Baldur's Gate 3

Veteran players of the Baldurs Gate franchise are some of the least demanding people for cutting edge graphics; opting for story and gameplay in a time when 3D gaming was becoming more popular. Now onto the main issue with the game itself. It does not feel like a spiritual successor in anyway to Baldurs Gate. With only some small dialogue tweaks the game itself could take place in an alternate universe. Now normally this would not be an issue but the combat itself is not my cup of tea. Combat is very focused on "floor" effects and taking advantage of elemental pools by dipping your weapon inside. Jumping in this game is a way to avoid attacks-of-oppurtunity from leaving melee range and it looks downright silly to jump half a screen. (Also as an aside for jumping. Since jump distance is based on youre maximum movement per turn which is based on race along with a strength modifier... it is entirely possible to create a character that cannot advance in the tutorial area because of a mandatory jump) This lends itself to a very wide sprawling battlefields where your jumping and littering the battefield with a glitter fiesta of elements. Now for the UI. Its pretty bad. Details are lacking in for almost every action from a spells duration to DC for modifiers to movement. I dont understand why the actions (sneaking, jumping, dipping, etc.) share an similar size with the hotbar for a characters' actual skills. The actual dice rolls for making a difficulty check are a wink to its D&D roots but it feels hollow. And thats what the game feels like. Hollow. Guess ill stop playing.

If you like Larian games fine. It's taken Larian's usual approach and added "Baldur's Gate" to the title but apart from that its very different to the titles it is supposed to honour. Its beautiful but the UI is slightly clunky and finding specific actions can be a nightmare. The party members seem to be walking demographic tick boxes. They should also do something about the dice rolls; yes, I know its decided on a d20 but having to watch the animation of the roll over and over is just irritating. It feels like a game that tries to be all things to all people and suffers by stretching itself to thin. If you like the Divinity games then you'll probably enjoy it. If you like Baldur's Gate 1/2, pick up the Pathfinder or Pillars of Eternity games because they are the real "spiritual sucessors".

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.

I played and loved BG1 and 2. So I went in expecting to hate this game. I read a lot of reviews that say "it doesn't feel like BG..." and so on and so forth.. I disagree. The game is great so far. The vast options you have to approach situations is stellar. It plays and feels like D&D 5e and you are headed for Baldur's Gate. The game looks gorgeous, the acting is good, the mechanics are on point, the pacing is really good. It's a great game. Compared to BG2: Druids grove in BG2 was small. It was an outside area and one cave at the back. Here in BG3 it's much more expansive with the refugees outside, the beach, the outdoor idol and ceremony spot and the caves. The towns in BG2 outside Athkatla (the big city) were all just a few buildings.. not that big. The couple towns you go two (I count the Goblin camp as a town) were big in comparison. SO when the party actually gets to Baldur's Gate city I'm expecting Larian to make it expansive compared to the big city in BG2 and BG1. I am very optimistic and excited to explore it when full release gets here. There are plenty of bugs, but hey, it's early access: I saw a Tiefling tail turn into a big stretchy bungie cord. After I rescued Halsin, he was walking out, and then the spiders that I 'persuaded' decided to attack him since he was neutral. This made Halsin hostile toward my party and I hadn't saved in a while... If I could give one bit of advice to Larian Studios it's this: You have a great product. Sure, listen to the community BUT always keep in mind that this is your game. By trying to please everyone you'll water down your vision and wind up with mediocrity. Stay true to what YOU envision for this game and know that it's YOUR game to make. Make your efforts count and stay true to yourselves, not the masses. Earth shatteringly good games come out of labors of love and vision, not focus groups. Listen to the message boards but don't listen too closely and don't let them steer the ship.

There is a lot of content, a lot! The meta plot is solid and the main cast of villeins is solid with excellent voice actors and most of the companions are likable even if the dev’s shove shadowheart down your throat a bit much. But, It has some serious flaws post act one with railroading and serious deus ex machina shoving of the plot. The camera and jumping is your worst enemy half the time and drives you nuts indoors and many changes made from early access just makes it feel more like a Divinity crossover rather than a baldurs gate game. Also Wizards of the Coast diversity commissar was apparently permanently glued to and omnipresent in the development studio as teaflings, drow, deep gnomes, devils, gith and assimar walk the streets as if it was bloody Tuesday without people batting an eye and you scant can walk a step without stepping on a promiscuous pan/bi/homosexual/furry yapping loudly about their bedroom preferences. In short some characters feel as if they where written with a crude checklist on a Starbucks napkin during a break. The kind of stuff you expect from bad amateur fanfic and ERP rather than Forgotten realms D&D. Faerûn is diverse yes but its not a bloody world spanning fetish giga orgy of a melting pot where neither bugbear on ogre action or plain bear is off the table.