Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Problems with immersion

I always wondered why the game made it so hard for me to get into its world. Is it the weird humor, is it the cartoonish bloodbaths that break the immersion? I think I understand the main reason now: it's the odd dissonance between a silent PC and talking NPCs. The problem is not the silent PC itself, but rather the fact that the camera pans to the grimacing PC every time I have to give an answer. I'm not the PC, I'm looking at the PC from the outside. And because the PC tries so hard to mimic emotions, but nonetheless stays silent, while all the others have a voice, my immersion is completely broken. I just can't get used to it. I noticed this after watching old Skyrim videos. In those, a "silent PC" works because we're not looking at the PC from the outside, we're practically inside them. Does anyone here feel the same?

Also: Without the camera pans BG3 would work well, but I don't think that Larian is going to implement this option. However, will there be a way to turn off voice acting in the multiple choice dialogues completely, while keeping the voice acting outside the multiple choice dialogues? That would help with immersion.

Yeah i found this a bit weird in the recent pfh zooming in on Karlach then back on tav silently, probably no fix for this though

Personally for me what sometimes takes me out of immersion are the weird facial emotional responses, which sometimes don't really align with the personality of my character. I wish they would have toned down them drastically or removed them, because they're far too expressive.

For example, I'm trying to play a badass Seldarine Drow Ranger and whenever she makes those weird "frightened" or "shocked" faces, it just makes me think; "Hah, WHIMP!"

Makes it hard to get into the roleplay of a baddass Ranger who is one with the wilderness when she gets shocked at seeing an Ogre or something trivial.

Agreed, i would prefer if the camera was focused on the person we are talking to.

I agree with the OP 100%. For me, this is a much bigger issue than bear sex.

This and once again THIS! The sole reason I've been role playing as mentally handicapped characters through the earlier patches. Then I learned to live with it and started playing the serious ones.

Yes, they are way too expressive.

I think it is a combination of multiple things. A lot of games had this silent protagonist thing and it it never bothered me that much before.

I think they initially use the character actor and then they use AI software to do the rest.

Their "face is tired". It didn't do Mass Effect Andromeda any favors either.

I think the over the top grimaces is just a way of dealing with the lack of voices... and once again Larian steps in and takes control of your character... like others said, just not focusing the camera on the silent protagonist would have solved it instead of deciding for us how our characters react. The Karlach date was a prime example - why the hell is the camera showing a mute protagonist that I can't controll for 50% of the time? Its boring, its odd and definitely doesn't do anything for my immersion or for the scene itself.


But as 'big' of an issue as it is, its by far not the only one that hinders immersion. The dissonance between tone and story is just represented in this part of the game, but its by far not the worst offender, which remains a combination of factors/disciplines. No facial expression or voice acting can prevent the Dark Urge Gale scene being a bad meme as soon as Shadowheart makes her hand-joke.

I agree. For a silent PC, it doesn’t make sense switch to a third person perspective. Maybe if the facial expressions were subtler, it would be less jarring and immersion breaking. However, I think it would have been just have been better to keep the camera focused on characters played by actors.

Does anyone know how they are handling origin characters? Will they also be silent when we control them? Seems a bit odd.

Based on the playthough with a Shadowheart PC, it seems we'll be silent.

Maybe wearing a mask would help. I wish the Mask of Irenicus could be found as an item somewhere.

I found this weird in the game because the PC does have voiced lines. It just so happens that during cinematics you are completely silent. The same thing goes when you control the origin characters, they will not speak as well and just make facial expressions like the PC does.

I wanted to make a thread on this very subject and luckily found this.

If there is a way to tone these down for future updates that would be amazing.

Because these facial reactions (little smiles, over the top grimaces, and at one point a very HUGE weird smile that completely morphs the facial structure....it feels like a Disney movie meets Jim Carey's the mask lol.


I like playing STOIC characters, not weird man children. It's supposed to be an intense nearly horror RPG with mind flayers...

Please clean these up somehow?