Baldur's Gate 3: Worldwide Reveal (actual gameplay)
Astafas
Member Posts: 448
I could not have been more disappointed. This has nothing to do with the BG series. It's a Divinity Original Sin clone in every way. Can't see myself buy it, even less play it. A thousandth run of the originals will give me more. Or Pathfinder: Kingmaker, PoE2 or others... Did not see this coming. :-(
https://youtu.be/7bRyG5WpIMY
https://youtu.be/7bRyG5WpIMY 10
Comments
What were your expectations? Basically be the BG rehashed in the same way but updated how?
The turn based combat isn't even quite what I was expecting, from having played Original Sin. Seems more akin to the modern XCOM games, with your whole party being able to move at once and the ability to switch between them even mid-move. So that will create a lot of interesting tactics, and a combat a bit different from OS.
Only real misgiving I have about the game is how it's perhaps overeager to chuck a ton of extreme fantasy stuff at the player early. I always think these games are a little better starting off in a much more grounded way (Candlekeep, the caravan in Pillars). Though obviously the mindflayer sickness gives you a good plot motivation early on, with a strong potential of supporting an open world.
Great point, bc halfway through all of his explanations I kept thinking: holy fuck this is a lot to take in, learning curve etc. But that's why many games (for me) are amazing bc learning like that only makes it more fun when you finally kick some ass.
I was hoping for at least a resemblance of Baldur's Gate. Have you played Pillars of Eternity 2? Pathfinder: Kingmaker? Take that, add some additional flair and put it into the Forgotten Realms. This game could - and should - have another name.
I personally dont think it's reasonable to ask Larian to move away from what has been tremendously successful for them in order to create a game that looked more like something made 20 years ago by an entirely different team of individuals using different technology and concepts for what makes a good good.
As an additional thought: I'm not trying to discredit anyone's opinion on wanting something much more like BG1 or 2 in 2020. There's nothing wrong with that. I'd like for the original bioware team to get together and do that too. I dont much care what it's called if they did.
For what *this* will be, I think it looks like a *very* promising start.
*They're good at it. Like, really good at it.
* DnD is based on turn based anyway.
* I like the suspense of the dice roll.
So, Fallout 4-NV and Mass effect are a Call of duty clone because they are both 3rd person FPS?
And I suppose Skyrim and Witcher 3 are a clone of Assassins creed because they are Action RPGs too...
The combat ruleset is very diferent, as it is the combat mechanics in DOS games and the ones you use in 5e. If you say that the graphics are similar... well they are using an improved version of the game engine of Larian so...
Neverwinter nights 2 and the first witcher game both use the Aurora engine and nobody that played those games will say that they are clones because the games have very different mechanics even if they look similar.
I am not going to say that I´m thrilled with the idea but Sven Vincke from Larian and Mike Mearls from WoTC keep on saying that the videogame is based in D&D5e, sword coast setting, and the Baldur´s gate Adventures MiBG and DiA; not in the first games. They were very forthright even from the first interview so I kinda expected that.
But personally I'm actually very pleased with this. It looks like the unfolding story will be immersive. I'm okay with turn based play. Tbh as dearly as I will always love BG 1 and 2 I actually needed something like this to shake up my Forgotten Realms CRPG experience a little. I don't really know 5th edition, but I'm cool with learning it.
This looks like a lot of fun to me. I'm pretty happy with what I'm seeing.
Some time back I tried a little bit of D:OS just to get a feel for the graphics, interface, and turn based thing. I didn't fall in love with it immediately or anything. But overall it felt fine to me. The D:OS ruleset, story, and setting in themselves didn't really grab me so I didn't get far in the game at all and set it aside. But I played enough to get a flavor.
There's a difference here, though. With BG3 I've got D&D (albeit 5e but how different can it be? gulp), the Sword Coast, and the magnificent city of Baldur's Gate. So I expect to be emotionally invested.
I do get the disappointment of it not being rtwp, but all I can say is myself I'm okay with 5e and turn based. For me it'll be a nice change of pace.
Looks cool.
I don't have anything to base this on, pure speculation. But, I highly suspect that's just a macguffin to get your hero to complete some first quest before launching into whatever the larger mystery of the main quest will be. So, you could still end up with some kind of typical RPG plot as you describe. Or there might be Bhaalspawn revival in there.
That being said, it definitely seems to be the case that there's not going to be some special origin or lineage for the main character, since the specific backstories seem to preclude that. So yeah, unlikely it's a chosen one story.
There's the murial or something showing what looks like some kind of Mind Flayer legend or prophecy. Perhaps you are infected with the 'chosen one'?
Maybe all those larva are a Bhaalspawns brood and this is another way of spreading his blood through Faerun? Maybe the big tentacle chap is connected to Bhaal in some way.
So I have mixed feelings. I'll see what the end product is like. I'm not in a rush to get this by any means.
2.) We knew this is the type of game we'd see the moment Larian was selected. We've known it would be turn-based LONG before this afternoon.
3.) Larian earned the right to make this game by winning the recent "battle" of retro RPGs. Their Divinity: Orginal Sin games were more successful and flat-out better than Obsidian's and inExile's.
4.) The real-time with pause market has already been cornered by Pillars and Kingmaker. Instead, they decided they wanted to work with the developer whose recent games went WAY beyond that more niche audience.
No spell incantations. No hand drawn pics of items. No BG look and feel in the GUI. Enemies flying through air like in a cartoon. Origin stories and basically the whole beginning of the game copy pasted from DoS2.
And the beginning of the game is too epic. It feels like end game content.
The So What is its alienating to those of us who didn't want Divinity Original Sin 3, we wanted Baldur's Gate 3. And you can definitely speak for yourself and not me in regards to what they demonstrated.
Kidding of course. The Reddit crowd seems to be over the top in both directions so I'm glad there are some level-headed takes here.
I'm really mixed on this. That opening cinematic was HAWT. I was really excited when I saw the gameplay initially up until the point it took Sven 10 minutes (with a solitary character) to get out of the room covered in grease.
I knew this was going to look like DOS but I was really hoping they'd find a way to retain some of the 'feel/vibe/atmosphere' of the original series (this can still happen, but not on a "the launch engine will be totally different" level). It's not lost on me that WotC clearly dug up the most popular IP they'd acquired in the past 20 years to slap their name on it. That's the way it feels anyway pending some unforeseen tie-in. My HOPE is that there's not some cheesy fan service and that's it. I mean...if Boo becomes a companion I'm back in two feet first.
I don't think it's unreasonable to have some expectation that at a minimum they will try and make it feel like Baldur's Gate. But the more I see, validate, and confirm the more I think I just might not be the target audience. One of the really interesting things that happened with the first two games was the bastardization of the ruleset from tabletop to the video game. I don't need this to be as close to the tabletop experience as possible.
I'm most excited for the people who are really excited about this and maybe over time this one will be a grower and I'll get into it later. In a really strange way, it's almost a relief to see the direction Larian is planning.
Comments like these seem unnecessarily antagonistic, and not productive to discussion. Am I required to preface every observation of mine by saying "To me, it was very impressive"? Of course I was speaking for myself.
Please.
@JuliusBorisov Penny for your thoughts on all of this?
I haven't spoken to you in ages. Do you have any idea how BG3 may tie into the originals, if at all?
My first impression is actually one of relief "I might not have to devote hundreds of hours to this." However, I really do hope there's a meaningful way the games are related but I have to tell you that right now I'm incredibly cynical. And my apprehensions aren't something I'm wanting to hang on the devs. I personally just can't see why this should be BG3 but my imagination may be failing me.
The sad part is I'm not even sure this was needed. They could have just made D:OS3. The 2nd one was well received, wasn't it?
Or maybe we'll get the full load of BG-ness eventually, who knows. The engine seems solid enough, and I'm sure mods can tweak it here and there for the individual touch. So far, though, this is more of a pass for me I'm afraid. But I'll keep watching, and I'm always ready to change my mind.
1. Turn based combat is quite different than OS. It's not action point based. It's not initiative based. It's closer to combat in XCOM than OS. Might not seem like a big difference, but veterans of the OS games will quickly recognize that effective tactics and character builds are likely to be quite different under this system. In fact, from an effective tactics/strategy standpoint, this is a bigger change than switching from real time.
2. Dialogue and the writing. I saw none of the goofy, wackiness of the OS series here. All the characters and the interactions in the beginning are played straight. Grim and dark. There was almost no humor in that opener. The dialogue is also clearly inspired by Dragon Age to an extent as well.
3. Camping, spells on rest -- Not OS.
4. Skill check rolls are not generally an OS thing, not outside of dialogue anyways.