A perfect example of why I wish Steam allowed ambivalent reviews.

What the game does well: the writing has improved drastically from Original Sin. Granted, the bar there was on the floor but I still feel the need to commend Larian for this. Characters are no longer either absurdly clownish, or sounding like a 7th grader with a thesaurus trying to meet a word requirement for an essay due in five hours.

The narrative is excellent as well. The main plot of the game is complex, with all these little interwoven pieces that come together beautifully and draw on the the rich lore of Forgotten Realms. You get many huge choices to make that can drastically affect your run, such as who to ally with, kill, etc. A lot of factions are at play and NPCs all have unique goals that intersect in surprising ways. Even side quests are tangentially related: you might stumble across a sidequest that seems a generic, straighforward objective that has nothing to do with the main story, but eventually affects one of your main quests by giving you new information, new paths, taking you somewhere you were supposed to be anyway, etc. There are multiple ways to end up getting the same information or reach the same point and as a result you never truly feel lost (except for act 3, more on that later).

The voice acting is mostly fantastic, as is the audio/visual design. D&D feels very well represented here in a high budget way, giving it a more mature and refined look than the vast majority of pop D&D content.

What the game does poorly: Act 3. This is where things start to fall apart. Quests don't have markers, which is actually good because it forces the player to use their brain and engage with the world and I wish the rest of the game was like this too. But the problem is, there are no contextual clues to point to certain objectives. Expect to have to use a guide to look things up constantly in this section. There are also points where a certain choice seems idiotic, like it will lead to an obvious failure, when it fact that is counter intuitively the one correct way to go. Forget branching narrative paths. In most of acts 1 and 2 I could talk my way through any situation, but yet in act 3 there were times in which I was forced to fight, or steal, or some other specific solution.

According to what I've read, this is partially because there are HUGE chunks of story that are completely missing if you played a custom character (which I imagine 99% of people will immediately chose without thinking about it). These gaps are filled in, though if you play as Dark Urge. So what is Dark Urge? In short: the reason the game was ruined for me.

I spent 100 hours playing a generic nobody of a custom character with no backstory, no connection to the main plot, chaperoning and playing second fiddle to NPC companions with rich backstories and ties to the main plot. When in reality I could have had all of that for myself as well if I'd chosen Dark Urge, who does have a backstory and ties to the main plot. Thionk of it like the Bhaalspawn from BG1 and 2. Grew up in Candlekeep, orphan, mentor Gorion, friend Imoen, all that good stuff? Yeah, that.

The game tells you none of this. Instead, the character creation screen makes it look like Dark Urge is another origin character like Shadowheart or Gale when in reality they are the protagonist of the game AND fully customizable. In fact, Larian released a statement saying you shouldn't play Dark Urge on the first play-though, which I find to be nearly criminal.

So now I'm stuck wondering if I should replay 100+ hours trying to delicately recreate the same outcomes as my original play-though, all while knowing the important story spoilers that kind of make role-playing pointless anyway, or just finish my run so I at least don't have to wait 100 hours to see the ending for a run I already spent so much time on. But then that would just spoil things even more for me.

Character creation used to be fairly simple in CRPGs. You were expected to make a custom character AND be the focal point of the story as the only option. I wonder if Larian has even played BG1 and 2, let alone other foundational classics like Fallout.

So to summarize: I think you should buy and play BG3. Just play as Dark Urge. If you do that, the game will be mostly fantastic, a solid B or maybe even a B+. But with what happened to me, I just feel extremely resentful and bitter to the point where I just want to uninstall the game and maybe go play Rogue Trader instead.

A perfect example of why I wish Steam allowed ambivalent reviews. What the game does well: the writing has improved drastically from Original Sin. Granted, the bar there was on the floor but I still feel the need to commend Larian for this. Characters are no longer either absurdly clownish, or sounding like a 7th grader with a thesaurus trying to meet a word requirement for an essay due in five hours. The narrative is excellent as well. The main plot of the game is complex, with all these little interwoven pieces that come together beautifully and draw on the the rich lore of Forgotten Realms. You get many huge choices to make that can drastically affect your run, such as who to ally with, kill, etc. A lot of factions are at play and NPCs all have unique goals that intersect in surprising ways. Even side quests are tangentially related: you might stumble across a sidequest that seems a generic, straighforward objective that has nothing to do with the main story, but eventually affects one of your main quests by giving you new information, new paths, taking you somewhere you were supposed to be anyway, etc. There are multiple ways to end up getting the same information or reach the same point and as a result you never truly feel lost (except for act 3, more on that later). The voice acting is mostly fantastic, as is the audio/visual design. D&D feels very well represented here in a high budget way, giving it a more mature and refined look than the vast majority of pop D&D content. What the game does poorly: Act 3. This is where things start to fall apart. Quests don't have markers, which is actually good because it forces the player to use their brain and engage with the world and I wish the rest of the game was like this too. But the problem is, there are no contextual clues to point to certain objectives. Expect to have to use a guide to look things up constantly in this section. There are also points where a certain choice seems idiotic, like it will lead to an obvious failure, when it fact that is counter intuitively the one correct way to go. Forget branching narrative paths. In most of acts 1 and 2 I could talk my way through any situation, but yet in act 3 there were times in which I was forced to fight, or steal, or some other specific solution. According to what I've read, this is partially because there are HUGE chunks of story that are completely missing if you played a custom character (which I imagine 99% of people will immediately chose without thinking about it). These gaps are filled in, though if you play as Dark Urge. So what is Dark Urge? In short: the reason the game was ruined for me. I spent 100 hours playing a generic nobody of a custom character with no backstory, no connection to the main plot, chaperoning and playing second fiddle to NPC companions with rich backstories and ties to the main plot. When in reality I could have had all of that for myself as well if I'd chosen Dark Urge, who does have a backstory and ties to the main plot. Thionk of it like the Bhaalspawn from BG1 and 2. Grew up in Candlekeep, orphan, mentor Gorion, friend Imoen, all that good stuff? Yeah, that. The game tells you none of this. Instead, the character creation screen makes it look like Dark Urge is another origin character like Shadowheart or Gale when in reality they are the protagonist of the game AND fully customizable. In fact, Larian released a statement saying you shouldn't play Dark Urge on the first play-though, which I find to be nearly criminal. So now I'm stuck wondering if I should replay 100+ hours trying to delicately recreate the same outcomes as my original play-though, all while knowing the important story spoilers that kind of make role-playing pointless anyway, or just finish my run so I at least don't have to wait 100 hours to see the ending for a run I already spent so much time on. But then that would just spoil things even more for me. Character creation used to be fairly simple in CRPGs. You were expected to make a custom character AND be the focal point of the story as the only option. I wonder if Larian has even played BG1 and 2, let alone other foundational classics like Fallout. So to summarize: I think you should buy and play BG3. Just play as Dark Urge. If you do that, the game will be mostly fantastic, a solid B or maybe even a B+. But with what happened to me, I just feel extremely resentful and bitter to the point where I just want to uninstall the game and maybe go play Rogue Trader instead.