Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[d1r]

Very underwhelming trailer. Yikes.

 

[Nano]

The companions are not particularly good, that's true. But they're not particularly evil either. If you follow Larian's outlined evil path and side with the goblins in the Grove, slaughtering the druids, here's how each of them react:
Shar worshipper is upset and gets blackout drunk.
Warlock either leaves or attacks you.
Wizard leaves the party, unless you pass a DC20 persuasion check, and even then you get a huge disapproval boost.
The githyanki has no opinion no matter what happens.
The vampire is a little bit amused by the whole thing, but doesn't really care.
The full game will also feature Karlach, the tiefling paladin, who will also leave or attack you as per datamining.

Larian made all companions morally ambiguous, with some darkness to each of them, but none of them feel like they've been designed for the evil playthrough in mind, none of them explicitly approve of it. Lae'zel is probably the most evil companion, but she's fanatically opposed the game's villains and hates you for embracing the tadpole.

So they basically made sure absolutely no one would like the companions?

 

[mediocrepoet]

So they basically made sure absolutely no one would like the companions?

I like throwing Lae'zel off the side of the airship.

 

[Swen]

Look at you filthy dirty peasants talking sh*t about my game, you plebs can't understand the greatness you see.



And only the best want to work with me, thanks to my high status and respect in the industry.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sources of dissatisfaction:
1. Why reveal the bad guy? The stupidest move to do in a trailer. People don't know anything about him, yet it's the worst kind spoiler regardless.
2. Quick montage that tells you nothing about the game except "fantasy", "epic", "big kabooms"

The music at least stood out. Viktor Stoyanov strikes again.

 

[Infinitron]

"But I thought it was going to be a PC-exclusive!"

Sources of dissatisfaction:
1. Why reveal the bad guy? The stupidest move to do in a trailer. People don't know anything about him, yet it's the worst kind spoiler regardless.
2. Quick montage that tells you nothing about the game except "fantasy", "epic", "big kabooms"

The music at least stood out. Viktor Stoyanov strikes again.

The update clearly states that he's not the bad guy.

 

[Larianshill]

Why reveal the bad guy?

Ketheric is not the bad guy. He is a bad guy.

 

[just]

How are you supposed to be a holy knight in this game if all or nearly all of your "companions" are either outright evil, worshipping Shar, or have some pact with a devil, or are in some other way an evil alien thing that paladins normally would smite on-sight?

to play it solo, like most rpgs today

 

[Larianshill]

So they basically made sure absolutely no one would like the companions?

The companions are generally liked outside of Codex. I think that Wyll is the only one to have really missed the mark, he has basically no fanbase.
The problem with the companions, I think, is that they were all designed to be both companions and playable characters, so all of them to varying degree have potential for good and evil. That can be good, there's nothing wrong with shades of grey. The problem is, the characters might be grey, but the game's plot sure as hell isn't. There's the clear good, represented by the druids, the tieflings and the svirfneblin, and the cartoonish evil, represented by the goblins and the duergar. Characters stuck between good and evil feel odd in the game's incredibly traditional narrative.

Another narrative oddity is Lae'zel. Lae'zel believes that the only cure for the mind flayer tadpole lies in the githyanki creche, and she hurries you towards it in her every line of dialogue. She even disapproves of taking on many quests because she considers them a waste of time, when all you have to do is go to her people and get healed. Which is sensible - however, first of all, the githyanki creche is not actually in the Early Access, making interacting with Lae'zel a frustrating experience. Secondly, the githyanki creche is a high level area, and the game clearly doesn't want you to go there until you're finished with the other content (which Lae'zel bitches at you for doing). And thirdly, anyone with a brain understands that the tadpole is the game's main conflict, and a trip to an early game location isn't going to fix shit. Which, again, makes listening to Lae'zel prat about it annoying.
It actually reminds me of something in Dragon Age Origins. Very early on you have the option to ask your companions about what do they feel you should do. Morrigan tells you that the first thing on your list should be going after Loghain and killing him. The game doesn't actually give you the option. Well, imagine if Morrigan kept insisting that you need to do it anyhow.

 

[Fedora Master]

700 pages of off topic talk and 0 relevant development. Laffo.

 

[Havoc]

I can't believe we will be fighting J. Jonah Jameson.

Parker! I need pictures of the Bhaalspawn on my desk tomorrow! He is a menace to the city of Baldur's Gate!

 

[Kem0sabe]

Apparently no xbox release

 

[AwesomeButton]

Why reveal the bad guy?

Ketheric is not the bad guy. He is a bad guy.

The update clearly states that he's not the bad guy.

The +quote hasn't been working for me for some time. Well, that makes it better, it's confusing instead of spoiling the plot.

When I see something called "release trailer" I expect the bad guy shown there to be the main bad guy, not part of a series.

 

[Terenty]

Holy downgrade, I swear it looks worse and worse graphically the more they show. Wtf happened to the lighting and particle effects?

Not gonna lie I was hyped for the game after playing a bit of the first iteration of EA, but now it looks so fucking generic and flat

 

[Drakortha]

Sources of dissatisfaction:
1. Why reveal the bad guy? The stupidest move to do in a trailer. People don't know anything about him, yet it's the worst kind spoiler regardless.
2. Quick montage that tells you nothing about the game except "fantasy", "epic", "big kabooms"

3. Game still looks like Divinity 3 that nobody asked for.
4. No day/night cycles. Static gameworld in a 2023 RPG. Baldur's Gate 2 in 1998 had cycles.

 

[ArchAngel]

How are you supposed to be a holy knight in this game if all or nearly all of your "companions" are either outright evil, worshipping Shar, or have some pact with a devil, or are in some other way an evil alien thing that paladins normally would smite on-sight?

Being a Paladin is now racist so in 5e DnD Paladin are no longer LG and no longer smite evil.

 

[ArchAngel]

The character creation sequence sure was odd. I noticed a few things upon closer inspection.

Black Elf - Body Type 2 - Identity Male
Black Tiefling - Body Type 1 - Identity Female
Puke Githyanki - Body Type 1 - Identity Female
Black Mixed Dwarf - Body Type 2 - Identity Male

Is Black and puke colored people their core audience? It looks like the villian of the game is an aged White man.

Timestamped

Well they are making it based on people they see every day in their own country..

 

[ArchAngel]

How are you supposed to be a holy knight in this game if all or nearly all of your "companions" are either outright evil, worshipping Shar, or have some pact with a devil, or are in some other way an evil alien thing that paladins normally would smite on-sight?

The companions are not particularly good, that's true. But they're not particularly evil either. If you follow Larian's outlined evil path and side with the goblins in the Grove, slaughtering the druids, here's how each of them react:
Shar worshipper is upset and gets blackout drunk.
Warlock either leaves or attacks you.
Wizard leaves the party, unless you pass a DC20 persuasion check, and even then you get a huge disapproval boost.
The githyanki has no opinion no matter what happens.
The vampire is a little bit amused by the whole thing, but doesn't really care.
The full game will also feature Karlach, the tiefling paladin, who will also leave or attack you as per datamining.

Larian made all companions morally ambiguous, with some darkness to each of them, but none of them feel like they've been designed for the evil playthrough in mind, none of them explicitly approve of it. Lae'zel is probably the most evil companion, but she's fanatically opposed the game's villains and hates you for embracing the tadpole.

That is a low number of companions for a game like this.. 4 characters max in a party? Will players be able to make custom companions? None of the ones from the beta seem like ones I would care to bring along

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Holy downgrade, I swear it looks worse and worse graphically the more they show. Wtf happened to the lighting and particle effects?

Not gonna lie I was hyped for the game after playing a bit of the first iteration of EA, but now it looks so fucking generic and flat

Citation needed. Pull up an old vid for comparison.

I've owned the game since release and I don't see the downgrade. More likely it just seems dated now that you're comparing this 2+ year old modified Divinity engine to modern titles.

Most I can see in that vid is maybe lower resolution textures than PC.

 

[Incognito/STK]

Any info on how the multiplayer split screen is supposed to work out in PS5? Are players tied to each other, can they go separate ways?

 

[Larianshill]

That is a low number of companions for a game like this.. 4 characters max in a party?

There'll be more, Minsc and Jaheira included.

 

[Koolz]

I will stay as far away as possible from any audio of this game and the game it's self.

Happy for their success though.

 

[Nikanuur]

I would probably still play the game, but I am also rather disappointed so far. I feel the amount of environmental hazard caused by every spell, changed/upgraded by using other spells on top of that as in DoS 3 is exorbitant (a spell here and there doing that would be ok). Too many skills usable at once with icons as if taken from a sketchy neon cyberpunk decor used in a high-fantasy genre. The dissonance from near-realistic NPC characters during the dialogues in an otherwise gamey-looking world.

 

[Alienman]

Why reveal the bad guy?

Ketheric is not the bad guy. He is a bad guy.

 

[Fedora Master]

how the multiplayer split screen is supposed to work

It isn't. It's a retarded gimmick.