Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Is this game any good? It looks like reskinned pathfinder

Tons of bugs. Always wait at least two years before trying an Owlcuck game because that's about how long they take to become playable.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'm still waiting on people pointing out where the replayability is.

Trying out different classes and party combinations. I was pretty sick of the game by the time I finished it, but I'm still mildly tempted to start again and try something like a monk or a bard, and maybe build for some of the more unique items.

 

[Reyvik]

I'm still waiting on people pointing out where the replayability is.

I started my second playthrough as Dark Urge. It's interesting, though there are some dumb situations. For example even though I smashed Alfria mandolino (or whatever this little silly guitar is called) she still was eager to stay at my camp. What a dumb cunt

I am not going to play origin characters, simply because even my mute pc is more interesting, and has more rp value than these millenial archetypes

So there is replayability, but only in the field of unlocking more wacky stuff during dialogues

 

[Lemming42]

Trying out different classes and party combinations. I was pretty sick of the game by the time I finished it, but I'm still mildly tempted to start again and try something like a monk or a bard, and maybe build for some of the more unique items.

Monk is sublime, especially if you dip into Rogue to get the extra bonus action. Flurry of Blows doing 50+ damage per use and you can do it several times per turn. Dip into Fighter too for Action Surge and every encounter turns into enemies getting turned to mincemeat before their first turn. The closest a game has ever come to letting you play as Cleve Blakemore.

 

[Fedora Master]

Durge is both stupid and half-finished, because it is tied to an "evil" path that doesn't really exist.

 

[whydoibother]

I'm still waiting on people pointing out where the replayability is.

I'd say the game easily has 2 playthroughs: the "good guy" playthrough, where you save the thieflings, save the Last Light, reform Shadowbabe, let the monk kill the brain; and the "evil guy" Dark Urge playthrough, where you help the cult destroy the grove, destroy the Last Light, let the vampire and cleric embrace their darkness, become Bhaal's chosen, side with the mindflayer, and betray him at the end. Loads of other small choices along the way that minorly change things.
And do one playthrough as a frontline guy, the other as a stealth guy/wizard. Would feel different to play. Combat in general feels different depending on whom you bring.

If you can't find a reason to play BG3 at least two times, and you claim Dragon Age and Mass Effect have more reactivity and play more differently, you don't. Not true. You are lying.

 

[Padzi]

Is this game any good? It looks like reskinned pathfinder

Tons of bugs. Always wait at least two years before trying an Owlcuck game because that's about how long they take to become playable.

I had a great bug. I went through the door and experienced instant death. Only that blue ghost remained of me. 10/10 game of the year. But seriously, excluding the occasional bugs, the game is good though.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm sorry, but no. The rest of your post is also bad, and its clear you are trying to move towards the "prestigious" position of hating BG3 by any means necessary, but this is too much. This is reaching too low. Have some self respect.

I am not "hating it", this is my genuine opinion. There is nothing BG3 does that is remotely extraordinary, all its qualities are average at best, with the exception of graphical fidelity. Almost everything in it is so trivial and pedestrian, it boggles the mind how people on a niche RPG forum can have this amount of adoration for it. It's mid. It having a "good" and an "evil" playthrough is hardly revolutionary and claiming it's some noteworthy reactivity is disingenuous.

 

[Lemming42]

"evil" playthrough... side with the mindflayer

WHOAAA not having that; the Emperor is a good-ish guy while Voss and Orpheus are definitely bad guys. Letting the Emperor munch Frog Hitler's brains out fits right into a "good" playthrough IMO. Even Lae'zel agrees! (after a nat 20 persuasion roll)

Yeah the Frog Bastards end up stuck with the Lich queen but who gives a shit about them, they're a real pack of arseholes anyway.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Is this game any good? It looks like reskinned pathfinder

Tons of bugs. Always wait at least two years before trying an Owlcuck game because that's about how long they take to become playable.

I had a great bug. I went through the door and experienced instant death. Only that blue ghost remained of me. 10/10 game of the year. But seriously, excluding the occasional bugs, the game is good though.

If you wait to avoid bugs, you might miss some unique Owlcat Experience moments.

Like that time when Amiri was disappearing when entering her personal quest location
And after the patch, instead of zero Amiri in the location, there was two of Amiris.
Only on the third attempt, they got the amount of Amiri just right.

 

[whydoibother]

Almost everything in it is so trivial and pedestrian, it boggles the mind how people on a niche RPG forum can have this amount of adoration for it.

It boggles my mind that people diss this game, when its clearly one of the greats. Especially on a niche RPG forum. I guess people here just care more about being seen as elite and hardcore snobs, rather than liking RPGs.

 

[Lacrymas]

People on niche RPG forums have played better RPGs than it and would know it's not one of the greats. Unless they haven't played those better RPGs. Which would be quite embarrassing.

 

[janior]

you cant like a game because you played better ones before!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NecroLord]

What the fuck.

 

[Lacrymas]

you cant like a game because you played better ones before!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can like it, you just can't proclaim it's a one of a kind masterpiece.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

I'm wondering where Larian go from here given the financial success of BG3:

* Expansions(s)?
* Straight into a sequel?
* Adjacent D&D title in new setting?
* Return to Divinity Original Sin series?

Of course they could do more than one of the above given they can afford to run multiple teams now.

To the modern more sophisticated gamer. Natural RPG studio evolution ever since. "Hi, we're id Soft. We're finished doing these boring old shooter games and try to offer something for the more sophisticated crowd, try it!" Sounds ridiculous? Yes. Except in RPG land.

(In hindsight, I'm 100% there's a paralell universe out there in which Faergus called in sick the day he got aware of Bioware back at Interplay. Which also was the origin of Interplay signing them, and encouraging them to do a D&D game with their tech. Not a super hardcore one, by the way, but an RPG -- there seems some legit history revisionism on display when talking BG and how it would compare to BG3 lately. Anyway, in that parallel universe, Bioware never made anything much talked about here to begin with.)

 

[MerchantKing]

If you wait to avoid bugs, you might miss some unique Bethesda Owlcat Experience moments.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

WHOAAA not having that; the Emperor is a good-ish guy

I take it you never discovered that he'd basically brainwashed and raped Stelmane and wanted to do the same to you.

Spoiler

 

[Padzi]

Is this game any good? It looks like reskinned pathfinder

Tons of bugs. Always wait at least two years before trying an Owlcuck game because that's about how long they take to become playable.

I had a great bug. I went through the door and experienced instant death. Only that blue ghost remained of me. 10/10 game of the year. But seriously, excluding the occasional bugs, the game is good though.

If you wait to avoid bugs, you might miss some unique Owlcat Experience moments.

Like that time when Amiri was disappearing when entering her personal quest location
And after the patch, instead of zero Amiri in the location, there was two of Amiris.
Only on the third attempt, they got the amount of Amiri just right.

Come to think about it... I literally almost didn't finish my first Baldur's Gate 3 campaign because of a bug. None of the characters saw the hidden side passage in Wyrm's Rock Fortress (the perception check didn't even trigger).
So yeah guys. Play it. Play it now.

 

[whydoibother]

I'm wondering where Larian go from here given the financial success of BG3:

* Expansions(s)?
* Straight into a sequel?
* Adjacent D&D title in new setting?
* Return to Divinity Original Sin series?

Of course they could do more than one of the above given they can afford to run multiple teams now.

Spelljammer Dragon Commander

 

[Lemming42]

There is nothing BG3 does that is remotely extraordinary

The environmental reactivity isn't really rivalled by any other RPG, it almost feels like an isometric immersive sims in some areas. The sheer number of non-combat applications for magic in this game is extraordinary, as is the mechanical freedom you're offered in combat.

Want to shrink yourself so your Barbarian can throw you at an enemy? Want to create a wall of fire then use Turn Undead to force everyone into it? Want to use Gust of Wind to just blow half the enemy force into a chasm? You can!!

The goblin camp is what really sold me on the game in my first playthrough. In most other RPGs it would have been a case of just killing everyone or just speech checking everyone, but in BG3 I broke into their store room by going through a crack in the wall that only a shrunk version of myself could fit in, stole their supply of smokepowder barrels, hid them behind the throne of the bad guy, then split the party into two, having three of us travel outside and one (Astarion) stay inside and climb up to the rafters.

Astarion hurled a fireball at the barrels and the bad guy was blasted to death, then Astarion passed sneak checks to creep out across the rafters while the base went alert below. The rest of the team knocked out a couple of the guards on the outside in order to smash down a weak wall which gave an opening onto the rafters where Astarion was hiding, letting him rejoin the rest of us and flee before the goblin guards could find us.

It's an absolutely great experience and one of the closest I've ever seen a cRPG come to the "let's try this shitty fucking idea" approach of TTRPGs. This, more than anything, is what people are buzzing about, I think.

I take it you never discovered that he'd basically brainwashed and raped Stelmane and wanted to do the same to you.

I never got that scene! For my own playthrough though, based on what I did know: I could tolerate his obvious manipulation of the player character; the tadpole situation is dire enough that being used as a chess piece in his dumb masterplan to destroy the brain is ostensibly the best bet you have to survive (and you do, in the end).

Next time I play it I'll fully side with Orpheus and see what happens. I fucking hate Gith though, especially Voss. Being able to stomp his face in was the best part of refusing to free Orpheus.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

I fucking hate Gith though, especially Voss.

What was wrong with Voss? He was basically a good-aligned Githyanki who was tired of Vlaakith's death cult.

 

[NecroLord]

Is this game any good? It looks like reskinned pathfinder

Tons of bugs. Always wait at least two years before trying an Owlcuck game because that's about how long they take to become playable.

I had a great bug. I went through the door and experienced instant death. Only that blue ghost remained of me. 10/10 game of the year. But seriously, excluding the occasional bugs, the game is good though.

If you wait to avoid bugs, you might miss some unique Owlcat Experience moments.

Like that time when Amiri was disappearing when entering her personal quest location
And after the patch, instead of zero Amiri in the location, there was two of Amiris.
Only on the third attempt, they got the amount of Amiri just right.

Come to think about it... I literally almost didn't finish my first Baldur's Gate 3 campaign because of a bug. None of the characters saw the hidden side passage in Wyrm's Rock Fortress (the perception check didn't even trigger).
So yeah guys. Play it. Play it now.

You still playing this?

 

[Padzi]

You still playing this?

Yeah.
How about you? Have you started playing?

 

[Lemming42]

What was wrong with Voss? He was basically a good-aligned Githyanki who was tired of Vlaakith's death cult.

He doesn't make a great first impression, roasting a bunch of guards to death and then making death threats to the player character. If you don't bring Lae'zel then it's very easy to fail the onslaught of speech checks and end up with him trying to murder you. Other than hating Vlaakith, I never got the impression he was much less of a violent slaver than most of the other Gith you meet, especially since he's apparently been flying around butchering people in Vlaakith's name for years despite his doubts.

Then he tries to deal with a devil and expects you to do it in his place when he's not got the chops. After all that, if you don't free Orpheus, Voss tries to kill you right after you leave the prism - Baldur's Gate is on fire, Nautiloids are in the air, Gith dragon riders are taking to the skies, and his main concern is still trying to kill you for defying him. Plus he actually fucks off mid-fight and leaves his loyal soldiers to die in his place, lol.

I was pretty hostile to him at all times though and basically told him to go fuck himself both in the camp and at the reunion in Act 3, so I suppose I never gave him a chance to show his nicer side.