Baldur's Gate 3

Alright, it's early access in all it's buggy glory, but you knew that when you paid $60. After all, it's all over the store page both here and on Steam. Will there be bugs? You betcha, and they are hilarious. Missing textures? Yah, those are there (or not as it were). If you don’t want to deal with all this, then wait a few months for a later build (or don’t, it’s your money). The thing is, I played day one and got frustrated with several bugs and voices not sinking to lip movement. By yesterday, Larian dropped a patch, and many of the day one issues were resolved. So far, today. No missing textures and less desynced lip movement. Larian seems to want to create a quality product that shows. Progress at this stage is very noticable and will keep me coming back to see what has changed. One thing I keep seeing is that people are getting crashes. I haven't had one crash. I left the game paused for over an hour this morning while working. When I came back, I unpaused it and continued my session without any trouble. This game feels like playing D&D for the most part. I reserve judgment in anticipation of additional development. The story, while different hen BG I &II has some of the same notes. Mostly, the hero is thrown into a situation where they must make decisions without information. In BG I, did you recruit Jahiera & Khalid or Montaran & Xzar? How did you feel about the midnight ambush? Escaping the mindflayer nautilus is similar in its frenetic energy and sense of impending misfortune. Companions are a bit more mistrusting, but I think Larian is trying to tell a story going from frenemies to perhaps trusted companions. Broad strokes, the themes are similar, but the story is distinctly it’s own. I note the lack of a cheerleader; there needs to be an Imoen type character. I look forward to seeing this game progress.

In a word no. It doesn't take much effort to see the there are two camps that are disappointed in BG 3. There are those that want BG 3 to be the game they remembered from 20 years ago and those that want BG 3 to be an exact unaltered representation of 5e rules. What both camps want is unreasonable. Here is why. First off this game was NEVER going to be similar mechanically to BG 1&2, as most of the principle parties don't exist anymore. The IP owner has changed twice in the last 20 years. Black Isle & Bioware both either don't exist at all or in Bioware's case no one who worked on BG works there anymore ( At least in higher positions). The publisher doesn't exist & the rules upon which the games made have gone through multiple iterations. TSR was always struggling financially so they didn't care what developers did with the IP so long as they got a cheque. WotC has never struggled, so they never "needed" to sell the IP & in fact refuse to sell the IP to either Brian Fargo, a former Interplay developer & founder of inXile Entertainment, as well as Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment, who were seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Hasbro has no desire to have a RTwP, they want a turn based system, because turn base is closer to 5e. D&D purists are never going to get what they want because 5e allows reactions/interrupts to the flow of combat between rolling a die and resolving a die roll. Where the player could interrupt at any point. You want play a cRPG where you stop the flow of combat to ask the player, hey do you accept this roll or do you want to use your limited use class ability now? No okay how about now? It would make combat flow terribly. This is possible in a table top setting because combat there takes much longer and there are natural pauses as a DM grab dice declares what is happening. Computers move much faster and near instantly resolve rolls. If you are a purist stay away, you wont enjoy it. That said I really enjoy BG3 cuz it is BG

Game mechanics are solid, story is intriguing, choices are vast, and all with good graphics. If this is early access, I can't wait to experience the final product.

I've played through all of the content currently available in early access, and so far I'm absolutely loving the game. Now and then you see content missing when a "cinematic pending" or similar notice flashes across the screen, but if the unpolished version of this game is already this perfect, the final version can only get better. I absolutely love D&D 5e, and I like how they adapted it into video game mechanics. The animation is gorgeous, especially the gestures and facial animations of some companion NPCs are really realistic and detailed (best example for that is Astarion, you should go check out some of his dialogue scenes on youtube to see what I mean). The story is very interesting so far, you can make many different choices and get many different scenes/comments/outcomes. Everytime I check out videos or comments about the game, I find something else that hasn't come up in any of my playthroughs. It gives the game huge replay value. I haven't played the other Baldur's Gate games, so I can't judge how well it fits into the tradition of the series. My love for this game has led me to play Divinity Original Sin 2, by the same developer, and I can see why people say the games are very similar. They definitely are in terms of game mechanics. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. Larian put their own spin on BG, and they stuck to a type of game they already knew quite well. Overall, my only complaint at the moment is the fact that the rest of the game isn't out yet. I NEED to know how the story continues, and find myself checking for news on a release date nearly every day. Despite my impatience, I'd rather they take all the time they need to finish the game and make sure the rest of it is as excellent as this first act. Overall, I can 100% recommend to get this.

Played for about 5 hours pre released version. Not big into cRPGs. Played Divinity OS2 and this is similar. Best parts of the game were characters and conversations you are having these were high quality with very good voice acting, stories are intresting and characters you meet. You can decide to help people, lie to them or attack everyone etc. There are few ways of completing certain quests. Every decision and choice depends on roll chance. Combat is big in BG3 first I struggled with later fights in the game. But once it clicks and you learn what works and what isn't it will become easier and more enjoyable. Seems like a game you will be able to replay few times differently. Gave 4/5 becasue pre released version was a bit expensive for small chunk of full game. But I suspect full game will be very good if you enjoyed Divinity Original Sin 2 you will enjoy BG3!