Baldur's Gate 3

I’ve been playing CRPGs since the Gold Box days, and I have fond memories of Black Isle in their prime. I can say this is far and away the closest I’ve ever seen a game get to a Tabletop D&D experience. The reactivity of the game to your character reminds me of the beginning of Arcanum, and the story itself is close to Planescape in terms of writing. It’s not a “Baldur’s Gate” game, but that’s mostly because it’s just BETTER.

The game is fun don't get me wrong, but the camera movement and bad performance in some areas make the game a chore to get through. Even the combat is random to the point were you lose your whole party because you missed 10 hits on an enemy. I have no problem with turned based combat but holy crap does it rely on RNG way too much. Story is solid so I will give it that, but the facial animations are not as good as other games I have played. Most of the time the faces are just plain even though they are saying something to evoke emotion. Also game is too long which is ok, but it's almost to the point were the combat makes it frustrating to play, eventually, making me put the game down for a while. Other than what I have said, if I only count story it's a 8/10, but including combat that score comes to a 6/10. I don't see how this game is 10/10 (perfect) to everyone else when there are problems.

The short and skinny of it is that this game IS good. However, it is far from the groundbreaking masterpiece so many claim it to be; and possibly the worst sequel to any game I have ever played. I put 300 hours in and do believe it's worth its price tag. 2.5 out of 5 If you would like the long version. Well then, hoo boy, buckle up buckaroo. The combat is turn-based and is very familiar of the X-Com series. Not bad by any means. However, this type of combat can be a SLOG. Especially given the developers propensity to overcrowd the battlefield. I played on the hardest difficulty, and while not very challenging, your enemies are given more health and defense compounding the already slow combat. The game doesn't have a pause button. Why? No idea. The narrative is by far the weakest aspect of this game. Suffering from poor pacing, dialogue with all the quality of a YA novel and a story that is convoluted, contrived and nonsensical. A huge step down from its predecessors. There are a few instances with particular companions that the quality of storytelling is elevated, but those few moments are drowned in mediocrity. The previous tale has been so grievously retconned, that it is a wonder they even made it a sequel. If they didn't want to be faithful to Biowares games, then just don't make a sequel. Instead, Legacy characters are dragged out and defaced for absolutely no reason and events are re-written poorly. Companions and relationships aren't done very well compared to other games in the genre and can be very buggy. The long rest mechanic is used to advanced subplots and is poorly implemented, making it easy to miss chunks of story. I personally disliked the Narrator. It was the most immersion breaking thing I have ever encountered in a CRPG. Nothing should be telling you how YOUR character is feeling in a slow. ASMR. drawl. Pretty con heavy and I could go on, but I'm running out of characters. So. It was disappointing, but still engaging enough for 300 hrs.

One of the best games ever coded for me. Helps that I played pen and paper stuff and was always a sucker for fantasy of the more grunded style. But I didn't expect the game to be that good. The love to detail, the clever designs and the nearly immaculate composition of all the parts is quite astounding. So there are still people out there these days who know how to craft good big games. Larian, I will be watching you.

This game cast a spell on me! I am absorbed. It works really well. The battles are fun and give you meaningful choices. The characters, voices, the overal presentation is just outstanding. So far I have only praise for this game. I am still in the middle of the journey and I am very much looking forward how the story unfolds.