Baldur's Gate 3

I was reading reviews wrote on the very first day of the prerelease. I cannot agree with these reviews. It was much like a technical demo then a story lined game. But after each patch I saw a magical improvement of the game. More options, better mechanics, deeper story. So every time I had started the BG3 from the start (with each patch practically), I experienced a better and better game that can be loved more and more with every hours I spend with. So after playing BG1, BG2 many times, spending hundreds of hours in DOS2, I can say that the BG3 became the best RPG game up to date. It is so complex, so deep, so funny, so balanced, so enjoyable, that it is a must have for everyone who likes the cRPG genre.

I hate to say it, but Lady Luck kills the game for me. And the sheer amount of needed luck you need makes it worse. 2 examples, spoilerfree: you find a body and want to investigate. Investgation means one roll. Asking another charakter for their opinion, 2nd roll. You found out? Nothing. Pure waste of time. 2nd example: you find a chest. Opening needs 1 roll to get a special information. It is open now and you could get the loot? No. Right after clicking "grab", another roll is necessary to get the loot. If you feel great in ruining your keyboard by, literally, pressing thousands of times save+load (well, load maybe 10x the amount of save), this is your game. Fluent gameplay you will not find, not even for 50 steps. My worst buy in 24 months.

I'm an older gamer who plays many different genres, but RPGs are my favorite sort of game. While the larger, establish companies like Bethesda tend to pull high marks on the basis of past glories and industry clout, Larian Studions, a smaller company has managed to pull off a wonderful gem that actually is deserving of the high praise it has received. It is astoundingly smart, immersive and deep. There is a mind boggling amount of exploring to do here, with the most believable, deeply written and wonderfully real feeling NPCs I've encountered in any game of any genre. It is a Dungeons & Dragons based game, and it carries the general flavor of it's pen and paper relative extremely well. It incorporates dice rolls that don't bog down the action. The Narrator acts as a capable DM, often describing bits of lore in an interesting, beautifully written way. There's none of the dull, cliched nonsense I encountered in Starfield, which frankly feels like a tired, boring outdated codger in comparison. One of the most remarkable things about BG 3 is the way that the in-game above camera melds with the thousands of intimate cutscenes so effortlessly. Looking back over a long playing session, I never feel like I've played from an above, more distant place. Somehow the game designers have cast some gaming magic into the mix so that it's all one experience. All the actors are voiced....even the animals. Everyone seems to have something to say, and a point of view of their own. It's really quite amazing. Combat is deeply tactical. Charging stupidly into a fray generally ends up in death. Flanking, using height and cover are rewarded. There are seemingly endless possible ways to succeed in every encounter. This game was a labor of love by Larian, and it's a real work of art. All it's parts add up to something greater than it's individual bits. Hells, it could be the best computer rpg of all time. As perfect as a complex computer game can get.

I played BGI, II, IWDI, II through many times, as I like to test possibilities and waste my time chasing clues, easter eggs, funny endings. Playing through BGIII gives me plenty of these. It does feel quite different to the previous parts of the title, but roleplay is very well implemented in the game, I would say, it gives you more freedom compared to those. This is true for every part of the game, you can combine, or at least you should try to combine things together (like water on the floor and a freeze spell) and then you can easily end up with the feeling you overcome on something with creativity. Don't rush it, that kills all the experience. Also it's worth to play all your followers, it's worth to play role play, not sticking for a once winning strategy, but trying out something new every hour. I think this game really motivates the player to do that instead of the "power gaming". No worries though, you can go epic, you have to. I guess those, who never played anything similar have to learn this and that about DnD, but the game is pretty friendly with advices and help, you wont have to google all the time. Read more in the beginning, travel a bit less, don't rush to new areas, you will just die there. Saw some smaller bugs so far, but nothing major. Definetly recommend this game to anyone.

Pros: Beautiful graphics, awesome soundtrack, wonderful voice acting, lots of amazing options for combat and dialogue, and I can play for hours and not even know it. Cons: Some visual glitches (which I'm sure they'll fix), sometimes some dialogue does not get said aloud, sometimes I cannot target creatures if they are through an open doorway. I expect if you like Isometric RPGS, D&D, romance options, customization, and branching stories, you'll enjoy this. Especially worth it if it's on sale, but I'd pay full price for this.