Baldur's Gate 3

Still only in part one - but already experienced many touching moments ... its years ago that a game touched me that much. In addition, the world is interesting, the graphics are exceptoinal (especially in teh cutscenes), and the gameplay is the opposite of grinding. I didn't believe the gaming-press, but they are right. Don't miss that game. And don't feel distracted by negative reviews focussing on minor points. The only thing that takes a bit "momentum" is my urge to quicksave too much. With dialogs I try to play all optoins through before deciding for the one I like best ... but the game seems to be too huge for me to be able to play it often enough to see all the twists. And this strategy makes lockpicking-rolls quite useless ... as in the end I will never fail ... but that is just my way of playing, and does not need to be yours. And again: that is just a "grain of complaine" in a game huge as a beach - it is a great game, and LOTS of fun!

This game is so sorely needed and beautiful. I can't lie - the first two Baldur's Gate games are two of my all time favorites. Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are also two of my all time favorites. CRPG's are my thing. But man, it's so nice seeing this game and its characters transcend that particular circle of gaming. It's so wonderful seeing people who don't play these kinds of games get this game and absolutely love it. The new characters are as iconic as we've seen in gaming since I don't know how long. Liarra in Mass Effect? This game does have issues. There are times when it's faithful reproduction of D&D gets in its own way. The combat is often too hard. And the way the game depends on rolling is in some ways really wonderful, but in others, without a live DM to navigate what's going on in the game and interacting with actual players, relying on a computer rolling system like this game does gets in the way. The other main critique I have of this game is that the party shouldn't be limited to 4 characters. That does not make a lick of sense. An average D&D game can have a party ranging from 1 to at least 6 characters. I don't understand why games introduce so many playable characters and then limit your party to 4 characters. This isn't the 1990's. And if it were, we probably would have a bigger party limit at 6 characters. That's to say - if the game engine can't handle more than 4 playable characters, something needs to change. There shouldn't be 5 million enemies and 4 playable characters going against them. That doesn't make a lick of sense. Why are Jahira and Wyll and Minsc and company sitting in camp during the endgame? Even if it was for major battles only, a battle like the penultimate FF7 boss fight would be great. Expeditions Rome does this perfectly in it's major story battles. But anyway. This game is a masterpiece. It was so beautiful seeing Jahira and Minsc again. So beautiful. It's like going home. And also moving forward. So beautiful.

I've played Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 more than all other games put together, and I love this addition to the franchise! I give 1 minus point because the "offline" version forms an internet connection to somewhere. Not cool GOG/Larian! TL;DR: If you want to know if you'll enjoy this game, watch the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The film is a lot like this game: a fresh take on an old IP. I will leave 3 hints to make this game more enjoyable in the last paragraph. This game does have some bugs. It's so broad that even though they advertise that you can, and are supposed to use your creativity, some times excess creativity may bite you in the behind down the line. Having said that, Larian's customer support is stellar and if you encounter a bug, and the time to report it, they WILL NOT ignore you!. Some say this isn't the same game as BG's 1&2. I think this is better in every way, basically. The characters, the relationships, the countless ways you can go about overcoming obstacles. World wise, this games events take place about 180 years after the originals, so IMHO the world can change. I think that the Forgotten Realms universe got destroyed and remade some time in between the first two and this one. Some say this isn't D&D. If your D&D is all about the old hammy&trite "huzzah and ye olde", then it's true, this isn't that. Rules implication wise, of course it isn't. PC games can't handle contradicting or vague rules. D&D is full of both, because this gives DM's something to do. HOW TO ENJOY THIS GAME MORE 1. Learn to navigate. Spinning the camera all around made me disoriented some times. I overcame this by relying on the big map and the compass on the mini-map. 2. Stay organized. If you left-click a container, you get to loot the container. If you right-click a container, you may get to pick up that container. You can put containers inside other containers. They're basically folders. Splitting stacks inside nested containers may bug. 3. Save!

Game is made for someone who has all day to play games, the difficulty on the easiest setting is ridiculously hard if you're not a static pillbox who has nothing else to do. Refund.

Played through the early access, and with forgiveness for the technical aspects, it was a good experience. It'll only be improved when they release more class and subclass options. I only have two minor gripes. 1: There's a bit of an unofficial "highly recommended" party composition due to the difficulty of the game. Certain characters are almost more trouble than they're worth due to the difficulty, made worse depending on what class you play, all of which would not be an issue except for gripe 2. 2: The need to constantly rest due to being worn down rapidly, namely after the prologue. Healing is at a premium, and you get only a single short rest between long rests. Being that there's an in-universe (but no actual) time limit, you feel pressured not to long rest too often. As far as I can tell, there's no actual penalty for doing so aside from this, though, so it's ultimately more of an inconvenience than an issue. Aside from those gripes, the game is solid. If it weren't for those, I'd give it a 5-star review. Maybe I'll revisit this later on.