This Game is Emotionally Taxing

[templar1138]

Act 1 was great. Got to infiltrate and kick ass through a goblin camp and really feel like I threw a wrench in the cult's plans. This also gave hope to a bunch of refugees and took a cruel druid down a peg. Heroics!

Act 2 was misery. The Underdark was alright, but once I got to the shadow-cursed lands, it was horror and despair - especially when dealing with the personalities of Reithwin. It certainly didn't help to see what'd happened to the refugees I'd saved in Act 1, and I had to save-scum to keep them from meeting an even worse fate. Oh sure, I was able to lift the curse, but the cult's army is on the move and the game made it clear that it'll take years before the shadows are gone completely, so I wasn't even granted that satisfaction.

I've reached Act 3 and it's off to a rocky start. The Emperor wasn't much of a surprise to me (I expected the "guardian" to be the tadpole, not a renegade mind flayer), but I'm starting to feel drained in Wyrm's Crossing. It's bad enough that what's-her-face the doppelganger toyed with me at the circus and the blacksmith's, but I'm in the middle of investigating the murder of the Ilmater priest, and the fact that it's immediately been blamed on a refugee amidst a backdrop of growing xenophobia in the area just hits too close to home - especially after I cast Speak With Dead ON the priest, which any investigator in the Forgotten Realms should use as their first resort, by the way!

I suppose I should give props to Larian's writers for making a game bring about such empathy, but it's starting to feel like a grimdark game. Were the previous two games like that? And does this game STAY grimdark? Please don't spoil anything; variations of "yes," "no," or "depends" will do.

[FunkyMonkey]

The game will have it's light moments and there is an epilogue, which will, judging by your actions so far, have an happier ending.

[seeker1]

The Underdark (and Mountain Pass/Creche) is technically still part of Act 1, the game's files actually call it "1.5". (I know this from Debug Book.)

You're not in Act 2 until you enter the S-CL.

I'm only gonna make the very generic point that some endings that sound rather grim and unhappy at the end of the game initially, seem more optimistic once (if) you make it to the Epilogue. I'll spoil nothing else.

But the bottom line is the end of the game presents you with a choice Larian forces you to make: (here we go to tags):

Side with this manipulative douche Emperor; just my personal view, he ain't Balduran, he's the thing that ate Balduran and inherited some of Balduran's memories.

or

Side with Orpheus, which means, ordinarily, you/Tav/the Origin protag must become a mindflayer, or Karlach becomes one, or Orpheus becomes one. Those are the only choices, and it's hard to call any of them a purely "happy" ending. However, one of those choices CAN save Karlach's life. (It's why she's willing.)

[Knavenformed]

The Dark Urge is pretty much a more "sequel" type approach to the older games if I got my info correct, haven't played them but their synopsis pretty much tells you how how tied they are to the Urge if you've played as it before, but yeah.

[Oonayah]

Unless you make some very specific choices at the very, very end of the game which, judging by your post, would be very out of character for you to select, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Additionally, you are approaching the point where most of your companions will find closure in their arcs and, depending on choices, you could see some nascent optimism in them.

However, this is D&D, which tends to emulate reality in that there is no neat and tidy "...and they lived happily ever after..." because the end of the adventure is just closing one chapter of the character's lives.

As a favor, I will burst the bubble for you now: there will not be DLC or a BG4 from Larian, and you will probably wish for this when the credits roll.

Have fun in Act 3!

[seeker1]

Originally posted by Knavenformed:

The Dark Urge is pretty much a more "sequel" type approach to the older games if I got my info correct,

Spoilers.


Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, just like CHARNAME/Gorion's Ward was in BG1-2.

That said, his "origin" story is a bit different, most of the BG1-2 Bhaalspawn like Sarevok and CHARNAME resulted from him getting busy with mortal women, Dark Urge seems to have been essentially created out of Bhaal's being directly. Which is why Durges that reject Bhaal essentially get unmade. But CAN be reconstituted by Withers.

The canonical Bhaalspawn of BG2 has an identity in BG3 - his name was Abdel Adrian, he remained mortal, he became a Duke of BGC, and he's already dead. Somebody in this game has his shield.

[noisyturtle]

Empathy? What is that?

[Raz]

Shoulda been clued in from Raphael telling you, "Hope, what a tease". He wasn't joking. This is Forgotten Realms. ♥♥♥♥ gets quite bleak and can stay bleak a lot of the time.

[nguren]

This is a Larian game with a D&D skin, not a D&D game. This game is heavy with adult themes. The overall story of this game is about people coping with the horrors of unspeakable abuse that was done to them. The D&D brand, in contrast, is E rated high fantasy that bears no relation to this game and is in many ways kind of shocking that they were able to get the license to make a game like this from the D&D ip.

[Bumc]

I'd cautiously say it does become less grimdark towards the end and you can get sort of happy end for most characters.

[Zeel Ara]

Yup, the original games were dark as hell once you scratched the surface. In this, you have the choice to play as the dark urge. In the originals, that was set in stone. The grim stuff is more at the forefront in this game, where in the originals it only really came out in the second half of BG2, but the underlying themes are the same. Corruption of the self, of institutions, and of people.

The people claiming that the themes and narratives aren't connected either never played the originals or were too young to udnerstand them.

[wtiger27]

Not all of the refugees you saved in Act 1, die. You will get a chance to rescue a few in Act 2.

The game will have a good ending. Even for Karlach, if you make the right decisions in your play run.

Then of course, what is a good ending is also dependent on the player's perspective.

You also will see the start of the Shadowland curse being lifted as your party leaves there at the end of Act 2. It starts right away once Ketheric is killed.[\spoiler]

[Mike Garrison]

Well, let's see.

In BG1, the FIRST thing that happens is that your foster father is killed and you are left alone in the wilderness. If you try to go back home, they won't let you in.

You then find out that everywhere you go, assassins are waiting to kill you.

After fighting through about half the game, you finally reach Baldur's Gate. The Duke sends you back to your old home, where you are framed for a murder that either you didn't commit or you did commit but was in self-defense (depends on your choices). You also find out that the vast majority of the people you were friends with growing up have been killed and replaced by doppelgangers.

You escape back to Baldur's Gate, and the place has been taken over by your enemies. You are hunted by the law and have to move around through the sewers. Eventually you confront the guy who has caused all this to happen, and he flees to an old tomb of Bhaal buried under the city. There you kill him.

Nope, nothing grim or dark there!

As for BG2, it starts with you being tortured in cage in a dungeon. Halfway through the main enemy steals your soul. It ends with your enemy, your soul, and you being dragged to hell, although if you recover your soul from him, he is left in hell and you return intact. (Although, possibly with your alignment changed to evil.)

[Lathanx]

It's a video game bruh go outside.

[Raz]

Originally posted by nguren:

This is a Larian game with a D&D skin, not a D&D game. This game is heavy with adult themes.

So were the original Baldur's Gate games... This is not something new just because Larian is touching it. DnD proper is heavy with adult themes and dark as eff if you go beyond the surface.

[Brian]

Originally posted by Lathanx:

It's a video game bruh go outside.

Yup. "Empathy" is a word used now only by people who have no idea what it actually means. If it even had a legitimate meaning in the first place.