At the end of Gothic the nameless hero destroyed the Avatar of the god Beliar known as the Sleeper. But although his body was gone, the Sleeper wasn’t ready to give up and chose an undead dragon as his new form in the world. So in Gothic II the goal was to defeat his four minions, which he left behind in the mine valley, and the Sleeper himself with the power of the Eye of Innos.
In Gothic 3 the hero and his companions have now reached the mainland of the kingdom of Myrtana. Despite the efforts of the mining colony on Khorinis, the orcs won the war and enslaved the humans that wouldn’t acknowledge their rule. There are now three main factions on Myrtana: the rebels who are still loyal to King Rhobar and want to defeat the orcs; the orcs themselves; and the mysterious assassin guild with their own agenda. During the game the player needs to choose which side he is on and help them to fulfill their goal.
To make things even more difficult, all rune magic has disappeared from the land. Only the magic of the ancients still works; but for that the player needs to find the magic scrolls well hidden across the land. The goal is now to find out what happened in Myrtana and find the mysterious wizard Xardas, as there are rumors which say that he’s the one who helped the orcs win the war – and some even say that he is the one behind the disappearance of the rune magic.
To do so, the player is free to roam the world from the start (even so it’s not wise since many animals will eat the hero for breakfast). The journey begins in a small village the hero helps defend against the orcs; in the north lies the icy region of Nordmar, and in the south there’s the desert of Varant, where the assassins chose to live. The game world is significantly larger in this installment and includes three vast regions with several towns and other settlements in each, almost any of which can be accessed and explored at any time. Teleporter stones unique to each location can be found and used to shorten travel times.
The core gameplay is similar to that of the earlier games in the series. Leveling up and learning new skills and talents requires learning points as well as gold needed as payment for the trainers inhabiting the world. Points can be invested to learn new abilities or improve available ones (e.g. fighting with one-handed swords). Since in the previous two games the protagonist has defeated everything from a Bloodfly to an Undead Dragon on the island of Khorinis, in Gothic 3 he starts already as a fully grown hero equipped with a good weapon called Orcslayer. However, tougher foes await him, and many side quests can be undertaken in order to improve his skills as well as his reputation among the competing factions. Unlike the preceding games, there are three difficulty levels available; also, enemies populating the surface are roughly of the same strength regardless of the location, making free-roaming much more feasible than before.
Another difference from the previous games, besides the visual updates, is the new fighting system. More combo attacks are available, and combat is fully controlled by two mouse buttons instead of the old keyboard-based system (though the control scheme can be customized). For the first time in the series it is possible to use shields for better blocking. Additionally, there are more talents to learn, for which a basic skill in the correspondent area needs to be increased: for example, the ability to pick heavy locks requires a thief skill of at least 30, etc.
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