At the end of the day, the story is rather free-form as it sees you chosing whether to side with the orcs or the humans. Your character’s arrival there and that of his companions is further complicated though by the fact that a character called Xardas, a character featured in the other game, has decided to side with the orcs.

The land has its share of problems though, as it has been over-run by orcs who know rule over the human populace, though there is unrest with human rebels and such as is to be expected when a new land is taken over. So, the story? After the events of the second game, the character you control is travelling by boat to a land known as Myrtana. It’s just that I imagine people would find more enjoyment in playing through the entire series. However, it’s not nessecary to play the other two games before trying Gothic 3 as it can stand-alone. Essentially, with Gothic 3 being the third game in the series, playing the games in order might be best to get the most enjoyment from the third title due to the games sharing a story. With the Gothic series, this isn’t the case. While The Elder Scrolls games have an overarching world and lore, they are largely standalone due to taking place in different parts of the world and such. They might not have the budget of The Elder Scrolls and they may not be as polished, but they are still good games. But there is also another series of open-world roleplaying games called Gothic, by a lesser known developer. The Elder Scrolls series of games, though Oblivion made a few stupid errors (mainly one which is the level scaling), are deserving of their reputation and popularity.

When open-world games are first mentioned (roleplaying ones in a fantasy environment), the first name that people perhaps think of is Elder Scrolls or, to be more specific, Oblivion.

Gothic 3 review