Act 3 showing its rough edges (spoilers, mostly about Wyll and Karlach)

[Hassohappa]

As I am working my way through Act 3 it is becoming more and more obvious that whatever was done to wrap up its content was not done with much care. The first time this became apparent was with Karlach.

Act 2 leaves Karlach with a temporary solution to her infernal engine problem. Dammon says he'll keep looking for a way to fix it but he's not sure how. Then, in act 3 you meet him again and... he still can't fix it and doesn't have any ideas. Then you fight some Steel Watchers and notice they are dropping infernal iron. Heck, some of them are dropped enriched infernal iron, this must be some new thing for Karlach! No, nevermind it does nothing.

You can speak to a Steel Watcher with Karlach in the party and it will tell you that she is a defective unit with a malfunctioning engine that should return to the foundry. Ah ha! Another bread crumb left to lead us to a solution to Karlach's problem! And it makes sense; Gortash didn't just sell Karlach out on a whim, he did so to test the tech for his new enforcers! Oh, never mind this doesn't ever come up again and leads to nothing. You can't discuss it with anyone at the foundry. After rescuing literally every Gondian without any of them dying they have their confrontation with the Svirfneblin artificers and vanish entirely from the game.

Well, maybe the Svirfneblin themselves have something to say about fixing Karlach now that they are under new leadership and have forged a new understanding and want to have a friendlier/more collaborative relationship with the Gondians! I returned to their hideout and spoke with them and... they still think they are in the planning stages of blowing up the Gondian foundry. Their old and new leaders are both gone but everyone else remaining is still talking about their great plan and how I need to leave them alone so they can figure out how they're going to handle all these Steel Watchers. This is after I have blown up the factory and the Steel Watchers are out of commission, which they definitely know about. So Larian forgot to do anything to update them, they didn't even bother to just sweep them all out of the game like they did with the Gondians.

I know that fixing Karlach's engine was supposed to be content that had some part of it in the upper city that was cut from the game, but the cut seems to have been a complete hack job. Red herrings have been left in to suggest solutions can be found but apparently there are none. Not only is this a poorly done removal of content that twists the knife to remind you that you can't do anything to resolve Karlach's issue, it also is completely unbelievable in the setting.

It's completely unbelievable that with your characters getting divine interventions from gods, with two different groups of the best craftsmen in the game, one of which was working specifically on the tech Karlach has installed, with another craftsman that is an expert in infernal engines, and with at least two different devils chomping at the bit to get you to make agreements with your characters that nothing can be done to resolve the issue for Karlach. It beggars belief.

On to the issues with Wyll, which I encountered trying to get through to save the Gondians so they could patch up Karlach. I went through that area without having done a long rest, so Mizora never made her "give up your soul so that I will tell you where your dad is" spiel. Apparently that is the only way to get Wyll out of the pact while saving his dad. For no reason at all if you go to the prison his dad is kept in before getting that offer it means you will find him dead instead of alive. From what I have read if you reject Mizora's offer pre-prison visit and then find Wyll's dad he is alive. Mizora will try to interfere to kill him during the rescue but you can overcome that interference and get him out alive. The game even underscores how nonsensical this distinction is; when you find his corpse in the prison Wyll will say it doesn't make any sense that they imprisoned him and then killed him and you apparently never get any explanation for that.

The only explanation is that Larian decided they still needed some Sophie's choice scenario Mizora could present to Wyll. They killed him off nonsensically so that she could offer to revive him. After making that offer I was also repeatedly beaten over the head with moments that seemed like Larian did not understand what options they had even given. First off, right when the offer to trade his soul for reviving his dad is made Karlach says something like "we can't let her have Wyll!" However, if you pick the "don't give up your soul to revive your dad" option Karlach disapproves? What? Honestly I was pretty displeased there wasn't any sort of "your dad wouldn't want you to give up your soul" option; given the history between them it makes even more sense that should be something my character would mention.

Then later you are accosted by Counsellor Florrick who is angry with you because Mizora told her that you murdered Wyll's dad. Well, this is going to require a persuasion check to calm her down by explaining that when we found Wyll's dad he was dead and Wyll had refused to give up his soul to resurrect his dad. Oh... no the game is giving me a deception option that says "Mizora lied to you. We tried to save Ravengard, and she sabotaged us." WHAT!? We did try to save Ravengard so that isn't a deception... the only deception would be that Mizora sabotaged us which to my knowledge she didn't do but why would my character be trying to trick Florrick into thinking that part? Where is the freaking option to explain that we tried to save him but he was dead for no apparent reason when we got there which is the truth?

It's feeling more and more like this was just rushed out unfinished. It's unfortunate when large chunks of content are cut, but when those cuts leave gaping holes and inconsistencies in the game you ship it becomes way more of an issue.

[info]

The only deception here is Larian's hack job at providing tied endings that feel worked on. It is the worst offender in the whole game cause it betrays the road the characters are on and it entails years of work by very talented people for a shoddy solution to jump into technological solutions. Maybe they ran out of funding?, it is often 90% of game studios issues getting games out. A shame indeed cause this game could have been the toast of the town, yet, the "let's cut corner's" attitude that comes out as you play along shows very clearly there were some serious management and leadership issues that made the game what it is.
It happens in everything creative, producers often screw everything.