Baldur's Gate III

[avatar! | 1,811]

These guys know how to run a campaign...

 

[wongojack | 214]

Guys, I am REALLY trying with this game.  A family member bought it for me as an early Christmas present because he wants to play it with me and now 3 of us are playing.  He's already finished the story but the other 2 of us have not.

I spent about 4-5 hours playing in single player just to get my bearings.  I'm experienced at many different "classic" RPGs, and other computer tactical games, so the gameplay was not completely foreign.  However, I haven't really played an isometric RPG in quite a while.  KOTOR (if it counts) was probably the last one, so it has been a good long break.

Honestly, I am kind of understanding why the genre died.  Playing in multiplayer isn't helping, but there is soooo much time taken up by messing with little things that just shouldn't matter.  Why can't party member X climb the ladder and which character has the key for the door?  If I had already committed 50 hours to the single player then some of that would be easier, but the game is constantly filled with tactical situations where I just click the wrong thing and end up doing something other than I wanted.  "Oh as a rogue you have 2 sneaks, one is free and one is an action."  "If you right click the potion you can throw it, but if you left click you drink it."

The game seriously needs an undo button because making a simple mistake in the menus causes a lot of frustration.  A better autosave system would also help alleviate some of these problems.

Besides the genre, controls, menus, tactics whatever - there are times when the game just doesn't seem to have completely fleshed out the whole "Do or say anything you want" piece.  A simple interaction with some kids in the first village left me bewildered as to why some of my inventory items were gone.  I caught one of them pickpocketing me, but my human playing companions explained they pickpocketed me anyway.  Then why did the game tell me with multiple dialog options that I had caught them?  Another scenario where we are finding a druid prisoner caused us to reload 2x after we just couldn't predict what the dialog choices would result in or they were just ignored.  "Stay here" and he follow us anyway.

And the multiplayer . . .  It totally just feels tacked on to me.  There was no attempt to streamline the game down to accommodate multiple players.  We all do exactly the same thing as we would do in the single player campaign including camping, shopping, talking to companions.  I guess I am glad the multiplayer is there, but a few considerations here and there to save some time would have been appreciated.  IMO this has been a well known problem with multiplayer RPGs for decades.  Whenever you enter a situation where the game reverts to single player (like when you are supposed to walk around and talk for an hour or more), you should make a different choice for multiplayer.

Anyway, I realize coming to a thread like this is like telling a bunch of moms that their baby is ugly, but I think I'm ready to quit - at least in multiplayer.  I need to go through all the trial and error of actually learning the depth of the game by myself before I can really enjoy it.  I'll also end up skipping a ton of story or just breezing through it in multiplayer and that is (hopefully) one of the better parts of this game. . .

[Webhead123 | 675]

I will say that, although multiplayer can be fun in its own ways, I WOULD NOT recommend it as the primary environment in which to learn and experience the game for the first time. I think this is a game that benefits from being able to take your time with it, learn the nuances and explore the world and the ways in which you can interact with it. Putting yourself in a multiplayer game sets certain restrictions and places certain pressures that I don't think make for the best experience your first time through.

The genre isn't for everyone and even within the genre itself, BG3 is not the easiest to pick up or the quickest to master. I've got 400+ hours in the game and I'm still discovering features, interactions and systems that I didn't know about. Let it be a game about discovery, experimentation and refining your skills and I think you will enjoy it more. Also...there is quite a lot to explore in the game, so absolutely do not go into it hoping or expecting to find every interaction, fight every monster and complete every quest. That just isn't going to happen, so let your journey develop more organically and don't worry about completionism.

[wongojack | 214]

27 minutes ago, Webhead123 said:

I will say that, although multiplayer can be fun in its own ways, I WOULD NOT recommend it as the primary environment in which to learn and experience the game for the first time. I think this is a game that benefits from being able to take your time with it, learn the nuances and explore the world and the ways in which you can interact with it. Putting yourself in a multiplayer game sets certain restrictions and places certain pressures that I don't think make for the best experience your first time through.

The genre isn't for everyone and even within the genre itself, BG3 is not the easiest to pick up or the quickest to master. I've got 400+ hours in the game and I'm still discovering features, interactions and systems that I didn't know about. Let it be a game about discovery, experimentation and refining your skills and I think you will enjoy it more. Also...there is quite a lot to explore in the game, so absolutely do not go into it hoping or expecting to find every interaction, fight every monster and complete every quest. That just isn't going to happen, so let your journey develop more organically and don't worry about completionism.

Yeah, completion is not my problem.  I'm trying to streamline and can't get there.  Steam says that I have more than 30 hours in the game, and I still feel like I am constantly slowing my party down.  I'm always making a mistake, struggling with the camera, or just not knowing the right order to do things in.  That would all be fine if I controlled the save games and could save maniacally like I want, but even that needs to be negotiated when playing in multi.

 

An "undo" button would REALLY help

Edited December 29, 2023 by wongojack

[avatar! | 1,811]

Interestingly enough, BG3 actually won best multiplayer game of 2023 --

https://gamerant.com/baldurs-gate-3-game-awards-2023/

Baldur's Gate 3 walked out of The Game Awards 2023 with the coveted Game of the Year award, the player-voted Player's Voice Award, Best Performance, Best Community Support, Best RPG, and Best Multiplayer.

[wongojack | 214]

2 hours ago, avatar! said:

Interestingly enough, BG3 actually won best multiplayer game of 2023 --

https://gamerant.com/baldurs-gate-3-game-awards-2023/

Baldur's Gate 3 walked out of The Game Awards 2023 with the coveted Game of the Year award, the player-voted Player's Voice Award, Best Performance, Best Community Support, Best RPG, and Best Multiplayer.

I definitely don't think it deserves that, but it is the ONLY multiplayer game that I likely played all year (besides those that fit in the Overcooked category), so it gets credit for getting me into a multiplayer game.  Ultimately, I'd prefer a separate set of "missions" or a shorter multiplayer campaign that was designed especially not to waste my time.