Baldur's Gate 3

The combat is not enjoyable after a while because of the unbalanced nature of shove, backstab, jump and high ground. The initial fun of these options disappears quickly. As the combat is balanced to be challenging with these options, you are at a disadvantage if you choose alternative tactics and are effectively punished for trying to use dnd spells in a dnd game. Everything else is good but poor gameplay drags the rest down and combat is the single largest aspect of the game in terms of time spent interacting with it compared to companions, lore , plot etc.

Short background: Love the original Black Isle games (Baldur's Gate I and II plus Planescape Torment), loved the recent Pathfinder games, especially WOTR. I played and did not care much for the previous two Divinity games from Larian, thought the battles were fun and nothing else noteworthy. Since this game received such a plethora of positive reviews, I have forced myself to keep playing. But I just can't seem to enjoy it. For me, the most important elements in a CRPG are the story and the companions. What makes the story in an CRPG epic is the feeling of uniqueness it bestows upon you, being the focal point of the story (think of the Nameless One in Torment, or you a child of Bhaal in BG 1 and 2). Here, there is very little mystery, very little personal growth, no unique challenges that you face. You are one of many (hundreds, thousands?) afflicted by the same problem. The companions are utterly forgettable. They all have the emotional maturity of children in puberty, displaying extreme reactions to everything you say and do, and for some reason, fall in love with you and want to sleep with you after having conversed just a few times. Again, at no point did I feel like I was investing in a friendly or romantic relationship, where their views of me gradually changed. In short, Baldur's Gate 3 has all the blandness of the Divinity Games, including the annoying inventory management. The game has a lot of voice acting and cinematic scenes. I personally put no value to these, as I do not mind reading a paragraph of text giving the description and my mind then conjuring the images. I also do not like the cartoonish artwork of the game (some other reviewer called it a theme-park atmosphere, which I find very fitting). I guess the game is not for me, which I expected but still wanted to give it a try. The combat is ok, but I would call it a downgrade from the previous Divinity games. Perhaps this is due to the implementation of the DD 5th edition rules.

* No option to Pause/Reduce FPS when game is not focused. This is a basic option all PC games should have. * Horrible UI with no way to tweak or increase size. * Game requires a pointless Larian launcher that comes with its own dumb EULAs. * Game doesn't feel like Baldurs Gate. It's Divinity 3 with a DnD rule-set. * Combat is bad and tedious, you'll spend most of your time missing rolls and save scumming. I really miss the combat from the old BG games. * Graphics are decent but the performance is not great. * For a game that's been like forever on early access it's full of bugs and annoyances. * So far, the story sidequests and companions seem interesting, voice acting is not bad. * For some weird reason cutscenes have a gigantic version string on the corner.

As someone who played BG1+2, Arcanum (my favourite) and Icewind Dale 1 way back in the day... The positives of BG3 are: 1) Very impressive game to look at, the motion capture and voice acting are fantastic (although sometimes it can be a little robotic with jarring pauses between animations and voice lines playing) and lift the game into a cinematic experience. The attacks and spells feel great to use and are great to watch. 2) The party NPCs are all very good in their own way and feel mostly like they have some depth and a purpose. 3) The introduction of gameplay mechanics like jump and the way throw is implemented is something that i'd hope will become standard now in other games as it makes interaction with the environment really interesting. 4) You can RP quite well with a lot of choice in character creation and during the game (even if its just an illusion most of the time) Neutral: 1) This game is Divinity 3, not BG3, im not sure if that's good or bad for me. 2) The music for me is just good not great. It's no Icewind Dale soundtrack. I love musicals and I did enjoy the famous song in the boss fight but it wasn't amazing. The negatives are: 1) It is a very Larian experience, by which I mean that the quality of the story and content decreases as the game progresses with Act 1 being really quite outstanding (which you would hope for after so many years of beta testing) and by Act 3 its very average with a lot of obvious cut content and content which was clearly intended for more acts all mushed together. 2) The story itself is... not great. It's a theme park extravaganza experience. If you want something that could feel realistic then you will be disappointed. 3) The 5e ruleset is for me not as good as 3.5 and is a little too basic and its interpretation into the game makes this game very very easy. If you are familiar with CRPGs I would recommend the hardest mode. Overall I enjoyed it a lot and will do another couple of playthroughs. 3.5/5

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