Gothic 1 & 2 are my favorite RPG games, and although not as good, Gothic 3 would definitely be deserving sequel to the franchise if it was actually playable.
You might hear that it has "no loading screen" as a positive aspect but combine all of the stuttering, lag, random freezes etc. and you will have greater wait time then in a Sims 2 game.
Combat system also feels very unsatisfying since it boils down to spamming single button and stun-locking enemies which in turn makes wild boars one of the most fearsome enemies in the game, and orcs (supposed biggest threat to land) weakest (dare I even say laughable), but it would still be passable if my game would actually not freeze every time I made any "sudden" movements...
That being said there are mods that mostly fix these issues, so if you take your time and install them (Community patch + Content mod + Gothic 3 Clean Up tool) you will have a very good game to play, but without them it's an unplayable mess.
---
Cons:
- Poor optimization
- Clunky combat
- Main story in some points is not very logical
- Ending is meh
- Lee vs King confrontation disappointing (considering the build-up that spanned for both Gothic 1 & 2)
- Some areas are empty and feel unfinished - mostly desert area around Ishtar
- Temples are very generic and somewhat unsatisfying once you open them (they are essentially just copy pasted with almost same enemies)
- Lack of enemy variety - what i mean by this is that there are technically different animals look-wise but they have same animations, attack and movement patterns leading them to feeling like a same enemy. Also in some areas like Nordmar it feels like every second enemy is ice-wolf or sabertooth, you might get an Ogre or Shadowbeast here and there but you already seen them in other areas before.
Pros:
- Graphics are very good
- Magic/Mage very fun
- Memorable music
- Freeing settlements unique and interesting
- Your actions while you do quests actually impact the world
- NPC's have shifts / schedules
- Unique crime system that tried to do something different
- Each town has it's own arena