JNK said:
I just finished Witcher 3 some days ago and its a good rpg but not more. there are to many little things that prevent it from beeing "awesome".
For everybody who want a really awesome RPG and dont care to much about graphics i can only recommend the GOTHIC series (Gothic 1-3). The Combat System is very "special" in the first 2 games, you need to get used to them.
Here are things that the 15 year old GOTHIC games are doing better then a modern aaa-Witcher 3.
- World The World in the first 2 Gothic games is alot smaller compared to the vast open world of witcher 3. Nonetheless the world is alot more compact and filled with alot more live. You can talk to every side npcs and ~50% will have individual dialoges. In Witcher 3 you can only talk to ~5% of the npcs. Witcher 3 have dozens of villages where you can mostly just get 1-3 quest per village. So each village feel very exchangeable and random. In Gothic you will find alot less villages/camps but those will be offer alot more content. You get dozens of individual quests in each camp, you will get to know the inhabitants of each camp, their behaviour, rituals and much more. You will identify yourself which each camp and with alot more npcs. Gothic 2´s biggest City "Khorinis" is compareable to Novigrad. Khorinis may be just ~10% of the size of novigrad, but it will offer the same content. In Khornis you can enter every building and you will find something special in every 2nd building. In Novigrad 90% of the building cant be entered and dont have any importance. I would never have a problem to orient myself in khorinis (the game doesnt even have questmarkers) but i have alot problems in Novigrad. In Gothic most npcs will have their own little story, worries, wishes and more. In Witcher 3 most npcs are just "soulless zombies" like in assassins creed. they have no sense gameplay whise, they are just there to give you the feeling "the world is alive". But its just a facade, while in gothic its real. In the World of GOTHIC every monster do have their own strengh. You will start fighting Scavangers, later wolves, then Lurker, then snapper and so on. So if you meet a lurker your first time it may kill you, but some hours later you can take revenge. In Witcher 3 you will fight the same type of monsters just with different levels (Wolves/drowned deads level 2,4,6,8, etc.). In Gothic my character will open chests before he loot them. He will bend down to pick up a plant.
- Character Sytem In Gothic you will start as a nobody. Every npcs will be stronger then you. Nobody does know you. But when you progress in the game, people will start having respect for you. You will be stronger. You can beat people who were bad to you later. You can decide what kind of weapon/magic you will use. In Witcher 3 my character isnt evolving at all. Even at level 35 i feel almost the same as on level 1. To get better in Gothic i have to find a trainer, who will practise with me. In Witcher I can skill in a menu. I can even craft/use alchemie in a menu. Everythig more realistic in gothic. I will start having a complete crap weapon like a branch or a pickaxe. But as stronger i get i will get better weapons, which arnt just "better" but also look alot better. In Witcher 3 my level 34 swords almost look like my level 1 swords. Training special fighting moves will give more and better fighting animations in gothic.
- Story The Main story of witcher 3 wasnt special at all. Nothing hit me by surprise. 60% of the main plot i was just looking for people. In Gothic you will be suprised alot, believe me ;) Dont want to spoiler so thats it.
Dont get me wrong, Witcher 3 was still a good Rpg. But if you never tried Gothic, i can just recommend to try those games. Dont be afraid because of the old graphics and unconventional controls. |
Ah, another Gothic fan, always nice to see that.
I completely agree of course, for me Gothics are better open-world RPGs than Witcher in almost every aspect, but "specialness' of their melee combat, as well as age, can put a lot of people off.
I do feel slightly dissapointed that Witcher 3 is not as brilliant as I hoped for - after all, Gothic was major influence on devs and I hoped they would make something comparable, while retaining good stuff from W2. In the end, it was still pretty good game and honestly, in this climate, I can't blame CDPR for trying to make bit more mainstream game, but I'm hoping that CDPR, now that they went through first open-world game, will revisit fantasy setting sometimes in the future and dig a bit deeper - both metaphorically and literally (given how horizontal W3 tends to be in certain areas).
