Baldur's Gate 3

But if what you find intrigues you, this game is lightning in an enormous, expansive, generous bottle, and it's definitely an experience that deserves your attention. It feels like the sort of game you can replay several times and still find new content. Story is much better than I expected, knowing absolutely nothing of the setting. Turn-based gameplay feels like an evolution from previous Larian titles, character arcs are surprisingly satisfying and it's visually fairly impressive, considering the sheer amount of content on display. No microtransactions, no BS, no fuss. Just a great, well-written, well-made RPG with a few big surprises in store and characters that feel refreshingly aware and alive in a world that actively reacts to your decisions. In very big ways. Could not be happier with this purchase, and deeper mod support seems to be on the way. Might be my GOTY so far.

This is my first dive into the Baldur's Gate world, so I can't compare it to the previous games, but so far I'm really enjoying it! I'm an older gamer who, in my younger years enjoyed classic NES games like Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, and others. There was a long gap between my gaming experiences as I didn't really play many computer or console games for probably 20 years or so. I recently upgraded to a nice gaming PC and have played a lot of the newer and older games that have looked interesting to me. The cinimatic trailer for Balder's Gate 3 was awesome, so I just had to get it. So far, I'm really liking it! It's quite different from a lot of the games I've played, being a turn-based strategy game. The genre is new to me, but I've always enjoyed strategy games. I definitely need to learn more about the lore and history behind it, but I'm really diigging the mechanics with it's spells, cantrips, and unique abilities for each character. Having played some D&D in the past, it definitely has that flavor with the dice rolls for certain interactions and deep strategy. I'm not too far into the game and expect there to be many challenging and exciting things to come. I'm looking forward to playing it with friends! I think that will be where the game really shines. In summary, for people just getting in to the genre, I think this game will provide a serious challenge and years of fun. I'm sure it will be daunting learning the history, lore, and strategy of the game, but I'm up for that! This is a game where you will be learning new things every time you log on to play it. I view that as a good thing, as I hope to enjoy playing this game for years to come. So, in my personal opinion, this is a very cool game with a lot of thought put into it, tons of content, great graphics, and engaging game play. Pretty much everything I want in a game!

pros - i love the look of this game. the mind flayers freak me the hell out. they're super scary. The story is really compelling and i'm very interested to see where it goes. all the textures and armor and weapon style of this game looks so good. Its not kiddy, it's not too dark, it's really good. the freedom!!! i feel like i truly control a battle field. way more than i ever did with DOS2. i love being able to push and shove and mage hand crap. I love the types of spells i can do. the feel of some of these spells gives me so much satisfaction also i love the ability to really utilize stealth and surprise assassin sneak attacks in this game! I've been able to orchestrate entire ambushes on mobs of enemies. So far - i love all the characters. My favorite may be Gale but shadowheart seems pretty mysterious....and a bit hot lol The interaction between the characters is really awesome. There wasn't any of this in DOS2 or baldur's gate, if i remember correctly. So it really draws in the dynamic of inter party relations. and now the Cons - The game is buggy. duh. More than a few times did I kill an enemy and the rag doll effects glitched out to kingdom come and the body was stretched into oblivion. But the game gives a huge message box on startup that warns you that you will encounter them. So it doesn't affect my review. not sure I'm crazy about the UI. it feels clunky to manuever. but overall i still like it. The leveling up feels like it follows the patters of 5e but i feel like i want more freedom. What if i don't want to continue leveling as fighter? what if i want to level into wizard? im not sure i can do that. This may be the analyst in me talking - but i would love to see the actual dice roll results during combat. Perhaps in a different menu that I can pull up. I'd like to see how the calculations are totalling. It actually helps me strategize. overall I definitely reccomend this game, even as it is right now. Larian did a great job.

Alright, it's early access in all it's buggy glory, but you knew that when you paid $60. After all, it's all over the store page both here and on Steam. Will there be bugs? You betcha, and they are hilarious. Missing textures? Yah, those are there (or not as it were). If you don’t want to deal with all this, then wait a few months for a later build (or don’t, it’s your money). The thing is, I played day one and got frustrated with several bugs and voices not sinking to lip movement. By yesterday, Larian dropped a patch, and many of the day one issues were resolved. So far, today. No missing textures and less desynced lip movement. Larian seems to want to create a quality product that shows. Progress at this stage is very noticable and will keep me coming back to see what has changed. One thing I keep seeing is that people are getting crashes. I haven't had one crash. I left the game paused for over an hour this morning while working. When I came back, I unpaused it and continued my session without any trouble. This game feels like playing D&D for the most part. I reserve judgment in anticipation of additional development. The story, while different hen BG I &II has some of the same notes. Mostly, the hero is thrown into a situation where they must make decisions without information. In BG I, did you recruit Jahiera & Khalid or Montaran & Xzar? How did you feel about the midnight ambush? Escaping the mindflayer nautilus is similar in its frenetic energy and sense of impending misfortune. Companions are a bit more mistrusting, but I think Larian is trying to tell a story going from frenemies to perhaps trusted companions. Broad strokes, the themes are similar, but the story is distinctly it’s own. I note the lack of a cheerleader; there needs to be an Imoen type character. I look forward to seeing this game progress.

In a word no. It doesn't take much effort to see the there are two camps that are disappointed in BG 3. There are those that want BG 3 to be the game they remembered from 20 years ago and those that want BG 3 to be an exact unaltered representation of 5e rules. What both camps want is unreasonable. Here is why. First off this game was NEVER going to be similar mechanically to BG 1&2, as most of the principle parties don't exist anymore. The IP owner has changed twice in the last 20 years. Black Isle & Bioware both either don't exist at all or in Bioware's case no one who worked on BG works there anymore ( At least in higher positions). The publisher doesn't exist & the rules upon which the games made have gone through multiple iterations. TSR was always struggling financially so they didn't care what developers did with the IP so long as they got a cheque. WotC has never struggled, so they never "needed" to sell the IP & in fact refuse to sell the IP to either Brian Fargo, a former Interplay developer & founder of inXile Entertainment, as well as Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment, who were seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Hasbro has no desire to have a RTwP, they want a turn based system, because turn base is closer to 5e. D&D purists are never going to get what they want because 5e allows reactions/interrupts to the flow of combat between rolling a die and resolving a die roll. Where the player could interrupt at any point. You want play a cRPG where you stop the flow of combat to ask the player, hey do you accept this roll or do you want to use your limited use class ability now? No okay how about now? It would make combat flow terribly. This is possible in a table top setting because combat there takes much longer and there are natural pauses as a DM grab dice declares what is happening. Computers move much faster and near instantly resolve rolls. If you are a purist stay away, you wont enjoy it. That said I really enjoy BG3 cuz it is BG