Goblins Quest 3 – Final rating

By Ilmari

My experiences with the Goblins trilogy have been a mix of charm and frustration. The quirky humour and the intriguingly innovative gameplay have been a strong backbone of all of the three games. Then again, the first game had a frustratingly hard interface, with a diminishing health bar forcing you to replay the levels until you nailed it perfectly, and the second game was just too long and repetitive. I feel like the third game has nailed it, since there really was nothing to annoy me – even the length of the game was spot-on, the end coming after the most ingenious levels. We’ll see how far that gets with the PISSED rating.

Let's see where we'll land

Puzzles and Solvability

Goblins Quest 3 resembles the second game of the series in that it is structured into discrete levels that often consist of two or three rooms. I noted in my review of the second game that this was a partial solution to a problem haunting the first game, where all the rooms were self-contained, with access to the next room available only after solving the previous room, because the ultimate goal of these self-contained rooms was often obtuse, with the motivation for some puzzles coming only at later screens. Even the second game failed sometimes in this regard, but the third game provides finally a simple and effective solution to the problem by outright informing the player what they are supposed to achieve.

We are down to one goblin, but this does not mean that the puzzles would be less complex than in the previous games, since Blount usually has friends or other versions of himself to interact with in the rooms. In fact, the different combinations of characters in different rooms allow for more variety, with different individuals having different abilities to play with.

The puzzle sequences are still full of complex Rube Goldberg machines, but the developers have introduced them cleverly, with the first few levels being relatively simple, and the puzzle sequences becoming more and more devious as the game goes on. A nice touch was also that especially in the later part of the game, many of the levels had clear themes (for instance, potion brewing, compiling and playing a chess game, and mirror shenanigans). I feel like a great deal of effort and craft must have been put into constructing these puzzle sequences, since many of them feel like small pieces of art. If there’s something I have to criticise, it is that some of the time-based puzzles were a bit frustrating for a person like me with slow reaction times, but that’s a minor problem.

Probably my favourite level puzzlewise

Score: 8.

Interface and Inventory

Goblins-series has always had simple, but adequate interfaces, and on a superficial level, there has not been that much development in that regard. I still have to give a point more for the variability of ways the interface is put to use with different characters. The sections with the two hands were a particularly innovative twist on the basic formula.

Score: 6.

Story and Setting

Story has never been the forte of Goblins-series, and the third game is no exception. In fact, at times there were a bit too many plot threads going on, with none of them properly developed. Who was this Fourbalus character introduced out of nowhere and why was he so obsessed with the key to the labyrinth? A particularly useless piece of the story was the late reveal that Blount had been one of the characters in the second game of the series. I guess there is an attempt to make it a vehicle into introspection and acceptance of one’s darker side on part of Blount, but you really have to stretch the few hints of a plot to get there. I did like the newspaper articles describing the plot and often containing hints of what to expect in the future, but they felt a bit disconnected from the actual gameplay.

The newspaper clips also contained premonitions what was about to happen later in the game

Score: 4.

Sounds and Graphics

It’s a good-looking game with nice, hummable music. Overall, there’s enough progression from the previous games that I feel good rewarding the game with an additional point.

Score: 7.

Environment and Atmosphere

I’ve always had a taste for the absurd and quirky and this game has it a lot! There have been wacky small bits of animation and ludicrous level designs in Goblins-series before, but now these small elements have been weaved into a pattern of almost endless hilarity and ridiculousness. It’s like Monty Python at its best – nothing much makes any sense, but you are still compelled to just love the nuttiness of it all. I am sure my score in this category will shock the more strait-laced people, but the weeks of pure fun I’ve had with this game deserve it.

In how many games you get to whack bugs living in someone's beard?

Score: 10.

Dialogue and Acting:

This is another category which the Goblins-games have never really mastered – it is a series of visual, not literary gags. There have been slight developments in this regard, the aforementioned newspaper being the most important addition in the textual aspect. They have still hired for the starring role of Blount the annoyingly high-pitched actor, who sounds like a castrated lovechild of Mickey Mouse and Elmo the Muppet, but luckily he is balanced by the far more tolerable voice actor playing wolf.

Score 3.

(8 + 6 + 4 + 7 + 10 + 3)/0.6 = 38/0.6 = 63.

That’s quite a jump from the previous games that landed on forties, but well deserved in my opinion! Did anyone come at all close to the score? Not really, but Alex Romanov was at least in the same decades!

CAP distribution

100 CAPs to Ilmari

• Blogger Award - 100 CAPs - For playing and blogging Goblins Quest 3 to our (and his own) enjoyment

28 CAPs to Alex Romanov

• Believe in Your Cause Award - 20 CAPs - For giving the most positive and most correct guess for the final score of this game
• Goblin Diary Award - 8 CAPs - For sharing thoughts about the game in extensive detail

12 CAPs to PsOmA

• Goblin companion Award - 12 CAPs - For playing the game with Ilmari and sharing thoughts about the game in extensive detail

5 CAPs to Menhir Mike

• Goblin Diary Award - 5 CAPs - For sharing thoughts about the game

2 CAPs to Rowan Lipkowits

• Gobln Award - 2 CAPs - For an unsolicited Goblins joke

2cCAPs to Andy_Panthro

• Gobliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiins Award  - 2 CAPs - For an unsolicited Goblins joke

2 CAPs to Busca

• Oh No! More Goblins Award -  2 CAPs - For an unsolicited Goblins joke

2 CAPs to ShaddamIVth

•  ¿Or 1 English and 1 Spanish Goblin? Award - 2 CAPs - For an unsolicited Goblins joke