Baldur's Gate 3

I waited until the game was out a while and patched up before giving a review. I bought it day one of early access. The people saying it is a DOS2 sequel and not BG3 are correct, clear down to the reused mechanics, assets and even some of the mapping layouts. The lore breaking is rampant throughout. There are just too many examples to list. From the perspective of someone who has been playing D&D since before the AD&D books were published, yeah, the lore in the game may as well be from Rainbow Six. That's how far removed it is from the source lore. Some of the mechanics are painfully broken. Fail a dialogue attempt with an NPC and it attacks you is grounds for making a paladin fall. Jump is wonky at best and some of the characters must be hard coded to perpetually miss, like Shadowheart. Got to the point I would just end her turn without bothering to use her since she never hit in any of the 38 playthroughs with her in the party. The game had to be patched to fix the perpetually bad dice rolls. I've worked on die rolling tools. I've tested many other ad nauseum, and while BG3's dice mechanics falls into the same patterns all other algorithm based rollers do, it will do so at numbers 30% below what needs to be rolled for success. COMBAT ZOOM. Complaints about this terrible game mechanic go back to 2015 with DOS2 and absolute silence from Larian regarding any remedies. It's still the same today. Why does the camera zoom clear off into another realm at every attack? Reload Simulator 2023 would be a good title for how wonky the mechanics get. Have to pop a smoke bomb? Make sure it's on the left side of those rocks or you will be attacked by the very people you are saving. Worst AI Ever is another title. I thought it impossible for an engine to have an AI worse than BioWare's Aurora engine. NWN vets know what I'm talking about. But Larian achieved it. Your characters will exclaim, "Lookout! A trap!", then run ahead right into it. *Facedesk* Fun? Yes. D&D? No. EDIT: Patch 7 completely destroyed this game. First, none of my saves or mods work due to that completely borked mod manager Larian added. Second, I uninstalled via Revo Uninstaller so I could completely clean my registry, reinstalled and now the standard play UI is overlaid on the vanilla new chargen screen. I am presented a naked black male human and four bald black male heads on the left where the character classes are, so they cannot be accessed. I can't create a character at all. I want a rollback option to patch 6, or my damned money back. Larian, you destroyed this game and lost a customer forever with your antics. Years of modifying the game and character development wiped out. You should work for Microsoft.

Larian tried to take on the legend and didn't delivered. From the moment we start the game we are not met with the invigorating music that welcomes us to embark on a journey, but rather blant and uninspiring sounds that more resambles moaning due to constipation. Combat is the next dissapointment. Instead of well-known real time system, we are thrown a completly boring and unnecessarily long turn based combat that deprives us of any tactical advantage. World presentation in another let down. Despite being quite large it feels rather cramped. Original approach with many smaller areas gives a feeling of a much bigger world and that high fantasy grandeur. World interactivity is also lacking. The "jump" is something we would rather have seen in an anime game. Solasta, a game with a fraction of a budget, gives an immensly more interactive world where we can climb walls, walk on ceiling, attack while climbing and perform a perfectly natural jumps. But the biggest dissapointment is the narrator telling us how you should feel about certain things... Is it a bad game? Not at all, but it's a bad Baldur's Gate game. Instead I would recommend newer games that do far better at capturing the essence of Baldur's Gate: Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Pathfinder, Solasta.

I really wanted to love this game. Playing Original Sin 1&2 in Coop were some of the most fun gaming hours I ever had. But this game is WORK. I am sorry but it just isn't fun. I had a friend who was constantly one Act ahead of me in his single player game so when we played together he knew the right order to play areas etc. so that you would not get screwed by level jumps etc. However, the moment he did not have time to play in Coop anymore I lost all enjoyment. Why do I still give 3 stars? Because I do achnowledge the sheer depth and scope of the game, it is impressive. Maybe it just caught me at the wrong time in my life. PS: The fact that all companions are super horny and hot for you was really distracting and might be the reason I did not continue playing. Gradually building releationships in games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age was a core part of the experience which is severly cheapened by this approach. Everybody can love everyone means that no one loves anyone. Limitations add meaning.

BG3 never quite feels like Baldur's Gate. It's tone is a little off, perhaps a bit more whimsical. Something about BG1/2 felt more grounded but maybe that's how Forgotten Realms changed in 5E compared to what it was in AD&D2.5. There are even times I almost feel like I'm playing Planescape: Torment with the sheer number of quirky and crazy things going on, along with all the extra-planar activity in this. I would have loved it if Larian had made this a Planescape game instead (though not a Torment sequel). It also feels quite a lot like Divinity: Original Sin 2. The various characters you interact with feel more like characters you would meet in that game than ones you would meet in BG1/2, but maybe that has to do with everything being voice acted and mocapped. The dialogue and the options the game provides are where it really shines though. You are constantly given options of using class specific dialogue on top of tonal dialogue (think good vs evil). Options to deceive, investigate, recall knowledge of history and religion, and so many more truly make conversations the best part of BG3. The turn-based combat is what really lends it that feel of D:OS2, however. Unfortunately, BG3's combat is just not as good as D:OS2's. Dungeons & Dragons' systems simply do not translate well into a video game. Video games have come a long way since BG1/2 and although BG3 is using 5E's more updated and streamlined systems rather than AD&D's THAC0, those systems still can't compete with ones that were specifically designed with video games in mind. Concentration, spell/skill usage limits, resting, progression curve, class balance, and so many other mechanics really drag the combat down (along with other aspects of the game). Turn based combat has really come into its own in recent years but the desire to adhere so strictly to the rules of D&D just ignores much of that. I'm still enjoying the game as I near its end, but it really has me wanting for the thing that could have been.

After about 60 hours (just entered into "act 3"), I must say that a lot of the hype about this game seems to be well orchestrated marketing. I really enjoy it where it reminds me of the old BG's and addons (e.g. the encounter with Elminster). It is challenging. I like round-based battle, that there are many dialogues, stealth options. There's a lot to be excited about, sure, just see the reviews online. Yet there is also a massive amount of severe logical flaws, bugs, annoyances. Some examples. - I'd rather have stranded from a pirate ship than a Nautiloid. Act I was nice, except for that: Goblins, Druids, a hag, the underdark, Gnolls, spiders, Grym. - Act II was linear. - There suddenly is a giant, evil, humanoid squid brain with tentacles and a Netherene crown. Wtf. Why not also a corrupted unicorn? - At just level eight, I just fought one of The Three. wtf. - Every cult has their parallel dimension: the astral plane, the weave, shadowfell, death (necromancy) ... running out of ideas? - I stealthed Kethric's room in Act II, before seeing him, found all kind of evidence for invasion and conspiracy; no consequence. - Voss just teleported to my camp. They could have come there all the time. - gore is unnecessary, e.g. Thorm doctor - romance is unnecessary, too easy, predictable - All (!) characters basically have the same "rebel against their oppressor" story. - For many many dialogues, I get multiple options, but it seems that the answer would fit either of these (no real choice). - Lae'zel keeps saying "Vlak'kith's will done" after defying the queen. Who cares? Me, it's an RPG! - Hirelings aside, my group too crucially depends on Astarion for (too many) sneaky tasks; he's the only "dexterity" character (would love a non-vampire monk or something). - Jaheira is Lvl 7 when I meet her. Minsc - will see. It is "eat or die" with the famous old companions. - I found few good "feit"s for casters, none for healer/supporters. There's more, just char limit here. Pity!