Gothic III
When I buy a new PC, screw Oblivion, I'm getting Gothic III. I already played and greatly enjoyed the first and second games (though I haven't had the chance to put my hands on any of the expansions).
The Gothic games are created by a German developer, Piranha Bytes. They are essentially action RPGs that take place in a 3D world. While there is no character creation (he is automatically a bearded, nameless man who may or may not be guilty of the crimes for which he is convicted), you get to choose pretty much everything else.
There are no classes in the game per se. Rather, when you kill animals, monsters, orcs and goblins, or even fellow humans, you accumulate experience points until you level up. Leveling up provides you with an increasing number of skill points, which are spent on whatever you want, as long as you find a suitable trainer. This includes attributes such as Strength, skills such as Sneaking or fighting with One-handed Weapons, or knowledge such as spells.
You can also join factions, which is the closest thing to classes in the game. In Gothic II for example, you could choose to join the milita and eventually become a paladin, join rebels to become a mercenary and eventually a dragon slayer, or (for experienced players) become a novice of the Fire Magician guild to eventually became a Fire Magician yourself. Each of those choices give you access to different trainers and equipment appropriate to your faction. The first Gothic had a similar structure.
The best element of the game, though, is the sheer amount of freedom you have. For example, in Gothic II, if you wish to join the milita, you must become a citizen of the game's main city first. To become a citizen, you must become apprenticed to one of the city's tradesmen (such as a blacksmith), which in turn requires the approval of all the major tradesemen of the city.
The blacksmith will require you to prove your worth as a warrior, and asks that you bring him the axe of an orc as proof. The problem is that, in this game, orcs are extremely strong and virtually impossible for a n00b like you to kill (at least that early in the game). But there's no lack of solutions to that problem.
If you look around, you will see there are two orcs near the city. One in a concealed cave next to a road, and one in the forest. The one in the cave is almost impossible to kill, but you can try anyway. You can also follow that particular road to a tradesman, who sells an orc axe among other things (which you can bring back as 'proof'). You can hire a hunter to go on a hunting trip in the forest, which ends with (hopefully) killing the orc roaming that forest, where you can get an axe. Finally, you can ask the blacksmith to give you a break, and he'll give you a much more reasonable task to accomplish.
Many, many of the 'quests' in the game can be resolve in more than one way. This extends to your interaction with the game's characters. If you screw someone, you may very well find them screwing you right back down the road. Likewise, if you are kind and generous, it can pay off in an unexpected way later.
Speaking of character interaction, every line of dialogue is spoken. And there's lots and lots of it. Like, a lot. (Thankfully you can turn on captions and skip past the spoken dialogue, though you'll probably want to hear the dialogue at least once.)
The only issue I have with the game, and it's a small one, is that the combat system relies very much on reflexes, particularly melee combat. (Ranged combat, and tossing spells, aren't as reflex-intensive.) You will quite often get creamed unless you spend a good deal of time learning the combat system.
I am told there are combos in melee combat, and indeed I found that certain key combinations in a certain sequence will result in 'special' attacks, but I always end up building an archer character that snipes at enemies then runs away. Much safer that way.
Er. Did I say 'only' issue? There's another one. The dreaded crashes. Granted, they tend to happen on systems with less than the recommended RAM from experience. When I slapped on another 256 MB for a total of 512 MB RAM on my PC, Gothic II ran a lot better and crashed a lot less.
The Gothic games are created by a German developer, Piranha Bytes. They are essentially action RPGs that take place in a 3D world. While there is no character creation (he is automatically a bearded, nameless man who may or may not be guilty of the crimes for which he is convicted), you get to choose pretty much everything else.
There are no classes in the game per se. Rather, when you kill animals, monsters, orcs and goblins, or even fellow humans, you accumulate experience points until you level up. Leveling up provides you with an increasing number of skill points, which are spent on whatever you want, as long as you find a suitable trainer. This includes attributes such as Strength, skills such as Sneaking or fighting with One-handed Weapons, or knowledge such as spells.
You can also join factions, which is the closest thing to classes in the game. In Gothic II for example, you could choose to join the milita and eventually become a paladin, join rebels to become a mercenary and eventually a dragon slayer, or (for experienced players) become a novice of the Fire Magician guild to eventually became a Fire Magician yourself. Each of those choices give you access to different trainers and equipment appropriate to your faction. The first Gothic had a similar structure.
The best element of the game, though, is the sheer amount of freedom you have. For example, in Gothic II, if you wish to join the milita, you must become a citizen of the game's main city first. To become a citizen, you must become apprenticed to one of the city's tradesmen (such as a blacksmith), which in turn requires the approval of all the major tradesemen of the city.
The blacksmith will require you to prove your worth as a warrior, and asks that you bring him the axe of an orc as proof. The problem is that, in this game, orcs are extremely strong and virtually impossible for a n00b like you to kill (at least that early in the game). But there's no lack of solutions to that problem.
If you look around, you will see there are two orcs near the city. One in a concealed cave next to a road, and one in the forest. The one in the cave is almost impossible to kill, but you can try anyway. You can also follow that particular road to a tradesman, who sells an orc axe among other things (which you can bring back as 'proof'). You can hire a hunter to go on a hunting trip in the forest, which ends with (hopefully) killing the orc roaming that forest, where you can get an axe. Finally, you can ask the blacksmith to give you a break, and he'll give you a much more reasonable task to accomplish.
Many, many of the 'quests' in the game can be resolve in more than one way. This extends to your interaction with the game's characters. If you screw someone, you may very well find them screwing you right back down the road. Likewise, if you are kind and generous, it can pay off in an unexpected way later.
Speaking of character interaction, every line of dialogue is spoken. And there's lots and lots of it. Like, a lot. (Thankfully you can turn on captions and skip past the spoken dialogue, though you'll probably want to hear the dialogue at least once.)
The only issue I have with the game, and it's a small one, is that the combat system relies very much on reflexes, particularly melee combat. (Ranged combat, and tossing spells, aren't as reflex-intensive.) You will quite often get creamed unless you spend a good deal of time learning the combat system.
I am told there are combos in melee combat, and indeed I found that certain key combinations in a certain sequence will result in 'special' attacks, but I always end up building an archer character that snipes at enemies then runs away. Much safer that way.
Er. Did I say 'only' issue? There's another one. The dreaded crashes. Granted, they tend to happen on systems with less than the recommended RAM from experience. When I slapped on another 256 MB for a total of 512 MB RAM on my PC, Gothic II ran a lot better and crashed a lot less.