What made BG3 exceptional (or not) to you?

[Certified Lawyer Boy]

Hello there,

We can all agree that BG3 is a "gaming phenomenon", it has clearly struck a chord with a lot of people.

So I am looking for opinions on what made BG3 exceptional (or not) to you fellow video game enjoyer.

Let's acknowledge and remove graphics from the equation, since no matter what a video game looks like today it will inevitably look outdated in the future, so I don't find them relevant to the conversation.

Also, feel free to let me know if you have any prior experience with cRPGs or RPGs in general and how BG3 compares, innovates or improves (if at all) upon those experiences.

For me:
BG3 starts very strong, and I would say that it is one of the, if not the most complete RPG experience I've had in my long years of gaming up to a certain point (probably around the middle of Act 2).

On the long run though it loses a lot of its charm and depth in favor of a big content dump (especially in Act 3) and the ending is deeply unsatisfying.

Overall I would say that the voice acting, mocap work, writing and interactions with the main cast (origin characters) is what make BG3 stand out vs other RPGs. Companions truly feel alive and interesting, and I would have liked more consistency and a bigger focus on their relationships between each other and the PC.

[Matwyn]

For me the voice acting and mocap elevates BG3 to the top of CRPG´s.
Because of this i also think that it can hit a greater audience.

Without the voice acting and mocap it would only be a average CRPG for me at best but that is mostly because of the main story theme I do not like mind control stuff so much

[General Malaise]

I wouldn't say it is exceptional.

I played so many hours, and at one point couldn't wait to get to the end. I've got to Third act 3 times now, but never completed it. Just started again to try different builds.

I don't think it's as good as Dragon Age Origins, and not that much better than DOS/2.
I do like the levelling more in this. In DOS/2, real hard fights would be a complete walkover if they left them a couple of levels, same goes for great weapons - they only had a usable lifespan of a level or two. In this, you can still use things you got in Act 1, in Act 3.

I am enjoying it more this playthrough with an Eldritch Blast main character, and now a respecced Shadowheart.

But no, nothing special to me.

[BlueBangkok]

The fact that I've been playing RPGs for over 2 decades now made this game not exceptional for me. It's not a bad game, absolutely not, but there are many games that are just as good if not better.

[Belegar]

It could have been a masterpiece but it's dragged down by offering no challenge past level 5, unlikeable companions, wokeness, obnoxious romancing scenes and some of the worst worldbuilding i have ever seen in an rpg.

Its still a great game, and i would rate it a 9/10 (with mods).

[Jadedragon]

This is my first ever DnD game and the first turn based one too.

I do make storys and have own build up characters on a website with other fellow roleplayers, so im not completely new to the waters.

I expected the story to be WAY more dynamic and specific, according to what background you give your character and what race he has etc, like WoW or Star wars: The old republic. I thought you would have multiple diffrent story archs which is the case for companions but not for your own creations.

And yet still, being completely new to DnD itself, this blew my mind. Mindflayers, Gods, tieflings all of that, the concept that there is 9 hells and not only 1, its the perfect introduction game for someone that has no clue about DnD and as you mentioned with all the voice acting and the visuals of the Characters, the whole package is just great.


But for me, the biggest + in this game is its Replay-abillity. Like most newer titles have it extremely low or none at all, its a 1 time thing and then you are done with it and with BG3 there is so much you can miss if you dont quicksave like the roadrunner. Even then, you'll miss stuff in your first playthrough. I have at least 2 plans for additional runs.

People say act 3 aint that good, personally i find it way more enjoyable than act 2 so im definitly going to finish this game, i have just paused it because my other favorite game has an event celebrating halloween right now and i have only so much time.

[Incandescence]

I've been playing CRPG's for a long time and they all feel exactly the same because they all are trying to capture the magic of the original Baldur's Gate game, even my most favorite CRPG POE (specifically POE2) admits to it.

Larian seems to be the only ones trying to mix up the formula even in DOS, with reactions and immersive sim qualities it's quite amazing.

[robert.steven.marshall]

The fact that if I say that female and male aren't identities and the heading in character creation should be "sex" and there should be another heading with identities which could include other types of identities then my thread gets deleted. If I write help requests they fob me off and close the tickets. Eventually they say it is "inflammatory". The major exceptionalism is around what we are and aren't allowed to discuss in the forums.

The game itself is not very exceptional. It's quite good, the voice acting is good, but for those who played the original Baldur's Gates it is underwhelming and I think a lot of ppl prefer Divinity Original Sin 2.

[ShadowDark3]

What made it special and stand out for me were the many ways you could solve problems without having to fight things. The option to fight is there, but can often be avoided. I also loved how many different dialogue options there were, and how often they went beyond the boring nice/neutral/mean responses.

[Reynard]

Initially, I was very skeptical of Baldur's Gate 3, going by my experience with Divinity: Original Sin 2, which is not a bad game by any means, but... I genuinely hate many aspects of its design, and I thought this game might suffer the same fate, or somehow worse.

Of course I never bothered to look anything up while it was in Eearly Access - mostly because I didn't care much about it at all. Foolish of me, admittedly.

Video games are a big part of my miserable life, and I have played or otherwise experienced most big titles in recent years. That said, I dislike "gameplay design choices" in so many western games from recent memory, and feel like the developers can't (or not willing) to do better. Systems that completely ruin immersion and make no sense whatsoever (for in-game world), like it was in the Witcher 3 (and Cyberpunk 2077 by extension), or some other open world games, with absolutely nonsensical progression for the player, enemies and items, as a good example of what I mean. Exact same enemies, or items, having wildy different power levels depending on an arbitrary "level" despite complete lack of any distinction between them otherwise is not good design and has no place in any at least semi-serious setting.

There should be no such thing as "Steel Sword Lv. 1" and "Steel Sword Lv. 50", having the exact same looks and descriptions, but different stats for no good reason other than poor design choices. Doubly so for firearms in games. That's even more ridiculous.

There are other issues I could talk about, but I'm getting seriously off-topic as it is, so I will get back to Baldur's Gate 3. Going by my general experience with so many western games in recent years, I assumed the worst, even though I shouldn't have.

Despite my fears, and mostly forgetting about the game, when it was finally released, and everyone started playing it, I couldn't help but get curious again. I got it as a gift from someone very dear to me, almost out of nowhere, and we played it together.

I imagined it to be a lot like DOS2, and it is, in ways, but at the same time it's not. To say it surpassed my meager expectations is to say nothing. It's not perfect. Far from it. But I was astonished by the quality and how good it felt to play and engage with the world and characters in it. The music is phenomenal - Borislav Slavov and the rest's work is incredible, and is is in no small part thanks to them that I enjoyed the game so much.

Like the OP said, it starts off very strong, and overall it turned out to be exactly the kind of experience I was craving for, for a while now. Voice acting, mo-cap, the characters - they are very, very good. The writing is not bad... but it could be a little better? I hope we'll get some changes and resolutions with the Definitive Edition if it ever comes out.

I enjoy it a lot still, despite some of its shortcomings, and in the middle of my last playthrough (maybe until DE?) as the Dark Urge, finally. I rarely enjoy games this much, and I'm glad to have experienced it, especially with my friends.

[Stiven]

Originally posted by USER#76561198098529945:

We can all agree that BG3 is a "gaming phenomenon

It is a testament to how badly game industry become, when solid 7/10 (2 points above average) is treated like some sort "gaming phenomenon". For starters combat is meh, i prefer DOS2 combat, when Red Prince casts fire ball, you know what will happen, but this virgin DnD combat-gambling is really annoying. Second, story has no replay value, since you have the dev intended way to play, and the rest is de facto "fail state". Like if you side with Goblins (why? game gives no reasons to do so) you will lose so many npc, traders and quest. In actually RPG, killing refuges would open up new opportunities/quests for you, but this game is meant to play once, solo. All companions is lame, except for Astarion, he is the only one out the bunch (ok, mb Kolrach too) who has the stones down below and have some personal agency. Also 90% of the budget of this game is VO and cut scenes, and i cannot care less. So much effort and money and they don't look much better than 20 years old Kotor 1-2 dialogue cut-scenes. I would be totally fine with no dialogues cutscenes no extensive VO, but pour all those resources into improving quests and story.

Also, i hear somewhere that they don't plan on any DLC, so this game will remain meh, forever.

[Quacksalber]

Great things: The voice acting and character design, player sexuality, no annoying companions (imo), various funny stuff you can do like distract people via performance, talking to animals, etc. The fact it still has elements such as resting without them turning the game into a tedious chore of endless traipsing, not having to recast a cart load of buffs constantly, no tedious map travel, being able to go where you want mostly, even if that sometimes breaks the game, the gameplay not being overly complicated and hence forgiving even to idiots like myself. The Illithid skill tree and the whole Emperor thing. All the stuff you can discover. Being able to play as Durge even if the storyline isn't my favourite, and thus feeling relevant.

What I don't like: inventory management, lack of choice when it comes to important quests/decisions, lack of content for paths other than a specific type of good suffering from helper syndrome, the writing sometimes making little sense, same for approval. I'm not keen on major decisions regarding companions being dependent on one single skill check as opposed to your prior relationship with them or discussing the matter in a believable way, or random game overs, even if the latter can be amusing.

What I would like to see in the game: Funny permanent summons that are useful and talk, like in PoE Deadfire; also the semi companions in that game were preferable to hirelings, more scope for non goody two shoes routes and more ways to deal with problems so you are not sitting there thinking: none of the above, especially manipulation of all variations, as it's most fitting to the whole mind flayer thing, and actual different content depending upon choices. Small prequels for each origin like in DAO: how did they get onto the ship, basically, other Dark Urge type origins, the ability to involve the party in dialogues more.

[BlueBangkok]

Originally posted by Belegar:

It could have been a masterpiece but it's dragged down by offering no challenge past level 5, unlikeable companions, wokeness, obnoxious romancing scenes and some of the worst worldbuilding i have ever seen in an rpg.

Its still a great game, and i would rate it a 9/10 (with mods).

Yeah, I mean the world building is... off, somehow.
You are presented with this epic story, super ancient evil of massive proportions. Literally the entire universe is at stake.
Yet the game takes place in a small area around and in Baldur's Gate within the span of a few weeks. So, stakes are as high as they can possibly be, but the time/place setting is very underwhelming. Also, max level is 12? For this cosmos-enslaving threat? Seriously?

And there are memberberries everywhere in Act 3 especially - they even made Minsc a statue so that he can possibly be present in a story 100 years after Bhaalspawn saga. Obvious fan service if I ever seen one. As if they didn't have enough content and just had to shove something in there.

[Certified Lawyer Boy]

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

Originally posted by Belegar:

It could have been a masterpiece but it's dragged down by offering no challenge past level 5, unlikeable companions, wokeness, obnoxious romancing scenes and some of the worst worldbuilding i have ever seen in an rpg.

Its still a great game, and i would rate it a 9/10 (with mods).

Yeah, I mean the world building is... off, somehow.
You are presented with this epic story, super ancient evil of massive proportions. Literally the entire universe is at stake.
Yet the game takes place in a small area around and in Baldur's Gate within the span of a few weeks. So, stakes are as high as they can possibly be, but the time/place setting is very underwhelming. Also, max level is 12? For this cosmos-enslaving threat? Seriously?

Agree on this, I think the game should have concluded with the resolution of the Dark Gods' conspiracy and addressed the Nether Brain in a dedicated expansion or maybe even in a sequel with higher level cap and a world/plane-spanning adventure.

[Fistimus Maximus]

Act 3 really let the game down, underdeveloped villains/quests, Compared to act 1 its night and day. Game is good but found act 3 a real slog with previous acts hinting at so much more to come when you reach baldurs gate and...very flat.

[Incandescence]

Originally posted by BlueBangkok:

And there are memberberries everywhere in Act 3 especially - they even made Minsc a statue so that he can possibly be present in a story 100 years after Bhaalspawn saga. Obvious fan service if I ever seen one. As if they didn't have enough content and just had to shove something in there.

... Minsc was turned into a statue in a comic that was not larian that was already in the lore.