Baldur's Gate 3

First Larian Studios, why always a beach opening to your games... REALLY? That aside.. If it wasn't for the name of the game, this would, even in it's early state, be worthy of 5+ stars. That said, it is NOT, in my view, a Baldur's Gate Sequel. There are only references to the city, etc. so far, and really not all that inviting. Can't tell you how many hours have sunk into playing the other Baldur's Gate games, but it was a lot! Thoroughly enjoyable they are. The originals drew me in to the whole D&D experience immediately. After the naming aspect, this is a phenomenal game in true Larian Studio's format, if they could only rename it and change the beach..... There are quite a few very nice face to face conversations (so glad no masks). On the downside this takes more effort and likely reduces work on other aspects, but it is a nice touch and good to see, if not so frequent. Plenty of voiced lines and they are quite varied, also another great Plus. There are a myriad of ways to accomplish certain tasks but not a lot of detail to go with them. This is good and frustrating at the same time. Enjoy the format of the log file, excellent that is. The character faces and visuals are stunning, very much lifelike, or what I imagine it could look like in person, including scars and other facial featuers. They did an amazing job here and with the character animations in the scenes. The companions characters show an immense amount of promise for the final game, quite varied and lively at times. Even though there is not much here that reminds me of the original Baldur's Gate games, the story lines and side quests are generally very immersive and rewarding. The choices in dialog all make sense too, as well as their outcomes. For instance, after dealing High Priestess Gut, went into the caverns below and am doing all sorts of stuff there for at least 16 hours. Very well laid out area, very colorful too. A very solid game, lots of room for growth, recommended

This is shaping up to be a great game and it is already a ton of fun, but calling it Baldurs Gate 3 was a mistake for several reasons. First and foremost is that the Forgotten Realms have been completely ruined as a setting and it no longer even resembles what it was when Baldurs Gate was created. The same is true for the D&D ruleset. Therefore it is pretty much impossible to actually make a worthy successor to Baldurs Gate 3 while using the official ruleset and setting. This could have been Original Sin 3, or even its own IP in the new Forgotten Realms and no one would have cause to complain. Instead the forums are filled with posts decrying how unlike Baldurs Gate it is, or how it is too similar to Original Sin 2. Another reason is that writing has never really been Larian's strong suit and a Baldurs Gate succsessor really should have had some incredible writers working on it. I am sure the end result will be a fantastic game well worth buying, but don't expect it to be Baldurs Gate in anything but name.

For all the haters out there complaining "this isn't Baldur's Gate", you're wrong. It's not based on ADND rules like the previous games, it's based on 5E, but it is a Baldur's Gate game. What's wrong with the game being based on 5E? Why should it be stuck in the past? The combat is not the same as Divinity. This is a D&D game. Larian Studios did a great job of making a D&D-like game out of Divinity OS and Divinity OS2 and so there are similarities, but not much. You're trying to compare games and systems made in the late 90s/early 2000s to a game made almost 25 years later. So far, with the trial map they gave us, it's a great game. I'm really loving playing a bard. Playing coop is SO nice. I have a good friend that lives 1000 miles away from me and we generally only hang out when we play video games. Thanks for including COOP in this. It works very well, so far no lag issues or stuttering. Great job! I love this game so far and am very excited to play the full released game at launch!

The mega hype around it is a bit weird. Yes, it is very good. Is it the game let other devs shake their head in despair? No. Of course not. Even beyond the many bugs and issues that (very much!) still exists and are rarely talked about in the current hype. (But wait for Bethesda getting slaughtered for bugs in Starfield!) This game feels very much like Divinity OS3. The (very) good and the bad. For me the very good is the story telling (- bugs in it) and the writing. Only, maybe from the setting, it takes itself more serious that DOS1&2. And with a less convenient rule set (making combat even worse). I never liked that D&D limited use spells system with "resting" all the time. And ENDLESS unskippable lootbox... sorry dice roll animations. I really hope they make them optional soon. Beyond the bugs, the bad (for me) is the combat. With turn based combat, however good, everything just takes AGES. As somone who plays RPG for the story, not the combat, it is just completely suffocating the game. It's also WRONG for a Baldur's Gate game Mods to my rescue. However, there are many mods to change things one may not like. Make it easier, harder, more/less convenient.. People had to crowbar mod support into the game (mod fixer), but it exists now. It also disables achievements, unless you use a mod against that. I only bought the game, once it was clear that the modding community was up for it. My #1Target: The combat. At the cost of making combat very easy, i can make it very fast! The "Godhero" mod gives you a ring with toggleable off/easy/very easy mode. I could not imagine, playing a game this size normally, where every little fight takes 20 minutes. However good the turn based combat is, it will get very old after a while, even if you like it, which i DON'T. #2 convenience. Let's face it, mostly cheaty, D&D breaking convenience and more success in (virtual) life. #3 the camera. It's a bit claustrophobic by default. "Native camera tweaks" helps.

A potentially very good game, which becomes absolutely unplayable in Act 3 due to continuous crashes.