I have finished analyzing Baldur's Gate 3 as a game (spoilers, obviously!)

[Mister Magician]

I will try to separate this all into multiple posts, because this ended up being too long for steam's character limit for a single post. So bear with me here.

A few months ago (feels like years at this point) I decided to force myself to play this game start to finish all while cataloging my thoughts to see if this game was anything more than another cyberpunk / kendrick lamar / etc style fad that would be forgotten moments after it was trumpeted by the regime. This was not ideal because while I had the idea of discussing the game honestly with others to motivate me, but others did not want to discuss honestly with me; and after months of putting the game off due to how frankly bad the experience was I just gave up.

The thread is archived here https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4141689926410173681/ if you want to see the salient points I noted linked in the OP. Ignore the 1400 post struggle session against me that occurred over a the span of 3 days, some people can't control themselves in any capacity.

My hypotheses were such:

1. the game was otherwise normal but was shoehorned into the status quo as a simple cost of doing business under a worldwide totalitarian system.
   
2. the game was otherwise pedestrian and was only championed to "own the chuds," which served larian quite well because it covered their faults.
   
3. the game was terribly unfinished and regime features were added to secure funding for 1 and secure shielding for 2.

I can tell you that after forcing myself to play through the game all the way through on honor mode without forcing myself to write down observations, that (as usual) every one of my hypotheses were exactly the case.

As I pointed out in the review, all of the regime elements of the story stick out like a sore thumb because they are totally artificial. The game has a strong moral core, nothing remarkable, but it's shocking just how different the perception of the game by the fanbase and the game as it actually is. I go into more detail in the thread linked above, and my thoughts up to halfway through act 1 when I previously stopped playing are now totally confirmed having finished the game.

I would even go so far as to point out out that not only is the game quite benign (if you can ignore or mod out the surface-level regime elements) but it's actually subversive. The entire plot with the absolute, dead three, netherbrain, etc are a very pointed critique of the real-life regime and their adherents. I suppose this would then explain the struggle session: I found something I wasn't supposed to and dared to point out what I noticed in public.

Therefore this game is not like moldbug's proverbial tale of the "german cat" where true believers march through every institution (no matter how small or ancillary to the government) and proudly subordinating even cat magazines to the empire, but this game is more like Havel's greengrocer who puts up the "workers of the world unite" poster despite not believing in it simply because he knows the true believers will burn down his business if he doesn't. Therefore the liberal lionizing of this game appears to be more containment than anything else. I sincerely don't know why the culture warriors who like this game enjoy it, and why the culture warriors who hate this game don't; in actuality it seems like the parties should be switched here. Maybe the hivemind of the regime's outer circle knows this and so stakes a claim here knowing that the other side is to repulsed to look deeper.

So what of all the vaunted issues? Yes, all of the issues with the game are present, but there is circumstances to each.

Yes, your companions are all horndogs after you complete act 1, but this is just there to cover up the unexplained "relationship" system in the game. If you refuse the advances of a character here, it permanently locks them out of a "relationship" with you for the entire game no matter how high their affinity gets for you. Therefore all of the faff surrounding this specific moment in the story is really there to cover up larian's inability to code more complex character interactions.

Yes, alin and nocturne and the like are just plain odd and unsettling. Alin was a man and Nocturne was not "trans" before path 6 of beta; all of these were changed without editing the script to compensate which caused the uncanny feeling. Patch 6 signifies the time where larian ran out of money and was bought out by wizards of the coast, tencent, and netflix to keep them afloat. If you pretend Alin is a man, the personality and dialogue make perfect sense with him as the dumb jock boyfriend. In fact, every single male-male, female-female relationship was artificially added into the game during this patch, with a number of model-swaps needing to happen to force it to work. None of the "alphabet" elements are more than a ctrl+r swap, and can be almost entirely removed from the game with a change of some text files in a mod if it really bothers you that much.

Yes, all people of moderate authority in the game are female, but each and every one is crude, brutal, utterly incompetent, and at fault for just about every problem in not only the game but the entire forgotten realms setting. The only leaders with any vulnerability, humanity, grit, determination, and willingness to solve problems are male. Just about every storyline boils down to "female in charge mucks it all up until you get daddy to come home." If this game was meant to be a celebration of feminism, they did it VERY poorly. In fact, the entire overarching storyline itself is this, with the only meaningful choice being which reliable, magnanimous male you want to replace the vicious female agents of chaos with.

As I alluded to earlier this game really expends every effort to stab the regime in the heart, with no punches pulled. Sure there is a milimeter thin veneer of adherence throughout the whole thing, but the rest is just plain brutal. At no point did I look at the game's story and disapprove or be appalled, I was mostly smiling the whole way through. Originally I came in expecting the gameplay to save the experience and just grin and bear it through the sotry, but the exact opposite was true. I relished every chance the story came up and dreaded combat.

Which brings me to the review of the game as a game itself, which I will try to keep short because there isn't much to say.

Story:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4413047708763407031/#c4413047708763408198

Gameplay:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4413047708763407031/#c4413047708763408765

Verdict:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4413047708763407031/#c4413047708763409285

A bonus character study on Gale that explains a lot of my thoughts about the plot in general:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4413047708763407031/?ctp=2#c4413047708763877407

[Mister Magician]

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Oh, they never get tired of the "Larian only added all the scary gays and strong women because of [insert company they're mad at here]!" conspiracy theories.
Allow me to direct you to Divinity: Dragon Commander, a game made by Larian years back, where women's rights and legalising gay marriage are major plot points. Sorry, mate, but Larain were always on that side of the fence.

Yes, the company does have a lot of hands in their cookie jar.

This game is nowhere near as bad as any of the other larian games, but these specific things were not in the original draft.

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Oh, thank the gods, someone who can do reasonable criticism without complaining about the gays existing!

Agreed on the inventory system. At the very least a search function might be nice.
You can skip the dice roll animation by clicking again.

Obviously the writing is going to be a matter of opinion but I will note Mystra having relationships with promising mages is far from unusual.

Karlach never wanted to be Zariel's champion, so her personality not matching it fits. Also she notes that she wasn't Zariel's greatest warrior or anything, the archdevil just took a liking to her.

The inventory DOES have a search function.

The thread also had to be separated into three posts because it was so long, neither of you could read past the first two sentences.

screaming consciences did the rest.

[Fluffykeith]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Karlach never wanted to be Zariel's champion, so her personality not matching it fits. Also she notes that she wasn't Zariel's greatest warrior or anything, the archdevil just took a liking to her.

But she was Zariel's champion for 10 years. Yet her personality isn't that of someone who was Zariel's champion and fought in the Blood War. It doesn't make any sense and is completely out of place.

To me, she has the sort of “rush of relief and enthusiasm” personality of someone who was forced to fight for Zariel but has now, through a crazy quirk of circumstances, got a real shot of being free from all that and getting to live her own life.

[Damedius]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Have you ever met a soldier IRL? It might surprise you that they don't ALL have the same personality and don't ALL respond to combat in the same manner.

It's almost like they're individuals, not drones.

She served the Archdevil Zariel for 10 years in Avernus. She fought in the Blood War against demons.

However she's written like a soft, naive, immature, romantic fool. She should be much more callous and practical than she is. She would be dead already and not have survived very long with the personality she has in Avernus.

[GriffinPilgrim]

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Oh, they never get tired of the "Larian only added all the scary gays and strong women because of [insert company they're mad at here]!" conspiracy theories.
Allow me to direct you to Divinity: Dragon Commander, a game made by Larian years back, where women's rights and legalising gay marriage are major plot points. Sorry, mate, but Larain were always on that side of the fence.

Yes, the company does have a lot of hands in their cookie jar.

This game is nowhere near as bad as any of the other larian games, but these specific things were not in the original draft.

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

The inventory DOES have a search function.

The thread also had to be separated into three posts because it was so long, neither of you could read past the first two sentences.

screaming consciences did the rest.

You've been caught lying to fit an agenda. Why, therefore, would we bother to read the rest of your rambley essay?

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

The inventory DOES have a search function.

The thread also had to be separated into three posts because it was so long, neither of you could read past the first two sentences.

screaming consciences did the rest.

I gave the thread the consideration it deserved. Sorry if you felt it deserved more.

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Have you ever met a soldier IRL? It might surprise you that they don't ALL have the same personality and don't ALL respond to combat in the same manner.

It's almost like they're individuals, not drones.

She served the Archdevil Zariel for 10 years in Avernus. She fought in the Blood War against demons.

However she's written like a soft, naive, immature, romantic fool. She should be much more callous and practical than she is. She would be dead already and not have survived very long with the personality she has in Avernus.

Again, have you ever met a soldier IRL? Why won't you answer the question?

[GriffinPilgrim]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Have you ever met a soldier IRL? It might surprise you that they don't ALL have the same personality and don't ALL respond to combat in the same manner.

It's almost like they're individuals, not drones.

She served the Archdevil Zariel for 10 years in Avernus. She fought in the Blood War against demons.

However she's written like a soft, naive, immature, romantic fool. She should be much more callous and practical than she is. She would be dead already and not have survived very long with the personality she has in Avernus.

She is socially naive, because she's never been socialised. In battle she's a terror. And she knows not to trust devils and doesn't but the PC and the rest of the party aren't devils.
As I noted above, she plays up the happy, optimistic thing as her coping mechanism. Not everyone reacts to trauma the same way.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Huh. Never spotted that My bad.

Unless you just mean the "Sort by" button. I know about that, I meant I'd like somewhere I could type the name of something I'm looking for and have it pop up.

You know, I bet it's a control type thing.

Mouse and keyboard there's a big ol' search bar next to the sort by button where you can type in anything.

With controller it looks like you can only filter by a few presets maybe?

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

You've been caught lying to fit an agenda. Why, therefore, would we bother to read the rest of your rambley essay?

Plus they haven't bothered to respond to a very simple question about one of their claims anyway (any sort of evidence that WotC or Netflix have any ownership of Larian), so it's not like attempts to engage are going to get anywhere.

[GriffinPilgrim]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Unless you just mean the "Sort by" button. I know about that, I meant I'd like somewhere I could type the name of something I'm looking for and have it pop up.

You know, I bet it's a control type thing.

Mouse and keyboard there's a big ol' search bar next to the sort by button where you can type in anything.

With controller it looks like you can only filter by a few presets maybe?

No, I'm using mouse and keyboard. Must have just missed it.

[Mister Magician]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Have you ever met a soldier IRL? It might surprise you that they don't ALL have the same personality and don't ALL respond to combat in the same manner.

It's almost like they're individuals, not drones.

She served the Archdevil Zariel for 10 years in Avernus. She fought in the Blood War against demons.

However she's written like a soft, naive, immature, romantic fool. She should be much more callous and practical than she is. She would be dead already and not have survived very long with the personality she has in Avernus.

At no point were character personalities meant to be realistic.

They are meant to represent what someone would make as a dnd backstory, alongside the personality of the player showing through the character.

The narrator is both a reference to the elderbrain and a dnd dm for a reason.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

You know, I bet it's a control type thing.

Mouse and keyboard there's a big ol' search bar next to the sort by button where you can type in anything.

With controller it looks like you can only filter by a few presets maybe?

No, I'm using mouse and keyboard. Must have just missed it.

Huh - full party inventory screen it's in the upper left.

https://d1fs8ljxwyzba6.cloudfront.net/assets/editorial/2023/08/baldurs-gate-3-inventory-management-tips-search-sort.jpg

You can type in parts of names I believe as well as some item types to filter. It's not perfect, I don't think you can search by keyword for 'cold' to find damage types or something really nice like that.

https://d1fs8ljxwyzba6.cloudfront.net/assets/editorial/2023/08/baldurs-gate-3-inventory-management-tips-and-tricks-search.jpg

[Damedius]

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

At no point were character personalities meant to be realistic.

Which is why her characters personality is so off putting. It completely breaks your immersion. It is more like the way someone who can't put themselves into the shoes of the character they are portraying would act rather than how the character would actually act.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

At no point were character personalities meant to be realistic.

Which is why her characters personality is so off putting. It completely breaks your immersion. It is more like the way someone who can't put themselves into the shoes of the character they are portraying would act rather than how the character would actually act.

Why won't you tell me if you've ever met a soldier IRL?

[GriffinPilgrim]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

At no point were character personalities meant to be realistic.

Which is why her characters personality is so off putting. It completely breaks your immersion. It is more like the way someone who can't put themselves into the shoes of the character they are portraying would act rather than how the character would actually act.

Again, you just keep assuming how a person reacts t trauma is set thing.

[Fluffykeith]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

At no point were character personalities meant to be realistic.

Which is why her characters personality is so off putting. It completely breaks your immersion. It is more like the way someone who can't put themselves into the shoes of the character they are portraying would act rather than how the character would actually act.

Her personality makes sense to me.

She’s emotionally naive but terrifying in battle.
She’s enthusiastic and has a sort of over abundance of relief and such because she’s now escaped from the hells and has a real chance to be her own person because she never wanted to be the warrior of Zariel. It’s like someone who was trapped in the dark for a long time but remembers sunlight, finally getting to sit in a sunny meadow after all that time. Her emotions bubble out all over the place.
Makes sense to me.