Gothic is a European series that has been imported to the US. Gothic 3 is the most recent in that series and the most complex, to date.

This is a single player RPG with many options. Because the world you find yourself in is really undefined for you many choices are available. And the growth of your character is something that happens smoothly.

The most interesting factor in this game is that you actually find yourself "feeling" like you are in this environment. You are walking around looking for familiar trees, listening for sounds that might help you find your way to the hidden camps of the rebels.

There are major and minor quests. And some of these get pretty complicated. To fulfill the one major quest, to find all of the Fire Chalices, means you have to explore the entire world. From deepest desert to coldest mountain retreat you search for which characters are holding the precious chalices.

For two thirds of the game play this is really interesting. You've got a full world to explore and you're trying to stay alive. Your character grows. But once you've reached a certain strength you want to start taking out the enemy cities. Unfortunately if you take out a City before you've recovered the Fire Chalice from that City, well there doesn't seem anyway to finish that major quest once the city has been destroyed before the Chalice has been recovered.

It is addictive to search this world. The feeling of being there is intense. It does take a rather heavy duty computer. With less than a gig and a half of RAM and a good video card your game play is going to be slow, at best.

Recommended: Yes