Baldur's Gate 3 - the 2nd thread

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I'm still trying to decide if I want to drop $60 and, if I do, Steam or GoG should get my money (I'd normally be all for GoG but am slightly worried cross-platform multiplayer might be a pain and most everyone I know who I'd want to play with is likely going to buy the game on Steam).

[BruceVC]

Im concerned that people have certain expectations for the game based on an understandable love of the previous games but maybe Larian is taking the BG franchise in a different way and what you expecting wont be in BG3 by design

So I suppose the best question is   "what are we expecting from this game and will it deliver ", I expect

• Immersive party based interaction and interesting party based quests to advance a party member story arc
• Memorable foes and some view of there motives, like in BG2 and NWN2  and the Host Tower of the Arcane
• It must align to Forgotten Realms lore
• Interesting dungeons to explore and basically the same for quests 
• Complexity as much as reasonable around spells, items and races

What are you guys expecting ?

 

[ComradeYellow]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Im concerned that people have certain expectations for the game based on an understandable love of the previous games

It's called "Wishful thinking" and we are all guilty of it to some degree or another.  Just check out the 'Avowed' section and look at people hoping it's going to be some kind of Baldur's Gate game.  Taking something a Dev says and bending and twisting it into your own narrative is a trap people fall into frequently, sadly.

Personally, I'm going into BG3 when its on a budget and well patched up.  It's been a long time since I gave a rats ass about Baldur's Gate type games (Admittedly, the tedious party cluster**** combat in PoE kinda shied me away from it), but every once in a while you have to revisit games you enjoyed when you were a nerdgasming teenager and I'm hoping BG3 plays well enough to satisfy my character building fetishes without being bogged down by excessive clutter.

[Chilloutman]

So for me so far

 

Pros:

 

+ Engine - I like that engine and amount of interactivity with environment is awesome.

+ Visuals* - I am very pleased with how environments look

* Quests - its nice to have a lot of options how to handle situations

 

Cons:

 

- Companions - so far only one I could stomach. I really hope they will include a bit more because there is only one front liner and she is a b***h but if you are not front liner she is your only option

- Visuals* - spell effects are like from 2000 and animations are jenky af. One would expect someone is able to animate run in 2020 that does not look like character have stick plugged up his bum all the time

- No fast forward for running around. It really get boring when you explore some place you already been and have to look on your character run back and forth slowly

- 5E DnD rules - I am sure those are pretty good in PnP sessions but I am sure they quite suck for cRPG. There is very little character customization so far, and I think It will be true for full game as well (I am no expert on E5 by any means) and its one of the main points I play cRPGs these days

- pathfinding - for some reason characters run sometimes into hazard terrain even if they know its hazard. And all it would take them is make 2 steps around

- Hazard terrain - Its really hard to tell where it starts and where it ends. Some outline would be really helpfull

 

Neutral

 

-+ Skill checks - I cant decide if I like it or hate it so - meh

+- Story - its so so. I am not digging it but its not horrible

-+ Dialog -

 

 

[IndiraLightfoot]

Great feedback, Chilloutman! I'll give it a deeper whirl this weekend, but I agree with plenty of your points based on what I've seen so far.

[IndiraLightfoot]

5 hours ago, bugarup said:

Methinks it's just what passes for character development in Larian's brand of "storytelling". The character is a jerk and then suddenly they're not (and possibly you can bang). Yay. 

I hope this is not the summary of what they've done with our companions. If so...  Hells, hells!

[HoonDing]

Dragonlance would suit Larian better.

[ComradeYellow]

Yeah I'm not too impressed with what I see, well, besides the visuals.  Seems like a bad concoction of design/features.

Also, this Early Access for 1 year crap needs to cease and desist!

[ShadySands]

6 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

- 5E DnD rules - I am sure those are pretty good in PnP sessions but I am sure they quite suck for cRPG. There is very little character customization so far, and I think It will be true for full game as well (I am no expert on E5 by any means) and its one of the main points I play cRPGs these days

This one really bugs me as well as one of my favorite things to do is really get into building my character but levelling up in this game feels so unsatisfying with the lack of options

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Other than multiclassing shenanigans there's not much customization per level in 5e. If BG3 is mostly that you can expect to be on rails for most of your levels with a handful of choices.

[Sarex]

Wow, that sucks... Like the whole point of these games is in doing different build...

[MrBrown]

Well, it's true to the BG1 and BG2 in that sense.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

Wow, that sucks... Like the whole point of these games is in doing different build...

It's not great. There are subclasses, but after picking them at level 2 or 3 you're locked into a set path like the kits from BG2. There are feats, but they share a resource with attribute increases and for the most part aren't as good as just pumping your stats. You can try some stuff with multiclassing (which I don't know if it made it into BG3), but it's kind of a clustercuss and I mostly see it used as a dip, like 1 level of Hexblade Warlock for Paladins to get CHA to hit and damage, instead of trying to build a character that's half and half.

[MrBrown]

D&D has always been very "top" heavy though, even in 3e and it's versions, you pretty much have to plan for feats or prestige classes from level 1 if you want to take them.

[ShadySands]

44 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

Well, it's true to the BG1 and BG2 in that sense.

It's even less than in those games

[Sarex]

All this talk has reminded me to give Pathfinder Kingmaker another go. I would think they patched all the issues by now.

[Gromnir]

58 minutes ago, Sarex said:

All this talk has reminded me to give Pathfinder Kingmaker another go. I would think they patched all the issues by now.

description o' pathfinder:kingmaker we has heard often were not that everything which needed to be patched were patched but rather there were a recognition it were as patched as it were gonna get, so if you were considering playing, you might as well give it a shot 'cause perhaps is patched enough.

HA! Good Fun!

[Chilloutman]

I made up my mind on skill check rolls - great fun in mutliplayer, bothersome in single player. I will have to force myself to not reload spam during my first playthrough, but I am weak willed and I will do it anyway xD

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, MrBrown said:

D&D has always been very "top" heavy though, even in 3e and it's versions, you pretty much have to plan for feats or prestige classes from level 1 if you want to take them.

That's always been a glaring weakness of D&D.

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

All this talk has reminded me to give Pathfinder Kingmaker another go. I would think they patched all the issues by now.

They dropped 2.1 (official turn-based option) a while back and there's been lots of issues reported. 

[ShadySands]

Kingmaker has come a long way from launch but I still see complaints about bugs. I haven't had anything beyond an occasional crash to desktop but I play Obsidian games so my bug tolerance is fairly high.

[melkathi]

Early Access BG3 for 59.99 or Indy 4: Fate of Atlantis for 1.79

Hmmm, GOG creates real dilemmas.

[marelooke]

Hmm, was searching for reviews and inevitably ended up on Metacritic and couldn't help but notice early access games cannot be reviewed by users (or scored by critics). Given how the game appears to basically be a full release (going by the fact that many reviews praise how polished it is), at full price, I can't help but feel they're trying to dodge the backlash they expected to get for calling D&D: Original Sin "Baldur's Gate 3".

Hell, a whole bunch of reviews don't even bother comparing the game to the Baldur's Gate games at all, they just straight up compare it to D:OS2. Which, while not unexpected, and certainly not after reading the impressions of people in this thread, just goes to show that using the name was just a "because we can capitalise on it" type of deal.

Most of the people I grew up with that played the IE-games appear to be taking a "Meh, will get after reviews, or when on sale" stance because they didn't enjoy D:OS all that much. So going to assume the name dropping would only really work on those that know the IE games solely by reputation but never played them themselves. Not sure why they bothered at all, honestly.

Edited October 10, 2020 by marelooke

[melkathi]

38 minutes ago, marelooke said:

Most of the people I grew up with that played the IE-games appear to be taking a "Meh, will get after reviews, or when on sale" stance because they didn't enjoy D:OS all that much. So going to assume the name dropping would only really work on those that know the IE games solely by reputation but never played them themselves. Not sure why they bothered at all, honestly.

 

I got one friend who got it because he theoretically loved BG2. He is also not the sharpest tool in the shed though and thinks all well known games are amazing. He also doesn't remember anything about BG2 except for "we all loved that back then". Sometimes I wonder if he actually played any of the games he loved.

Except for Phoenix Point. After a while even he quit that one.

[Hurlshort]

30 minutes ago, melkathi said:

 

I got one friend who got it because he theoretically loved BG2. He is also not the sharpest tool in the shed though and thinks all well known games are amazing. He also doesn't remember anything about BG2 except for "we all loved that back then". Sometimes I wonder if he actually played any of the games he loved.

Except for Phoenix Point. After a while even he quit that one.

You are talking about me, aren't you. 

I plan on going back to Phoenix Point one day! It contains the true spirit of Christmas, er, Xcom.

[melkathi]

Haha, ok, two friends

Though you actually know why you like things.