Baldur's Gate 3

I was originally lured to the game seeing as the previous releases of Baldur's Gate & Neverwinter Nights were actually true to the Dungeons & Dragons aspect of literally being able to choose more than just 2 endings & every decision you make changes not just the outcome but also the encounters & storyline. I am not writing this review for any other reason than to save the poor sucker who will think that they are getting a similar title to their previous games or even a game at all -- just a pure waste of time & an overpriced title claiming to be "indie" but requires a studio of imbeciles that list longer than a fantasy movie title. As far as I'm concerned, Larian is a complete fad, the team is incompetent (don't even get me started on the bugs which should have been completely ironed out ofter 2 years... like the whole camera is a bug & most of the "mathematics" they claim to adhere to would fail them all aspects kindergarten... it's not hard to implement a real dice, truly, but look yonder... you can roll the same number dozens of times in a row with or without weighting to a point where you question if luck is hard coded in the game or not), the storytelling a complete joke if you can even call it that & finally, just 2 possible endings: world domination or pathetically mangled biblical narrative. Nay, just take your money elsewhere, this is a complete joke. I'd force my way to refund but I'm not petty seeing as it is all a colossal waste of effort on the studio's part & I pity them for trying to steal from good old games & failing at it miserably. Besides, most of the game feels like it is just a pagan attack on monotheism used as a subtle means to hijack the classical biblical narrative in every way with their "absolute authoritah" nonsense with you either being the jew that saves or dominates. Sorry, sorry, Illithid. That's what I meant. Why bother in the first place & just die on the nautiloid & spare the effort. Larian are the true woke communist Illithid.

I have played around 16 hours so far. I'm enjoying myself. Yes, there is a lot of bugs and yes you can definitely feel it's early access, but it's still fun. I have however some grievances. First of all the companions are not really likable... especially the 2 female characters are just plain unlikable and I'm beginning to think this was made on purpose... This would be fine and all if we had more companions to choose from. So the feedback is: give us a few more companions (preferably some good-natured for a change and maybe without having any GREAT AND TRAGIC MYSTERY) Environmental AOE damage... now this... this is a reminiscent from DOS 2 and I really don't like it... made me lose interest in DOS2. I mean it just makes any battle a game of "floor is lava". Don't get me wrong I'm not saying this feature is bad but it should be occasional and not all over the place and every low level mob spamming AOE. The feedback is: just please let us have less of a "floor is lava" game. Apart from that (and the bugs which I'm sure will be squashed) I really like the game, but the 2 things I'm afraid might put me off in the long run. So here's me hoping for an awesome adventure! :)

It's so great to get a massive DRM free game with no online purchases and everything included. This Elden Ring, and Witcher 3 should be praised for that. I'm going to compare this to DOS2 and Pathfinder. So far, I prefer the combat in Pathfinder. I have a better sense of control and understanding of battles in that. Pathfinder is harder. DOS2 is easier than BG3. Where this game shines is in exploration, presentation, and dialogue. There is so much verticality and interesting spaces to explore. It blows away Pathfinder or even DOS2 in this regard. And the cinematic conversations are in another universe compares to all other CRPGs.

I have played this quite a bit in early acccess and gotten some way into chapter one in full release. I haven´t really played a lot of larian games before and haven´t played the baldurs gate games. But logged considerable amount of hours into the NWN games. And I can only assume original Baldurs Gate is similar to NWN when it comes to game mechanics and game play. So if you compare this to NWN franchise skill rolls like persuade, intimidate and so on is considerably easy here, almost any character can manage a perform, persuade attempt in a dialogue. In NWN you really need to invest in those skills to be viable to use them. The hybrid combat mode is a good idea, but sadly insanely exploitable and not fully working in my most humble opinion. For example mke your party hide, ungroup your party place them strategically to plan out your ambush. Attack with character A, he/she will get 1-2 free rounds of attacks. Sneak up with character B he/she will be out of combat and can get several free kills/attacks. Rinse and repeat wit Character C and D. Going at it normally as intended makes any fight considerably harder. As for skills and similar all they do is provide a bonus on the dc check, but no limitations on xx skill to use xx item or craft xx item. The game mechanics feel rather rushed and no clear idea what they wanted to make with it. As for the story so far I have no issues with it, I wish the game would have more follower conflicts. For insance please follower A will cause follower C and E to be upset. So far i´m satiesfied with my purchase but not mega excited, I would probably recommend to pick it up on sale.

The game on its own is incredible, combat is fun, exploration is rewarded, both NPCs and main cahracters have good voice over and interesting personalities. But, this game fails as a 5e system: -You can shove an enemy as a bonus action, eliminating the threat of opportuniy attacks. -You can jump as a bonus action, reducing the impact of terrain hazards. -Magic items are completly broken; for example, during the first act you find a headpiece that sets you intelligence score to 17, so your 8 intelligence barbarian is now smart enough to go toe to toe with Einstein. You can also find a set of gloves that give you +2 AC so your babarian can wear armor, and keep all the bonuses they get to compensate for not being able to wear armor. -Scenearios feel weirdly two-dimensional, yes there's diffrent elevations within a map, but for some reason a monk has to walk around a table and can't vault over it. There's many more things I could nitpick, of all these things the biggest offender are magic items, I only gave two example but I found MANY overpowered items and I only played act 1. The game feels like a divinity game wearing a 5e tench coat.