Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 hate thread

[Maddiereno]

Lack of day/night cycles and time-sensitive quests, this is the greatest issue in my opinion.

There is a handful of time (rest) sensitive content.
Although in some cases it almost requires extra effort from you to fail.

There are some, but the consequences are not as significant. Compared to BG1-2 they're not even worth mentioning. I believe if you visit the Inn grand duke was kidnapped but skip the area for later, that negro elf chick dies to fire(despite being a lvl10 wiz).
And the Drow true-soul that was blocked by debris dies to poison if you rest too many times after the quest triggers.

I'd have wanted Laezel to leave the party if you delayed too long, ceremorphosis is unacceptable for her after all. Or Karlach to leave if you delayed her revenge on Paladins(!) serving that archdevil. Neither happens for sure.

 

[Talby]

Hate is too strong a word, but this game just didn't leave any impression on me at all. I quit around the start of Act 2 after finding Act 1 quite boring and disappointing. None of the characters were interesting or likeable, the story isn't engaging (I'm not keen on those "you're sick and have to find a cure" as the main impetus kind of plots) and the world feels fake and shallow. Larian's whole approach to map design sucks, instead of having a good variety of areas like BG1/2 that makes the world feel large and varied, they do a few bigger maps but try to cram as much shit into them as possible so you can't walk 5 meters without bumping into something.

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery. Within the first few minutes of the game you're meeting devils, mindflayers, then a few hours in you meet an entire camp of tieflings (which are supposed to be rare in the setting so it should be surprise to meet just 1, let alone dozens) and all your party members are some variety of vampire or demon or some super speshul important person who's met Gods and just gets very tiresome. It's like the writers were bored by more ordinary fantasy stuff, and wanted to jump straight to the most exotic things the setting has to offer. The problem with this is when you go from 1-10 in the first few minutes of the game, there's nowhere left to go and it wears off quickly.

Compare to Baldur's Gate I and II where there's exotic stuff like mind flayers and beholders, but you need to get quite far into the second game before you'll see them. Early on your party members are much more normal, as they would be at lower levels. The designers were willing to hold off on the weird, wonderful and alien stuff until late so it feels special when you finally encounter it, instead of throwing everything from the advanced monster manual at you in the first cutscene like BG3 does.

 

[Orwenn]

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery.

You're right. Even before I got disappointed in BG3, I couldn't help but notice that all of the followers have their own dedicated plot, in which curing themselves of a tadpole is just a side objective. Tav, your main character, still only has the tadpole quest. I thought I am good at making interesting characters, but my best attempt in BG3 still felt bland in comparison to the companions, among which even a self-loathing nerd slept with the goddess of Magic.

Now, maybe this is only my rather humble opinion, but I like to make something interesting out of mundane. When writers push "exotic" to the limits, I feel like they try to flabbergast the audience to pass their okayish stories as something unseen before.

 

[Lacrymas]

There isn't a single believable main companion. None of them would be level 1 had they done the things they purport to have done. Mystra opening her legs for every shameless writer's milquetoast self-insert is beyond laughable. There is no salvaging this.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery.

You're right. Even before I got disappointed in BG3, I couldn't help but notice that all of the followers have their own dedicated plot, in which curing themselves of a tadpole is just a side objective. Tav, your main character, still only has the tadpole quest. I thought I am good at making interesting characters, but my best attempt in BG3 still felt bland in comparison to the companions, among which even a self-loathing nerd slept with the goddess of Magic.

Now, maybe this is only my rather humble opinion, but I like to make something interesting out of mundane. When writers push "exotic" to the limits, I feel like they try to flabbergast the audience to pass their okayish stories as something unseen before.

Absolutely.

Someone posted a video on the Codex a while back of the bg3 voice actors playing a game of D&D and when they were introducing the characters they voiced, it was so cringe. They were all trying to out do each other making their character sound like the most special snowflake that exists. Cringing at shart's dyke voice actress calling her the most interesting girl in the world

 

[gurugeorge]

There isn't a single believable main companion. None of them would be level 1 had they done the things they purport to have done. Mystra opening her legs for every shameless writer's milquetoast self-insert is beyond laughable. There is no salvaging this.

To be fair, there is an in-game explanation for why Gale is stripped back to a newb. When he slept with Mystra he was a big deal as a Magician, but he lost a lot of his power.

However, that doesn't make sense, since Magicians are knowledge/spell/ritual-based, not bearers of innate power or people with a "strong connection to the Weave" or any of that sort of bullshit - that kind of "connection to the Weave" would be what a Sorcerer has, not a Magician. But whatever, nobody seems to care these days.

 

[Lacrymas]

He was so big a deal as a magician that he was Mystra's chosen and lover, yet we've never heard of this person before in the entirety of the lore. Right.

 

[Swen]

 

[Orwenn]

I am sorry, mr. Winkler, but you will not shut our mouths with fuckable devils, vampires and gay frogs, oh no you won't!

 

[SmilingGorion]

Hate is too strong a word, but this game just didn't leave any impression on me at all. I quit around the start of Act 2 after finding Act 1 quite boring and disappointing. None of the characters were interesting or likeable, the story isn't engaging (I'm not keen on those "you're sick and have to find a cure" as the main impetus kind of plots) and the world feels fake and shallow. Larian's whole approach to map design sucks, instead of having a good variety of areas like BG1/2 that makes the world feel large and varied, they do a few bigger maps but try to cram as much shit into them as possible so you can't walk 5 meters without bumping into something.

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery. Within the first few minutes of the game you're meeting devils, mindflayers, then a few hours in you meet an entire camp of tieflings (which are supposed to be rare in the setting so it should be surprise to meet just 1, let alone dozens) and all your party members are some variety of vampire or demon or some super speshul important person who's met Gods and just gets very tiresome. It's like the writers were bored by more ordinary fantasy stuff, and wanted to jump straight to the most exotic things the setting has to offer. The problem with this is when you go from 1-10 in the first few minutes of the game, there's nowhere left to go and it wears off quickly.

Compare to Baldur's Gate I and II where there's exotic stuff like mind flayers and beholders, but you need to get quite far into the second game before you'll see them. Early on your party members are much more normal, as they would be at lower levels. The designers were willing to hold off on the weird, wonderful and alien stuff until late so it feels special when you finally encounter it, instead of throwing everything from the advanced monster manual at you in the first cutscene like BG3 does.

This video expertly breaks down how antithetical to DnD this gay snowflake worship is.

 

[Gerrard]

So apparently there is no halfling or gnome companion in the game (though you can be one yourself). I wonder why that is? Cowards.
Gonna have to wait until BG4 I guess?

 

[Jeskis]

OP seems overly buttmad over something that is objectively incline (TB)

I know that feel bro, I too was deceived.

 

[Glop_dweller]

So apparently there is no halfling or gnome companion in the game (though you can be one yourself). I wonder why that is? Cowards.
Gonna have to wait until BG4 I guess?

Presumably if it's player generated then they cannot be trivially sued for it. I've not played the game, but how (fully or partially) supported is the halfling? Is there anything at all story-wise where the game's NPCs (or game systems) directly notice the player's choice to play a halfling? (Are there other halflings in the game?)

Does the game react differently to the PC than had the player modded the halfling mesh into the game themselves?

 

[racofer]

I simply cannot stand Larian games. The novelty of a crate opening simulator wears out fast.

And they won't even give you a simple highlight-all button. Pixel hunting is considered a game mechanic.

 

[Tyranicon]

It can't be said enough: Critical Role and its consequences on the wider RPG community have been disastrous.

Dungeons and Dragons is not a game about watching streamers dressing up their characters in bikinis and romancing bears.

It's about going into dungeons, killing monsters and taking their loot. And some C&C about which army you want to fund with that loot.

I'm honestly having difficulty making my BG3 parody because the original game is already so absurd and stupid.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Pixel hunting is considered a game mechanic.

Pixel hunting is a good thing, it makes you look at the game level, which immerses you.
If you can highlight, you're operating on UI and not on the game world. It's like flying by wire, you're not playing the game, you're responding to pavlovian reflexes and clicking on UI elements.

 

[gurugeorge]

Pixel hunting is considered a game mechanic.

Pixel hunting is a good thing, it makes you look at the game level, which immerses you.
If you can highlight, you're operating on UI and not on the game world. It's like flying by wire, you're not playing the game, you're responding to pavlovian reflexes and clicking on UI elements.

I can see that argument, but I'd prefer a simple perception check, I think that level of abstraction better suits isometric or top-down games.

Hunting for things visually is fine in a 3-d first or third person game, where you're mimicking actual looking around in an environment, but it feels kind of retarded in an isometric game with a god's eye view - and anyway, it just ends up that the obvious thing to do to not waste time/miss anything is "sweep" likely areas with the cursor back and forth, which is just as "mechanistic/meta" as using highlight in a UI.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery. Within the first few minutes of the game you're meeting devils, mindflayers, then a few hours in you meet an entire camp of tieflings (which are supposed to be rare in the setting so it should be surprise to meet just 1, let alone dozens) and all your party members are some variety of vampire or demon or some super speshul important person who's met Gods and just gets very tiresome. It's like the writers were bored by more ordinary fantasy stuff, and wanted to jump straight to the most exotic things the setting has to offer. The problem with this is when you go from 1-10 in the first few minutes of the game, there's nowhere left to go and it wears off quickly.

it's like no one wants to do the "rags to riches" anymore. i get a lot of jrpgs already had this (which i absolutely despise) "riches to rags" beginning trope, but since fallout 3 (i just can't call it "failout" anymore since it might get confused with its sequel) we're handed the most powerful tools in the tutorial and we can keep them. it's absolutely retarded. the most fun i've ever had with these kinds of games, especially oper world, it's been with "you own jack shit" beginnings. if you're facing the best of the best from the first few minutes, anything else, everything else, is mundane and uninteresting.

 

[Baldanders]

I hate that you can't pause the game.

The Narrator happens infrequently enough that it stopped bothering me and most of the faggot shit doesn't come up unless you're looking for it (at least in act 1).

 

[KeAShizuku]

g.

There's another thing that bugs me, but it's more of a general trend in fantasy works than something specifically wrong with BG3 - the sheer amount of special snowflakery.

Reminds me of Marvel capeshit.

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

yes a tale about a shirtless gay octopus having a fight with his gay dragon lover to the backdrop of Rikki Kixx in drag sending his robot army to kill orcs, truly one for the ages chuck tingle

 

[Cologno]

Jesus guess he's happy to sit on 'em or whatever he's got in mind. Hopefully he can afford some toothpaste, too. Yes, Swen, toothpaste, not lubricant.

 

[roguefrog]

I enjoyed BG3 for the most part but I'm in no rush to replay it. Not at least until they release a special edition like Larian tends to do with all their games at least since Divinity 2: Become a fucktard Dragon boogaloo.

Most of the stuff people are loving about it has nothing to do with D&D really, and is actually imported from their DOS games. The world object/container interaction stuff, elemental surface interactions (although toned way the fuck down thankfully) and of course the best class in the game: barrelmancer.

Negatives would be still the level of fucking inventory trash. There's a keyring now but it's not enough. Bags within bags and tiny windows you have to shuffle around the screen and how the character screen UI will just open on top of everything. The whole UI/UX inventory system is a disaster and hasn't improved much at all from DOS2, which is godawful. It's so bad I sometimes just avoid opening the inventory screen. This goes for selling and buying too.

Larian's obsession with object find pixel hunts return of course. They actually think that is a viable and welcomed verb in a CRPG. There's sometimes perception checks too but the object highlight is so hard to see and lasts 2 seconds so if the camera is panned in the wrong direction you'll miss it.

This takes us to the camera. It's fucked. The game has a lot of verticality and their 3D camera can't handle it and often goes batshit.

The cutscene tripwires can also be annoying if a companion NPC triggers them instead of your player character. Now all of a sudden you are controlling and speaking for fucking Lae'zel. That's a reload. Most of the companions didn't bother me too much except Astarion who was insufferable. Killed him the first chance I got. Also I think all the characters that you can fuck are thristy as hell and will come at you instead of the other way around. Best not to talk to anyone at camp at night to avoid an incident. Especially Gale.

That's the main stuff without getting into story specifics (oh boy there is one that sucks start-a-leaf blower). There's a few annoying puzzles, but they were mostly optional and just skipped them, and smaller things like how stupidly tedious they made it to swap out companion NPCs and general having to loot shit piecemeal. I guess Wrath of the Righteous spoiled me with that shit.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

"Choice & Consequence"
I killed Shadowheart in Act 1.
In Act 3, Viconia wants Shadowheart for herself or there's no deal with you.
Well I can't give it to her, so... she goes hostile anyway. For no reason.

Great scripting and writing.

 

[Grauken]

Well I can't give it to her, so... she goes hostile anyway. For no reason.

You don't seem to grasp the concept of choice & consequence.