If you had the patience of reading this far, you might think the game is bad. It's not. Quite the contrary, actually, and that's because of the universe you're playing in. The graphics are downright gorgeous, but not in the "eye candy, Oblivion way". I'm talking about style here. This game looks gritty, and tough, and a bit dark at times. It's not called "Gothic" just for the fun of it. The graphics might look a bit rough around the edges, but that really helps in creating a believable athmosphere. The colors are a bit washed out, and some vistas look like they've been sharpened a bit in Photoshop, but others are warm, and bright, but still menacing when you're looking at the gloom forest in the background, and you see the yellow leaves on the ground, and that ruined tower near the road, surrounded in an excellent depth of field effect, creating the illusion of "hey, I can see really far away, but still, what's there, I can't really make out the details". This way, you also don't see the background popping out like in Oblivion that often. The forested part of the world is a small masterpiece. As a buddy of mine said, it feels "german", with the castles on top of breathtaking high cliffs, with their dungeons stretching down towards the valley below, suspdended bridges over chasms cutting the countryside in 2, torches which surround the populated areas in an amazing, amazing color and light show during the night...absolutely stunning.
...
Why is this game any good then ?
It's so damn good because you don't feel how the time passed, and it's 4AM, with a busy day following in a few hours. It "fills" you with it's atmoshpere, it fascinates you with the ease it kills you, in such a natural way you nearly hear some PB developer laughing somewhere in the background, making you wonder how the quickload button didn't die of stress yet...

It keeps you glued to your chair, showing you the most amazing vista when you reach the top of the hill, leaving you breathless in your chair. It doesn't let you go, because you HAVE to get the money to buy that kickass armor set, because it's so damn fun to see your character sharpen his sword at the smithy, or sitting in front of some campfire, making roast meat, while the NPC's around you talk about stuff, one of them is singing, and another is just standing there, on a chair, in such a natural and cool way you start wondering what he's thinking about.

It's so damn good because you can't stop questing. You run around doing things for hours and hours, until you forget the game's story, because it really doesn't matter, when you're working your ass off to gain access to the secret capital of the Hashishin people.

And then there's the music, which may quite possibly be the best i've heard in a game, yet. It completes the game, it fills you with heroism when it has to, it flattens you in your chair when you first enter a desert city, with that lady singing in the background. It's devastating, really, you don't want to move an inch, just to make the music stay there.
...
My advice: avoid this game if you don't have a powerful enough PC, you don't appreciate a difficult, but realistic game, and, quite frankly, you're to damn blinded by Oblivion to see something else on the horison, or, why not, something right in your damn face. Even though Gothic 3 will unfortunately receive a lower score than Oblivion had.​