First off let me just say this is one of the greatest cRPGs of all time. If for some reason you still haven't bought it and are searching this forum for answers whether the game is worth your time and money the answer is yes, go ahead and but it. Buy it at full price to support further development of such games, you will not be disappointed.
That being said the game does have some issues. My complaints are:
Major complaints:1) Origin characters are cool, Tav is not - Tav just feels like a sidecharacter there to observe the real protagonists of the game, the Origin character. I scrapped my first two Tavs about 12 hours in each because of this. While my companions had interesting stuff happening to them my own character had nothing. Tav was just there for the ride. At first I thought the tadpole would be what makes Tav the protagonist and distinguishes him from the other but
since a large number of characters you meet in the game also have one
it became stale real fast.
I only ever got into the game proper when I started my durge run and wow, just wow the game all of a sudden become so good. You finally feel like you're somebody in the world. At first I was scared thinking the urge would force me into a specific path but no, I managed to end the game as what would be a lawful good character if alignments would be in it. As far as I'm concerned the durge is the main character of bg3 and Tav is just an open sandbox mode which brings me to my next complaint:
2) Too much emphasis on Origin characters - any one of the Origin characters could have been the main story of bg3 and they all tie into the story which in and of itself isn't bad however it limits companion availability. I wish instead of writing a few complex companions they made a whole roster of simpler companions. Companions don't need complex multiquest stories spanning across 3 acts, take a look at companions from other games like the original Baldurs Gate series, Mass Effect, Arcanum. Those games had just as memorable companions as these with not even half the complexity which brings me to:
3) Too few companions and not enough variety among them - as the game is right now there are 10 companions in it. There are 11 playable races in the game of which only 5 are present as companions: 3x humans, 2x elves, 2x half-elves, 1x Drow, 1x Githyanki, 1x Tiefling. Arguably elves and half-elves are functionally the same and some exclude others from being recruited bringing the number down even more. There are also 12 classes not counting subclasses only 9 of which are recruitable as companions, the number again goes down since recruiting some exclude the others. Alignment vise 6 of these character are some form of good, 2 neutral and 2 evil.
In my opinion it would have been much better if the time spent on creating the complex stories and quests of the 6 origin characters was spent creating 20 simpler companions with more variety among them. Its ok to have a companion with just one or two quests to them.
4) Racial features - while balance really isn't important in an cRPG Human and Dragonborn are just painfully worse than any other race in the game. I don't understand the reason behind this when its such an easy fix. Just change Human Versatility to give an extra feat instead of Skill Proficiency and give Dragonborn some racial armor and/or resistance to make them competitive with the other races.
5) Map design and waypoints - I get what they were trying to do with each act being a single map but I find the old school way of having a world map with different locations on it much immersive. For instance Act 1 every location is just a short hike away from each other, kind of hard to believe the
Goblins can't find the Grove
. On the other hand if this was handled by a wold map with locations on it they could have put some distance between the two. As a bonus new players that have no experience in d&d would get to see the world of Faerun, you know, the would their adventure is set in. Also, teleporting waypoints make no sense in the world. I get that fast travel is needed but I much preferred it to be exactly that, fast travel instead of teleportation. Would also open up the possibility of random events like ambushes occurring.
6) Withers and resurrect scrolls - Completely immersion breaking. The fact that death is meaningless and can be countered by using a cheap scroll that is in abundance or by paying a laughably low price in camp just makes the whole world feel weird. Why are people so upset about death? Why do they care so much about their lives and lives of their loved ones when they can just buy a scroll and get them back? It also makes the Cleric level 3 spell Revivify pointless. Revivify should be a level 6 spell and the only other way to resurrect should be by paying a large sum to a high level cleric or deity in town and even then should be limited to once per character or come with some kind of penalty like level loss, at least on tactician.
Repecing character should also be either removed from the game or made much harder. While I understand some players like to toy around at end game it should be a core feature of the game but an additional option you can turn on but then turns off achievements.
7) Game ending for companions - There should be more of an ending for companion other than the random one liner they may or may not say
. It doesn't have to be complex, it doesn't even have to be a voice line. A picture of the companion along with text depending on choices you made during your adventure like in Baldur's Gate 2 is more than enough.
Minor complaints:8) Long resting by returning to camp in the middle of dungeons - while I don't mind the concept of the camp all too much being able to return to camp out of dungeons surrounded by enemies ruins immersion in the world. Returning to camp and long resting should be possible only after exiting dungeons. This would also add an extra layer of difficulty to the game as you'd need to use your spells and abilities conservatively since you can't just get them back after every fight.
My only other complaint with camp is how large it is sometimes which is a problem when swapping out companions, a lot of running around for nothing.
9) Party size of 4 - A party size of 6 would open up much more combinations and let you bond with more character which ultimately leads to a better gameplay experience. A traditional party usually has a tank, a healer, a damage dealer and a rogue. This is already 4 spots occupied. The extra 2 spots would add flavor to the party and could hold characters that don't exactly fit into any of the above mentioned roles.
10) XP sharing - Only companions that participated in a fight should get the xp from it. Sharing xp just feels weird and makes everyone always on the same power level. Also this would give you something to do once you reach level 12, level up your other companions.
11) Voice at character creation - right now there are 4 male and 4 female voices which kind of all sound the same. While they can work for races such as Human or Elf they in no way work for Half-Orc or Dwarf. I had to stop one of my playthroughs since I couldn't stand my savage Half-Orc sounding like Larry from accounting.
12) UI improvements - shared inventory among characters, better inventory management and an easier way to switch out characters from your party and camp.
My plathrough was about 100 hours on a female Human Dark Urge Oath of Devotion 6 / Storm Sorcery 6 multiclass staying lawful good without ever breaking my oath. While I haven't planned on playing a lawful good paladin when I first installed the game it just made so much sense to do it on a Dark Urge. In my mind my character was a great warlord killing in the name of
before loosing her memory to the tadpole. While unconscious a powerful deity reached into her soul giving her a chance to redeem herself and be a force of good hence waking up as a Paladin while her Sorcerer side comes from
. Made her look much like the default female Guardian and she looked spectacular covered in blood and gore while keeping her angelic look.
I managed to recruit and keep all companions except
Minthra for obvious reasons
. My main team were Shadowheart who was also my love interest, Gale and Wyll who I multiclassed into a Bardlock. Seroiusly, Wyll as a Bardlock makes so much sense for his character and it fills the traditionally rogue role if you don't want to take Astarion with you although the Astarion quest line is also great and I suggest you finish it. All in all I loved the Origin character stories with Wyll and Shadowheart having the best stories and Karlach having the saddest ending. I left my girl Shadowheart just to go to
Avernus with Karlach so she wouldn't die.
My criticism doesn't mean I didn't like the game, I loved it. I also don't expect these points fixed in the current game however I hope for an expansion one day. A proper full expansion at full price that would another Act the size of Act 3 and increase the level cap to 18 or 20.
