Ok, I am a Pirahna Bytes Fanboy. I played Gothic, Gothic 2, its expansion, and most especially Gothic 3 to its fullest, LOVED them ALL and played through every single possible story arc, faction, side quest, etc. And I cannot stand this latest expansion. it has been an insulting slap to the side of my face as far as this game series has gone. And I even loved Gothic 3 most of all, despite its deviation from the original gameplay...
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods is the latest expansion from Dreamcatcher Games, an outsourced horrible letdown in the whole series... here's why
1) The BUGS! this game is horrible. You'll spend 4 hours on a quest, come back to finish it, and you questgiver NPC will have vanished! NO QUEST FOR YOU! You just have to restart if it was a plotquest, or just miss out on whatever sidequest you wanted. Invisible NPCs talk in the background. NPCs you NEED just vanish from gameplay, you will die for no good reason at all... it just stinks. They obviously could never have played the game even ONE way through... no way no how. This is a game that has never been playtested.
2) The voiceacting! You will visit the very first orc town and there will be orcs names "simon" or "Cornelius" that talk like aeridenite priests, human, peaceful accents, and seem so out of place you will laugh aloud, and then turn shades of dark red in anger at ever thinking this could pass quality control. There was NO playtesting! They even changed the voice actor for the main, nameless hero, and yet kept the last guy's sounbytes for training sequences... yes! The MAIN CHARACTER has TWO different voiceactors! I dont mind switching voiceactors, but at least do it consistantly!
3) The Inconsistancy! You get forcefed only one possible conclusion from the last one, and the main character's entire demeanor has changes. Before he was a sarcastic bumpkin as he always is. Now he is spouting self-righteous quotes as if he was some insane, uber LG paragon of orcslaying. The entire point was the choices, now you are forcefed the extremes
4) The AUDACITY! That they ever released this installment of the game is horrible. Pirahna Bytes itself have already denounced and apologized for this game. Dont buy it. If you want to buy Gothic 3 for the first time, buy the collection of gothics 1, 2, 2.5 and 3. skip 3.5. it is the VISTA of Gothic. Or at least buy the RPG pack with two other games and Gothic 3. But please, do not, EVER buy any form of Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods.
I loves this game series more than life itself.... and this was just a stinker. On par with Schumacher Batman starring Arnold as Mr Freeze. On Par with that crappy Lord of the Rings cartoon they made that ended when Gandalf threw the sword in the air and it ended halfway through the 1st of three installments. On par with Episode One: Star Wars with Jar Jar binks and baby Anakin. On par with Tofu Turkey Suppliment. On par with ! Bad Game... VERY VERY BAD!
The only horrible, not fit for the shelves game that can compare... is Guild 2: Venice. Same company, same bad bad, buggy and horrible, ugly game. Dont buy either! I was just at Best Buy, saw both games, and HID them both. Behind a dishwasher. I hope they NEVER find them to restock them, and that they go vanished from memory of every gamer who ever loves those series. I even loved Guild 2! FOR SHAME! Why do I hate THIS game so much? Because they keep all of the old professions, like fisherman... and in the whole game, none of the boards have FISH to um... fish. So I'm a figherman, who is a man with no fish. I cannot get fish. Anywhere on the board. And all I got was a glassblower and some ugly canals that look nothing like Venice in a game called Venice. Just buy Guild 2: Pirates. Nothing else. At least the hopsital scholar and the disease system was cool, and downsizing the 3 cattle and grains down to 2 was more fun. Though I do miss pigs. There was a certain pride one could get when they got richer than the king as a mere "pigboy". It was like seeing Taran Wanderer in Forbes' top 10!
This is their BASE saying this. I worship Gothic, I worship Guild 2. Both of these game expansions were so horrible, I literally cried and uninstalled them both the very first night. SHAME Pirahna Bytes! Dorganoth and Chongo could spin far better sequels in less than a weekend, drunker than I have ever been, and for 5 bucks an hour.
Don't buy these crappy sequels. Donate to layo instead. At least then it will go towards QUALITY gaming! The type that actually fixes its bugs within the first year of release! This was the kind of game that makes Ninja Turtles 3 look like a masterpiece...
