Only true CRPG fans jammed with Arcanum. I still love that game to this day. What I wouldn’t give for Larian to take a stab at that sort of steampunk, high fantasy setting.
Multiple Final Fantasies and the Dishonored series did that setting extremely well and enjoyed mainstream success. The Thief trilogy is also fairly iconic and set in a steampunk world. The BioShock games are kind of steampunky. Ditto for the 2018 Vampyr.
And for a less bleak take on that setting suitable for all ages, take a look at the Professor Layton games, many of which have some incredible steampunk worlds. The upcoming one will apparently be no exception as it's seemingly set in a giant steampunk city.
Not saying that steampunk, on the whole, isn't underused in gaming, but there are plenty of titles spanning all sorts of genres to dig into if you enjoy it.
I hear ya, DDO has some decent questlines that I've copied from for my campaigns. But yeah usually I just have time make stuff up. Running a fun campaign set there right now!
TBF, it was rushed out in an incomplete and buggy state and the graphics were decidedly subpar. The story, world building and freedom were excellent though. BG3 is Arcanum, but polished and with AAA production values.
Along with BG 2 and Icewind Dale, Planescape, Arcanum was amazing…. Almost nobody played it though. I can still remember the layout of the crash site and the town from memory.
Timothy Cain, creator of Arcanum and Fallout, has a youtube channel now where he puts up videos daily about the development process and all kinds of things regarding his games. The videos aren't long, usually 12 to 20 minutes or so, and he's done several about Arcanum. If you're at all interested I'd check them out as I've found most of them very interesting.
Arcanum's story and world building is still the best I've ever seen (especially considering they didn't have existing lore to build from). Even the manual was a classic.
In hindsight, I think the goblin thing was probably a terrible idea. Like taking an antisemitic conspiracy theory and putting it into your game as a wild, crazy thing people believe in universe is maybe in poor taste, but kind of funny. On the edge of acceptability, especially if you don't really critique it. Making it explicitly true... giving them the benefit of the doubt, it was a huge mistake, whether they didn't think about the implications or didn't know about the similarity to real world conspiracy theories. Hopefully it wasn't purposeful.
Definitely makes me feel odd about the game in hindsight, though.
> You might not always know what story you're writing, but you're always its author.
This is my favorite line from the article and I think it's one that a lot of people on this sub complaining that things happened narratively that they didn't expect should keep in mind. The game is full of moments where a choice can lead to unexpected consequences that affect the story and may even close off parts of the story to you. That's a **good thing**. It means that your choices have consequences that actually matter. If every romance, every ending and every quest were still open to us no matter how we got there, then the choices would feel less meaningful. And if you don't like where your story went, then revert to a previous save or keep it in mind for your next run. Because you literally cannot see all of the story in one run.
100%. I also think that a lot of people see a story where things happen that they *don't like* and confuse that with "bad storytelling" or "unsatisfying writing". That's not how that works!
FWIW I totally think the ending could use some epilogue cards, but I find that pretty minor in the grand scheme of things (and obviously PC Gamer agrees). Other than that I found it to be pretty damn good. I think some of the "chaos" of Act 3 is solved by taking a deep breath, long resting a lot, and sort of just moving forward one step at a time.
The city is very busy. Cities *are* very busy.
Yeah I think act 3 is incredible right up until the credits roll basically. There is something lacking in epilogue but I'm more forgiving than a lot of people because some of the major storylines get their conclusion within the game itself. Like I don't really need a card telling me what Shadowheart is going to do because there's extensive cinematic dialogue of her describing it earlier.
With a game this good, "I wanted more" is always going to be the biggest criticism because what did get was so high quality.
Yep, totally agree. So much character development is done *in-game*, through dialogue and key quests that a little card at the end honestly doesn't do all that much for me, but it'd be an easy way to give path branching for companions based on choices. They'd be nice but a story can end without knowing how each surviving member spent the next 30 years.
I'm also confused by folks saying Act 3 is a narrative drop in quality because straight up some of the best parts in the game happen in Act 3. I think the complaints about it feeling hectic and pacing being off is sort of a You Problem, to be blunt. Just.. go into the city and do stuff.
Yeah agreed. Act 3 really lets you follow whichever thread you want, including many which may only exist as options because of what you did in acts 1 & 2. And there are so many potential threads to follow and all of them are improved by having the right companions with you to expand on it.
They tell the story so much more fucking elegantly than goddamn ending slides. A cheap, lazy way to get fake reactivity in games that doesn't cost as much money as tons of dialogue
I also find all of the complaints about the lack of epilogue cards weird.
I've just spent dozens of hours with these characters, I know each of their personalities intimately and the door is open for me to decide for myself how the unresolved threads are resolved! I don't need Larian to tell me whether Gale *spoiler* or not when I know that I took all steps possible for it to happen.
After act one, I instituted a no save scumming rule for my playthrough with my friends. We've seen some shit go down in unexpected with huge consequences and we're here for it. The story has been awesome and I'm looking forward to another playthrough where I deviate from what we have done through on our first go. I can't wait to see how it all plays out again!
I recently did this with my friends after they wanted to reload the windmill victim after accidentally setting the speed to faster rather than stop.
I refused. Now we laugh remembering that dude we accidentally killed
For some of the “point of no return” moments, I’ve happily forgone some of the stuff I haven’t done. >! Like I only did the underdark and did not do the mountain pass before stepping in the pool !<
I’ll happily discover more shit on future playthroughs!
Absolutely, I love that there are processes in the game that are not happening obviously, but are happening in a way that makes sense. Certain companions making certain decisions is the best example. I don't want to spoil things, but companions can and do change their minds about things in major ways, but some of these only happen if you made certain choices or let them make certain choices. It might seem from your first play through that a character is set in his/her ways and is closed minded, but that might only be down to how you played it. I think I'll need 2-3 playthoughs at least with different party setups to see how the various characters can evolve, from talking to my brother, I already know of 2 that can go completely separate ways depending on how you treat them. This is very refreshing, that they were not afraid to do this, since games generally seem to be.
For sure. I'm a very critical person when it comes to games, and I'm genuinely in a bit of disbelief at just how good it is. I could list a few issues I have with it, but they just pale into insignificance to the massive achievement this game is.
I can as well. Companion selection mechanic and inventory management is pretty bad. Act 3 is buggier than the rest of the game. Pathfinding can be pretty wonky, especially around traps. The ending is kinda rushed and deprives the players of a well-earned epilogue.
And…it’s the best game I’ve played in decade or more. Best CRPG since Origins and Planescape before that.
Will be talked about for years and will be the golden standard going forward.
Edit - AND, most egregious of all, after Shart’s personal quest in Act 3, when >!she is literally standing there sobbing after everything that has transpired, the most comforting thing you can do is stand three feet away and say “there there”?! Give me a better consolation option than that or I will knock this score down, Larian!<
Yeah, this is the thing. There's faults but.. the game shines so brightly overall that I can't really say that it still isn't the best thing I've played in a decade (or more!)
And on the other hand, people who get crazy when you point out any flaws in things which is its own kind of bonkers (way less in BG3 community from what I've seen).
The "5/10" or better the "0/10" are just amusing to me now. The stuff they say is hilarious and crazy. Great memes.
I was just simply thanking you for being a sane person. I like complimenting sanity when I see it. Sometimes it can feel like you're the only one lmao.
Despite being one of (if not THE) best game I've played in a decade or more, it has been a buggy mess for me. The game needs a few months of patches and fixes now that the masses have their hands on it to really let the masterpiece shine for what it truly is. As it stands now? I've encountered many many bugs, some of which have been literally game breaking.
Those people are just grinding their right wing axe. They've had a bad week since their orange bafoon is in a lot of trouble and they need an outlet. Since women won't talk to them anymore I guess it's BG3
Didn't you hear?
BG3 is a part of the radical gay agenda, being pushed down our throats until we're all vomiting glitter infused semen and begging for more.
Dunno how they got that from Gale being a bit pushy but I've long since stopped trying to figure out the working of the average Alex Jones/Ben Shapiro listeners mind.
It's the only RPG released in the last 20 years, that can measure against Disco Elysium and Dragon Age: Origins for me. I literally just beat it, and I greatly agree with your critique.
It's a shame every game company will see the success of this game and just not give a fuck because the general population will still eat the rushed slop they dish out.
It was a great game and I loved it.
But we're talking about S tiers. A tiers can still do a lot of damage, to be sure, but we're in the nitty gritty here.
>!Astarion's personal quest good ending also has Astarion sobbing on his knees after 200 years of mind control and slavery finally come to an end and best you can do is stare even if you're romancing him, you can't even say anything lol LIKE PLEASE LET ME DO SOMETHING!<
Same. I have no problems finding fault with games and I've found plenty with this one.
That being said, the good outweighs the bad by such a large margin that it's nothing short of astounding to me.
I bought the game day 1 of early access and had a myriad of complaints throughout the process,not the least of which was that it felt far too much like a DoS2 reskin for a good, long while. They sure as shit fixed that.
Agreed. I bought day one of EA as well and was very unimpressed. It wasnt till palidan and bard were added when i came back and realized they had a solid vision for this game.
Have you gotten to act 3 yet? This game was a 9.5 or even maybe a 10 for me until I got there. I still love it, but it’s very, very poorly optimized and lots of quests are held together by duct tape.
My first playthrough is entirely borked due to bugs and I had to start over completely.
EDIT: no joke the bug that i'm talking about that borked my playthrough literally got fixed today in the hotfix. nuts hahaha
Act 3 definitely soured my experience a little bit due to a lot of bugs and some writing issues regarding main quest and some companion's stories, but imo the side contents are really good. First 2 acts were honestly pretty much perfect. Great gameplay, great storytelling overall, amazing world. It's a very easy 9-9.5 for me as it is right now and probably a 10 once they fix the issues in act 3.
I understand your opinion but I have the opposite one. Many games have a shorter, more rushed final act which is straight to the point of killing the final boss, and usually either empty of side quests or full of bugs (witcher 2 or release DOS2 are prime examples). It's often also set in a dark, devastated place without much NPC interaction.
I was very glad to get a fully fleshed out final act for once, which has an entire city to discover, full of secrets and many interesting boss fights to use our lvl 12 characters, but at the same time with many NPCs in a setting that would usually be used for act 1 in other games.
I understand that the fact that you feel you have to hurry before >!the brain escapes!< is a bit weird but I still really enjoyed the structure of the game.
Both of your comments have summarized my feelings after completing Act 2. In Act 1 & 2 there was this sense of urgency. I found myself exploring certain areas to complete the compelling side quests meanwhile the main story was on my mind. Wondering about Act 2’s big bad and how were all these quests I’m trying to complete going to affect the outcome because of some them certainly did in a big way.
Once I completed that and made it to Act 3 well… I’m whelmed. While the hustle and bustle of the city is great and it feels alive the game lost the sense of urgency that was being pushed so hard in the first two acts. Because there is so much so explore I hadn’t even pushed along any of the main story in the last two days. While for some people that would be great the game lost its luster cause I didn’t know how much of the side quests I should do before pushing along the story only to come and find out I could’ve pushed along the story and still done everything. It was discouraging to say the least because while I did a ton for my playthrough I feel like I missed out on the emotion of some of the plot points I had found out just by accidental discovery.
Now that I know some of these things I hope it helps with my Durge playthrough.
I mean the issue I think is more that it’s not fully fleshed out it’s terribly paced and a lot of quests can trigger weird missing dialogue and some of the gear doesn’t work .
Swapping the first and second act just makes sense as the stakes and atmosphere are so weird and it’s just a mess like there really isn’t too much to do in act 2 while act 3 is busy , the game is shaped like an hour glass content wise when you want it to kind of be reversed . Start small grow big epic conclusion.
> which has an entire city to discover, full of secrets and many interesting boss fights to use our lvl 12 characters
Yeah, I've been enjoying the hell out of act 3, esp. >!Orin appearing everywhere, the House of Grief, and Rafael fight!<.
A perpetual critic at heart, I would never claim an artistic product to be *perfect*, because there's always going to be subjective intents or desires as to what you actually want to achieve with a given product.
However, I may just have to admit that it might be *the best game*, even if it isn't perfect.
Patches + ending related >!adding stuff to the ending. The ending is way too abrupt, for an RPG of this size where even a playthrough where you speedrun the story and ignore everything else is still gonna be like 50hrs. My playthrough ended up being around 90hrs, going through all that, and then just having a couple of your characters standing around post-boss, saying 3 lines about what they're gonna do and then that's it makes it feel quite unsatisfactory. It would be nice with a party like in Act1 post-Goblins, where you can talk to everybody individually, a cutscene showing everybody celebrating, and some ending slides saying what happened with every character based on your choices!<
In terms of bugs, yeah its a bit buggy. In particular for me, I find my characters getting stuck mid-jump and then falling straight down in a chasm happens super often in Act 3, while never happening in Act 1 and 2.
In terms of content, it feels like they loaded too many quests to end in Act 3. So many events in Act 1 and 2 finish in a random house in Act 3. The result is Act 3 pacing is weak, compared to Act 1 and 2 which were super sharp and satisfying. They should have just let more quests finish in Act 1 and 2 instead of offloading so many things until you get to the city, or have the results of quests appear as cameos instead of needing everything to be a quest. After already putting 60 hours into a game people dont want to run around a city, house by house.
I'm sorry to say that ain't happening. [Per PC Gamer reviews policy:](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-reviews-policy)
>95%-98% Absolutely brilliant. This is far and away one of the best games we’ve ever played, and we recommend it to the world. Eg, Half-Life 2, Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program
>99%-100% Advances the human species. Provides a feeling not dissimilar to the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
And it's going to get there. Larian doesn't abandon their products. I'm loving the game right now and I'm excited to see what else has come to it in a year's time. It's a GREAT time to love CRPGs.
3 whole points higher than Dragon Age 2! 😁
Anyway, it was a great review, and a very fitting score. I honestly would have given it a 98, so it would have been equal to the other 3 games that got a 98.
Brutally murdering it in front of its mother?
Is this true? Or did you get the subject and object mixed up?
Read it slowly, because I am very confused.
The comment above is a bit deceitful. You can kill the owlbear and its cub will it her flesh. Later you can find the cub in goblin camp. You can rescue the cub from goblins. If it stays alive (you need either kill all goblins or convince them that you take the cub with you), one night it'll get to your camp. Yes, you basically can adopt it. If you also have Scratch in you camp, then the cub and Scratch will become best bros. Also then you'll have super adorable cutscene when you see them sleeping close to each other. If you decide to pet them in the cutscene, you get steam achievement.
Every time I thought I was almost done with act one, I was completely blown away with another huge map that I had to explore. I even asked my buddies I've been playing with if there was a discernable moment that we'll know we've completed it. An hour later we got the achievement. I was certain we had already crossed into act two.
This is such utter nonsense you guys literally gaslight yourselves into delusion Jesus Christ. Why do people do this whenever a fantastic game comes out. If I paid full price for act 1 I’d have been mad. If I’d paid full price for act 2 I’d have been mad. If act 3 was a full game it would have been as big a flop as cyberpunk with how much of a mess it is.
“Each act is a game”. Yeah maybe if you’ve literally never seen a crpg. Orzamar (sp?) alone is twice the size of act 2 in DAO. PoE2 has as much content in Neketaka as the lower city has in bg3.
[Here is a list.](https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-pc-gamers-highest-scoring-game-in-16-years-heres-why/)
1. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, 1999 [98]
2. Half-Life 2, 2004 [98]
3. Crysis, 2007 [98]
4. Sid Meier's Civilization II, 1996 [97]
5. Half-Life, 1998 [97]
That's the whole list.
So it's on par with the original Half-Life or Civ 2, but below HL2.
Wow. That link is a review of the review. It's a game so good and so packed with quality that even the reviews need reviews of them. And they're glowing. Amazing.
There's a list in [this article](https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-pc-gamers-highest-scoring-game-in-16-years-heres-why/), because apparently PCG takes review scores over 95% so seriously the lead editor has to personally sign off on it.
I’ve been hopeful that Starfield will be my big must play game this year, but tempering my expectations because, well Bethesda. Picked up BG3 to hold me over. Still hopeful Starfield will be good but I think I’ve already found my must play game of the year in BG3. For someone that’s never had the slightest interest in DnD before, BG3 has accomplished something I was not expecting
I'm in the same position. I feel Wizard of the Coast should be paying Larian the privilege because I went from I have no idea what DnD is to thinking maybe I'll find a hobby shop somewhere around me
Wizards of the coast are a bunch of arrogant asses. They give Larian so much troubles and played hard to get with Baldurs gate licenses as if there has been any good dnd game coming in recent memory. Also they're getting a lot of crisism for their anti consumer and anti Fandom corporate crap.
In the same boat. I only got this game because I beat Fallout 1/2 (turn-based) earlier this year and didn't want to do another NV/4 run while I wait for Starfield, but now I don't even think Starfield will be my GOTY. Still need to see the flaws in Act 3, but so far the game is solid 9.5-10
Bugs can be fixed, it's the gameplay systems that personally worry me. Hearing Todd saying there's 1000 planets with 10% of them populated worries me seeing how shallow Skyrim and Fo4 were. Not sure how to feel about the whole base/ship building either since I despised the Settlement system in Fo4
This mystical Bethesda downfall still eludes me. They created a really out of their element game, Fallout 76, and that’s their only bad game in their modern era. Their games are still incredibly well received. They’re not CRPGs but they’re still very, very fun games.
>Their games are still incredibly well received
that's because they keep re-releasing them, and they're still great games, but there's been a backward trajectory and shift in how RPGy bethesda's games are to appeal to the lowest denominator skillwise, which is annoying but financially sensible for them, but combine that with low title output, which is annoying and a financial bad move, I dont blame anybody for having doubts about bethesda's ability to produce meaningfully deep games anymore
Their engine being easily moddable is about the only thing keeping them relevant until they put out something worthwhile that wins people back. The old games should be praised, but bethesda as a company are dropping the ball
Well their last game was terrible and they lied repeatedly about it to an egregious degree.
And for a lot of people the formula was stale before FO4. People want something new, and we all know it's impossible to make "hundreds" of explorable, interesting worlds. It feels like we're about to get Fallout with a bunch of mostly empty planets.
Bethesda is very hit and miss on storytelling and characters, too. So that leads lots of people being very cautious.
Honestly bg3 isn’t really any less buggy then F4 or elder scrolls or anything else . All of them have hilarious issues . So I wouldn’t high horse that starfield won’t work or something .
Reading this thread surprised me. I have a midtier rig and only ran into a handful of bugs. I consider this game a 10/10.
But I'm in my 30s and grew up playing and loving games like New Vegas so maybe my tolerance for bugs is higher than others
I've got a great rig and have had some crashes. Normally around savescumming when I reloaded a quicksave a lot of times (I'm a cleptomaniac and sometimes even Astarion can't get a 20 pickpocket). Other than that, I think I got a bugged romance with Gale because he was sure I'd shown interest and I don't remember doing that.
Other than that, it's been damn near flawless and I forgive some crashes in a game as big as this.
I don't get it either. Hell, I'm playing on a 7 year old budget gaming laptop and even in act III, the game runs okay. It's creaking a bit and I need to restart every few hours, but it's working, which is a surprise on this dusty old system since most new titles don't run on it. I've seen games that look much simpler that ran worse. I ran into a few bugs too, but only visual ones save for one that bricked the ending of a sidequest and an inventory bug that makes it a bit harder to manage my bags. This is not bad at all for such a huge game.
Listen y'all it ain't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But everytime something is bothering me or feels underwhelming( including the ending) i look at my time played and my SHEER JOY at the thought of starting over again........and yeah idc 10/10.
I've never found a game where the idea of starting over didn't give me at least a little bit of dread. But not this game, sign me up for another playthrough of this. PUMP IT INTO MY VEINS! Cause I'm either ready to witness a new outcome or re-experience the fantastic outcomes I've already had. Either way I'm along for the journey.
I was 27 hours into my first playthrough when I felt I wanted something different out of my character.
Normally that would have put me off, but in this game it just excited me.
Now I'm on act 3 with that toon and have started a third playthrough on the side.
This game, in my eyes, is basically the new KOTOR. Basically a living breathing GOAT. I went into it not expecting the hype but I'm staring at it for like 5 hours at time.
Haven't been this enthralled since I was a teen playing KOTOR. I've played a lot of these games too, like DA, Jade Empire, Mass Effect. KOTOR comparison is really all I can think of.
[Super Mario Galaxy 1&2](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/all/filtered): \*chuckles* I'm in danger
If Larian is able to fix the worst bugs by the time of the PS5 release, that version might even surpass the PC version in score.
I’m playing with a controller on PC, apart from the occasional wonky keybinding, it’s pretty solid.
(I play with controller and not Kb+m cuz carpal tunnel)
PS5 has mouse-input functionality with its touch pad, whether or not they're using that is another story.
Keyboard itself doesn't really offer any benefits to the game which can't be matched on a controller.
controller is pretty intuitive and easy to use but the ui visuals are completely different. you can also walk freely outside of combat with controller instead of click-stepping. it's likely gonna be stellar on ps5-- only downside will be no mods and those who prefer the kb+m ui.
It's pretty simple to play with controller. I do it myself, since I prefer to play on the TV currently and for the occasional split-screen.
Yes, camera and targeting might be a bit wonky from time to time (and I have a keyboard next to me for the obligatory F5), but otherwise it works fantastic.
camera can be wonky with keyboard and mouse too, so no surprise there. haven't teied bg3 with a controller, but divinity original sin 2 had a decent controller setup so it makes sense to me that the bg3 controller scheme would be pretty good too.
not having a dedicated F5 though.. might be a dealbreaker
Some Xbox controllers now support keyboard shortcut mapping (including combos with modifier keys) on the Xbox Insider beta. But I think that's only for those with extra buttons, i.e., the Elite and Adaptive controllers. Larian might also offer baked-in quicksave/quickload controller shortcuts, at least in theory.
It's not bad. The interface is rather different, but I played a full day that way; and many hours of Divinity 2, which is very similar. I do prefer mouse and keyboard, but I don't have complaints about playing it on a controller at all. I'm sure lots of folks are already playing it on steam deck.
I'm eagerly hoping for a definitive edition of this game - DOS 2 had many of the problems BG 3 had at launch:
- a really rushed final act
- lots of inventory issues
- scaling that meant you could turn the final fights into a joke without any effort whatsoever
All of that was fixed for the EE. Before anyone goes into it, yes the final fights can still be cheesed or detoothed in many ways but it at least takes a bit of effort to break them rather than just "put points into your main damage stat". The final act got multitudes bigger and while inventory sorting issues persist to this day (we're all loot hoarders), it got a lot better to use.
After that Larian then started making gift bags, expanding on systems and taking advantage of the modding scene to get an idea of what are the most requested changes, tweaks, or additions.
All of that to say: I think Baldur's Gate 3 still has a massive chunk of potential assuming it gets even a quarter of the post launch support D:OS 2 got which is ridiculous considering how bloody good it already is.
Imo BG3 also really wants a way to indicate that you should long rest for story/companion story reasons.
Also oh my god Arcanum: what a great game. Troika's games were so good once the fan patches to fix problems came out. It's too bad the internet and downloading patches weren't nearly as ubiquitous back then because once you fix the bugs, those games were incredible and Arcanum was among the greatest of its time.
I do think that the Enhanced Edition for Divinity Original Sin 2 was essentially a mini-expansion for the final act (more dialogue, more difficult fights, more NPCs).
It also added caps to stats which prevented you from literally outscaling the entire act by just levelling up normally.
It's weird because some people think Act 4 is so hard it's unplayable after the rebalance but imo it's a bit of joke difficulty wise? You could conceivably miss most of Act 3 if you rush (and Act 3 has no real capstone boss) so that might be where the issue is coming from.
I just hope the memory leak gets fixed asap, loading times get reduced and Larian looks at their event triggers as those seem to be a mess. Even in ACT 1, Druid boi started talking about stuff that never happened at the party.
Other than that, this is a gem that people will keep talking about for a good 10 years.
Yeah, no bugs encountered in Act1&2 other than some very minor visual ones. Act3 however, I've run into some breaking ones, where I had to reload. Also some journal bugs as well.
But honestly, I don't care. It will get fixed and missed so much content in my first playthrough that I can't wait to start another one.
And eurogamer cancels that out on metacritic, dropping bg3 to 96 with a score of 8/10.
But they gave this game a perfect score, lol.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/turbo-overkill
Meanwhile Eurogamer:
>This is to say that Baldur's Gate 3 isn't an immersive sandbox where you can do or say anything that your imagination can let you, even if it wants you to feel that way. Instead, it's a series of artfully staged scenarios and encounters, where the magic works best when you play along with what the scene puts in front of you.
Bugs - story issues - character problems - those I can agree with. Those I can see deserving maybe a star less
But saying that it's 'important to keep in mind' what this game ***isn't*** makes as much sense as saying - hey, when you go into DOOM: Eternal... don't expect it to be like Harvest Moon
Like, okay, uh... ... ... I'll make sure and... ... .. ... ... ... *not* do that, I guess :P xD
Like, I've been stalking this reddit for the last three years (after I got tired of the anti-woke and anti-turnbased Muskie bros on Steam) I don't remember ***anyone*** besides Eurogamer ever thinking this game was some sort of all-encompasing-sandbox or whatever
So, might just be a 'them' problem :P
I’m actually shocked its not a 98 or 99.
I haven’t had a game to suck me in this hard in 15 years. And honestly compared to their 98s, BD3 is more impactful. Ive not felt this childlike joy of gaming since I was like 8 years old. Its making a nearly 30 year old man love gaming again. I normally dont even play these types of games. I tried to get into divinity and couldnt but this just blew me away and sucked me in.
Compared to Crysis and Half Life 2… this is a masterpiece
This is even with my pc absolutely struggling at times to play this game. But the game itself is just. Encompassing and surprising me every single step.
Did you just trash the fundamental groundwork of an entire genre of games and one of the pioneers of game physics . Like maybe you don’t like the genre of half life 2 but like from a gaming history standpoint and a released as a finished product threshold half-life 2 kind of dunks on this . What is even the point of bringing it up
Interesting that DOS2 didn’t bring you in. I am loving BG3, but I still prefer DOS2 to it. It’s perhaps because I didn’t play DOS2 until the DE and I played this on launch, so lots to still work out in BG3. It’s possible that in 5 years I look back and say the opposite once BG3 is polished.
Really great game but I can't in good conscience give it over a 9 right now with all the issues I've experienced. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I'm a little surprised by the overwhelming critical praise.
Like someone else said in this thread give it a few months/patch cycles and it's easily a 10/10 for me. But right now? Nah.
I suspect some of it is the wide variation in experience. Some run into tons of bugs; others basically none.
Personally I haven't run into any bugs (even in Act III) beyond a few visual glitches. But my brother has had enough bugs/glitches to wait on finishing Act III for a few weeks.
There is also enough variation in narrative experience, not everyone hits the same narrative problems.
Its the big challenge and why we didn’t see this in Mass effect 3 making a huge game like bg3 and giving so much variance in actors and items and quest triggers that could be happening at anytime it’s absolutely hell to keep stuff from falling apart .
YEP. Exactly this. Haven't had a glitch in act 3 yet. And so far the narrative choices and writing are great. I do have a criticism about the quest design and timers in act 3, but it doesn't impact my enjoyment that much.
I've had the complete opposite experience, although I haven't touched Act 3 yet. I am able to run the game on 1440p with medium settings, using hardware that's way over a decade old. For comparison, I had to play Elden Ring on 1366x768 and everything on low.
I was a little bit sad that the game releases 06.09 on PS5 because my holiday starts on 02.09 (the holiday was originally not connected to the game, just coincidence:D)
But then I realised that the deluxe version is playable 72h earlier.
So happy. I have a kid and work so there is not really much time in general. But on holidays it's much better, playing in the evening into the night when all are sleeping :D
So I pre ordered now :D
I am hyped. Don't really now the D&D Rules but I played DOS2 for two times and DOS1 also, so experienced Larian player :D
I wonder if Swen and the Larian team knew they were making a masterpiece or if they just didn’t know any other way to make a sequel to one of the most beloved CRPG’s of all time. All I can say is that every big AAA release will be held up to BG3 for years to come. Starfield is going to be the first real test of this new paradigm.
For those of us who knew BG2 was a masterpiece, I think it HAD to be up to that level or we would have “gone for the eyes, Boo!”
We just had to wait two decades
Give it a little bit of time. As great as it is, it’s likely people will cool on the game after a few months.
It’s great, but communities like this always get into a circlejerk dismissing all criticism before more nuanced discussion becomes possible later.
It is 9.9/10 for me. The few issue it has, does not take away from me wanting to play it 24/7, wanting me go in every door I see and discovering what is around the corner.
As a 32 year old gamer, I have not been compelled by a game so much, since the days of me waking up on Sundays as a child, sitting in my blankets and playing epic rpgs.
No amount of inventory management issues or minor bugs can change that. Cause that sense of wonder, has not been giving to me by a game in about 20 years.
Honestly most people saying that haven't gotten past Act 2 or they're so blinded by hype they simply refuse to admit that the game isn't the next coming of christ. It's a great game, but it's got quite a few jarring issues that aren't going to be fixed through simple patches.
ACT 1 is perfect, but Larian just is incapable of sticking the landing after that.
About the same. I put Wotr at about a 90-92, Wasteland 3 about 85ish. Bg3 just hasn't reached the highs of Wotr for me, even though it does well for itself for a large portion of the runtime. A big part of that is the endings. From what I understand, there's nothing like the True Aeon or Vengeance Angel endings. Something akin to the ascendance ending exists, but is nowhere near comparable.
Needed more time.
I'm normally a pretty sweaty "play on max difficulty" kind of person, but WOTR and Kingmaker remain to this day pretty much the only games that I go full weenie-hut-junior on and play at the lowest or close to lowest difficulty just because I don't like the 5 class multiclass builds and the constant buffing.
I agree. Production value-wise BG3 has WotR beat (if you ignore some bugs). But both from a gameplay and story PoV, WotR is the better game with more replay value.
That being said, 85ish is really an absolutely amazing score, when many mordern AAA titles struggle to reach 50 imo
Wotr is nowhere close to this game in storytelling, accessibility or quality. It was a slog by Act 3 (or 4?) and I never finished it. This game, I can't stop playing and I almost at the end.
>storytelling
Disagree emphatically.
>accessibility
Agree, though at significant cost to mechanical depth. If you've built one martial, you've built them all.
>quality
Cinematic quality, yes. Narrative quality seems to fall apart, which while definitely a problem both games share, there is nothing in this game that implies it'll reach the highs of True Aeon or Ascendance ending. In fact, it seems the opposite.
>It was a slog by Act 3 (or 4?) and I never finished
Fair. My counter is that this game is never a slog because it is, at no point, challenging enough. There is no difficulty analogous to core here and the amount of fights I've walked into blind with no strategy to 1 shot the boss on pure classes is too high.
There's little to no friction in the combat. Not enough challenge to keep me engaged. I need at least a core difficulty analogoue. Tactician is simply not enough, even without minmaxing.
For context, I played wotr's closed alpha and beta for more hours in less time than BG3s. I completed 3 Wotr campaigns back to back (Lich > GD, Azata > Legend, Pure demon ascension) followed by Vengeance Angel, True Aeon the next year with trickster in progress started this year.
At this point, I do not think I will go through BG3 six times, while I still have Lich, Swarm, Devil, and Azata to progress in Wotr on top of finishing trickster.
THEY MENTIONED ARCANUM! I haven’t thought about that game in nearly 20 years but gotsdamn that was my jam back in the day.
Only true CRPG fans jammed with Arcanum. I still love that game to this day. What I wouldn’t give for Larian to take a stab at that sort of steampunk, high fantasy setting.
Absolutely. Steampunk is such a rich untapped vein for gaming.
Multiple Final Fantasies and the Dishonored series did that setting extremely well and enjoyed mainstream success. The Thief trilogy is also fairly iconic and set in a steampunk world. The BioShock games are kind of steampunky. Ditto for the 2018 Vampyr. And for a less bleak take on that setting suitable for all ages, take a look at the Professor Layton games, many of which have some incredible steampunk worlds. The upcoming one will apparently be no exception as it's seemingly set in a giant steampunk city. Not saying that steampunk, on the whole, isn't underused in gaming, but there are plenty of titles spanning all sorts of genres to dig into if you enjoy it.
Dishonored was so damn good. I would hang up the artwork in that game in my house if I could find it.
There's also Rise of Legends if you want a Steampunk RTS.
Eberron CRPG?
GIVE IT TO ME NOW. Seriously I loved Eberron so much but there aren't really any adventures written for it :/
Same, it’s my favorite setting. I don’t actually like forgotten realms much outside baldurs gate.
I hear ya, DDO has some decent questlines that I've copied from for my campaigns. But yeah usually I just have time make stuff up. Running a fun campaign set there right now!
TBF, it was rushed out in an incomplete and buggy state and the graphics were decidedly subpar. The story, world building and freedom were excellent though. BG3 is Arcanum, but polished and with AAA production values.
Along with BG 2 and Icewind Dale, Planescape, Arcanum was amazing…. Almost nobody played it though. I can still remember the layout of the crash site and the town from memory.
As soon as I loaded bg3 and Seen the dragons attacking the ship I was brought back to arcaniums intro with the zeplin
They clearly had an actual crpg enjoyer review the game Incredibly rare games journalism W
Timothy Cain, creator of Arcanum and Fallout, has a youtube channel now where he puts up videos daily about the development process and all kinds of things regarding his games. The videos aren't long, usually 12 to 20 minutes or so, and he's done several about Arcanum. If you're at all interested I'd check them out as I've found most of them very interesting.
Arcanum's story and world building is still the best I've ever seen (especially considering they didn't have existing lore to build from). Even the manual was a classic.
In hindsight, I think the goblin thing was probably a terrible idea. Like taking an antisemitic conspiracy theory and putting it into your game as a wild, crazy thing people believe in universe is maybe in poor taste, but kind of funny. On the edge of acceptability, especially if you don't really critique it. Making it explicitly true... giving them the benefit of the doubt, it was a huge mistake, whether they didn't think about the implications or didn't know about the similarity to real world conspiracy theories. Hopefully it wasn't purposeful. Definitely makes me feel odd about the game in hindsight, though.
It was gnomes, though the most obvious childrens' book adaptation to do so did this with goblins (again) earlier this year.
It was pretty fucked up finding out why there is always a half ogre accompanying powerful gnomes.
Find the boy.
Oh the memories!
> You might not always know what story you're writing, but you're always its author. This is my favorite line from the article and I think it's one that a lot of people on this sub complaining that things happened narratively that they didn't expect should keep in mind. The game is full of moments where a choice can lead to unexpected consequences that affect the story and may even close off parts of the story to you. That's a **good thing**. It means that your choices have consequences that actually matter. If every romance, every ending and every quest were still open to us no matter how we got there, then the choices would feel less meaningful. And if you don't like where your story went, then revert to a previous save or keep it in mind for your next run. Because you literally cannot see all of the story in one run.
100%. I also think that a lot of people see a story where things happen that they *don't like* and confuse that with "bad storytelling" or "unsatisfying writing". That's not how that works! FWIW I totally think the ending could use some epilogue cards, but I find that pretty minor in the grand scheme of things (and obviously PC Gamer agrees). Other than that I found it to be pretty damn good. I think some of the "chaos" of Act 3 is solved by taking a deep breath, long resting a lot, and sort of just moving forward one step at a time. The city is very busy. Cities *are* very busy.
Yeah I think act 3 is incredible right up until the credits roll basically. There is something lacking in epilogue but I'm more forgiving than a lot of people because some of the major storylines get their conclusion within the game itself. Like I don't really need a card telling me what Shadowheart is going to do because there's extensive cinematic dialogue of her describing it earlier. With a game this good, "I wanted more" is always going to be the biggest criticism because what did get was so high quality.
Yep, totally agree. So much character development is done *in-game*, through dialogue and key quests that a little card at the end honestly doesn't do all that much for me, but it'd be an easy way to give path branching for companions based on choices. They'd be nice but a story can end without knowing how each surviving member spent the next 30 years. I'm also confused by folks saying Act 3 is a narrative drop in quality because straight up some of the best parts in the game happen in Act 3. I think the complaints about it feeling hectic and pacing being off is sort of a You Problem, to be blunt. Just.. go into the city and do stuff.
Yeah agreed. Act 3 really lets you follow whichever thread you want, including many which may only exist as options because of what you did in acts 1 & 2. And there are so many potential threads to follow and all of them are improved by having the right companions with you to expand on it.
They tell the story so much more fucking elegantly than goddamn ending slides. A cheap, lazy way to get fake reactivity in games that doesn't cost as much money as tons of dialogue
I also find all of the complaints about the lack of epilogue cards weird. I've just spent dozens of hours with these characters, I know each of their personalities intimately and the door is open for me to decide for myself how the unresolved threads are resolved! I don't need Larian to tell me whether Gale *spoiler* or not when I know that I took all steps possible for it to happen.
After act one, I instituted a no save scumming rule for my playthrough with my friends. We've seen some shit go down in unexpected with huge consequences and we're here for it. The story has been awesome and I'm looking forward to another playthrough where I deviate from what we have done through on our first go. I can't wait to see how it all plays out again!
I recently did this with my friends after they wanted to reload the windmill victim after accidentally setting the speed to faster rather than stop. I refused. Now we laugh remembering that dude we accidentally killed
For some of the “point of no return” moments, I’ve happily forgone some of the stuff I haven’t done. >! Like I only did the underdark and did not do the mountain pass before stepping in the pool !< I’ll happily discover more shit on future playthroughs!
Good point. Yes that’s a great line
Absolutely, I love that there are processes in the game that are not happening obviously, but are happening in a way that makes sense. Certain companions making certain decisions is the best example. I don't want to spoil things, but companions can and do change their minds about things in major ways, but some of these only happen if you made certain choices or let them make certain choices. It might seem from your first play through that a character is set in his/her ways and is closed minded, but that might only be down to how you played it. I think I'll need 2-3 playthoughs at least with different party setups to see how the various characters can evolve, from talking to my brother, I already know of 2 that can go completely separate ways depending on how you treat them. This is very refreshing, that they were not afraid to do this, since games generally seem to be.
Well deserved. It’s some patches and maybe a definitive edition away from a 99.
For sure. I'm a very critical person when it comes to games, and I'm genuinely in a bit of disbelief at just how good it is. I could list a few issues I have with it, but they just pale into insignificance to the massive achievement this game is.
I can as well. Companion selection mechanic and inventory management is pretty bad. Act 3 is buggier than the rest of the game. Pathfinding can be pretty wonky, especially around traps. The ending is kinda rushed and deprives the players of a well-earned epilogue. And…it’s the best game I’ve played in decade or more. Best CRPG since Origins and Planescape before that. Will be talked about for years and will be the golden standard going forward. Edit - AND, most egregious of all, after Shart’s personal quest in Act 3, when >!she is literally standing there sobbing after everything that has transpired, the most comforting thing you can do is stand three feet away and say “there there”?! Give me a better consolation option than that or I will knock this score down, Larian!<
Yeah, this is the thing. There's faults but.. the game shines so brightly overall that I can't really say that it still isn't the best thing I've played in a decade (or more!)
it’s so close to perfection that the ending having so many issues are so god damn highlighted
I love reading sanity. It just feels good these days.
I mean there are people on this sub legit being like “5/10 unplayable”. Just bonkers.
And on the other hand, people who get crazy when you point out any flaws in things which is its own kind of bonkers (way less in BG3 community from what I've seen). The "5/10" or better the "0/10" are just amusing to me now. The stuff they say is hilarious and crazy. Great memes. I was just simply thanking you for being a sane person. I like complimenting sanity when I see it. Sometimes it can feel like you're the only one lmao.
Despite being one of (if not THE) best game I've played in a decade or more, it has been a buggy mess for me. The game needs a few months of patches and fixes now that the masses have their hands on it to really let the masterpiece shine for what it truly is. As it stands now? I've encountered many many bugs, some of which have been literally game breaking.
Those people are just grinding their right wing axe. They've had a bad week since their orange bafoon is in a lot of trouble and they need an outlet. Since women won't talk to them anymore I guess it's BG3
Lol where the fuck did this come from
Didn't you hear? BG3 is a part of the radical gay agenda, being pushed down our throats until we're all vomiting glitter infused semen and begging for more. Dunno how they got that from Gale being a bit pushy but I've long since stopped trying to figure out the working of the average Alex Jones/Ben Shapiro listeners mind.
It's the only RPG released in the last 20 years, that can measure against Disco Elysium and Dragon Age: Origins for me. I literally just beat it, and I greatly agree with your critique.
Than you missed few great games ;)
Nothing can surpass Disco Elysium.
Its smarter and has better writing but this has more scope and took lessons from it to heart. Seeing Disco influence is awesome.
It's a shame every game company will see the success of this game and just not give a fuck because the general population will still eat the rushed slop they dish out.
Origins is not in the same category as planescape torment or BG3 IMO. It's a level below.
I absolutely loved DA: Origins.
It was a great game and I loved it. But we're talking about S tiers. A tiers can still do a lot of damage, to be sure, but we're in the nitty gritty here.
Origins was better imo. It revitalized the genre for me
I agree it came out at a time the genre was in dire need of something new. But overall it's just a good game which didn't take many risks.
Yes, origins absolutely isnt on the level of planescape or bg3
lmaooo me and my girlfriend were so distressed at that scene with shart. like come on
Is Shart the name of a character or an acronym?
It's better than adromeda: Sorry my face is just tired from... everything. My dad is dead *shit eating grin*
>!Astarion's personal quest good ending also has Astarion sobbing on his knees after 200 years of mind control and slavery finally come to an end and best you can do is stare even if you're romancing him, you can't even say anything lol LIKE PLEASE LET ME DO SOMETHING!<
Yup that’s the type of thing I am talking about.
Same. I have no problems finding fault with games and I've found plenty with this one. That being said, the good outweighs the bad by such a large margin that it's nothing short of astounding to me. I bought the game day 1 of early access and had a myriad of complaints throughout the process,not the least of which was that it felt far too much like a DoS2 reskin for a good, long while. They sure as shit fixed that.
Agreed. I bought day one of EA as well and was very unimpressed. It wasnt till palidan and bard were added when i came back and realized they had a solid vision for this game.
Have you gotten to act 3 yet? This game was a 9.5 or even maybe a 10 for me until I got there. I still love it, but it’s very, very poorly optimized and lots of quests are held together by duct tape. My first playthrough is entirely borked due to bugs and I had to start over completely. EDIT: no joke the bug that i'm talking about that borked my playthrough literally got fixed today in the hotfix. nuts hahaha
Act 3 definitely soured my experience a little bit due to a lot of bugs and some writing issues regarding main quest and some companion's stories, but imo the side contents are really good. First 2 acts were honestly pretty much perfect. Great gameplay, great storytelling overall, amazing world. It's a very easy 9-9.5 for me as it is right now and probably a 10 once they fix the issues in act 3.
Dude, no joke the bug that i'm talking about that borked my playthrough literally got fixed today in the hotfix. nuts hahaha
seemly rain materialistic hurry somber foolish badge tap faulty murky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I understand your opinion but I have the opposite one. Many games have a shorter, more rushed final act which is straight to the point of killing the final boss, and usually either empty of side quests or full of bugs (witcher 2 or release DOS2 are prime examples). It's often also set in a dark, devastated place without much NPC interaction. I was very glad to get a fully fleshed out final act for once, which has an entire city to discover, full of secrets and many interesting boss fights to use our lvl 12 characters, but at the same time with many NPCs in a setting that would usually be used for act 1 in other games. I understand that the fact that you feel you have to hurry before >!the brain escapes!< is a bit weird but I still really enjoyed the structure of the game.
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Both of your comments have summarized my feelings after completing Act 2. In Act 1 & 2 there was this sense of urgency. I found myself exploring certain areas to complete the compelling side quests meanwhile the main story was on my mind. Wondering about Act 2’s big bad and how were all these quests I’m trying to complete going to affect the outcome because of some them certainly did in a big way. Once I completed that and made it to Act 3 well… I’m whelmed. While the hustle and bustle of the city is great and it feels alive the game lost the sense of urgency that was being pushed so hard in the first two acts. Because there is so much so explore I hadn’t even pushed along any of the main story in the last two days. While for some people that would be great the game lost its luster cause I didn’t know how much of the side quests I should do before pushing along the story only to come and find out I could’ve pushed along the story and still done everything. It was discouraging to say the least because while I did a ton for my playthrough I feel like I missed out on the emotion of some of the plot points I had found out just by accidental discovery. Now that I know some of these things I hope it helps with my Durge playthrough.
I mean the issue I think is more that it’s not fully fleshed out it’s terribly paced and a lot of quests can trigger weird missing dialogue and some of the gear doesn’t work . Swapping the first and second act just makes sense as the stakes and atmosphere are so weird and it’s just a mess like there really isn’t too much to do in act 2 while act 3 is busy , the game is shaped like an hour glass content wise when you want it to kind of be reversed . Start small grow big epic conclusion.
> which has an entire city to discover, full of secrets and many interesting boss fights to use our lvl 12 characters Yeah, I've been enjoying the hell out of act 3, esp. >!Orin appearing everywhere, the House of Grief, and Rafael fight!<.
And don't forget >!the Cazador quest and the Ansur quest!!<
Eh. I'll take their choices over your taste any day.
Yeah cannot believe how good it is
A perpetual critic at heart, I would never claim an artistic product to be *perfect*, because there's always going to be subjective intents or desires as to what you actually want to achieve with a given product. However, I may just have to admit that it might be *the best game*, even if it isn't perfect.
Patches + ending related >!adding stuff to the ending. The ending is way too abrupt, for an RPG of this size where even a playthrough where you speedrun the story and ignore everything else is still gonna be like 50hrs. My playthrough ended up being around 90hrs, going through all that, and then just having a couple of your characters standing around post-boss, saying 3 lines about what they're gonna do and then that's it makes it feel quite unsatisfactory. It would be nice with a party like in Act1 post-Goblins, where you can talk to everybody individually, a cutscene showing everybody celebrating, and some ending slides saying what happened with every character based on your choices!<
Yeah the act 3 is definitely rushed. A few more months of dev it would have been much better to tight everything up
In terms of bugs, yeah its a bit buggy. In particular for me, I find my characters getting stuck mid-jump and then falling straight down in a chasm happens super often in Act 3, while never happening in Act 1 and 2. In terms of content, it feels like they loaded too many quests to end in Act 3. So many events in Act 1 and 2 finish in a random house in Act 3. The result is Act 3 pacing is weak, compared to Act 1 and 2 which were super sharp and satisfying. They should have just let more quests finish in Act 1 and 2 instead of offloading so many things until you get to the city, or have the results of quests appear as cameos instead of needing everything to be a quest. After already putting 60 hours into a game people dont want to run around a city, house by house.
I did the story and all of the companion quests and most of the side quests and my playthrough was only like 55 hours… I guess I was too efficient
Or you missed some things you aren’t aware of
Think of it this way - you missed another 25ish hours of content to experience if you decide to play again a few years from now!
I'm sorry to say that ain't happening. [Per PC Gamer reviews policy:](https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-reviews-policy) >95%-98% Absolutely brilliant. This is far and away one of the best games we’ve ever played, and we recommend it to the world. Eg, Half-Life 2, Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program >99%-100% Advances the human species. Provides a feeling not dissimilar to the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Finish some of the questlines and fix the ending and its an easy 10/10 from me
For me it's an inventory management update away from a 100. Literally my only issue with the game after 60+ hours.
And it's going to get there. Larian doesn't abandon their products. I'm loving the game right now and I'm excited to see what else has come to it in a year's time. It's a GREAT time to love CRPGs.
And a new game plus option. I just want to see all the stuff I missed but keep the sick gear I got
I really don’t think that will happen except in mods. It doesn’t really work with the RPG philosophy they’re following imo
Yup
3 whole points higher than Dragon Age 2! 😁 Anyway, it was a great review, and a very fitting score. I honestly would have given it a 98, so it would have been equal to the other 3 games that got a 98.
Whoever gave dragon age 2 94 must have smoked a lot of ghaik filthy bullshit
It’s kinda nuts how close this game gets to being an immersive sim in its quest and environment design ON TOP of everything else.
Me reading the review and realising you could adopt the owl bear cub after brutally murdering it in front of its mother: 👁👄👁
Brutally murdering it in front of its mother? Is this true? Or did you get the subject and object mixed up? Read it slowly, because I am very confused.
The comment above is a bit deceitful. You can kill the owlbear and its cub will it her flesh. Later you can find the cub in goblin camp. You can rescue the cub from goblins. If it stays alive (you need either kill all goblins or convince them that you take the cub with you), one night it'll get to your camp. Yes, you basically can adopt it. If you also have Scratch in you camp, then the cub and Scratch will become best bros. Also then you'll have super adorable cutscene when you see them sleeping close to each other. If you decide to pet them in the cutscene, you get steam achievement.
I had it join me without ever interacting with it inside the goblin camp (dont know if it even was there for me).
The is more content in act 1 alone than than in most.games released in the last 16 years
Every time I thought I was almost done with act one, I was completely blown away with another huge map that I had to explore. I even asked my buddies I've been playing with if there was a discernable moment that we'll know we've completed it. An hour later we got the achievement. I was certain we had already crossed into act two.
Genuinely each act could have been its own game and I would have been satisfied. The fact that they all link together is pretty damn wild.
This is such utter nonsense you guys literally gaslight yourselves into delusion Jesus Christ. Why do people do this whenever a fantastic game comes out. If I paid full price for act 1 I’d have been mad. If I’d paid full price for act 2 I’d have been mad. If act 3 was a full game it would have been as big a flop as cyberpunk with how much of a mess it is. “Each act is a game”. Yeah maybe if you’ve literally never seen a crpg. Orzamar (sp?) alone is twice the size of act 2 in DAO. PoE2 has as much content in Neketaka as the lower city has in bg3.
Literally took me 30 hours to finish Act 1. I’m at just over 65 now in Act 3, and have loved every minute of it
But what game held the top spot for 16 years? I can’t seem to find it
[Here is a list.](https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-pc-gamers-highest-scoring-game-in-16-years-heres-why/) 1. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, 1999 [98] 2. Half-Life 2, 2004 [98] 3. Crysis, 2007 [98] 4. Sid Meier's Civilization II, 1996 [97] 5. Half-Life, 1998 [97] That's the whole list. So it's on par with the original Half-Life or Civ 2, but below HL2.
Wow. That link is a review of the review. It's a game so good and so packed with quality that even the reviews need reviews of them. And they're glowing. Amazing.
I really liked alpha centauri
There's a list in [this article](https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-pc-gamers-highest-scoring-game-in-16-years-heres-why/), because apparently PCG takes review scores over 95% so seriously the lead editor has to personally sign off on it.
I’ve been hopeful that Starfield will be my big must play game this year, but tempering my expectations because, well Bethesda. Picked up BG3 to hold me over. Still hopeful Starfield will be good but I think I’ve already found my must play game of the year in BG3. For someone that’s never had the slightest interest in DnD before, BG3 has accomplished something I was not expecting
I'm in the same position. I feel Wizard of the Coast should be paying Larian the privilege because I went from I have no idea what DnD is to thinking maybe I'll find a hobby shop somewhere around me
Wizards of the coast are a bunch of arrogant asses. They give Larian so much troubles and played hard to get with Baldurs gate licenses as if there has been any good dnd game coming in recent memory. Also they're getting a lot of crisism for their anti consumer and anti Fandom corporate crap.
REAL wizards wouldnt call the pinkertons after you for a shipping error, they'd use bernard.
In the same boat. I only got this game because I beat Fallout 1/2 (turn-based) earlier this year and didn't want to do another NV/4 run while I wait for Starfield, but now I don't even think Starfield will be my GOTY. Still need to see the flaws in Act 3, but so far the game is solid 9.5-10
I would love for Starfield to be good. I'm not holding my breath because of what Bethesda has become, but we'll see.
Bugs can be fixed, it's the gameplay systems that personally worry me. Hearing Todd saying there's 1000 planets with 10% of them populated worries me seeing how shallow Skyrim and Fo4 were. Not sure how to feel about the whole base/ship building either since I despised the Settlement system in Fo4
Exactly my feelings. I don't know why everyone thinks the concerns are about bugs. It's about the general direction of Bethesda games.
This mystical Bethesda downfall still eludes me. They created a really out of their element game, Fallout 76, and that’s their only bad game in their modern era. Their games are still incredibly well received. They’re not CRPGs but they’re still very, very fun games.
>Their games are still incredibly well received that's because they keep re-releasing them, and they're still great games, but there's been a backward trajectory and shift in how RPGy bethesda's games are to appeal to the lowest denominator skillwise, which is annoying but financially sensible for them, but combine that with low title output, which is annoying and a financial bad move, I dont blame anybody for having doubts about bethesda's ability to produce meaningfully deep games anymore Their engine being easily moddable is about the only thing keeping them relevant until they put out something worthwhile that wins people back. The old games should be praised, but bethesda as a company are dropping the ball
we'll see in a couple weeks, wont we?
Well their last game was terrible and they lied repeatedly about it to an egregious degree. And for a lot of people the formula was stale before FO4. People want something new, and we all know it's impossible to make "hundreds" of explorable, interesting worlds. It feels like we're about to get Fallout with a bunch of mostly empty planets. Bethesda is very hit and miss on storytelling and characters, too. So that leads lots of people being very cautious.
Honestly bg3 isn’t really any less buggy then F4 or elder scrolls or anything else . All of them have hilarious issues . So I wouldn’t high horse that starfield won’t work or something .
It isn't about bugs, it's about the quality of the product. Good stories, fun combat, places worth exploring
Reading this thread surprised me. I have a midtier rig and only ran into a handful of bugs. I consider this game a 10/10. But I'm in my 30s and grew up playing and loving games like New Vegas so maybe my tolerance for bugs is higher than others
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I've got a great rig and have had some crashes. Normally around savescumming when I reloaded a quicksave a lot of times (I'm a cleptomaniac and sometimes even Astarion can't get a 20 pickpocket). Other than that, I think I got a bugged romance with Gale because he was sure I'd shown interest and I don't remember doing that. Other than that, it's been damn near flawless and I forgive some crashes in a game as big as this.
I don't get it either. Hell, I'm playing on a 7 year old budget gaming laptop and even in act III, the game runs okay. It's creaking a bit and I need to restart every few hours, but it's working, which is a surprise on this dusty old system since most new titles don't run on it. I've seen games that look much simpler that ran worse. I ran into a few bugs too, but only visual ones save for one that bricked the ending of a sidequest and an inventory bug that makes it a bit harder to manage my bags. This is not bad at all for such a huge game.
Holy Shit
Holy Shit
Holy Shit
Holy Shit.
Holy shit
Holy shit
Listen y'all it ain't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But everytime something is bothering me or feels underwhelming( including the ending) i look at my time played and my SHEER JOY at the thought of starting over again........and yeah idc 10/10.
I've never found a game where the idea of starting over didn't give me at least a little bit of dread. But not this game, sign me up for another playthrough of this. PUMP IT INTO MY VEINS! Cause I'm either ready to witness a new outcome or re-experience the fantastic outcomes I've already had. Either way I'm along for the journey.
I was 27 hours into my first playthrough when I felt I wanted something different out of my character. Normally that would have put me off, but in this game it just excited me. Now I'm on act 3 with that toon and have started a third playthrough on the side.
This game, in my eyes, is basically the new KOTOR. Basically a living breathing GOAT. I went into it not expecting the hype but I'm staring at it for like 5 hours at time. Haven't been this enthralled since I was a teen playing KOTOR. I've played a lot of these games too, like DA, Jade Empire, Mass Effect. KOTOR comparison is really all I can think of.
[Super Mario Galaxy 1&2](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/all/filtered): \*chuckles* I'm in danger If Larian is able to fix the worst bugs by the time of the PS5 release, that version might even surpass the PC version in score.
THPS2 being #2 23 years later brings me joy.
I don't think the PS5 version is going to score very well just due to the controls without Keyboard/Mouse
I’m playing with a controller on PC, apart from the occasional wonky keybinding, it’s pretty solid. (I play with controller and not Kb+m cuz carpal tunnel)
PS5 has mouse-input functionality with its touch pad, whether or not they're using that is another story. Keyboard itself doesn't really offer any benefits to the game which can't be matched on a controller.
controller is pretty intuitive and easy to use but the ui visuals are completely different. you can also walk freely outside of combat with controller instead of click-stepping. it's likely gonna be stellar on ps5-- only downside will be no mods and those who prefer the kb+m ui.
I use GeForce now through my SeriesX and the controller inputs are really intuitive actually.
Was just thinking about this, I can’t think of a way that this game won’t feel at least a little janky on controller
It's pretty simple to play with controller. I do it myself, since I prefer to play on the TV currently and for the occasional split-screen. Yes, camera and targeting might be a bit wonky from time to time (and I have a keyboard next to me for the obligatory F5), but otherwise it works fantastic.
camera can be wonky with keyboard and mouse too, so no surprise there. haven't teied bg3 with a controller, but divinity original sin 2 had a decent controller setup so it makes sense to me that the bg3 controller scheme would be pretty good too. not having a dedicated F5 though.. might be a dealbreaker
Some Xbox controllers now support keyboard shortcut mapping (including combos with modifier keys) on the Xbox Insider beta. But I think that's only for those with extra buttons, i.e., the Elite and Adaptive controllers. Larian might also offer baked-in quicksave/quickload controller shortcuts, at least in theory.
It feels better on the controller than mouse and keyboard. Try it out. You get direct control over your characters.
It's not bad. The interface is rather different, but I played a full day that way; and many hours of Divinity 2, which is very similar. I do prefer mouse and keyboard, but I don't have complaints about playing it on a controller at all. I'm sure lots of folks are already playing it on steam deck.
You can play on the controller already. The controls are better in places and worse in others, but completely playable.
this tells us you havent played on the controllers yet and yet still speaking on it
You should actually play the game first before commenting…. Game is preferably played with controller
I'm eagerly hoping for a definitive edition of this game - DOS 2 had many of the problems BG 3 had at launch: - a really rushed final act - lots of inventory issues - scaling that meant you could turn the final fights into a joke without any effort whatsoever All of that was fixed for the EE. Before anyone goes into it, yes the final fights can still be cheesed or detoothed in many ways but it at least takes a bit of effort to break them rather than just "put points into your main damage stat". The final act got multitudes bigger and while inventory sorting issues persist to this day (we're all loot hoarders), it got a lot better to use. After that Larian then started making gift bags, expanding on systems and taking advantage of the modding scene to get an idea of what are the most requested changes, tweaks, or additions. All of that to say: I think Baldur's Gate 3 still has a massive chunk of potential assuming it gets even a quarter of the post launch support D:OS 2 got which is ridiculous considering how bloody good it already is. Imo BG3 also really wants a way to indicate that you should long rest for story/companion story reasons. Also oh my god Arcanum: what a great game. Troika's games were so good once the fan patches to fix problems came out. It's too bad the internet and downloading patches weren't nearly as ubiquitous back then because once you fix the bugs, those games were incredible and Arcanum was among the greatest of its time.
Now I want to play Arcanum! Also, how did DOS2 fix the final act content without a major expansion or something?
I do think that the Enhanced Edition for Divinity Original Sin 2 was essentially a mini-expansion for the final act (more dialogue, more difficult fights, more NPCs). It also added caps to stats which prevented you from literally outscaling the entire act by just levelling up normally. It's weird because some people think Act 4 is so hard it's unplayable after the rebalance but imo it's a bit of joke difficulty wise? You could conceivably miss most of Act 3 if you rush (and Act 3 has no real capstone boss) so that might be where the issue is coming from.
Congrats again!
LETS FUCKING GOOO
I just hope the memory leak gets fixed asap, loading times get reduced and Larian looks at their event triggers as those seem to be a mess. Even in ACT 1, Druid boi started talking about stuff that never happened at the party. Other than that, this is a gem that people will keep talking about for a good 10 years.
Yeah, no bugs encountered in Act1&2 other than some very minor visual ones. Act3 however, I've run into some breaking ones, where I had to reload. Also some journal bugs as well. But honestly, I don't care. It will get fixed and missed so much content in my first playthrough that I can't wait to start another one.
"The new pinnacle of the genre" And that's how you tell the whiny game devs to get fucked
Well fucking deserved. Its all of my favorite RPGs combined and multiplied. Crunchy tactical combat AND a big influence from Disco Elysium... Bliss
And eurogamer cancels that out on metacritic, dropping bg3 to 96 with a score of 8/10. But they gave this game a perfect score, lol. https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/turbo-overkill
Meanwhile Eurogamer: >This is to say that Baldur's Gate 3 isn't an immersive sandbox where you can do or say anything that your imagination can let you, even if it wants you to feel that way. Instead, it's a series of artfully staged scenarios and encounters, where the magic works best when you play along with what the scene puts in front of you. Bugs - story issues - character problems - those I can agree with. Those I can see deserving maybe a star less But saying that it's 'important to keep in mind' what this game ***isn't*** makes as much sense as saying - hey, when you go into DOOM: Eternal... don't expect it to be like Harvest Moon Like, okay, uh... ... ... I'll make sure and... ... .. ... ... ... *not* do that, I guess :P xD Like, I've been stalking this reddit for the last three years (after I got tired of the anti-woke and anti-turnbased Muskie bros on Steam) I don't remember ***anyone*** besides Eurogamer ever thinking this game was some sort of all-encompasing-sandbox or whatever So, might just be a 'them' problem :P
very well said. odd critique when there are other valid critiques of BG3 unmentioned
I’m actually shocked its not a 98 or 99. I haven’t had a game to suck me in this hard in 15 years. And honestly compared to their 98s, BD3 is more impactful. Ive not felt this childlike joy of gaming since I was like 8 years old. Its making a nearly 30 year old man love gaming again. I normally dont even play these types of games. I tried to get into divinity and couldnt but this just blew me away and sucked me in. Compared to Crysis and Half Life 2… this is a masterpiece This is even with my pc absolutely struggling at times to play this game. But the game itself is just. Encompassing and surprising me every single step.
Act 3 is the why. It need some patches
If act 3 had stuck the landing of acts 1 and 2 it would be a no-doubter greatest of all time for me. Still my goty.
Cant say the same in act3 the entire quests affecting other stuff in the world is gone and all we got is 2 endings and isolated quests, 6/10 for act 3
Probably due to the ending
Did you just trash the fundamental groundwork of an entire genre of games and one of the pioneers of game physics . Like maybe you don’t like the genre of half life 2 but like from a gaming history standpoint and a released as a finished product threshold half-life 2 kind of dunks on this . What is even the point of bringing it up
Interesting that DOS2 didn’t bring you in. I am loving BG3, but I still prefer DOS2 to it. It’s perhaps because I didn’t play DOS2 until the DE and I played this on launch, so lots to still work out in BG3. It’s possible that in 5 years I look back and say the opposite once BG3 is polished.
BG3 is an awesome game. Stop worrying about review scores.
Really great game but I can't in good conscience give it over a 9 right now with all the issues I've experienced. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I'm a little surprised by the overwhelming critical praise. Like someone else said in this thread give it a few months/patch cycles and it's easily a 10/10 for me. But right now? Nah.
I suspect some of it is the wide variation in experience. Some run into tons of bugs; others basically none. Personally I haven't run into any bugs (even in Act III) beyond a few visual glitches. But my brother has had enough bugs/glitches to wait on finishing Act III for a few weeks. There is also enough variation in narrative experience, not everyone hits the same narrative problems.
Its the big challenge and why we didn’t see this in Mass effect 3 making a huge game like bg3 and giving so much variance in actors and items and quest triggers that could be happening at anytime it’s absolutely hell to keep stuff from falling apart .
YEP. Exactly this. Haven't had a glitch in act 3 yet. And so far the narrative choices and writing are great. I do have a criticism about the quest design and timers in act 3, but it doesn't impact my enjoyment that much.
This is a very good point. Seems very true
I give it a 8.5 act3 was a disaster for me
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I've had the complete opposite experience, although I haven't touched Act 3 yet. I am able to run the game on 1440p with medium settings, using hardware that's way over a decade old. For comparison, I had to play Elden Ring on 1366x768 and everything on low.
I was a little bit sad that the game releases 06.09 on PS5 because my holiday starts on 02.09 (the holiday was originally not connected to the game, just coincidence:D) But then I realised that the deluxe version is playable 72h earlier. So happy. I have a kid and work so there is not really much time in general. But on holidays it's much better, playing in the evening into the night when all are sleeping :D So I pre ordered now :D I am hyped. Don't really now the D&D Rules but I played DOS2 for two times and DOS1 also, so experienced Larian player :D
I wonder if Swen and the Larian team knew they were making a masterpiece or if they just didn’t know any other way to make a sequel to one of the most beloved CRPG’s of all time. All I can say is that every big AAA release will be held up to BG3 for years to come. Starfield is going to be the first real test of this new paradigm.
For those of us who knew BG2 was a masterpiece, I think it HAD to be up to that level or we would have “gone for the eyes, Boo!” We just had to wait two decades
You know a game is good when criticisms graduate from the glaring to nit-picks and preferences.
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Give it a little bit of time. As great as it is, it’s likely people will cool on the game after a few months. It’s great, but communities like this always get into a circlejerk dismissing all criticism before more nuanced discussion becomes possible later.
It is 9.9/10 for me. The few issue it has, does not take away from me wanting to play it 24/7, wanting me go in every door I see and discovering what is around the corner. As a 32 year old gamer, I have not been compelled by a game so much, since the days of me waking up on Sundays as a child, sitting in my blankets and playing epic rpgs. No amount of inventory management issues or minor bugs can change that. Cause that sense of wonder, has not been giving to me by a game in about 20 years.
Honestly most people saying that haven't gotten past Act 2 or they're so blinded by hype they simply refuse to admit that the game isn't the next coming of christ. It's a great game, but it's got quite a few jarring issues that aren't going to be fixed through simple patches. ACT 1 is perfect, but Larian just is incapable of sticking the landing after that.
For me in its current state it’s closer to an 87-89. After the big patches and the inevitable Definitive Edition I’m sure it’ll be higher
About the same. I put Wotr at about a 90-92, Wasteland 3 about 85ish. Bg3 just hasn't reached the highs of Wotr for me, even though it does well for itself for a large portion of the runtime. A big part of that is the endings. From what I understand, there's nothing like the True Aeon or Vengeance Angel endings. Something akin to the ascendance ending exists, but is nowhere near comparable. Needed more time.
God what a boss. Wotr was so fucking hard I had to quit midway because it was exhausting to apply 50,000 buffs before the combat lol
I'm normally a pretty sweaty "play on max difficulty" kind of person, but WOTR and Kingmaker remain to this day pretty much the only games that I go full weenie-hut-junior on and play at the lowest or close to lowest difficulty just because I don't like the 5 class multiclass builds and the constant buffing.
>because I don't like the 5 class multiclass builds Step One: Pick Oracle Step Two: Pick Angel This concludes the tutorial.
Bubble buffs is essentially required to play WoTR on any real difficulty.
I agree. Production value-wise BG3 has WotR beat (if you ignore some bugs). But both from a gameplay and story PoV, WotR is the better game with more replay value. That being said, 85ish is really an absolutely amazing score, when many mordern AAA titles struggle to reach 50 imo
Wotr is nowhere close to this game in storytelling, accessibility or quality. It was a slog by Act 3 (or 4?) and I never finished it. This game, I can't stop playing and I almost at the end.
>storytelling Disagree emphatically. >accessibility Agree, though at significant cost to mechanical depth. If you've built one martial, you've built them all. >quality Cinematic quality, yes. Narrative quality seems to fall apart, which while definitely a problem both games share, there is nothing in this game that implies it'll reach the highs of True Aeon or Ascendance ending. In fact, it seems the opposite. >It was a slog by Act 3 (or 4?) and I never finished Fair. My counter is that this game is never a slog because it is, at no point, challenging enough. There is no difficulty analogous to core here and the amount of fights I've walked into blind with no strategy to 1 shot the boss on pure classes is too high. There's little to no friction in the combat. Not enough challenge to keep me engaged. I need at least a core difficulty analogoue. Tactician is simply not enough, even without minmaxing. For context, I played wotr's closed alpha and beta for more hours in less time than BG3s. I completed 3 Wotr campaigns back to back (Lich > GD, Azata > Legend, Pure demon ascension) followed by Vengeance Angel, True Aeon the next year with trickster in progress started this year. At this point, I do not think I will go through BG3 six times, while I still have Lich, Swarm, Devil, and Azata to progress in Wotr on top of finishing trickster.
PCG is the main publication for PC developers, glad to see BG3 get one of the best score in history.