Baldur's Gate 3

I am an "old" gamer, so old that I played BG1 the day it was released. I did the same with BG2, and that is still my favourite game of all time. Still, I didn't expect much from BG3, I didn't play the early access, I didn't even pay much attention. Perhaps because I didn't want to risk the memories being somehow tainted by a game of the same name that didn't live up to expectations. But being around the gaming community, it was impossible to overlook the hype of course. So I thought, at least give it a try. Very good decision. ;-) From the fist minute this game did something strange, something that is rare in our time, it exceeded my expectations. And so I can say, it is a worthy successor of BG2 and one of hell of a game.

It's a real joy to see the Forgotten Realms rendered in 2020s detail like this; the art is fantastic, the story is compelling, the characters are actually mostly likeable, the experience is immersive, the music is... well, there's music... all in all, this game really is a winner in many, many ways. But the gameplay kinda... sucks? Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly playable and enjoyable provided that you understand what you are in for, but I like some tactics with my tactical RPGs. There's more to it than turns, ranges, and movement speeds. You can't hold actions, which means you can't aim a bow at a doorway and wait for someone to come through it to fire. Ambushes and strategic holdouts are out of the question. This is core D&D mechanical content that was left out, and more importantly it's essentially all that's left of D&D's tactical combat legacy in 5th Edition. At least we still have attacks of opportunity, for what they are worth. You can drop into turn-based timing at any time, which is appreciated for precision control, but you still can't queue up simultaneous actions. No shooting two guards at once: shoot one, and the other immediately notices and initiates combat or confronts you about your crime, inserting their own initiative phases into your sequence or pulling you out of turn-based timing completely. This doesn't necessarily require that guards be in line of sight of each other -- enemies have sight cones, but they are only applicable to the use of the Stealth skill (in that you do not have to make Stealth checks unless you cross one). Otherwise enemies have 360-degree awareness to a substantial range. Nevermind that these sight cones are often subject to substantial processor lag and sometimes do not update for seconds at a time. There isn't enough room here to go on about this at length -- buy BG3 because you are interested in the story, not because you are looking for even a passable tactical experience. The latter is not here.

Apart from the D&D setting the game has very little in common with the originals and everything in common with D:OS. Mechanics might differ slightly, setting is theoretically different, but the game as a whole plays and feels like a bad re-skin of D:OS in almost all of its aspects - and it doesn't do the game any favours, I'm afraid. The combat is boring and takes ages to resolve due to it being turn based. Items are incredibly weak (compared to BG2 especially) - they lack any thought or soul, all of them seem to be randomized and the world is filled with useless junk making looking for new items a chore rather than pleasure. The story so far lacks focus and dialoges are *nothing* alike the originals either - most of them are filled with wacky one-liners and quickly finish. I agree with almost no of the design choices made for this game and have lost any remnants of hope that I will like it. On top of all that Larian seels an unpolished, unfinished game trying to cash in on nostalgia for full price, esentially asking people to be beta testers (the game is very buggy, obviously) and pay for that "privelage". On the flip side, the music is good, although it, too, has little in common with the more epic and bombastic soundtrack of the previous installments.

Act 1 deserve the praise that the whole game receive. Act 2 aggressively mediocre. Act 3 trash.

First the positives. If you liked Divinity Original Sin 1/2, then you will definitely like this game as well. It has similar mechanics, turn-based combat, nicely written origin characters, and a good story with a bit of humor. On the tactical difficulty you can get much satisfaction from combining different skills, spells, scrolls, items and whatnot to your advantage. However, if you played Baldur's Gate most of your childhood, you are nostalgic about it, and you hoped for another good story from Forgotten Realms, the game doesn't offer that.