Baldur's Gate
- Thread starter Caldwin
- Start date
It's definitely a vastly different experience from the sorts of RPGs that have come out in the past couple decades. It feels almost like what you might get if you tried to make a fantasy RPG in the XCOM: Enemy Unknown engine. Also you actually roll virtual D20s for skill checks; how wacky is that? And yet, unlike other "old-school" RPGs like the original Witcher, it's all still playable with a controller.
My only real gripe with it based on what I've heard so far is that it doesn't have the customizability of old Neverwinter Nights. The characters I'd like to make in there aren't possible since it's just PHB races, and you can't do any real "houseruling" of your own. Maybe they'll make a NWN3, but I don't know that WOTC would allow it as that comes even closer to stepping on the toes of their VTT.
What I planned:
I think I'll be a Tiefling Fighter. And since this is basically D&D and I wouldn't get do-overs with a real life GM, I'm just going to take the bad consequences with the good, come what may.
What happened:
Well, Drow have better species bonuses and Warlock has better cantrips. Sooooo. Yeah! I guess I'm a Drow Warlock.
Oh no! I just killed that poor doggie. I didn't want to, but he attacked and when I tried to do non-lethal damage...noooooo! Reload save. Reload save. RELOAD SAVE!!!!!!
I think I'll be a Tiefling Fighter. And since this is basically D&D and I wouldn't get do-overs with a real life GM, I'm just going to take the bad consequences with the good, come what may.
What happened:
Well, Drow have better species bonuses and Warlock has better cantrips. Sooooo. Yeah! I guess I'm a Drow Warlock.
Oh no! I just killed that poor doggie. I didn't want to, but he attacked and when I tried to do non-lethal damage...noooooo! Reload save. Reload save. RELOAD SAVE!!!!!!
FFXIV has a heterochromia option. I think it's labeled as "odd eyes" when selecting eye color.
Probably gonna pick up BG at some point, after I catch up with some more of my backlog.
Probably gonna pick up BG at some point, after I catch up with some more of my backlog.
Okay, so I've been playing this for a week +/-. So I'm still early game (I think maybe I started Chapter 2 if I'm not mistaken). But I think I've played enough to at least give my early "first thoughts" review.
Controls:
So I was skeptical when I first got this. The first two Baldur's Gate games were primarily PC games and when I tried to play them on console (Switch), they did not take the transition well to a console controller well IMO. I absolutely loved Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance on Gamecube, but that was specifically made for console. An actual mainline BG game on console? I was skeptical.
But boy oh boy did Larian do a great job moving this to console. I will say that there is a LOT to get a handle on here. There's radial menus upon radial menus. There's a lot of things that you're going to have to learn along they way on the controls. But man! As you start to learn it, it works very well on a console controller.
Note to self: red controller is starting to get some really bad drift. Only play with white controller and get red controller replaced asap.
Note to Square Enix: This game proves turn-based is still viable and you done goofed with FF XVI.
Character Creation:
Mostly what you need to know is that you have a lot of choices, but character creation is based on choices vs. sliders. Yeah, no sliders. But with the choices the game does give you, you should be able to get a character that is uniquely yours. If you want a cis character, you can do cis. If you want a transgender character, you can do transgender. You can do heterochromia. Drow, Human, Elf, Tiefling...honestly, this game is the first I ever heard of a Githyanki, but yeah, you have options.
In-game Choices:
I love how much choice you have in this game. What I mean is, in Mass Effect you have Paragon, Renegade and maybe a middle of the road. But here, both in character and out of character, you can do anything. Like, there are some quests that are timed sensitive. "Boy oh boy, I'm about to die. I need a long-rest." Well, alright, but people are going to die and you're probably going to fail a quest. You side with the evil guys and kill the innocent village or you can side with the innocent village and kill the badges. You can go around total starkers or you can protect your poor impressionable eyes and wear clothes and even turn off nudity in love scenes. You can totally endear yourself to Shadowheart, totally infuriate Lae'zel...and that may or may not be mutually exclusive in some cases.
Basically, I've never seen a video game that gives you the absolute freedom of a table-top RPG with a good GM. But this game comes so, so very close.
Bugs and Glitches:
I honestly haven't noted any. I'm sure if I did a deep dive, I might find some. But honestly, in a world where the industry standard seems to be to release buggy messes and come around later with patches to fix everything up, Larian actually seems to have released a rock-steady game right out of the box. Total kudos to them! This is what the industry standard should be.
Overall Grade:
This is easily a five-star game. In fact, for most of the year, I would've said "if Tears of the Kingdom doesn't get GotY, there's no justice in the world." Well, I still think TotK should get a nomination, but I do think that BG3 absolutely deserves to be right there in the running as well.
Controls:
So I was skeptical when I first got this. The first two Baldur's Gate games were primarily PC games and when I tried to play them on console (Switch), they did not take the transition well to a console controller well IMO. I absolutely loved Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance on Gamecube, but that was specifically made for console. An actual mainline BG game on console? I was skeptical.
But boy oh boy did Larian do a great job moving this to console. I will say that there is a LOT to get a handle on here. There's radial menus upon radial menus. There's a lot of things that you're going to have to learn along they way on the controls. But man! As you start to learn it, it works very well on a console controller.
Note to self: red controller is starting to get some really bad drift. Only play with white controller and get red controller replaced asap.
Note to Square Enix: This game proves turn-based is still viable and you done goofed with FF XVI.
Character Creation:
Mostly what you need to know is that you have a lot of choices, but character creation is based on choices vs. sliders. Yeah, no sliders. But with the choices the game does give you, you should be able to get a character that is uniquely yours. If you want a cis character, you can do cis. If you want a transgender character, you can do transgender. You can do heterochromia. Drow, Human, Elf, Tiefling...honestly, this game is the first I ever heard of a Githyanki, but yeah, you have options.
In-game Choices:
I love how much choice you have in this game. What I mean is, in Mass Effect you have Paragon, Renegade and maybe a middle of the road. But here, both in character and out of character, you can do anything. Like, there are some quests that are timed sensitive. "Boy oh boy, I'm about to die. I need a long-rest." Well, alright, but people are going to die and you're probably going to fail a quest. You side with the evil guys and kill the innocent village or you can side with the innocent village and kill the badges. You can go around total starkers or you can protect your poor impressionable eyes and wear clothes and even turn off nudity in love scenes. You can totally endear yourself to Shadowheart, totally infuriate Lae'zel...and that may or may not be mutually exclusive in some cases.
Basically, I've never seen a video game that gives you the absolute freedom of a table-top RPG with a good GM. But this game comes so, so very close.
Bugs and Glitches:
I honestly haven't noted any. I'm sure if I did a deep dive, I might find some. But honestly, in a world where the industry standard seems to be to release buggy messes and come around later with patches to fix everything up, Larian actually seems to have released a rock-steady game right out of the box. Total kudos to them! This is what the industry standard should be.
Overall Grade:
This is easily a five-star game. In fact, for most of the year, I would've said "if Tears of the Kingdom doesn't get GotY, there's no justice in the world." Well, I still think TotK should get a nomination, but I do think that BG3 absolutely deserves to be right there in the running as well.
Pro tip:
Don't get focused on getting to the next chapter that you don't do every side quest available to you first. You can easily lock yourself out of these side quests and find yourself severely underleveled with nothing to get exp from.
*restarts game with new character*
Don't get focused on getting to the next chapter that you don't do every side quest available to you first. You can easily lock yourself out of these side quests and find yourself severely underleveled with nothing to get exp from.
*restarts game with new character*
Here's my new character Terraveen. Basically throw vowels and consonants together until I had something remotely pronounceable. This one's a druid. I'm already having a vastly different experience with her than I did the warlock. Maybe I can get her leveled right for later.
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I just found Shadow Hearts parents. It was...a heart breaking moment. You can either save her parents lives, in which case they face a life under the pain Shar inflicts on them (and Shadowheart and her father are elves...so...), or she can kill them, freeing all of them from Shars curse and letting them rest, though she'd only just found them after losing them as a child and now she'll have to live with knowing she killed them.
Like I said, heartbreaking either way. I let her make the choice. In the end, she decided to kill them andd give them peace. Man that was hard to watch.
Like I said, heartbreaking either way. I let her make the choice. In the end, she decided to kill them andd give them peace. Man that was hard to watch.
So I got my tiefling fighter. It was interesting getting Scratch without Speak to Animals, but I managed it.
I'm trying to prioritize Mass Effect. But the Game Awards really put me in the mood for some BG3.
Target had a good deal on game cards, so we got a Playstation one to use for BG3. Playing around with the char creator took awhile, lol.
TMM ended up with a Rogue Tiefling. Actiluay having fun for a bit until:
TMM ended up with a Rogue Tiefling. Actiluay having fun for a bit until:
In the early game, he left the grove into an area with statues that periodically shoot at you. He got his char out of the way, but the rest of the party stupidly stayed in place and died. He used a resurrection scroll on one of them... and there wasn't enough time to move, so the dude died again. Permadeath? Well, crap. TMM didn't save recently, but surely the autosave-
...last autosave point was a few hours ago when he started playing again. Well, fudge.
He's giving it a break for now.
...last autosave point was a few hours ago when he started playing again. Well, fudge.
He's giving it a break for now.
Near the beginning you should find an undead guy named Withers. He can raise your party members at camp for 200 gold each.
www.pcgamesn.com
How to find Withers in Baldur’s Gate 3
BG3 NPC Withers is a peaceful undead skeleton puzzling over the worth of a single mortal life, interact with him correctly to earn his unique services in camp.
www.pcgamesn.com