Gothic 3 (2006)
Gothic 3 is a 2006 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Piranha Bytes and Aspyr Media.
The kingdom of Myrtana has fallen to an Orc invasion, and the nameless hero lands on a continent far larger than the island colonies of the earlier games. Three powers pull at you: the human rebels holding out in the north, the Orcish occupiers, and the desert Hashishin to the south, each willing to reward loyalty. Piranha Bytes trades the tight, hand-built valleys for a sprawling open world of snowy peaks, green forests, and southern dunes. The old ideas remain, unmarked exploration and skills learned from teachers, now stretched across a whole embattled realm at war with itself.
Quick answers
What is Gothic 3 about?
The kingdom of Myrtana has fallen to an Orc invasion, and the nameless hero lands on a continent far larger than the island colonies of the earlier games. Three powers pull at you: the human rebels holding out in the north, the Orcish occupiers, and the desert Hashishin to the south, each willing to reward loyalty. Piranha Bytes trades the tight, hand-built valleys for a sprawling open world of snowy peaks, green forests, and southern dunes. The old ideas remain, unmarked exploration and skills learned from teachers, now stretched across a whole embattled realm at war with itself.
When was Gothic 3 released?
Gothic 3 was released on 13 October 2006.
Who made Gothic 3?
Gothic 3 was made by Piranha Bytes, Aspyr Media and JoWooD Productions Software.
Similar games
Explore Gothic 3 guides
Gothic 3 in our writing
- Companion guide: The European RPG: Gothic, The Witcher and the Continental School
A few thoughts on Gothic 3
Gothic 3's war-torn realm and pick-your-side politics land near Game of Thrones. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt covers the same grubby European fantasy on a grander scale, while The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, released the same year, offers a smoother take on the wide-open fantasy sandbox. Berserk carries the grim mood into comics.
Epic fantasy where a whole continent is at war and you have to choose a side
Gothic 3 scatters human rebels, Orc occupiers and Hashishin raiders across one embattled continent, and picking a side reshapes everything. Oathbringer and Brisingr build that same scale of continent-wide war through detailed factions, Wizard and Glass roots its own war in a similar clash of rival powers, Berserk paints a war-torn kingdom in blood and steel, and Game of Thrones shares that sense that no army is good or evil.
Open-world games where picking a faction changes the whole war
Gothic 3 asks the nameless hero to pick a faction and live with the consequences across a whole kingdom. Skyrim's civil war between Stormcloaks and the Empire hits the same note, The Witcher 3 layers its own occupation and rebellion into every region, Red Dead Redemption 2 ties your loyalty to a crumbling gang, and San Andreas turns turf war into the whole map.
Heavy metal and film scores for a continent-spanning war
A continent at war deserves music with real weight behind it. Judas Priest's Painkiller and Fates Warning's The Spectre Within bring the same driving heaviness as Gothic 3's battles, Blind Guardian's IX Equilibrium leans into outright fantasy lore, and the Return of the King score carries the same sense of a whole world mobilizing for war.
Manga set in worlds torn apart by war and shifting alliances
Gothic 3's Myrtana is a land reshaped by invasion, and these manga share that same backdrop of shifting alliances. Rurouni Kenshin follows a swordsman living with a war he helped win, Fullmetal Alchemist builds its plot around a militarized state, Inuyasha splits its feudal world into rival territories, and One Piece stretches that same factional tension across an entire ocean.