BG1 and BG2 were huge successes! How did it take a developer 20 years to make a 3rd game when the series was such a huge hit? Anyway, I'm more than thrilled to be able to play another sequel to my all-time favorite RP series before I retire to the halls of Valhalla.
I didn't play in early access, because I had no idea BG3 was in development. Curses to me for being out of the loop! So I just started playing on BG3's release date. I've only gotten to the part where my party gets to meet my "old friend" (and lover in BG2) Jaheira. I love Karlach's reaction when she meets Jaheira btw.
So while my experience with BG3 is very limited, here are my thoughts so far. I really don't like how the camera works. Very clumsy and work intensive for this senior player. At my advanced age, I'm not as nimble and quick as I used to be. So I am glad that they are still doing the turn based combat. (HUGE plus for me.)
I love the storyline so far. Also, they did a really good job imo of giving the recruitable chars rich back stories. Love it when your fellow adventurers are very entertaining with an interesting history. So I am really enjoying getting to know my fellow companions. A guide also brought to my attention that if I use a pregenerated "Tav" for whatever class I want to play, my character will have a nice history/story. A must do on my next play through.
I was surprised to find out my party is limited to only 4. I guess it makes coming up with a winning strategy in battles easier as they are designed for a party of 4. Having said that though, I am really loving the personalities of the recruitable characters so it is a shame that I have to leave some behind at camp. At least, I can still talk to them in camp and continue to get to know them better. I like the ability to buy a mercenary. I just didn't feel that grumpy Lae'zel was fitting in. So it was nice to be able to hire a warrior to fulfill the tank role until I could recruit Karlach.
I like the waypoints they have put into the game. Great way to quickly get back to where you left off if you left to sell or got side tracked with a side quest or something. What I don't like is how difficult it is to get to where you want to go a lot of the time. Most people probably like a challenge, but for me it gets really frustrating when I can't figure out how to get to the tower for example. Upon researching a guide, I find I have to jump from here to there, etc. Guess I'm spoiled as I liked how easy it was to navigate the terrain in BG1 and 2. Mountain in the way? Just walk around it. Find a place to cross the stream. Easy peasy.
It took a bit to get used to the combat. I have to admit that I'm more of a get in your face and cut you to shreds kinda guy. Maybe it's just me, but there's a ton of spells and abilities that I have never encountered before. So I'm going to have a tough time figuring out what strategy to use in various battles. So much magic and so many choices and so many chars to choose from! Thank goodness for guides or I would've been dead a few times already with no hope of progressing in the story.
Then there are problems I encounter like fixing the elevator. Again, so thankful for walkthrough guides! Fixing the elevator was waay too labor intensive and time consuming for my liking. I'm confident that I'm in the minority here as I'm thinking most people will enjoy the challenge. For me though, I'd much rather have a simple "fix" so I can spend most of my adventuring time talking to people and fighting battles. In this game, getting from point A to B is waay to difficult for this old soul.
In summary, I am ecstatic that they have finally done a sequel to this series. The game mechanics are a bit clumsy for me and the plethora of spells mind boggling, but I do love the story and chars I interact with. I would have preferred a party of 6. Heck, with all these interesting characters, let's make it a party of 10! Also, love that they have brought back some of the chars from 1 and 2.
I haven't gotten far into the game yet, but I really liked what I have seen so far.
Found the system confusing as Hell at first, and it took me some time to get into the spell system. Not that I don't understand it, but I tend to forget that it doesn't work like in the old games or NWN.
Had to adjust the key bindings, because old habits die hard.
Had some technical issues, but solved them. The game has relatively high requirements.
On character creation you can choose between custom, one of the main companions and a custom character with a dark background (you wake up with a headache and remember nothing but your name, and you sometimes have dark thoughts/fantasies/visions) . Chose the latter, but I will try to play as "good" as I can. I wonder if this special background has been added for us oldies.
There is a TON of skill checks, maybe they overdid this a bit.
Combat takes awhile. Wasn't sure what to make of it at first. But then it became fun. At a point I just HAD to try and kill an optional Boss very early in the game (you don't have to fight him), just because I wanted to make use of some spells and objects.
You can interact with many things and also carry around many things. In combat or otherwise, you have options beside the obvious, like setting a greasy surface aflame, throwing all kinds of stuff, jumping, pushing creatures and what ever else. Some first-level-spells are even more overpowered than they used to be.
There is a certain level of reactivity, some dialog choices only appear when you have a certain class, and NPC reactions (and outcomes of situations) may depend on your race, class and what you decided before.
There are choices, and not always easy ones, because sometimes it is hard to guess who are the "good" guys, who are the "bad" guys and what future consequences will be.
What I have seen of the story so far I really enjoyed.
It may be only me, but in some dialog lines, in item descriptions and other small details I often find something that reminds me of older games.
Can only speak for myself, but I am enjoying the game very much so far (still early in Act 1).
Comments
BG1 and BG2 were huge successes! How did it take a developer 20 years to make a 3rd game when the series was such a huge hit? Anyway, I'm more than thrilled to be able to play another sequel to my all-time favorite RP series before I retire to the halls of Valhalla.
I didn't play in early access, because I had no idea BG3 was in development. Curses to me for being out of the loop!
So while my experience with BG3 is very limited, here are my thoughts so far. I really don't like how the camera works. Very clumsy and work intensive for this senior player. At my advanced age, I'm not as nimble and quick as I used to be. So I am glad that they are still doing the turn based combat. (HUGE plus for me.)
I love the storyline so far. Also, they did a really good job imo of giving the recruitable chars rich back stories. Love it when your fellow adventurers are very entertaining with an interesting history. So I am really enjoying getting to know my fellow companions. A guide also brought to my attention that if I use a pregenerated "Tav" for whatever class I want to play, my character will have a nice history/story. A must do on my next play through.
I was surprised to find out my party is limited to only 4. I guess it makes coming up with a winning strategy in battles easier as they are designed for a party of 4. Having said that though, I am really loving the personalities of the recruitable characters so it is a shame that I have to leave some behind at camp. At least, I can still talk to them in camp and continue to get to know them better. I like the ability to buy a mercenary. I just didn't feel that grumpy Lae'zel was fitting in. So it was nice to be able to hire a warrior to fulfill the tank role until I could recruit Karlach.
I like the waypoints they have put into the game. Great way to quickly get back to where you left off if you left to sell or got side tracked with a side quest or something. What I don't like is how difficult it is to get to where you want to go a lot of the time. Most people probably like a challenge, but for me it gets really frustrating when I can't figure out how to get to the tower for example. Upon researching a guide, I find I have to jump from here to there, etc. Guess I'm spoiled as I liked how easy it was to navigate the terrain in BG1 and 2. Mountain in the way? Just walk around it. Find a place to cross the stream. Easy peasy.
It took a bit to get used to the combat. I have to admit that I'm more of a get in your face and cut you to shreds kinda guy. Maybe it's just me, but there's a ton of spells and abilities that I have never encountered before. So I'm going to have a tough time figuring out what strategy to use in various battles. So much magic and so many choices and so many chars to choose from! Thank goodness for guides or I would've been dead a few times already with no hope of progressing in the story.
Then there are problems I encounter like fixing the elevator. Again, so thankful for walkthrough guides! Fixing the elevator was waay too labor intensive and time consuming for my liking. I'm confident that I'm in the minority here as I'm thinking most people will enjoy the challenge. For me though, I'd much rather have a simple "fix" so I can spend most of my adventuring time talking to people and fighting battles. In this game, getting from point A to B is waay to difficult for this old soul.
In summary, I am ecstatic that they have finally done a sequel to this series. The game mechanics are a bit clumsy for me and the plethora of spells mind boggling, but I do love the story and chars I interact with. I would have preferred a party of 6. Heck, with all these interesting characters, let's make it a party of 10! Also, love that they have brought back some of the chars from 1 and 2.
Found the system confusing as Hell at first, and it took me some time to get into the spell system. Not that I don't understand it, but I tend to forget that it doesn't work like in the old games or NWN.
Had to adjust the key bindings, because old habits die hard.
Had some technical issues, but solved them. The game has relatively high requirements.
On character creation you can choose between custom, one of the main companions and a custom character with a dark background (you wake up with a headache and remember nothing but your name, and you sometimes have dark thoughts/fantasies/visions) . Chose the latter, but I will try to play as "good" as I can. I wonder if this special background has been added for us oldies.
There is a TON of skill checks, maybe they overdid this a bit.
Combat takes awhile. Wasn't sure what to make of it at first. But then it became fun. At a point I just HAD to try and kill an optional Boss very early in the game (you don't have to fight him), just because I wanted to make use of some spells and objects.
You can interact with many things and also carry around many things. In combat or otherwise, you have options beside the obvious, like setting a greasy surface aflame, throwing all kinds of stuff, jumping, pushing creatures and what ever else. Some first-level-spells are even more overpowered than they used to be.
There is a certain level of reactivity, some dialog choices only appear when you have a certain class, and NPC reactions (and outcomes of situations) may depend on your race, class and what you decided before.
There are choices, and not always easy ones, because sometimes it is hard to guess who are the "good" guys, who are the "bad" guys and what future consequences will be.
What I have seen of the story so far I really enjoyed.
It may be only me, but in some dialog lines, in item descriptions and other small details I often find something that reminds me of older games.
Can only speak for myself, but I am enjoying the game very much so far (still early in Act 1).