Baldur's Gate 3

So glad I got this on GOG as I was able to refund it. All my fears for the game were valid. It's essentially Divinity 3 with an overlay of D&D rules. The turn based combat, dull and long winded. The cartoony graphics, the environments that can all go on fire or poison you, all the things I didn't like about DOS 2 were there. And the "romance" options, unbelievably poorly implemented. It's been described as a harrassment simulator which is pretty accurate, Baldurs Gate HR department need informed. Anyway, thank you GOG for refunding my cash. I'm off to play BG1 and 2 for the hundredth time.

Before starting: I want to clarify that by average I mean games before game industry became filled with WOKE incompetent people where releasing working game was normal. So let's go over points that are bad: - Beyond Act 1 game is not well tested. In fact I'm pretty sure Larian didn't play test themself all possible variations within story otherwise they would know how many inconsistencies there are. Going on expected 'good' path should save you from most of story related bugs - Minthara as companion is currently broken (likely due to lack of testing), especially if you go my route by not helping goblins or druids, completely skipping final decision - 5E casual edition for casual people -Pretty bad lore wise story, while it is on its own engaging, but it is pure fanfiction. - Typical Larian writing. Note that comparing to Original Sin 2 it is improvement, but nevertheless it is pretty weak beyond main story narrative - Sad female characters. Kinda obvious but Larian do suffer from SJW illness so they made most women look masculine (Karlach is just man cosplaying as 'woman' for example). The only good looking Minthara is bugged as I mentioned - Companions' stories are for the most part boring on their own. They are only saved in some cases being tightly integrated in main plot, but otherwise pretty meh (this obviously stems from Larian having bad writers as I mentioned above) So now, despite how many bad points I say, my review is 4 starts. Why? There are few strong points that are important: - Solid bug-free gameplay. So while there are a lot of bugs related to story and its flags, mechanically game is very well tested (obviously thanks to long EA and people testing game for free). Despite only having 12 levels, you can feel power progression thanks to itemization which lets you create quite powerful characters by the end of game. - Aside from story bugs, there high level of overall polish (rare due to modern gamedev culture) - Overall it is solid game

Act 3 is nearly unplayable, i'm playing co-op with a friend of mine and he's the one hosting and i'm getting freezes and crashes all of the time. Fix this instead of patching some random bullshit

A fantastic game, incredible freedom of choice, loads of content, stories riveting, choices matter and it looks nice. But - In act 3, as many others already said, it sometimes feels a little off. Act 3 is packed with action but still manages to feel less meaningful than 1 and 2. Also, act 3 still has some bugs, even after the most recent updates. Some are more like plotholes or inconsistencies, some are gamestoppers (example: enemys turn would not end, even after restarting. Had to load older save). I never thought turn based games could be for me. I don't know anything about DnD. Doesn't matter, the game converts you after the first 3 minutes. It deserves 5 stars in spite of the imperfections, just because of the comparison to other games. This might be a new standard for games in general.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game. I've put in excess of 80 hours into it for my first playthrough, and I will pick it up again to be sure. The battles are great, and the world is beautifully crafted. I wholeheartedly recommend the game to every RPG and strategy gamer. Nevertheless, as a fan of the predecessors by name as well as tabletop D&D 5th edition, I have a number of gripes with it: - Unicorns everywhere. Every single companion has to have a ridiculous over-the-top background story, which makes them appear less than normal, relateable people and more like superhero caricatures. - Weak Story. The overall story of BG3 is a generic 'Evil wants to take over the world' story, with a number of ridiculous twists and excessive use of larger-than-life events and antagonists. The story also engages in gravedigging with regards to events and characters of the predecessors, but disregards some major conclusions from the old games in order to utilize them as 'Remember this' events. - Cut spells. BG3 has cut quite a few spells from 5th Edition, and many others are not handled according to tabletop rules, often making them worse or uninteresting to use (looking at you, Fly). This also hurts class balance, as for example the Warlock's already small spell selection is reduced even further. - Larian engine. BG3 is basically Divinity with a D&D license, and it shows. The game showers you with special arrows, fantasy handgrenades and other unbalanced nonsense which doesn't fit into the 5e rules. - Martial superiority. The excessively powerful weapons and armor tend to favor non-caster-classes; this is made even worse by the aforementioned special arrows & stuff, and the fact that all classes can use spell scrolls (!). Time and time again I have asked myself why I bother using spellcasters, when a barbarian or fighter can just use a scroll of fireball in crucial situations when enemies are clumped together, and dish out ridiculous damage against single targets in all others.