Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Multiplayer Discussion Game-broken state of the split screen coop

When backing this game, lots of people were under impression that the game will obviously have the same amazing couch-coop features as were available in Divinity OS 1 and 2.
Lots of people played through DOS 1&2 in a couch-coop setting, where the whole screen could be utilized, and in case there is a need to go further for 1 person - the screen always split in two on demand.

Now, the couch coop gameplay in BG3 leaves much to be desired, it doesn't allow to utilize the whole screen, even when the cameras are aligned and looking at the same spots, same angles.
This causes great trouble navigating the world during combat and out of it too.

Now, the radial menus - probably this comes from some console culture, but it is just very painful for a PC player to navigate through, why can't we use the same action grid, we are so used to?
Also, why the radial menus are so out of style with the UI? It's like it was hastily applied in the last couple of days, god it looks awful.


So, counter-intuitive radial menus, combined with a disability to utilize full screen of the TV gives a subpar impression of the game, despite it being the best RPG in years!
Larian, please fix the game, this is unacceptable, and it is quite heartbreaking for your long DOS 1&2 fans, who backed the game and received an incomplete product in the end, without the features that were present in the DOS series.

Agreed. After three hours we had to give up playing the game. It’s unplayable on ps5. The text is too tiny to read with split screen and the camera angles make it impossible to tell where to click to do the simplest of things.

Agreed 100%. I was looking towards this game for years because DOS1 and DOS2 were such marvelous coop games. The current state is terrible, it is borderline unplayable as a coop or at least deeply unenjoyable. Honestly did Larian even play test the coop? The books are utterly unreadable on splitscreen, even my GF that has the best eyes I've ever seen has to stand up and walk right in front of our TV to read it lol.

The worst of all is the lack of merge though. Being forced to split screen completely ruins exploration and combat, most of the time I have zero idea where I am and I have to rotate the camera just to get some idea of my surroundings. It is very immersion breaking and disorienting.

We are actually planning to just play it solo and pass the controller, which is... extremely sad.

Larian please... fix this.

Agreed! We are playing the PS5 version now in couch co-op. We come from playing both DOS1 and DOS2 on PS5 as well, which we enjoyed A LOT.

The way split screen was handled in DOS was so much better in my opinion. I'm hoping this isn't the final experience and that we'll get the same features eventually, but I'm worried that this ends up not being the case.
The performance in couch co-op itself is quite problematic. The controls feel sluggish, and the pop-ups take seconds to open up every time. Hopefully this gets improved as well.

All-in-all I expect things to get better, but I'm a bit disappointed at the moment. It seems like the game required more work for the PS5 version before releasing.

I do not understand the thought behind perma-split screen. Screen merge in proximity and in combat should be implemented, just as they did in Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2. Why abandon what worked so well and go backwards?? I was hoping that the PS5 version would address this, but it seems to be the exact same as the PC version. I also agree the wheel action UI is pretty awful.

Yes exactly! Please let us merge the screen Larian!

The perma-split screen makes it impossible to play, we just stopped and won't play again until Larian takes back the dynamic split-screen.

Throwing my hat in here too. Long time DOS enjoyer, we held off on a PC purchase to enjoy couch co-op together (girlfriend and myself) and have been really, really frustrated and disoriented at how poorly its integrated. Talking to my friends about my experience it's come to my attention that the couch co-op players seem the be the only ones having this type of an experience... help us Larian Kenobi, you're our only hope.

Not happy with the co-op. Can I get a refund?

Since the issue doesn't seem to be of any concern to Larian, I'm also interested in a refund. I'm on PS5.

In another thread about split screen (yes, there are more than one which shows the disappointment we have) another member posted this link.
Along with making sure to keep these threads up near the top so they are visible to Larian, please fill this out and send it to them directly. Also, make sure to choose Feedback and not Bug.

https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#modal