms of the mainland. Invading Orcs have enslaved the human kingdom. There are but a few free humans in the icy north and the southern desert and a handful of rebels hiding in the forests and mountains of Midland. You may either join the rebellion or serve the Orcish Usurpers but you will ultimately tip the scales and decide the outcome of the last war to save humanity. There is no simple linear story in Gothic III – every game will be different and unique – but all will ultimately lead to you deciding the fate of Myrtana. [JoWood Productions]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Gothic Gothic II

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

PC Zone UK

The game manages to blend just the right amounts of combat, NPC interaction, character development, exploration, and epic save-the-world storytelling into the sort of potion that your typical beardie will gulp down with wild-eyed abandon. [Dec 2006, p.94]

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Computer Games Online RO

The sunrises and sunsets as just as beautiful as they were in "Gothic 2." It’s an incredible feeling to contemplate vast landscapes or ruins and people in the distance while sitting on a hill, being gently touched by the rays of the sun, with wonderful violin accords in the background.

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Pelit (Finland)

Gothic 3 has an amazingly large world to explore and tons of things to do, but also a lot of rough edges. The AI is slow-witted and the combat system is mere button smashing. Still, with some faith, Myrtana is a great place to get lost into. [Dec 2006, p.82]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

The vast world offers so much freedom that you could easily think you are lost. But you are not, because you can do whatever the hell you want, so even if you’re not able to complete a quest there will be plenty to keep you occupied until you can.

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Eurogamer

At times gorgeous, at other times frustrating, it's worth persevering with just to bask in its snug atmosphere.

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AceGamez

Unlike the horrific launch of Dungeon Lords, which eventually revealed that there wasn't much of value beneath the buggy exterior, Gothic 3 has a tremendous world of role-play available for those willing to persevere - and I strongly recommend the game to players in this category, who also have the behemoth computer power needed to run the game in the first place.

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Games Master UK

A technically stunning rehash of "Gothic 2," but that's no bad thing. [Jan 2007, p.82]

PC Gamer

A good RPG provides players with the opportunity to role-play characters of their choosing through an experience that's ultimately personalized by their decisions. Judged on that basis, this game delivers in spades. [Feb. 2007, p.60]

ActionTrip

It was meant to be the ultimate installment that would bring the franchise closer to the US gamers, but given all the technical errors I'm not sure that's possible.

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Strategy Informer

Gothic 3 is a deep and rich world, waiting for your guidance to free or subjugate mankind. Any RPG lover must have this, but you may want to wait a while for the patches to arrive and then settle down.

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GameZone

Players who enjoy RPGs will enjoy the dickens out of this title, but they need to be sure they have a really awesome system to run it on, and all the patches that go with it.

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GameSpot

If you can get past its technical issues, Gothic 3 offers a substantial, open-ended role-playing experience.

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Gamer's Hell

If not for the countless bugs, the watered down melee and magic combat, the uninteresting NPCs, the sometimes weak design, the horrible performance, the missing dialogue, and the overall lack of polish, perhaps it could have been.

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Digital Entertainment News

Gothic III is solidly entertaining, a great upgrade from "Gothic II," but lacks the polish of "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion."

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PC Gamer UK

For now, unless you're desperate for a new RPG today, hold fire and see if the inevitable post-release patches will fix up the leaky bits. If so, add 15% or so to the score. [Dec 2006, p.112]

Gamers Europe

Gothic 3 is a game that punches above its weight. To a certain degree it holds out well against competing RPG games but with so many bugs and lingering issues, it would be wise to hold off for a while until the dust settles.

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Computer Games Magazine

It's obvious that Gothic 3 needed another six months of work. You're forced to overlook a lot of flaws, and it's extremely hard not to be beaten down by the game as you reach its conclusion. [Mar 2007, p.56]

Game Chronicles

Gothic 3 takes some role-playing aspects to a new high with its excellent quest system and fully interactive world. Too bad other critical elements, from combat to graphics performance, fall so short.

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PC Gameworld

The core for a good role playing game is evident, it just lacks the polish that we hardcore gamers have come to expect from our RPG's.

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GamingExcellence

Gameplay-wise, there’re a lot of things that might turn off some players, but there’s a lot to go through, and a huge amount to explore.

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GamerNode

It's unfortunate that Gothic 3 was basically released in an unfinished state. As the game is now, though, nobody should be forced to go through the hell I went through to get to the enjoyable parts.

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PC Format

Ditch your standards and enjoy shaping a mediocre world to your will. [Dec 2006, p.105]

AtomicGamer

Gothic 3 feels like a missed opportunity. It's the biggest RPG tragedy I've seen in years, honestly, as this game could have been so much more enjoyable without all of these issues constantly plaguing it.

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G4 TV

It’s a glorious mess of an RPG with incredible potential, but released much too soon, and therefore bound for the bargain bins.

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Yahoo! Games

A good game still lurks somewhere under all this garbage. Gothic's approach to the open-ended RPG is a good deal more compelling than Oblivion's, and it surpasses it in other areas too. But if there was ever a game in need of a few more months of development, Gothic 3 is it.

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PALGN

The game just feels so dull and a real letdown considering the game’s amazing detail and depth.

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VideoGamer

Ultimately, Gothic 3 is like getting into a cold bath on a hot day - it's refreshing, but somehow painful, and no matter how much you love it, you have to admit that it isn't much fun to do.

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Games Radar (in-house)

More frustrating than fun as we saved, loaded, and crashed our way through this epic, yet tedious title.

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Gamers' Temple

The world of Gothic 3 is filled with bugs you can not slay.

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Gaming Nexus

Too many bugs for the Orkin Man to handle, too much amateur laziness in the storytelling, too little character drawn into the cast, and not enough good ideas put to any good use.

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Game Informer

It’s sad to see so many good ideas go to waste. From the exploration of the wondrous world to the intricate political situation of its denizens, Gothic 3 nails a good chunk of the role-player’s wet dream. The character progression is solid and the core mechanics are good, yet I will never ever recommend this to anyone that I even remotely like. Yes, one broken system can ruin a game this completely.

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1UP

Nine patches in, Gothic 3 has a long road to hoe before rating "close enough for government work." Try it if you're hardcore and even-tempered. But yep, here we go again -- closing with another "until it's adequately patched, caveat emptor."

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IGN

In a game where the illusion of a dynamic, realistic world is so crucial to the experience, technical bugs and awkward design decisions do a marvelous job at hamstringing Gothic III's gameplay.

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Worth Playing

If the developers give us some heavy handed code-bandages, I predict that one day this will be at the very least an enjoyable RPG, if not the epic and sprawling adventure it was supposed to be.

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VGPub

Gothic 3 is not a budget title, for $40 I expect a pleasant gameplay experience not frustration. That’s like paying a guy $40 to punch you in the face repeatedly.

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games(TM)

It’s a real shame that a game with such promise has to be scored so low because of inefficiencies within the industry, especially if the version that’s on retailers’ shelves is now far tighter than the copy in our possession. [Dec 2006, p.125]

GameSpy

The basic design of the game is quite sound and if Piranha Bytes could clean the game up, it might end up becoming a classic. As it stands now, my nightmarish trip through the world of Gothic 3 made me want to send my disc on a one-way trip into an incinerator.

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Game Revolution

So the world looks great, the people look awful, the factions aren’t paying any attention, the wolves are murderous, the combat atrocious, and the music fantastic. It’s as if a team of good programmers, and a team of evil programmers worked on different parts of the game and then their efforts were combined at the last minute and jammed in a box.

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RewiredMind

Rating this game has never been easier. Stay the hell away from Gothic III. The amount of glitches in this game instantly ruins whatever experience it aimed to achieve. There are not enough patches in PC gaming history to sort this one out.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 73 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tau E. gave it a0:
A pointless stunlock and 5 billion glitches can ruin any game.

Leeroy J. gave it a9:
This game has awesome graphics and potentially awesome combat (like the previous two). The fast-frame rate of the wolves attacking you can piss you off, but once you step back then do a left click attack (while timing it) its pretty damn easy- especially when you're wielding 2 weapons. Magic is incredibly fun to use like the other two, and as you're character branches out in the later levels, you'll get to summon a giant metor, bring fire raining down, summon lightning, summon a demon, summon.....you know. This game isn't that buggy at all, my game rarely-if ever- crashes (2 gb of RAM is good for ya!) , and if only the media were to give a re-review of this patched game, the score would've been higher.

Danny R. gave it a9:
Yes it's bugged, but I found it worth going through regardless. I will also say it's bloody difficult too. For those who like to compare any game set in medieval europe like scenery to Oblivion please stop, it looks alike and that's about it. Gothic 3 is very much more combat orientated. It's also big, well humoured in places and I will say beautiful too. Had to use this game to show off (and explain) HDR effects to my girlfriend. Then I had to explain why I'm such a geek.

George E. gave it a9:
I give this game a solid 9, I just took out the perfect score because of the huge amount of bugs. I wish I played it without bugs but well... Hey, I love this game with all my nerves and it really is true to all what the franchise came to be, a game that is so dynamic that it goes on without the player and doesn't wait for one to move along. Truly a fantastic experience and I can understand when this game is sometimes favored over, also another masterpiece, Oblivion.

Z O gave it a6:
Has really lost a lot of the 'Gothic Charm' from the previous two games. Even if you manage to get past the technical issues surrounding the game, it doesn't make up for the lack of direction. All you do is go around and liberate cities, and even if you do too much of that you can seriously break the game by having every city that you come across be hostile to you. If you are interested in picking up this game and are new to the Gothic series do yourself a favor and pick up Gothic 1 and 2 for cheap. They are far superior to Gothic 3 in almost every way.

Ulli L. gave it a10:
Well, I really love this game. Now the fans started making their own patches after the breakup of the jowood/piranha bites cooperation it has only very few bugs left and so it´s one of the best rpgs ever, in my opinion even better that the great oblivion oder the even better morrowind

Savvas V. gave it a9:
Much better than Oblivion... Lucks on the fighting and use of the sword. A master piece of its area.

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Gothic 3

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