Gothic 2 vs Gothic 3

[Butcer]

Alright which gothic game is better Gothic 2 or Gothic 3(with community patch) and what are there strengths and weaknesses when compared to each other?

 

[Nuclear Explosion]

Gothic 2 is much better. I could only make it through maybe 3 hours of Gothic 3 before giving up. The quest design is terrible and the combat is terrible. I would recommend not playing it. It seemed to have none of the strengths of the earlier Gothics. I've heard people call it Gothic: TES edition and I think that comparison is apt.

 

[Lancehead]

Seems like an unfair versus as I doubt anyone would say Gothic 3 is better. It isn't. However, Gothic 3 does have some redeeming qualities. The biggest one is its quest design (not quest content) which is quite open-ended.

For example, at the start, the game introduces a conflict in Myrtana and tasks you with finding Xardas. There are no directions since there is no set way of completing that task. The only hint you get is that Xardas helped the orcs. So if you try to get into touch with the orcs you'll find that you have to earn the trust of orc bosses since they're the ones who likely know the information you seek. This introduces you to both the faction system and the orc vs. rebel conflict where the majority of quests (in Myrtana) lie. So basically it blurs the line between main quest and side quest and you're basically doing stuff to earn people's trust and get the information.

But nothing forces you to do any of that and you can try to find out on your own; as soon as the game starts you can turn away from the battle at Ardea and and make a beeline for Xardas. You can kill every single npc and the story won't break. You can even try to mess with npcs using the console (changing factions, states and whatnot) and it still wouldn't break the story. It's just designed to work with or without them, which gives the player a lot of freedom in how he can solve problems.

 

[Lady_Error]

I don't like first-person games.

Spoiler

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Gothic 3 is less challenging, shit can still ctd(rarely, mind), the combat lacks... impact, for want of a better word, escort missions can be annoying, chests don't exactly have hand-placed loot...
And yet, the game can be fun. It's easy to work for any faction, quests allow you to turn the results in favour of another faction, and the world is fairly huge, and worth exploring. Just be careful of liberating cities.

NoTR, on the other hand, is a better, more tighter experience. Easily better than 3.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I don't like first-person games.

Spoiler

Play the goddamn thing already.

 

[DalekFlay]

I really need to replay Gothic 2, haven't since it came out and never with NotR, so my opinion is largely useless. I just want to say despite the issues with it Gothic 3's humongous world, occupied nation and ruined look is really appealing.

 

[hexer]

It's been a while since I played them but here's how I remember them.

Gothic 2 Pros: Better story, more memorable moments, orcs are tough motherfuckers (think Fallout 1/2 supermutants)
Gothic 2 Cons: Can be really tough in the later part of game

Gothic 3 Pros: Bigger world
Gothic 3 Cons: Somewhat bland, orcs are weak pussies (think Fallout 3 supermutants)

Did you already play Gothic 1 or you're planning to skip that one?

P.S. I really need to finish NotR.

 

[Aeschylus]

Comparing Gothic 2 to Gothic 3 is like comparing shiny, golden apples to slightly rotten, misshapen oranges. Well, maybe that's a little harsh on G3, but not overly so. G3's only 'advantage' over 2 is its larger world, and that pretty quickly becomes a disadvantage as it becomes clear that they didn't have enough time to design it as tightly or completely as the first two games'.

Gothic 1 is also better than 3 for that matter.

 

[Lady_Error]

Play the goddamn thing already.

Just got F:NV and a PS3 - so Gothic is not very high on my list. Will try that PS3 Wizardry and a couple other things...

 

[Kem0sabe]

I still remember the first time i played Gothic 1, my friend lent me a stack of cd's with Gothic and Operation flashpoint, and what a mind blowing experience those games were. I was so excited about Gothic 2 and waited eagerly for the release, only for it to blow my mind all over again with the world and quest design. Gothic 3 on the other hand, only managed to accomplish one thing of note, turning me off from the series all together, fucking game burned bridges everywhere with it's release.

 

[Surf Solar]

Gothic 1 is the best when it comes for the atmosphere, this game just nails it. Gothic 2 is more of the same but bigger and moar. Gothic 3 is utter garbage. Avoid it.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven is better by far in every aspect.

-Gothic 3 still has techical problems even with all community patches. My high end rig had masssive FPS drops when I tried to create a light source.( torches especially)
-has a good, large open world with lots of hidden places to explore but rewards from chests are depends on how many chests you had open before...
-has good open ended quests and more freedom with main quest but it has lots of "mmorpg" like lame&shallow quests. Like killing of most of the habitat around villages..
-is also easier than previous games (still not that easy like modern games), especially orcs are mostly pushovers this time. It has some harder parts in mid game but gets easier than pervious gmaes at end parts. That is a tradition of Gothics
-also it has lots of cheesing potantial, especially as a mage with mana regen and that berserk spell.


Gothic 3 is just huge wasted potantial.

 

[The Vanished One]

Played Gothic 3 when it first came out, tolerated the worst of its bugs, went some 2/3 through, then got bored and never touched it again. The way I remember it, the world is diverse, reasonably fleshed out and well worth exploring, and is fairly responsive to player actions (more so than Bethesda games). It helps if you can tolerate lackluster combat; don't know how much the community patch improved on that. Gothic 2 was a better experience in almost every respect.

 

[Coboney]

Gothic 2 without a question is the better designed game especially with NotR.

Gothic 3 has a bigger world but a lot of repeative quests of acquire this or kill all the people and so forth. It is still though open worldly and not awful but Gothic 2 is an excellent game followed up by a middling one that was clearly rushed. Gothic 3 with some more time had potential to be better - fixing the bugs and making the different quests and conflicts feel a bit different then repeating similar ones.

Also playing Gothic 3 - community patch is a must. Removes most of the bugs and also fixes combat to some extent - like making stunlock less of a problem.

 

[DefJam101]

Gothic 1 has the best visual design, story and atmosphere. Gothic 2 NotR is the best overall, with great world design and gameplay and a much, much stronger middle / late game than G1.

Gothic 3 is a good mountaineering murder simulator. Fun for what it is, but not great.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Gothic 3 is a good mountaineering murder simulator. Fun for what it is, but not great.

This.
It's better than TES in this aspect (even Srykim) but nothing more and melee combat is absolutely awful. Tried to play again but city liberation push me off.

 

[Somberlain]

Few places in RPGs are as intimidating as Valley of Mines on your first visit in NoTR. It's filled with extremely dangerous monsters and an army of orcs, when you probably couldn't kill even one in single combat. It's incredibly rewarding returning there later in the game to explore the valley, and even with the best equipment and high levels, you can't steamroll everything.

 

[Lord Andre]

I would suggest that anyone starting Gothic 3 pre-plan their build than check out information on the web as to what is needed to accomplish said build. You don't want to go through the game and realize at some point that you will never be able to train master dual wielding because you sided with the nomads, or that smithing is useless until you find the last 3 few weapon chests in the game and so on...
Made me rage quit the fuck out.

 

[calgary.alberta]

Gothic 3 with community patches and mods is a must.

Beyond that I still like it now cause of that work done then gothic 2.


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[Infinitron]

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You might want to get rid of this signature

 

[calgary.alberta]

Done and done


Ultima Dragon since 1997

 

[himmy]

As a purely subjective way of measuring how much fun I had playing them, it would be Gothic 2 > Gothic 3 > Gothic 1.

Not to say Gothic 1 is bad in any way, it isn't, but I really don't get the hate against (post-CP) Gothic 3. I think it was on par with the first two in most departments and it's huge. The Northern and Southern areas have pretty big level design flaws, but can, at times, be fun because, and not despite that.

Sure, it will be forever tainted by being even remotely associated with Forsaken Gods, of which I was never able to play more than 5 minutes, but I'm trying to block that.

 

[DalekFlay]

I would suggest that anyone starting Gothic 3 pre-plan their build than check out information on the web as to what is needed to accomplish said build. You don't want to go through the game and realize at some point that you will never be able to train master dual wielding because you sided with the nomads, or that smithing is useless until you find the last 3 few weapon chests in the game and so on...
Made me rage quit the fuck out.

Yeah, this is an issue in several PB games. I like choice and consequence but fucking your entire character build up is a bit extreme.

 

[SCO]

Gothic 2 has a patch that makes character building not retarded (that is, you won't 'need' to hog potions and tablets until the end for maximum advantage)