Baldur's Gate 3

I like most about the game, but it just isn't like the classic games that founded the genre. There are some modern advancements, mixed with lack of QoL and refinement. An example is very slow combat encounters that could require a reload, causing a loss of time upwards of an hour or even more. Writing is pretty high level compared to others in the space, though not without flaw; but where role playing is a concern, it manages to fumble in a few areas. For this I will give another example: In act 1, I convinced a druid to put a teifling child in prison for a short time after she stole an artifact. The teifling then attempted to run and got killed somewhat by accident by the carelessness of the druid and her pet viper. Later at the final stage before heading to act 2, the child's mother attempts to murder the druid for revenge, so I convince her to spare her life—at which point I break my oath as a paladin. This made little sense to me, and I understand the developers wanting to leave out a alignment system to streamline; though I think it was not for the better. The point in an alignment system in the first place was to allow the player some flexibility in choice, while forcing them to favor a more focused playstyle at the same time. In Baldur's Gate 3, all choices a hard set to result in specific consequences. Camp is also a very unsatisfying and simplistic system that offers very little challenge in managing your spells and abilities; and I would like to also point out the romance in the game—as it is quality, it also doesn't feel natural or earned. And unfortunately it is the only thing you really have to do in camp. So in conclusion, I like many parts of the game, but it doesn't really scratch that itch for a Baldur's Gate/Pathfinder/PoE experience. So as a triple A title, it manages a great deal of quality content, but as per usual, it doesn't reach beyond the everyday casual gamer.

If you liked DOS1 & 2 then this will be up your alley. I feel it falls short of a D&D game from the perspective of a long-time tabletop player. Big thing that got me early on is how the Origin Story and other character creator elements become an impediment to building the character I wanted. For instance, in Pathfinder: Kingmaker I could create an undead bloodline sorcerer with skills in persuasion and perception and nothing allocated in arcana knowledge. In BG3 I see no way to choose perception and persuasion at creation time. Is this a deal breaker? If you want to build a character that is uniquely yours, yes. That character will surely have issues since they have an embarrassing lack of arcane knowledge, but that is what makes the character unique and a challenge to play. Perhaps this will change in later iterations, but I would love to see a no background option for experienced players. The other issue is Larian’s obsession with elemental effects. It set DoS 1 & DoS2 apart from their competition, but the entire “environmental effects are cool” idea is true only when used sparingly. Not DoS2 by any means, you will encounter them enough that it is a common occurrence. I hated the entire idea so I would like a lot less of this, your mileage may vary. The major positives: the story invokes a real sense of urgency. It is hard to do side quests and explore the environment due to the fear that you will become a monster at any moment. The sense of existential dread just oozes from the game. After a few hours in you will begin to lose trust in many of the NPC's that claim they can help you and even your own teammates. I really liked how they set such a dark tone for the story. If you can live with that, then the good points justify the price and early access. My hope is that the later incarnations of the game let you have more flexibility when crafting a character that long time RPG affectionados want.

Everything I've heard and more. Playing crossplay with my friend who is using the Steam version on PC, and I have GOG version on a mac. The crossplay is flawless, 0 bugs so far and no connection issues.

First and foremost: this is not the typical "early access". This is very much an alpha test. At the time I am typing this, some enemies bug out and turn to stretch-out versions of themselves and get stuck under the floor. It's ALPHA lol! Now that the obligatory message is out of the way, let's talk about specifics. For starters, the dice system is rough. I am an actual tabletop roleplayer and game master, even I think this is rough. The way that the challenge number (the called a DC in tabletop, the number you have to beat to succeed) makes very little sense. There are times it looks like it subtracts my skill number from the difficulty to get strange numbers (like 7) and other times it doesn't seem to do that at all unless the starting difficulty of a minor task is 20. None of the math is visible. On top of that, the rolls are brutal, and they can completely derail your game to the point that you don't even know why you're playing a particular kind of character. Advantage? Not a thing, as far as I can tell. Beneficial circumstances? Also not a thing. There is almost no reason to roleplay, it's completely roll-play. Outside of the terrible dice system that forces you to roll for everything under the sun, we have the narrative. Now, some of the concepts are pretty cool. If you'e watched the trailers, you'll see them. But when you are talking to people in game, you might feel a little lost. There are parts of the lore and history that are left unexplained, so it doesn't make sense where you are, why these people are here or there, etc. and it doesn't make sense why they're arguing. It's as if your character is either a newborn who knows nothing, or the game expects you to go read up on about 2000 pages of lore before you play. Animations are solid, when they work. Bugs currently cause them to freeze or fail to activate. Textures/graphics are great. This is definitely a modern version of a game, I'm just not sure it's a roleplay game anymore.

I spent 30 hours to finish the early access. I did most of the side quests. Might have missed one or two. My overall thought is that this early access is mostly a very unenjoyable experience and I wish I never got it. I spent 30 hours on this only because I make contents on YouTube so I did it for my audience. If not for them, I would most likely have stopped playing after about 10 hours. First of all, there are way too many bugs in this early access. You can basically expect a bug in EVERY scene, EVERY situation. I really think Larian should have waited one more month before putting this out and got rid of most bugs first. I thought early access was supposed to give people a good idea of the gameplay and get feedback on that. However, this early access is filled with so many bugs that I think most feedback they get will be about the bugs. Which makes the whole early access kind of pointless IMO. Secondly, it's one thing if the bugs are just visual ones. But there are some game breaking bugs that really hurt the entire experience. For example, one particular character freezes every time it's their turn so I had to quick save/load for them to move again. But when I reload, some of my magical effects I applied on enemies disappear so it makes the game extra difficult. Another bug is where you drop your companion in camp but after you can no longer talk to them or recruit them again. These bugs are just too frustrating to deal with. Thirdly, I think the game difficult is also too hard by default. Even by the end of Act 1, I never felt like my characters are heroes. Every battle feels like I'm taking on a boss fight. This could be down to personal taste but I would prefer easier difficulty to hit that perfect "just right" spot. Overall, there are some parts I enjoyed (story, characters, some gameplay) but I will NOT recommend this early access to anyone. Just wait for the full game when most bugs are fixed. Otherwise prepare for a very frustrating experience.