Baldur's Gate 3

I'm ancient. BG1/2 have been in my top 5 for decades I still actually play with the mod that smashes all 4 chapters together so you can play it seamlessly. I've always loved being part of the stories. I love the old games. I also love the new one. I've played for 11 hours since release and I've been really enjoying it. I picked the mysterious Dark origin story and it's been great navigating thorugh the dialog options and the surprising moments that have occurred, some of which were COMPLETELY unexpected crazy moments, which has really kept me engaged and curious where it's going. I've enjoyed the combat. There was one battle where I seriously did not think I was going to make it. I kept thinking, just re load, you are toast. A few lucky crits later I'd managed to survive and win the day and I was so happy. The character I was helping seemed as surprised as I was that we'd survived and it seemed to just perfectly fit the situation. I can't help but wonder if we'll be able to build our own stories with BG3 someday! What are my big beefs?!? I'm so accustomed to pausing the game with my thumb on the space bar for BG2 I keep finding myself hitting it in BG3 which does nothing.

A potentially great game marred by a ludicrous amount of technical issues. As you play through the first half of the game, you will likely notice this game has considerably more bugs than most, but as the gameplay, visuals and story are quite enticing, and the types of bugs tend to be minor nuisances, you'll likely find the game highly enjoyable. This changes in the second half of the game. Almost every quest is bugged in some way. Major gameplay mechanics might stop working temporarily or permanently. The amount of issues start to take their toll. I kind of want to give the game 4 out of 5 because the first half is so good in spite of the issues, but it just doesn't seem fair to give the most bug-ridden game I have ever played in 30 years of gaming more than a 3. My suggestion is to wait at least a year before buying the game. Might be a 5/5 by then.

Even at this early stage, it's clear that this will be a well made, fun RPG when it's finished. However, I still feel like it should have been titled something else, as even though it contains references to the previous BG games, it doesn't have the same style or "feel" as those games. They should go with something like Baldur's Gate: , as the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance did. That'd alleviate 90% of the complaints from fans of the previous games I think. As a long time fan of both the Infinity Engine games and the Divinity games, I feel this game is a fun blend of both, but the merger does have flaws. Most notably, too many deviations from D&D 5th edition (often for no good reason). But this is Early Access, so some of these may be changes just to see what people do with them, and hopefully the feedback they are getting will fix many of these issues. On the subject of turn based combat, I think it works fine and I have no issue with its inclusion in the game. It's how tabletop works, and so I think it's a good thing it has been translated well into the game. A major point of contention currently is the "surfaces" and how prevalent they are, and changes made to spells and abilities to work with the system. I like the surfaces and some of the associated mechanics, but I think Larian could have merged them with D&D better. For example, Firebolt should be single target with it's standard stats by default. But I'm fine with it igniting a "Grease" surface if I directly target that surface instead of targetting an enemy and so on. So to sum up: the game has potential, it's already engaging and I will revisit this review as the EA progresses.

There have been a lot of reviews that claim this isn't a Baldur's Gate game. They are right, this isn't. It's Divinity:Original Sin in semi-Faerun clothing. Yes, this is still in early access, but it shouldn't even be there yet. There are a lot of fundamental issues with this game, from a lack of map rotation during exploration to gigantic balance issues during the first combats to a UI that is clumsy, awkward, and not at all intuitive to use if you aren't already a D:OS player. The 5th Edition D&D rules are implemented in what feels like a very lackadaisical fashion, where they aren't implemented in a ham-handed fashion. There is still an awful lot of work that needs to be done before this game is anything close to fun to play.

This game is garbage compared to the REAL Baldur's Gates or the magnificent Pillars of Eternity series. BG3 shouldn't carry the name it does, because it is NOT a Baldur's Gate game in style or tone. This game makes you help people you don't WANT to help. It makes you run around with party members that hate your guts. You will find no Imoen or Edér here, nothing like them at all. The companions are unpleasant and annoying. The combat is bad, because it drags on way too long and the animations look silly. Reloading a long fight feels even more like a chore than doing the dishes. Your party isn't a cohesive whole, greater than the sum of its parts. Rather it's a bunch of awkward looking clowns moving around slowwwly and killing things even sloowwwwer. The enemies you fight are entirely forgettable. I thought that Divinity Original Sin 2 was an unenjoyable clunker of a game, but at least it had its own charm and the game felt complete and rich. Baldur's Gate 3 borrows from Divinity, borrows from BG and ends up a weak freaky mismatch of ideas. This Early Access stuff is also an affront and needs to end.