Baldur's Gate 3

This isn't so much a review, but an impression of the game as of the first 7 hours in terms of Early Access. I'll likely delete it at some point and update. First of all, the game is extremely unfinished. You WILL lose all your progress at some point in development and the game is not currently completable. Second, it plays weird compared to Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. The original two games were abstracted 2eAD&D to accomodate a C&C style Real Time Strategy effect with roleplaying elements on top of that. I don't think RTWP is a surefire winning formula these days, as evidenced by Pillars 2 or Beamdog's Siege, however, I feel like a lot of my time is being wasted by adhering to 5e too too much. Here, you whiff at opponents uninterestingly with basic attacks for days until eventually you do beat the combat, open the door and move onto the next combat. Combat is pretty limited with not that much encounter variety due to the specific kind of enemy units presently in the game. As far as story vibes go, the cloying tone is WEIRD. Why does everybody low key loathe me? Why is everybody stressed out all the time? Baldur's Gate isn't Dragon Age. Why hasn't Minsc shown up with Boo and a gaping headwound and started kicking evil's ugly butt? I don't think Larry, Darryl and Darryl, Portalbendarwinden, Lord Foreshadow and Bub Snikt are showing up either. Cmon. Also, the companions seem like incompetents and rubes. Character creation is detailed OK with a lot of room for expansion. I'm give these companions a shot, but so far they're just too abrasive to be liked. I like Lae'zel though because she at least has SOME sort of plan. Yeesh. Graphics are mixed. The faces are good but the armor is Dragon Age's impractical melange. Also, yes, female Dwarves can have beards. The environments are unfocused and drab. Motion capture is jank. Music is spot on. VO is screeching and grumbling. I can't recommend this game because it just needs too much work. Off to a good start but blah.

Not a good idea right now. Very poor stage of development. Need much much more to became a little closer to the other Baldur's Gate games

I was skeptical at getting a game early access at first. This is the first time I have done so. I can honestly say this is exactly what I wanted out of a BG game and have loved every second of the available content so far. Such an awesome job on every aspect, characters, story, environments, gameplay and music. I have not been this addicted to a game since the originals came out. If you liked the originals I highly recommend. I personally can't wait for more content and hope Larian can keep producing a game at this quality for the full release of the game!

The game is beautiful, I've had some glitches especially loading graphics but largely the game is very polished, the storyline feels epic and the characters are really well voiced and animated. However, this game launched more than a year ago, calling it "early access" at this point feels like a joke. It's selling for the price of an expensive full release game, but playing it is like being part of an MMO at launch: with blank "this class will be added later" assets. I'm enjoying It but I dont feel like its worth the price point, and I think it should be clearer that this is still a beta version you're paying for l. At this release rate I can't imagine there will be anyone interested left who hasn't already played it by the time it's "done".

honestly, i gave it two stars because the graphics, atmosphere and battlefield interactions are actually pretty good... the plot and story is about as far from interesting as to be the opposite of it... starts off with action video galore, zoooom zooom, zap zap zap, booom! brain eating monsters, dragons, demons!!! WOooooo!?!? super action galore indeed... and then the game starts... and you are doing tedious point and click investigations, then on to some fluff, encountering the gith, killing some demons in slow paced turn based combat... do your actions, move, end your turn, wait, wait, wait, wait, see some numbers change, wait, wait a bit more, then it is your turn again, zap an enemy and move a bit, rince and repeat until the encounter is finished. this entire first chapter in the game could easily have been cut down to a single room where you can talk to the gith and release the cleric and then have a big explosion and crash and then start the game for real with whatever it is you are supposed to do other than get the brain eating bug out of your head... as the entire ship scene is so jarringly atonal from the setup that you could easily have clown music and a laugh track running on repeat benny hill style and it would actually improve it massively... and then comes the rest of the game and i have not even gotten off the ship yet as the coop is so bugged we quit trying at the boss fight with the infernal and the brain eating mindflayer... while they can fix the bugs and i expect them to do so soon enough, they seem unable to find the talent to make an interesting or engaging story to the point i wished they would just have started the game in a stereotypical tavern on a boring ass generic quest, it would at least not be so jarring and a bit more in the style of baldurs gate (of which i have yet to even see any of)