Is act 3 a bit of a slog/boring for anyone else? (Repeated Playthroughs)

[sleep debt]

I have over 1k hours into the game (offline time) and I play this game with a lot of mods. But for some reason act 3 feels like such a chore to get through. I am not sure if it because the lack of direction, too much to do, the story falls short. I am just wondering if anyone else has this problem? Hell I don't even really like Act two as much. I've beaten the game maybe 4 times? But I find myself wanting to just restart after I complete act 1.

TLDR: just wondering if anyone else loses interest in the game when starting ACT 3

[AsianGirlLover]

Yes, Act 3 feels weakest compared to the first 2. Can’t put my finger on why, but definitely feels like it’s lacking something special.

[Therin Skarn]

I believe it's because we end up having to kill gortash and Orin in the same act instead of spreading it ou over at least 1 more act....I would've preferred to go after Orin first in act 3 then Gortash in act 4 as well as make it to where the upper city was opened for act 4

[AbientAle]

Yep. I enjoyed act 1 and 2, decent pace, wished theyd lasted a little longer even! Get to act 3... immediatley get 50 sidequests half of which falsey give you time restraints and you lose a party member to the story for awhile/perma. Like dude.... chill the ♥♥♥♥ out, let me finally see the city after waiting 25 years for bg3. Way too much crammed in, way too much thrown at you. Supposed to rescue a guy, blow up a factory, kill end game bosses, rescue like 50 people, find 20 people, find body parts..... "I JUST GOT HERE CAN I GET A DRINK FIRST?" I am finding less and less motivation to finish it cause it's tedium is adding up.

[Floh4ever]

For me there were just to many NPCs because it's a big city with to many stories.
Act 1 had the richt amount of talk and fight imo

[PsychoThicc]

i have 400+ hours, just finished my 2nd run, and altought i enjoy this game, i think that the act 3 is the weakest of them... maybe the problem is that u get lvl 12 really soon, and the side quest just lost great part of the motivation cause of that... if the lvl cap was 15 maybe u feel more motivated to do all this side quest cause u actually see a progretion in your character

[Occasum_Solis]

I mean if you finished BG3 once you are pretty much done with the game. Sure, they are different outcomes of the ending depending on one choice you make in Act 3, which makes everything else before pretty much meaningless.

Beside that Act 3 is, imo, just bad designed not visually but how you tackle quests in Act 3. Act 1 had a really nice quest-flow, not a lot of backtracking to point X and feels overall very complete. Act 2 is where it get REALLY bad with the backtracking to point X and when you finally reach Act 3 you just feel exhausted.

But its a Larian Games, Act 1 was always great. Act 2 good and Act 3 was always a slog - DOS2 didnt even had an Act 3 before the Definitive Edition

[Kappa]

One of The best part was the devs decided to give level cap way before the end of the game, allowing players to play at max level for a long time.

I got to play at max level even considering me and my group skipped a lot of zones during our first play through.

But I agree the zone feels underwhelming compared to act 1 and 2.

The city feels big, but still somehow empty.

I liked the vampire castle and house of hope, and also the sewers, but that’s it.

Ps: I think the lack of difficulty ( even on the first playthrough tactician was pretty easy ) didn’t help, but that’s not act 3 related.

[LidL_w/-\in]

same for me, it felt like an actual story up until the end of act 2 (which was a little cringe/foreseeable imho but still ok) and after that act 3 straight up feels like a MMO with quests all over the place

[Fluffykeith]

Act 3 is weird because when you reach it, it lacks the urgency of the other 2 acts...everyone is sort of getting on with their lives and the threat of invasion from the Absolute is just sort of...in the background. It requires you to do a lot of poking around to find the threads again.

BUT.....♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you do there's just one epic showdown after another. I struggled with the Rivington stuff because it felt sort of unrelated to what I'd already been through....when I got past that section and into the city proper, things fell into place and the story was back on track, and it was payback time....

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by AbientAle:

Yep. I enjoyed act 1 and 2, decent pace, wished theyd lasted a little longer even! Get to act 3... immediatley get 50 sidequests half of which falsey give you time restraints and you lose a party member to the story for awhile/perma. Like dude.... chill the ♥♥♥♥ out, let me finally see the city after waiting 25 years for bg3. Way too much crammed in, way too much thrown at you. Supposed to rescue a guy, blow up a factory, kill end game bosses, rescue like 50 people, find 20 people, find body parts..... "I JUST GOT HERE CAN I GET A DRINK FIRST?" I am finding less and less motivation to finish it cause it's tedium is adding up.

Almost nothing in act 3 has an actual timer funny enough it wants you to to long rest for things to take happen. It becomes very jarring when it clashes with the in-game narrative going on.

It is still hilarious despite it´s size and huge amount of activities going on I always use the least amount of long rests to finish the whole act.

I think the major issue is that Larian had a huge lack of development time for act 3 compared to act 1. Leads to it feel unfinished and rushed. so weird we never actually do anything in the upper-city.

[seeker1]

It is all false urgency. You feel like if you don't stop Orin, she'll kill [insert kidnap victim here] if you don't get there first - but there's no timer. Not even after offing Papa/Grandpa Sarevok. Also, if you don't get to all the murder scenes, you'll never catch the murderer before he gets all his victims. (Well, if you WANT to stop him, mind.)


This is one area where the Wiki helps immensely. You REALLY only have to intercept Dolor twice. That's it. Once at Cora's, then again at Figaro's. The other murder sites are all just filler. Heck, when you warn Roveer he's a murder victim, he just pshaws you and tells you to go kill rats, instead.

There's one thing on a timer, but even that is odd.


Once you FIND OUT Florrick is being held and is to be executed, you have four LRs/five days to save her. But oddly, I think, if you don't FIND OUT, the timer never starts. And failing to rescue her really doesn't cost more than some FFs for "Gather Your Allies".

Also, it definitely seems to be the case that the army of the Absolute is marching real slow on the city. I know it has zombies in it and they tend to slow things down, but sheesh, not ONE Absolute mage with haste or portal spells? The city seems to know how slow they move, hence all lackadaisacal they all act.

[Words And Chaos]

Depends whether you're in it for experience of just in it for the exp.

I found exploring Baldur's gate fascinating. Everytime I think I've mapped everything out I find something new. Every random sidequest location that would usually have like 'a treasure room' or whatever, suddenly has a giant separate area attached to it.

It think it can get overwhelming, just because you're sort of within sight of the end of the game, but also you get increasingly aware of how monstrous in scale the last act is and you get 150 hours in you're like, 'Ok, I have no idea how to gauge how much time this is going to take'

The trend with many "gamers" I notice is that they get overly attached to 'do x to get y'. Everything is weirdly mechanistic in their minds. They're kind of alien, to be honest.

[seeker1]

The two big sidequests in Act 3 are fun. You can do them for XP and rewards, or just more content. But,


Free the Artist would be better if you didn't have the damn Jannath House crashing bugs. You can kill Mystic Carrion independent of it, but it kind of gives you a REASON to do so. Along the way. Too bad the final reward is a painting 90% of players will just sell.

also:
Avenge the Hag Survivors - it's just basically a retread of kill Ethel all over again, and save her kidnap victim, from Act 1. At least we should be facing a different Hag. Fine, they make it a bit more complicated (gotta destroy 3 mushrooms to take her down for good this time), but other than that. It feels too much of a repeat.

BTW, it's absolutely doable even if Mayrina died in Act 1; you just meet the other Hag Survivors and they still send you on the quest.

Same gimmick still works: to know who the 'right' clone is to hit with the Hag's Bane, just look at the creature tags.

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by seeker1:

The two big sidequests in Act 3 are fun. You can do them for XP and rewards, or just more content. But,


Free the Artist would be better if you didn't have the damn Jannath House crashing bugs. You can kill Mystic Carrion independent of it, but it kind of gives you a REASON to do so. Along the way. Too bad the final reward is a painting 90% of players will just sell.

also:
Avenge the Hag Survivors - it's just basically a retread of kill Ethel all over again, and save her kidnap victim, from Act 1. At least we should be facing a different Hag. Fine, they make it a bit more complicated (gotta destroy 3 mushrooms to take her down for good this time), but other than that. It feels too much of a repeat.

BTW, it's absolutely doable even if Mayrina died in Act 1; you just meet the other Hag Survivors and they still send you on the quest.

Same gimmick still works: to know who the 'right' clone is to hit with the Hag's Bane, just look at the creature tags.

First side quest you mention I have never done again since I did my first run absolute cancer and the story feels like it belongs in a series about supernatural stuff that has a weekly monster/monsters in it.

In general I just feel that it is terrible.

[Nessa]

Outside of amazing quest conclusions like killing Cazador and the culmination of the Dark Urge questline... act 3 really does suck. It has some of the best quest moments just because it is the END but outside those amazing moments, act 3 is unfinished and just a chore. By the time I get to act 3, I'm ready for another playthrough. So I either abandon the playthrough or do the bare minimum of quests and rush the Netherbrain.

Free the Artist I've only done once. Will never do it again. I did the hag survivor quests twice just because the end of the questline kind of makes Mayrina grow... but now I just don't confront Ethel at the Teahouse anymore. I save Ethel from Mayrina's brothers, then take Astarion to meet Ethel just so I can get his commentary on entering houses without an invitation. Then I leave peacefully and get to tell Captain Grisly that I'm a leaking bloodbag in act 3.