My Review of Baldur's Gate 3's Early Access.

[Dragon Master]

Okay, so I have put in over 60 hours into the early access and I'm going to do my best to take various aspects of the game, as they are at this moment in time, and give each segment a score on a scale of 1-5. My overall score will be the average of all segments.

Gameplay: The game is a point and click adventure game, very similar to older style games and the classic role playing game, popularized by games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 or Fallout 1 and 2. It does its best to follow D&D 5th Edition rules for combat, skill checks, attributes affecting classes, with a lot optimized to handle things automatically.

In a Dungeons and Dragons game, if your character is in the middle of doing something the DM may just announce the players to make a perception check, and if all the characters fail the check then the characters, and the players, don't see or hear whatever it was that was going on with the perception check. The same is done in Baldur's Gate 3. For example, in one of my playthroughs, there is a rock near where you meet Astarion that if a character walks near it the game will do a perception check. If every character fails the check then nothing can be done, but if someone in the party succeeds the check then a party member, or the player character, with sufficient strength, can move the rock and find a hidden treasure trove for the Harpers.

This can be seen as a negative for players who want to discover all the secrets or are unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes the dice roll badly. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons, players can just reload a previous save if they wish whereas at the table the game moves on regardless.

It is important to note that it is not a bad thing to fail a check, whether in the open field or a conversation with a companion or other npc in the game. Baldur's Gate 3 allows for a wide variety of ways to accomplish our goals, and failing a check is just another route to get there. In fact, some of the funniest or most epic dialogue and moments in the game comes from a failed check. From trying to kiss a goblins foot and stealing a ring from his toe to the consternation of your companions to provoking a fight with the goblin camp if you fail, or intimidating the goblin into kissing your feet instead. There are many options, and some options may not even be available, or some options are only available, depending on the player's chosen race for their character.

The game has the player start off with the opening cinematic before they create their characters. Players will select their race, gender, class, pick their skills, spells (if their class has any) and their attributes. Veterans of D&D 5E will recognize where each class's strengths lie. The recommended choice from the game isn't bad and will give you a solid character but will not optimize them, if that's what the player wants to do.

Each class has their own set of skills and abilities. Fighters, for instance, are proficient in all weapons (can use all of them) and can wear medium armor for a higher AC (armor class), Wizards can learn a large variety of spells, can copy spells from scrolls into their spell-book and are the only class that can do so and Rogues are the sneaky archers/backstabbers of the group who gain access to the absolute most skills to be proficient in among all the classes.

Classes get special features unique to them that no other class gets. Rogues, for example, upon reaching level 2, can use their bonus action to dash whereas every other class has to use their regular action to do so, while Fighters have an ability called Second Wind, which lets them use their bonus action to heal and can use this once per short rest, and Clerics get a channel divinity ability, unique to their own subclass and domain as a cleric, alongside the channel divinity "turn undead". Features unique to one class cannot be learned by another class.

The game has many bugs and my game has crashed a few times. For a tiefling Wizard, his tail glitched in a room and ended up leaving a trail that looked like a snake stuck to my tiefling, going back to where the glitch started before hard crashing, as one example.

The UI is also not very intuitive and it takes a little bit of experimentation to see where the default hotkeys are and what buttons to push so there is a bit of a learning curve.

4/5.


Story: It's hard to say how good the story is, as we only truly have access to Act 1 in the early access, so instead I'll judge it based on its hook, how well it draws the players into the story and how invested we are in this world and its characters, and the events that start the adventure forward. Minor spoilers for the first act ahead.

Our character, along with all of our companions so far, were kidnapped by the Ilithids, Mind Flayers, who have infected us with a tadpole. Mind Flayers breed by kidnapping sentient races and placing tadpoles in them that slowly eat away at their brains and transform the host into mind flayers, destroying their mind, bodies and souls in the process. After taking over the ship, our character is in a race against the clock to try and find a cure before the tadpole transforms us into a mind flayer.

Over the course of the adventure, the player and their party, who you may recruit, deny or kill as you please, begin to notice that the tadpole is not working the way it is supposed to, and that during conversations the player may use the tadpole to influence others and grow in power.

During the character creator, the players are also asked to create who their character dreams about. The more you use the power of the tadpole, the character players created to dream about start appearing before the player character during their long rests at camp in their dreams, and the characters start growing in power.

Following the events of the tabletop module for D&D 5E, "Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus", Baldur's Gate 3 takes place shortly after that, and roughly 100 years after the events of Baldur's Gate 2 and one group the player runs into are survivors of that module, tieflings from the city of Elturel, which had been dragged temporarily into the first layer of the 9 hells called Avernus. There's also a conclave of druids, the Burning Fist, a Githyanke scouting party, and a tribe of goblins, all of which the player and their party can interact with, for good or evil.

The search for a cure, and for answers, facing an uncertain future, alongside the freedom to choose how we approach this problem, who we help and who we kill, are taken into account by Larian and the game, thus far, have made for a pretty gripping story for me personally.

However, as it is the third game in the Baldur's Gate franchise, there should definitely be tie-ins to the previous games in some fashion, and with the Bhaalspawn storyline finished from the first two game and their associated DLC, we shall see where the game moves forward from here and how Baldur's Gate 3 will tie into the previous entries. There has been ominous foreshadowing, but nothing concrete as of yet.

For story, personally, I have to give the game 5/5.



Music: In any good game, a good musical score can make or break a scene. The musical score in Baldur's Gate 3 is interesting, but not very memorable. I listened to the music in the title screen and it definitely fit the tone of the game so far, foreboding, ominous to a setting showing the mouth of a cave and a tranquil beach down below ground to a very large pile of skulls.

I listened to the music during battle, exploring the wilderness, in the nautaloid, and as I write this review, no matter how much I pick my brain, I can't remember any of the music outside of the title screen's.

I like the title screen music, but I honestly can't give this section a rating higher than a 3/5. It's just average and forgettable.



Companions: In D&D, a good, well-balanced party can make or break a game. Having a wide variety of personalities, classes and skills is important to maximizing success of a group. The companions, so far, are fairly interesting but also quite evil to neutral. Their personalities have caused quite a discussion in the steam forums, from people who love Lae'zel or Astarion to people who can't stand them. People who think Gale is the best companion to some and to others feel he is too full of himself without any real sense of remorse for how he got himself in his personal situation.

For people wanting to run an evil playthrough, there are companions aplenty for you to choose from. Be aware that some of them do hate each other, and if you displease them you may find yourself with a knife at your throat in your camp.

The companions are a mixed bag, especially since we don't have that many of them so far. They are very good at what they do, so from just pure utility to the party every single one of them can be very, very useful to the group. There's a fighter, a cleric, a warlock, a wizard and a rogue, so class-wise, there's enough there for players to put together a well-balanced party to suit their needs. Just watch out for the personality conflicts that may arise.

4/5.



Combat: Combat follows the D&D 5th Edition rules, with some minor adjustments and changes. It's a turn-based combat system where each character rolls initiative, partially influenced by their dexterity score, and that determines the turn-order for each and every combat round.

Every character in the battle has their movement, determined by their race, one action, one bonus action and one reaction, per turn in combat. An action would be things like casting a spell, swinging a sword, dashing to run twice the distance you normally could, throwing an object or helping a companion who had been downed. A bonus action would be class-specific things like a rogue's dash or a fighter's action surge or 2nd wind, but could also include things like hiding, shoving an enemy away from you (which is especially useful if they are on a ledge in a high place) and some spells that take bonus actions to cast.

If two or more members of the player's party are next to each other in the initiative order of combat, the player can use them all at the same time.

Something that has followed Larian into this game from their previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, is the use of the interactive environment. This could be barrels of oil from a crashed nautaloid, barrels of beer the goblins are drinking out of in their tribe, twisted vines, conjured grease from wizards, steam clouds from fire hitting small puddles, and other such aspects. Some people criticize this game for having such things in it but it doesn't bother me that much. It's not a large presence unless the player makes it one themselves. They are there as an option for players and can make the fights much, much easier, or much, much harder if the enemy uses them against the player and their party.

The enemy AI is also reasonably intelligent. They will target the weakest party members with the lowest health if they can, and more often than not, that party member is the wizard. There is no real taunt for fighters, so the real key is to try and get party members who have a high armor class up close with the enemy so if they try to leave then our party member gets a free attack as a reaction (if it's selected), and forces the enemy to focus on them rather than risk getting hit themselves by walking away.

I personally enjoy the combat. It's engaging, makes players think things through and requires some degree of tactical thinking to take advantage of situations and the environment, whether to get that sneak attack or just to survive a hard encounter.

5/5.



Overall: The game is a fun beginning of a much larger adventure that is not complete. It is a bit of a buggy mess that likes to crash on occasion, and the combat can be a hit or miss with people, depending on whether or not they enjoy turn-based combat. It starts off with a compelling story and interesting companions, with plenty of room to grow. The music is enjoyable while it's playing but ultimately forgettable.

Final score for this game, taking the average of all the previous segments, is a . . . . . .


4.2 out of 5.

[teksuo]

i'd like the music to get way more epic when in big fights.

dynamic music intensity would be neat :)

would take some musical genius to make a track that can have its intensity modified on the go seemlessly tho, i guess.

[Auburn2]

Publicado originalmente por Dragon Master:

are the sneaky archers/backstabbers of the group who gain access to the absolute most skills to be proficient in among all the classes.

I believe Rangers actually get the most skills. Wood Elf Rangers to be specific.

It should be Rogues and half elves should get extra skills to but that is not how it is.

[seamsungg]

Publicado originalmente por Dragon Master:

Okay, so I have put in over 60 hours into the early access and I'm going to do my best to take various aspects of the game, as they are at this moment in time, and give each segment a score on a scale of 1-5. My overall score will be the average of all segments.

Gameplay: The game is a point and click adventure game, very similar to older style games and the classic role playing game, popularized by games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 or Fallout 1 and 2. It does its best to follow D&D 5th Edition rules for combat, skill checks, attributes affecting classes, with a lot optimized to handle things automatically.

In a Dungeons and Dragons game, if your character is in the middle of doing something the DM may just announce the players to make a perception check, and if all the characters fail the check then the characters, and the players, don't see or hear whatever it was that was going on with the perception check. The same is done in Baldur's Gate 3. For example, in one of my playthroughs, there is a rock near where you meet Astarion that if a character walks near it the game will do a perception check. If every character fails the check then nothing can be done, but if someone in the party succeeds the check then a party member, or the player character, with sufficient strength, can move the rock and find a hidden treasure trove for the Harpers.

This can be seen as a negative for players who want to discover all the secrets or are unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes the dice roll badly. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons, players can just reload a previous save if they wish whereas at the table the game moves on regardless.

It is important to note that it is not a bad thing to fail a check, whether in the open field or a conversation with a companion or other npc in the game. Baldur's Gate 3 allows for a wide variety of ways to accomplish our goals, and failing a check is just another route to get there. In fact, some of the funniest or most epic dialogue and moments in the game comes from a failed check. From trying to kiss a goblins foot and stealing a ring from his toe to the consternation of your companions to provoking a fight with the goblin camp if you fail, or intimidating the goblin into kissing your feet instead. There are many options, and some options may not even be available, or some options are only available, depending on the player's chosen race for their character.

The game has the player start off with the opening cinematic before they create their characters. Players will select their race, gender, class, pick their skills, spells (if their class has any) and their attributes. Veterans of D&D 5E will recognize where each class's strengths lie. The recommended choice from the game isn't bad and will give you a solid character but will not optimize them, if that's what the player wants to do.

Each class has their own set of skills and abilities. Fighters, for instance, are proficient in all weapons (can use all of them) and can wear medium armor for a higher AC (armor class), Wizards can learn a large variety of spells, can copy spells from scrolls into their spell-book and are the only class that can do so and Rogues are the sneaky archers/backstabbers of the group who gain access to the absolute most skills to be proficient in among all the classes.

Classes get special features unique to them that no other class gets. Rogues, for example, upon reaching level 2, can use their bonus action to dash whereas every other class has to use their regular action to do so, while Fighters have an ability called Second Wind, which lets them use their bonus action to heal and can use this once per short rest, and Clerics get a channel divinity ability, unique to their own subclass and domain as a cleric, alongside the channel divinity "turn undead". Features unique to one class cannot be learned by another class.

The game has many bugs and my game has crashed a few times. For a tiefling Wizard, his tail glitched in a room and ended up leaving a trail that looked like a snake stuck to my tiefling, going back to where the glitch started before hard crashing, as one example.

The UI is also not very intuitive and it takes a little bit of experimentation to see where the default hotkeys are and what buttons to push so there is a bit of a learning curve.

4/5.


Story: It's hard to say how good the story is, as we only truly have access to Act 1 in the early access, so instead I'll judge it based on its hook, how well it draws the players into the story and how invested we are in this world and its characters, and the events that start the adventure forward. Minor spoilers for the first act ahead.

Our character, along with all of our companions so far, were kidnapped by the Ilithids, Mind Flayers, who have infected us with a tadpole. Mind Flayers breed by kidnapping sentient races and placing tadpoles in them that slowly eat away at their brains and transform the host into mind flayers, destroying their mind, bodies and souls in the process. After taking over the ship, our character is in a race against the clock to try and find a cure before the tadpole transforms us into a mind flayer.

Over the course of the adventure, the player and their party, who you may recruit, deny or kill as you please, begin to notice that the tadpole is not working the way it is supposed to, and that during conversations the player may use the tadpole to influence others and grow in power.

During the character creator, the players are also asked to create who their character dreams about. The more you use the power of the tadpole, the character players created to dream about start appearing before the player character during their long rests at camp in their dreams, and the characters start growing in power.

Following the events of the tabletop module for D&D 5E, "Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus", Baldur's Gate 3 takes place shortly after that, and roughly 100 years after the events of Baldur's Gate 2 and one group the player runs into are survivors of that module, tieflings from the city of Elturel, which had been dragged temporarily into the first layer of the 9 hells called Avernus. There's also a conclave of druids, the Burning Fist, a Githyanke scouting party, and a tribe of goblins, all of which the player and their party can interact with, for good or evil.

The search for a cure, and for answers, facing an uncertain future, alongside the freedom to choose how we approach this problem, who we help and who we kill, are taken into account by Larian and the game, thus far, have made for a pretty gripping story for me personally.

However, as it is the third game in the Baldur's Gate franchise, there should definitely be tie-ins to the previous games in some fashion, and with the Bhaalspawn storyline finished from the first two game and their associated DLC, we shall see where the game moves forward from here and how Baldur's Gate 3 will tie into the previous entries. There has been ominous foreshadowing, but nothing concrete as of yet.

For story, personally, I have to give the game 5/5.



Music: In any good game, a good musical score can make or break a scene. The musical score in Baldur's Gate 3 is interesting, but not very memorable. I listened to the music in the title screen and it definitely fit the tone of the game so far, foreboding, ominous to a setting showing the mouth of a cave and a tranquil beach down below ground to a very large pile of skulls.

I listened to the music during battle, exploring the wilderness, in the nautaloid, and as I write this review, no matter how much I pick my brain, I can't remember any of the music outside of the title screen's.

I like the title screen music, but I honestly can't give this section a rating higher than a 3/5. It's just average and forgettable.



Companions: In D&D, a good, well-balanced party can make or break a game. Having a wide variety of personalities, classes and skills is important to maximizing success of a group. The companions, so far, are fairly interesting but also quite evil to neutral. Their personalities have caused quite a discussion in the steam forums, from people who love Lae'zel or Astarion to people who can't stand them. People who think Gale is the best companion to some and to others feel he is too full of himself without any real sense of remorse for how he got himself in his personal situation.

For people wanting to run an evil playthrough, there are companions aplenty for you to choose from. Be aware that some of them do hate each other, and if you displease them you may find yourself with a knife at your throat in your camp.

The companions are a mixed bag, especially since we don't have that many of them so far. They are very good at what they do, so from just pure utility to the party every single one of them can be very, very useful to the group. There's a fighter, a cleric, a warlock, a wizard and a rogue, so class-wise, there's enough there for players to put together a well-balanced party to suit their needs. Just watch out for the personality conflicts that may arise.

4/5.



Combat: Combat follows the D&D 5th Edition rules, with some minor adjustments and changes. It's a turn-based combat system where each character rolls initiative, partially influenced by their dexterity score, and that determines the turn-order for each and every combat round.

Every character in the battle has their movement, determined by their race, one action, one bonus action and one reaction, per turn in combat. An action would be things like casting a spell, swinging a sword, dashing to run twice the distance you normally could, throwing an object or helping a companion who had been downed. A bonus action would be class-specific things like a rogue's dash or a fighter's action surge or 2nd wind, but could also include things like hiding, shoving an enemy away from you (which is especially useful if they are on a ledge in a high place) and some spells that take bonus actions to cast.

If two or more members of the player's party are next to each other in the initiative order of combat, the player can use them all at the same time.

Something that has followed Larian into this game from their previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, is the use of the interactive environment. This could be barrels of oil from a crashed nautaloid, barrels of beer the goblins are drinking out of in their tribe, twisted vines, conjured grease from wizards, steam clouds from fire hitting small puddles, and other such aspects. Some people criticize this game for having such things in it but it doesn't bother me that much. It's not a large presence unless the player makes it one themselves. They are there as an option for players and can make the fights much, much easier, or much, much harder if the enemy uses them against the player and their party.

The enemy AI is also reasonably intelligent. They will target the weakest party members with the lowest health if they can, and more often than not, that party member is the wizard. There is no real taunt for fighters, so the real key is to try and get party members who have a high armor class up close with the enemy so if they try to leave then our party member gets a free attack as a reaction (if it's selected), and forces the enemy to focus on them rather than risk getting hit themselves by walking away.

I personally enjoy the combat. It's engaging, makes players think things through and requires some degree of tactical thinking to take advantage of situations and the environment, whether to get that sneak attack or just to survive a hard encounter.

5/5.



Overall: The game is a fun beginning of a much larger adventure that is not complete. It is a bit of a buggy mess that likes to crash on occasion, and the combat can be a hit or miss with people, depending on whether or not they enjoy turn-based combat. It starts off with a compelling story and interesting companions, with plenty of room to grow. The music is enjoyable while it's playing but ultimately forgettable.

Final score for this game, taking the average of all the previous segments, is a . . . . . .


4.2 out of 5.

For gameplay I love how smooth moving and walking feels and the shifting of feet to turn around specifically. Have no quarrel with much except that jump problem and maybe a fix to pressing space to skip dialogue not also selecting dialogue for you...And also early access bugs that will obviously be fixed

For combat I have no opinion because I never play games strategically like that Im here for the adventure only and also I know nothing about DnD! So I accept what is as I have no prior knowledge

For companions they are all fine to me I enjoy them all, normal companion stuff to me. I dont agree with ppl hating on them or saying they are too rude they seem like regular companions to me lmao

Music...I disagree with a low rating for it because after playing for hours that girl lulling that down by the river song stays in my head until sunrise. I do dislike it when she actually sings words it doesnt sound good to me but any other instrumental I love

Graphics I highly enjoy and like to see in a game like this how could you not say yes to beautiful graphics

Story... It doesnt take a lot to please me give me...fantasy, romance, and decisions and Im happy. I dont think what we found so far is bad its quite intriguing and fun especially when you dont know anything abt DnD and theres a lot to explore

[MyLittleJohny]

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