Hi
Just wanted to say I absolutely love this game already even though I'm still only in act 1 (I think). The sheer detail that went into, well, everything. But there also were some events that really gave me a hard time, enjoyment-wise. As a disclaimer, I'm probably a bit of a special case having played Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 over and over again over the last 20 years. And I know I'm sometimes getting a bit ridiculous with my headcanons of how the story should play out in my runs.
Summary of my run so far:
After quite some time of experimenting on what my Tav should be, I ended up with a Half-Orcish Ranger 1 (now also Storm Sorcerer 2). A combination I like to call the "Odin Cosplay" (due to the raven familiar on level 1). Convinced, that my best chance of healing the Illithid infection lies with the one person that at least seems to know about it I decided to make for the Githyanki Crčche asap. A gloomy Cleric and a seemingly capable BLADE got recruited on the way when I realized they both shared our fate. Kagha killing a child really put me off confiding into the the druids about my condition anyway. And with my raven, it was exceptionally easy to find a safe path to the Githyanki patrol. At least that was what I thought, but the Goblin ambush was prevented by my "little helper". High Charisma and skilled Deception made for an easy talk with the dragonrider, promising we would help them. A hefty boost of XP netted us level 3 and I chose to pick the Disguise Self spell, which might come in handy interacting with the Githyanki.
But after that it got really challenging to keep up my immersion
"The next area will be very difficult for a party at your level" - why would the game feel the need to tell me that, deliberately breaking my immersion? One, I'm playing on tactical difficulty already anyway. Two, there's multiple level 5 (or was it 6 even?) undead right behind that area, that's (quite literally) a dead giveaway. Three, I wouldn't even mind such a hint if it didn't break the 4th wall in such a blunt way. Elminster flying in and telling me that there may be too dangerous foes in that area would have been more immersive than that. The tadpole/guardian taking note. A survival check. Anything, really.
Apparently, we also needed to camp upon proceeding. A bit unexpected, but fine by me. We did travel quite a bit, after all.
- *POOF* "Hi, I'm Raphael" (...) Okay, I get it, you are a powerful being who wants my soul. A bit sudden and thus feels very Plottus ex Machina, but okay. You probably fooled/deceived us and at least seem to have incentive to do so.
- *POOF* "Hi, I'm your new class trainer"... you're doing WHAT? Dude, this is not reality TV, I don't need a makeover. Jokes aside, I totally get why he's a thing, I played character generation simulator for 5h+ just to familiarize myself with the classes. And I assume I came a lot more prepared than most people. But all that happened
behind the 4th wall. I really really really don't get why he is a
mandatory thing
in game and can't be turned off in the options menu. The same goes for the magic mirror. Why is this a mandatory in-world feature? Heck, I would be probably fine with them being an in-world feature if there was
any trace of logical explanation to it. Yes, I read that you can technically dig Withers up, but that's optional - why isn't he as well?
- I opened camp crates and there is this ugly shapeshifting mask. Fair, I bought the DLC up front and that's kinda on me. But I still feel bad now, because the spell I was really looking forward to use is now useless because I bought the DLC. But oh wait, the mask is useless too, because I have a magic mirror anyway. Makes me feel like I cheated and gimped myself at the same time. And it could at least have some flavor as to why it is there in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I still
love the game. I love the characters. I love how I was still able to sneak into the Crčche without any fighting at all at level 3. And I will get over all this, destroy/store the mask and ignore things that I deem bad, misdesigned or misplaced. If anything, I loved the prequels even more on subsequent runs when I already knew
everything that could happen and could put together a whole story in my head upfront. And I genuinely hope that this game will be just as alive and evolving for the next 20 years as well.
But in my first run right now, I would have had significantly more fun if I hadn't been slapped in the face with so much immersion-breaking stuff.
