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Act 3 is all about doing badly written side quests that reward huge amounts of xp which you can't actually use and OP legendary weapons that you don't actually need.
Act 3 loses momentum for sure as the plot is completely unveiled already. Plus, you are almost at the max level when you enter Act 3, and the last two levels don't make any difference as it's the same encounter tier. However it's still good ,and we have seen a lot worse in every other single RPG.
Making Viconia fanatical Shar worshipper in clear contradiction to what many vets of bg series considers canon - her becoming true neutral and joining drizzt in defense of some city
And making Sarevok some grandwizard of bhaal sect despite him being rather pragmatic about his bhaal worship and using his connection with murder god more as means to achieve his goal not as some justification of being a devout follower
I would not call act 3 good, not even close. It's medicore, still better than kingmaker's last chapter but that's about it.
Both the writing and gamplay falls apart completely. The story makes no sense and the combat become way too easy with almost no meaningful reward(most of the good equipment in act 3 comes from vendors).
I would not call act 3 good, not even close. It's medicore, still better than kingmaker's last chapter but that's about it.
Both the writing and gamplay falls apart completely. The story makes no sense and the combat become way too easy with almost no meaningful reward(most of the good equipment in act 3 comes from vendors).
I would not call act 3 good, not even close. It's medicore, still better than kingmaker's last chapter but that's about it.
Both the writing and gamplay falls apart completely. The story makes no sense and the combat become way too easy with almost no meaningful reward(most of the good equipment in act 3 comes from vendors).
It was highly regarded. I think the release of Wrath severely (and perhaps retroactively) degraded Kingmaker and Owlcat in many codexer's opinions.
There were no cheering crowds of adoring fans when Owlcat sent an official (?) community rep to the codex rogue trader thread. Just a lot of shit-flinging.
There were no cheering crowds of adoring fans when Owlcat sent an official (?) community rep to the codex rogue trader thread. Just a lot of shit-flinging.
Codex is always shit flinging, Wrath was highly regarded by codexers which can be seen by the amount of discussion, the only real measure of engagement with any cRPG on the codex
I would not call act 3 good, not even close. It's medicore, still better than kingmaker's last chapter but that's about it.
Both the writing and gamplay falls apart completely. The story makes no sense and the combat become way too easy with almost no meaningful reward(most of the good equipment in act 3 comes from vendors).
It was highly regarded. I think the release of Wrath severely (and perhaps retroactively) degraded Kingmaker and Owlcat in many codexer's opinions.
There were no cheering crowds of adoring fans when Owlcat sent an official (?) community rep to the codex rogue trader thread. Just a lot of shit-flinging.
Try saying something negative about his beloved Kingmaker to ga♥; he will still defend it to the death.
Huge threads about autistic character builds, although they don't really matter since there's no strategy involved. But there's still a massive fan base for this here.
I am sure it's still one of the best games ever in their hearts.
I would not call act 3 good, not even close. It's medicore, still better than kingmaker's last chapter but that's about it.
Both the writing and gamplay falls apart completely. The story makes no sense and the combat become way too easy with almost no meaningful reward(most of the good equipment in act 3 comes from vendors).
Every game has some shit parts, even Codex GOTA game has tons of problems. Kingmaker's last chapter is shit doesn't make it an awful game. And Kingmaker as a whole isn't that great to begin with.
If only act 3 didn't include half of BG 3's content, and leading to a even worse ending, it wouldn't drag the game down so much.
Making Viconia fanatical Shar worshipper in clear contradiction to what many vets of bg series considers canon - her becoming true neutral and joining drizzt in defense of some city
And making Sarevok some grandwizard of bhaal sect despite him being rather pragmatic about his bhaal worship and using his connection with murder god more as means to achieve his goal not as some justification of being a devout follower
Even Viconia's evil ending doesn't fit her character in BG3. As a matter of fact she has no character, you change her to random generated character the story would be exactly the same.
Same goes with Sarevok. Extremely one dimensional and doesn't fit his character from previous games.
But that's just shit writing from a Larian game, nothing new here. The funny thing is people are blaming Wizards of the Coast for the writing of the game instead of Larian.
Act 3 has some pretty good optional fights that, for me at least, definitely weren't a cakewalk, so I have to give it props for that if nothing else.
Cazador, Ansur, Sarevok, Raphael, Viconia and her crew etc. were pretty fun to fight and actually were a bit of a challenge that I didn't manage to roflstomp during the first attempt. Though, you have to self-impose some limitations or you can cheese them quite easily, like Telekinesis-ing or pushing Cazador into the chasm you're fighting over, using Otto's Irresistible Dance which is probably bugged because it does not allow a Saving Throw etc.)
I finally finished my first playthough (~160 hours); it's the best RPG I've played in years in spite of a healthy does of bullshit. I won't put anything in spoilers since it looks like everyone and their retarded cousin on Reddit finished ahead of me.
Highlights:
Primary party:
Gale PC (Swords Bard 10 / Paladin 2)
Shadowheart (Cleric of Light)
Lae'zel (default, Battlemaster Fighter) (the only one I never respecc'd)
Karlach (Paladin of Vengeance)
Also recruited:
Jaheira
Minsc
Halsin (by accident, I did not realize that "Stay here" meant 'become a companion')
Writing:
The writing team clearly went all out on putting in details that most dev houses wouldn't have and taking the time to write dialog that goes beyond the utilitarian. The characters are very nicely flashed out and in many cases (Gortash and Orrin) I would have liked to see more of them, but there are a few duds (chiefly the Emperor, but also Nightsong). Raphael takes an extended piss all over every character from other cRPGs from the past few years (while his theme plays in the background!).
I would say the plot is serviceable; it beats a lot of the retarded plotlines we've gotten used to in cRPGs ("The Iron Throne paid kobolds to poison our iron to get an iron monopoly!"), however there are a couple areas where they went overboard and added stupid shit.
How to fix the plot: Addition by subtraction, cut the Emperor; his convoluted backstory makes no sense, no one who isn't a Belgian squidophile likes him, he needlessly complicates the plot and he takes up acres of space that could be used for someone more interesting. Just cut him and make Orrin, or some aspect of Orrin, the mysterious patron inside the Prism.
I liked a lot of the companion writing (and other character writing); obviously the voice-acting is leagues ahead of most video game fare which enhances it. I really liked the companion interactions from the first three girls. I didn't get to see a lot Minsc (now even more retarded since he started doing Krokodil) because I got him so late. I honestly did not realize that I'd recruited Halsin until Orrin kidnapped him so I didn't see all the retarded shit gay bear sex shit. Nitpicks:
1) Karlach seems stuck with fail-state endings. I don't know if that's really because her good ending got cut along with the Upper City a year ago when Larian realized they needed to tighten their belts to beat Starfield to market, but it's pretty shitty regardless. It's hard to be invested in a quest you can't succeed at. I ended up turning her into Karthillid since it seemed like the least bad option if she was going to go boom in a month anyway. I have no idea why that fixed the stupid bomb in her chest.
2) Shadowheart makes no sense as a Shar worshiper; brainwashing doesn't really fix the plot hole here because she doesn't even try to defend all the evil acts by other Shar worshipers or offer some alternative version of Sharran theology. Though to be fair, it isn't too annoying during the game unless you give a shit about the setting.
3) Playing as PC Gale, his quest goes out of its way to treat you like a total loser for the entire game and then at the end it still doesn't want to give you a clean win over Mystra.
Gameplay:
I really liked how fresh everything was, no grinding, no copy-pasted shit. I felt like the unique mechanics for a lot of enemies kept things interesting without turning everything into a puzzle. After hundreds of hours of Owlcat bloated copypasting, it's a breath of fresh air.
Coming from Solasta, I was initially put off by all the jumping and shoving, but after a few dozen hours to get used to it, I like the extent to which it buffs high strength characters (who tend to get left in the dust by casters and dex-faggots in 5E). I gave Lae'zel (Froggy) that jumping half-feat and watching her hop around the battlefield was great.
From a class balance standpoint; fighters get a massive boost from the changes to haste and battle masters just delete a lot martial opponents since they don't have backup weapons (though it looks like they're patching in disarm immunity for a lot of bosses). As a swords bard, I felt like a had a boatload of spell slots and very few useful spells, but eventually 2 levels of paladin let me spend them all on smites.
Bottom line: Unlike either D:OS or either Pathfinder game, I'm excited about starting a second playthrough.
Gentlexirs of the Codex, some advice needed. It's my first time going through the game, currently midway through Act 1, not really committed to anything yet,
cleared out/explored most of the bottom two thirds of the map, haven't done the Underdark yet, just climbed the ladder down into it. Plot seems to be meandering a bit, feeling a bit of a lack of direction (moreso than DOS1/2 at least) in terms of what is main/side content. I'm finding the game just okay so far, in many respects it feels like a reskinned DOS2 with even plotlines having similarities and even early on I'm getting unfinished game vibes at parts, which leads me to my main question:
Of the companions, several seem ok or have potential but the one that interested me the most is Minthara (evil drow chick, go figure) as I like recruictable characters that you have to make choices or go out of your way to acquire. However, from what I'm reading, she's previously (maybe currently?) bugged severly and seems to have threadbare content relative to other party members at least in part due to cut content, For those that have played through recently, is Minthara's content worth the sacrifices in terms of quests/characters you lose to acquire her as things stand? It sounds to me like she is still bugged to some degree but even if she weren't I hear she got the short end of the stick and pretty much ended up on the cutting room floor.
Also seeing references to cut pregnancy plotline that I'm guessing got removed due to pandering to pronoun-people and the needless fuckery Body Type A/B/C/D introduces over gender selection.
So, is she worth bothering with as things stand or should I just kill her and side with the tieflings, stick to a "good" playthrough and potentially revisit BG3 in a theoretical future "definitive edition" where they might actually have finished her content? I'm aware that I can essentially ignore the whole goblin/druid grove questline and recruit her later on but I'm guessing this will prematurely cut off and follow ups to those quests. I haven't found any of these factions especially compelling thus far and I'm at a point where I need to decide which path is best to take content wise. My main goal is to experience as much of the game & companion content as possible in a single playthrough as I sadly don't have time to replay the game over and over.
If anything, I feel like the Bard's Spell List is a little too good when you take into account all the other stuff he gets. Lots of good CC, healing (which other Arcane spellcasters don't get), even two great AoE nukes that stay relevant throughout the game due to upscaling. Glyph of Warding is a better nuke than the vast majority of what Wizards or Sorcerers get because it allows you to change the damage type to what works best at any given moment (you can use another character to cast Create Water on enemies to apply the Wet status on them, then hit them with the Cold or Lightning Glyph for double damage).
Swords Bard gets Magical Secrets at level 10, allowing him to pick up 2 additional Spells not on his regular list (I went with Haste and Counterspell).
Of the companions, several seem ok or have potential but the one that interested me the most is Minthara (evil drow chick, go figure) as I like recruictable characters that you have to make choices or go out of your way to acquire. However, from what I'm reading, she's previously (maybe currently?) bugged severly and seems to have threadbare content
Going the "evil" route is a pretty shit deal in general. You lose access to Quests, Merchants, good items, allies during the final battle etc. and gain almost nothing in return for it. E.g. the smith Tiefling in the grove can craft you some pretty bitching gear in Act 2 if he survives, and sells some of the best armor in the game (obtainable only through him) in Act 3. Killing him (and the rest of the Tieflings) gets you nothing other than Minthara.
So, is she worth bothering with as things stand or should I just kill her and side with the tieflings, stick to a "good" playthrough
For a first playthrough, most definitely, because you miss out on a fuckton of content during an "evil" playthrough and get almost nothing in return. Some significant story events play out in a different fashion, but it ultimately all leads down to the same conclusion. For an "evil" playthrough, I would recommend only playing The Dark Urge character, because he's the only one that gets tangible benefits from it and whose story and conclusion are significantly impacted by those choices.
I was dissapointed by this quest. I was really hoping they are going to reward me with some trinket or undead support during a final fight (which I won't use obviously). The only reason this quest exists is to make sure that you don't miss out on this "amazing" homage to ToB
Gentlexirs of the Codex, some advice needed. It's my first time going through the game, currently midway through Act 1, not really committed to anything yet,
cleared out/explored most of the bottom two thirds of the map, haven't done the Underdark yet, just climbed the ladder down into it. Plot seems to be meandering a bit, feeling a bit of a lack of direction (moreso than DOS1/2 at least) in terms of what is main/side content. I'm finding the game just okay so far, in many respects it feels like a reskinned DOS2 with even plotlines having similarities and even early on I'm getting unfinished game vibes at parts, which leads me to my main question:
Of the companions, several seem ok or have potential but the one that interested me the most is Minthara (evil drow chick, go figure) as I like recruictable characters that you have to make choices or go out of your way to acquire. However, from what I'm reading, she's previously (maybe currently?) bugged severly and seems to have threadbare content relative to other party members at least in part due to cut content, For those that have played through recently, is Minthara's content worth the sacrifices in terms of quests/characters you lose to acquire her as things stand? It sounds to me like she is still bugged to some degree but even if she weren't I hear she got the short end of the stick and pretty much ended up on the cutting room floor.
Also seeing references to cut pregnancy plotline that I'm guessing got removed due to pandering to pronoun-people and the needless fuckery Body Type A/B/C/D introduces over gender selection.
So, is she worth bothering with as things stand or should I just kill her and side with the tieflings, stick to a "good" playthrough and potentially revisit BG3 in a theoretical future "definitive edition" where they might actually have finished her content? I'm aware that I can essentially ignore the whole goblin/druid grove questline and recruit her later on but I'm guessing this will prematurely cut off and follow ups to those quests. I haven't found any of these factions especially compelling thus far and I'm at a point where I need to decide which path is best to take content wise. My main goal is to experience as much of the game & companion content as possible in a single playthrough as I sadly don't have time to replay the game over and over.
For me personally the good characters you lose is more of a positive because Wyll and Karlach are pretty insufferable and probably the worst companions in the game. Losing the vendors is kind of unfortunate. Minthara romance is bugged but she does have more dialouge and will comment on things.
But if you're playing evil I highly recommend durge
Gentlexirs of the Codex, some advice needed. It's my first time going through the game, currently midway through Act 1, not really committed to anything yet,
cleared out/explored most of the bottom two thirds of the map, haven't done the Underdark yet, just climbed the ladder down into it. Plot seems to be meandering a bit, feeling a bit of a lack of direction (moreso than DOS1/2 at least) in terms of what is main/side content. I'm finding the game just okay so far, in many respects it feels like a reskinned DOS2 with even plotlines having similarities and even early on I'm getting unfinished game vibes at parts, which leads me to my main question:
Of the companions, several seem ok or have potential but the one that interested me the most is Minthara (evil drow chick, go figure) as I like recruictable characters that you have to make choices or go out of your way to acquire. However, from what I'm reading, she's previously (maybe currently?) bugged severly and seems to have threadbare content relative to other party members at least in part due to cut content, For those that have played through recently, is Minthara's content worth the sacrifices in terms of quests/characters you lose to acquire her as things stand? It sounds to me like she is still bugged to some degree but even if she weren't I hear she got the short end of the stick and pretty much ended up on the cutting room floor.
Also seeing references to cut pregnancy plotline that I'm guessing got removed due to pandering to pronoun-people and the needless fuckery Body Type A/B/C/D introduces over gender selection.
So, is she worth bothering with as things stand or should I just kill her and side with the tieflings, stick to a "good" playthrough and potentially revisit BG3 in a theoretical future "definitive edition" where they might actually have finished her content? I'm aware that I can essentially ignore the whole goblin/druid grove questline and recruit her later on but I'm guessing this will prematurely cut off and follow ups to those quests. I haven't found any of these factions especially compelling thus far and I'm at a point where I need to decide which path is best to take content wise. My main goal is to experience as much of the game & companion content as possible in a single playthrough as I sadly don't have time to replay the game over and over.
For me personally the good characters you lose is more of a positive because Wyll and Karlach are pretty insufferable and probably the worst companions in the game. Losing the vendors is kind of unfortunate. Minthara romance is bugged but she does have more dialouge and will comment on things.
But if you're playing evil I highly recommend durge
I am actually suprised that game didn't bugged after SH killed Lolzel during a self defense situation that latter lady put my goth waifu into. The only issue was her corpse laying around which I found amusing at worst
Speaking of the lazael/shadowheart situation. I was romancing both then shadowheart came to me with an ultimatum and I picked shadowheart (actually prefer lazael's personality but I'm not going to be tied down to a frog).
There was no conversation with froggy about it or confrontation. That was kind of immersion breaking
I had the same experience when Shadowheart asked me to break it off with Karlach, but it didn't bother me; I prefer this system to having to press space bar five times to avoid listening to Karlach whine about how I just used her for sex.
