The other aspects of this game don't have such extenuating circumstances. Gone is the rewarding exploration with hand-placed items, replaced by progressive randomised loot where the contents of chests you find are decided by the number of chests previously opened. This results in situations where the player manages to brave caves filled with monsters only to be rewarded with junk, while finding the better items in chests on the side of the road.

Combat is a shadow of its former self: melee is
decided by who manages to strike first due to stun-
locking – a far cry from the previous Gothics where timing was essential. There's also a new, completely unnecessary endurance bar that quickly drains as soon as combat starts and makes no sense in a game with lengthy town battles. Archery, on the other hand, is improved due to adding manual aiming and physics, which made it feel much more satisfying.

Magic is relatively the same, but the progression structure was changed for the worse. You don't start as a mundane character that has to prove himself if he wants to become a mage – now you can focus on magic from the beginning. Some of the higher level spells are quite spectacular, like changing night into day, but only the player has access to them since all other mages are limited to basic offensive spells.