How long does Act 3 last and is it interesting?

[777]

I just started going through it and am now in the first city. But I've already played 120 hours of the game, and I already feel like I'm starting to get tired of the game. I'm still interested in it, but some kind of fatigue from the game is accumulating. Should I quit and not play anymore? The game is too big for my liking.

[GLsimtam]

Act 3 is like a Bethesda game, you can rush through the main story in dozen hours or so

Or it can be another 120 hours if you want to do everything

[Razorblade]

2 mandatory boss battles; 1 optional one, depending on a story choice you make. Probably about 10 hours if you rush it and are decent at the game, 20 hours for the averge player who isn't rushing, and longer for those exploring every nook and cranny.

[General Malaise]

Ages, and yes.

Easily the best and longest if you ask me.

[The_Dipl0mat]

Originally posted by GLsimtam:

Act 3 is like a Bethesda game, you can rush through the main story in dozen hours or so

Or it can be another 120 hours if you want to do everything

I think this is the best summary. Its basically as quick as you want it to be. You can do the main quests, or try to do as much as you want in between

You're also not rushed to immediately complete the next step after killing someone of importance I believe

[ñ·W·Å·þ·§]

I would gun for the main quest line in Act 3 your first play through.

I made the mistake of doing too many side quests/nonsense/getting lost in the sewers and now the narrative thrust of the game has imploded/lost focus. Totally understandable with the size of Act 3.

Also the pristine and beautiful Baldur's Gate city/soft music and atmosphere/whimsical NPC's are all kind of at odds with a third Act that you think should be more urgent/dangerous/tense. All the more reason to make a B-line for the main quest/bosses. If you do it quick I think it definitely works as a story.

But I know the gist of the main story by now so it's just 3 big boss fights ahead of me (which is work) for all the marbles. And I'm level capped so the experience counts for nothing -- hard to find motivation to finish now. Hoping a definitive edition down the road bumps the cap and then I'll jump back in.

[The_Dipl0mat]

Originally posted by ñ·W·Å·þ·§:

I would gun for the main quest line in Act 3 your first play through.

I made the mistake of doing too many side quests/nonsense/getting lost in the sewers and now the narrative thrust of the game has imploded/lost focus. Totally understandable with the size of Act 3.

Also the pristine and beautiful Baldur's Gate city/soft music and atmosphere/whimsical NPC's are all kind of at odds with a third Act that you think should be more urgent/dangerous/tense. All the more reason to make a B-line for the main quest/bosses. If you do it quick I think it definitely works as a story.

But I know the gist of the main story by now so it's just 3 big boss fights ahead of me (which is work) for all the marbles. And I'm level capped so the experience counts for nothing -- hard to find motivation to finish now. Hoping a definitive edition down the road bumps the cap and then I'll jump back in.

I absolutely agree, that was one of my big mistakes. It also doesn't help that with one of the quests it gives you so many quest markers. Combined with quests that end in BG it gets overwhelming

[777]

Originally posted by ñ·W·Å·þ·§:

I would gun for the main quest line in Act 3 your first play through.

I made the mistake of doing too many side quests/nonsense/getting lost in the sewers and now the narrative thrust of the game has imploded/lost focus. Totally understandable with the size of Act 3.

Also the pristine and beautiful Baldur's Gate city/soft music and atmosphere/whimsical NPC's are all kind of at odds with a third Act that you think should be more urgent/dangerous/tense. All the more reason to make a B-line for the main quest/bosses. If you do it quick I think it definitely works as a story.

But I know the gist of the main story by now so it's just 3 big boss fights ahead of me (which is work) for all the marbles. And I'm level capped so the experience counts for nothing -- hard to find motivation to finish now. Hoping a definitive edition down the road bumps the cap and then I'll jump back in.

Did you reach level 12 quickly by the end of the game? I'm almost at 11 now, but I want to finish leveling up my characters.
And of course finish the Shadowhard line.

[777]

Originally posted by GLsimtam:

Act 3 is like a Bethesda game, you can rush through the main story in dozen hours or so

Or it can be another 120 hours if you want to do everything

I'm thinking of finishing this game today and moving on to something else.
But the druid in the circus is a hot woman. If I could have taken her on the team, I would definitely have completed the entire game. :)

[LordOfTheBread]

Pretty long, I think it might be the longest actually ansd yes, it is very interesting.

[v.aurimas91]

Each act roughly lasted me about 30 hours.

[Gregorovitch]

Act 3 is very good. However it's much more difficult to play than the other acts because you get no real indication of what order to do things from geography and you can end up with many competing quests in your journal. It can be difficult to figure out which order to do them in, you have to think about it quite deeply plus things can turn out different depending on your choices.

My advice if you are feeling jaded would be to take a break, re-approach it feeling fresh and do it properly rather than crash though to the end as fast as possible. Once you get your head round it is excellent and I would not miss it.

[777]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Act 3 is very good. However it's much more difficult to play than the other acts because you get no real indication of what order to do things from geography and you can end up with many competing quests in your journal. It can be difficult to figure out which order to do them in, you have to think about it quite deeply plus things can turn out different depending on your choices.

My advice if you are feeling jaded would be to take a break, re-approach it feeling fresh and do it properly rather than crash though to the end as fast as possible. Once you get your head round it is excellent and I would not miss it.

If I quit the game now, I won’t be back in it soon; it could take months. This is already the stage when you just need to finish the game to the end. The last time I was so tired was the Elden Ring, when you want to check every corner, but the concentration there was very high, so I got tired earlier, in just 90 hours, but still went through all the places.

[Zatapatique]

Originally posted by 777:

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Act 3 is very good. However it's much more difficult to play than the other acts because you get no real indication of what order to do things from geography and you can end up with many competing quests in your journal. It can be difficult to figure out which order to do them in, you have to think about it quite deeply plus things can turn out different depending on your choices.

My advice if you are feeling jaded would be to take a break, re-approach it feeling fresh and do it properly rather than crash though to the end as fast as possible. Once you get your head round it is excellent and I would not miss it.

If I quit the game now, I won’t be back in it soon; it could take months. This is already the stage when you just need to finish the game to the end. The last time I was so tired was the Elden Ring, when you want to check every corner, but the concentration there was very high, so I got tired earlier, in just 90 hours, but still went through all the places.

My playthrough was about 120 hours, doing most of the sidequests. I tried to do everything, because by the time I got to Act3 I was not sure I can afford / want to spend the time to start a new game again. It was a drag by the end, and I had the feeling that if I take a break I might not pick it up again for months, if ever. I remember finally finishing the game was a relief.

I'd say feel free to skip the sidequests - some of them are really cool, but it does feel a bit too much. And they only make a slight difference anyway in the end.

[Lora Grim]

Act 1 took me about 30 hours, cause i was sucking at the game hard at that time.
Act 2 took 20 hours, and Act 3 took 50-ish hours to complete.

I was trying to be a competionist, though. Probably missed a lot of stuff anyway. I tried my best to rummage through every single house/building and pick up every single item that seemed relevant/significant, like certain books with interesting titles, or ones with the lil orange borders signifying a quest item.

[Steefy_92]

i agree, on my first play through I burned out doing all nooks and crannies, including the side content in Act 3,

Rarely any of it is interesting, granted some of choices I made contributed to it. But for first play through, players should just rush main story line (which is the biggest sucker of them all - but with epilogues it gets better)

The thing about BG3, it can take you ages to do everything and you will still miss plenty (locked away by events and choices) or see just an outcome that might be closure at the time, but have had done differently open the entirely new side path for you to pursue (I am speaking about side quests). So, there is literally no way you can see everything on one playthrough and with epiloges (and some additional endings), the number you can replay game significantly increased