SPOILERS: Spoil Away (There Be BG3 Spoilers Here Yarrr)
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With the EA coming out today it seems like we could benefit from a thread where people can freely discuss the game without needing to use spoiler tags.
So if ye be wantin to steer clear of spoilers and such, turn back now and avoid these treacherous waters.
Alright, no more pirate talk for me.
So if ye be wantin to steer clear of spoilers and such, turn back now and avoid these treacherous waters.
Alright, no more pirate talk for me.
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When it does come out, I'll no doubt start with my classic LN Human Wizard as my starter character. Depending on what sorts of companions we get for the rest of the game, I might also try a Tiefling Warlock, a Wood Elf Druid, and Dragonborn (if they get added. If not, Dwarven) Barbarian.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/10/baldurs-gate-3-early-access-mediocre-rpg-amazing-rendering-engine/
Considering it lays out your starting situation, what order you encounter the NPC's in, and the NPCs themselves, I'd say the review is a bit spoilery.
An interesting review, even if I probably won't end up agreeing with it. FWIW the author does lay out the extent of the spoilers early in the text, they're not much more than what we saw from Swen's gameplay footage.
"I'll try to avoid any serious spoilers, but it's impossible to talk about the storyline's issues without at least a couple of minor reveals—which I'll limit to the first two hours or so of gameplay."
Moved to this thread. Spoilers should be treated seriously.
- The cutscenes are gorgeous and the gameplay graphics look fine, although overwhelmingly reminiscent of Divinity. Visually, it simply feels like playing Divinity. But it looks nice enough.
- While I'm only an hour in and don't know if this holds true throughout the whole game, I'm finding an absurd amount of weird consumables. Various bulbs that can be used as thrown weapons, numerous potions, scrolls galore... very much like Divinity.
- Excessive use of elemental surfaces. This was something I had feared. Every damn room so far has had numerous patches of fire, and half my spells leave fields of fire or acid or something else. It's strange to say so, but there's such a thing as too much environmental interaction. In the very first fight of the game, I flung a firebolt at an imp and the literal entire half of the room exploded, killing me and the other character you meet (no spoilers) in an instant. I had no idea why this explosion happened.
- I can't seem to pause the game at all in any way. If I hit escape, the game goes on behind the menu. This may have no direct impact on gameplay since it's turn-based, but it's still odd that there's no way to pause at all. Does the passing of time matter in this game? Is there a day/night cycle? If so, it kinda feels like you have to exit the game anytime you want to go AFK.
- Thus far, the game has featured a steady stream of restoration devices that you click on for an instant full heal. It's possible that these only exist in the very beginning. I certainly hope so. If this persists throughout the game, that's a huge disappointment. Every time there's any kind of area transition, there's a restoration device waiting for you. It's extremely videogamey.
- I can't find any combat log or really any kind of text feedback besides the brief on-screen hit/miss and damage numbers. It doesn't tell me if the target resisted part of the damage, what my attack rolls were, etc. Did I miss a button somewhere to open the combat log? There's very little information to go by during fights. If you miss the literal one-second hit/miss/damage message shown above the target's head, you have no way of knowing what the hell just happened.
I'll be quite honest here and say that so far, this feels far more like Divinity 3 adapted to the D&D ruleset. The visuals, the controls, the playstyle and fundamental gameplay. It's all the little things like... an enemy ran through a patch of fire on the ground and took one damage per step exactly like in Divinity. Item manipulation, environmental interactions, movement, absolutely everything is precisely like Divinity.
1. Character creation is awesome. I spent quite a bit of time here and really enjoyed it.
2. Music so far is very good. There is one specific track that had a kind of Baldur’s Gate 2 intro feel.
3. Combat - I haven’t done much in the way of combat so far but what I have done feels good. I like that it feels pretty quick even for turn based. It’s obviously low level so the baddies are dying easy but even so it feels like a decent pace.
4. Dice rolls - I’m quite enjoying this part. I’ve made a point of not reloading if I fail a roll. I failed a very annoying one and it did frustrate me a bit and I was so tempted to reload but I stick to my guns and didn’t re load.
5. Graphically it looks great. Especially cut scenes and when you are in dialogue mode. Really impressed with how the game looks.I have seen some graphic glitches but that is obviously to be expected in early access.
6. Enjoyment factor - it’s definitely positive in this department so far as I only stopped as my other half was giving me the evil eye. I am eagerly awaiting her hitting the sack so I can get back in there.
All in all very positive so far. Obviously it’s early access and there are some glitches and issues I have noticed already but the fact that I can’t wait to dive back in is a great indicator ? I hope anyone else who has gone for early access is enjoying the ride so far. Baldur’s Gate 3 early access has indeed landed!!
it feels like it's the exact opposite issue dos 2 had. that game was to silly this is to dark.
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/baldurs-gate-3-early-access-review/
https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-review
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/10/06/baldurs-gate-3-review-early-access/
From what I've read, it sounds like it isnt perfect, but is mostly passable.
Here's another review that's a bit more tepid.
https://kotaku.com/20-hours-with-baldurs-gate-3s-buggy-early-access-versio-1845287075
the Tl;dr is that the game is very buggy, and you're hit with a lot up front (Companions, places to go, things to do, etc) - essentially, the game could use more focusing.
That kind of feedback will be given to the developers and hopefully we'll see improvement.
This video is a 23 minute playthrough of the beginning of the game. I watched most of it. Made it a link as I don't want to put too much media in this thread.
Frankly, it belies to me a lot of what was said in the Ars Tecnica review. The Gith NPC comes across as desperate and rude, but "hates the protagonist" seems like a completely incorrect reading. As well the little bit of combat we see in this video doesn't match that review's summary either. I still don't understand why the review harped for so long on leftover movement points -- a thing that has been in D&D CRPG's since Pool of Radiance.
Anyways, the video is worth your time if you're not worried about coming into the game cold, but also want a look at EA without the hassle of buying+downloading.
I think that critical review is a very good thing to have precisely because I am fully expecting an avalanche of "this is sooooo awesome!" gushing. Most of these review sites are all about ass-kissing whoever is their darling studio at any given time, and since D:OS that's been Larian. So in the same way that we got a ton of ass-kissing reviews of D:OS2, it was already baked in from the very first moment in February when the game was announced that we were going to get only echo-chamber reviews of this game. So this one reviewer having the guts to break out of that echo-chamber and provide an alternative take on the game is significant to me.
Yeah, there's a reason "7/10 from IGN" is a meme. AAA games and developers very, very rarely get bad reviews. It's something I noticed even when I was a kid, reading old Game Informer magazines. The AAA games that had a 1-3 page spread all have 9-10 scores, and the indie games were judged more fairly, even openly mocked at times.
Somehow... It looked better when Swen played it?
I didnt say it was a bad thing to have. I only said that it is (so far) not representative of the reviews I've seen. Outlier are sometimes right, but more often than not, they're just outliers.
Also, we intuitively put more credence in things that confirm our biases or priors. They're not truly any better or more useful, we just want them to confirm our world view.
Someone was asking previously about character customization, if you can alter your features after you pick one of the head templates. The answer to that is a big fat *no*. Besides hair and makeup, your face is what it is and you can't change it. If none of the 6 options, in our case, suits you, tough luck. Choose something else.
The graphics really are great. It's like a damn movie. So much so that parts are unsettling, in a good way, because it would be unsettling to see in real life.
My PC is making sounds like a portal to the Abyss has opened up inside. It's a decent rig though so it's holding out.
This is shaping up to be the ultimate AAA RPG. Whether that's good or not is up to you...
Combat takes place in very large setpieces, that look nothing like the surrounding environment and scream "here is where combat will happen". It doesn't feel organic one bit.
The Skyrim-esque zoom in on critical hits is cool.
There are a lot of skill rolls, and I like that. For people who always want the best outcome, that will be frustrating, but I like the possibility of failure.
It's nice to actually have jumping mechanics in a DnD game for once, ever. Gets a little old being glued to the ground at all times when DnD itself has jumping, climbing, flying mechanics.
The camera controls are lacking. No vertical movement. This can probably be patched in, and it should be.
Your race and class seem to matter quite a bit. We have had several unique dialogue choices, both for being a ranger and a halfling.
It's one of those things where if this wasn't possible, could you really even call it Baldurs Gate at all.
This even works on totally innocent NPCs.
1.) The game is exceedingly dark. The Mindflayer ship is positively grotesque.
2.) I REALLY appreciate the fact that the numbers are low, and my Drow Rogue only has 9 hit points to start out. This is how it should be.
3.) This is, as most predicted, an evolution of the D:OS series with a D&D license, but it's quite an evolution. In the first half-hour, I have had 4 dice roll skill checks (these things are awesome), jumped up on top of some rocks to get to an imp (they have added verticality to an isometric game) and dipped my weapons in fire for extra damage. Moreover, there is ACTUAL opportunity and use for those "acrobatic" moves like pushing and jumping that simply haven't been used in this type of game before.
If you want the Infinity Engine, this isn't going to be your bag. If you want to next evolution of what turn-based combat and implementing previously unused aspects of pen and paper games into a digital medium, the Larian have you covered.
Even your race usually has a specific dialogue option for most situations. For instance, the first time I fell asleep, I had a Wisdom check option, a Constitution option, or a Drow option. This was a skill check to fall asleep because of the parasite in your head. The Drow option simply allows you to embrace the pain and pass out from it. If this is the kind of detail that has been put into literally EVERY minor interaction and event in this game, then it is going to be really something. I've done more RP in one hour than most full games.
Kite enemies with a bow the best strategy? Maybe this is a sequel to the Baldur's Gate games.