Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Anyone else just doesn't want to play the game past Act 2?

I just abandonned my first run after getting the fake ending in act 2.

Story wise it felt appropiate. I am unsure if I should reload and go to act 3 (tav bard) or restart (durge paladin/cleric of selune)

I 100% agree which is why instead of having Orin be this optional thing we can tackle any time while our companion is kidnapped... if she becomes the primary focus that we need to address before entering the city for real it would alleviate the issue. That way you dont need to decide between leaving your companion kidnapped or doing anything else that seems less important.

No, my LI doesn't get special treatment, they stay in camp,when I don't need them, like everybody else.

I've gotten to act 3 twice in playtbroughs and both times my interest just dropped and I could not finish the game. I think act 2 is the best act from a story standpoint, because we actually have a clear narrative line to follow. Act 1 is unfocused and the plot of the game and the encouragement to explore are at odds in a qay I find unsatisfying. I think act 2 is when the story of the game is the strongest, its the point where we actually know what the plot is.

I always feel like it’s a rush against time when I’m in act 3. It honestly ends up becoming a chore list that I don’t intend on finishing. I only got through it once and I still missed a lot of content, because there’s no structure or flow to it like the other acts do.
Also I agree with the companions banter and camp scenes just abruptly stopping once we reach the city. Feels like all the bonding between the companions never happened, like we spent all this time together and we have nothing to show for it. Overall, it feels really empty and unfinished, which it is.

It’s also the act where the story really falls flat and has a ton of inconsistencies, contradictions, and lack of companions interactions. It has a lot of dead end quests too and there’s way too many things going on at once. If they wanted to emulate what a real city looks and feels like, they did a good job on that lol.

The bit about romances effectively stopping quite early in Act 3 I find quite jarring, your companions (espec your romantic interests) may as well be hirelings.

Personally I'd have had killing Gortash & Orin as triggers for a romance scene afterwards (they don't have to be sexual ofc) - also there should be one before you go into the final fight where you all know there's a high chance of getting killed.

PS I' would have broken Act 3 into 3 seperate parts.

Unfortunately, I agree that a lot of the game falls apart after Act II.

For me, the adventure and city don't carry the mood forward properly.

--there's a lot going on in the city, but it doesn't come to life because it feels like it has more of the modern writers' sensibilities than anything true to the setting.

--the meeting with Gortash happens too fast. It should be something that's worked toward and that happens in the Upper City after much of the other content has been explored. (Also, Gortash kinda sucks as a major villain. He needs to be touched up, just my opinion.) This would then become the last stop before confronting the elder brain.

--Rivington doesn't project the proper flavor. You don't get the proper sense of it. The squalor, the anger, the resentment, the ticking nature of it all, like the whole place is about to explode. None of that comes across. It tries to at times, but fails. There's a picnic, a happy gnome washing his pits, a squatter who's the "good guy" while the "bad guy" owns the house. It just falls down on itself, the whole area.

--additionally in Rivington, the murder investigation should be *FELT* everywhere. It should be such a huge part of the flavor there. People should be scared, worried, like when a notorious serial killer is on the loose in an urban environment. Getting through the murder investigation should be the best way to get through to the Lower City. As it stands, there are so many ways into the Lower City that it all jumbles together.

--overall, there needs to be a stronger thread dragging you through Act III, and more flavor flavor flavor, making the Act come alive like what we have in Acts I & II.

I sort of agree. I think you do need several ways to get into the Lower City because not everyone might be into playing detective, or feel the spark of justice to investigate toys. It's just that all ways in feel very much the same. Is there a way to get yourself smuggled in through your new Guild friends? If there is, I haven't found it yet. A lot of potential for fun ways to get past a choke point is lost by having that choke point also be a narrative choke point because they really want you to witness that Coronation.

At least let me sell or give away my superfluous entry passes ...

At the end of Act 2; it's all about 'We must go to the city. If we hurry, we can be there before the army arrives!"

Army doesn't arrive if you spend six weeks vacationing in the city. For me, they could leave it as is - if there was a segment where we intercept the army, and it gives us a reason why we can breathe and find Astarion's fangs instead.

There should be a *major* engagement with the allies you found so far - Druids, Svirneblin, Myconids, Totally-not-Githzerai, Tieflings and Harpers to rout the Absolute's Army on the march. Hells, even Gortash and his Steel Watch, it would make total sense, as he would he heralded a hero - and might paint him in a different light as for your alliance as well.

Honestly, I could buy the fact that a small group of adventurers could outrun a large army on the march and may have a bit of a "calm before the storm" time to try to prepare.

But how in the hells did the giant brain make it to the city, and somehow manage to hide itself underground, all before we got there and without anyone noticing?

Regarding some kind of "major engagement," if one were added, I think it would make sense for it to be that the heroes + allies destroy some sort of bridge or mountain pass, forcing the Absolute's army to take a longer route while the heroes rush ahead.

This wasn't really a major issue for me, but it was just a little bit hard to figure out what the timeline was.

You should go back to the Act 2 meeting of the 3 chosen. They use the netherstones to teleport the brain from its lair under Moonrise towers to the area of the morphic pool behind Bhaal's temple under Baldur's gate city.
Then when you fail to control it with the netherstones and retreat to the astral prism, it rises out of the underground and begins the grand design, calling on the absolutist army , transforming injected to mindflayers and opening the ways for the nautiloids

The story may not be 100% satisfactory (understatement), but you witness the transport of the brain from Moonrise to Baldur's gate when the you see the 3 for the first time and they call upon their stones in Act 2's endgame.

Really? I must have horribly misinterpreted that scene then. I recall the brain appearing outside Moonrise Towers, flying above its army and talking about marching on Baldur's Gate, giving me the impression that it would be flying above its own army the entire way / "marching" with them. I was very confused when it was somehow already in the city before its army. You are right that teleportation was involved, though, so I guess they just teleported it all the way there after first teleporting it out into the open?

I really like the idea of intercepting the army on the march, or a bridge too far type thing where the gnomish runepowder is used to blow up a key bridge crossing. That's a great idea! Maybe Gortash and Orin were just planning to betray Ketheric's forces anyway, and along one path we get to participate there or witness that unfold. This could give the player a preview on some of the enemies they're going to encounter vs enemies they've just been fighting, to so see how the Act III bads stack up. You know so like the first time you see a robocop he's laying into some zombies or whatever and comes off more menacing.

This would be a nice setpiece to include another Wilderness area attached to the Rivington area, which is pretty hustle and bustle complete with a circus and everything. If there was a lonely cabin by the woods, then the player could have an nice interlude area that doubles as a base, similar to the vibe we get in Wyrms crossing, but expanded to an entire zone for exploration.

That would be a cool opportunity to just have a lot of animals, like beasts of every land and clime. Maybe to pick up on the druid stuff and some of the themes laid out in the first Act but which don't really have much follow through in the third, except for that one dragonborn dude and the little tree I guess. But I fully expected that in Act III there might be a Druidic Moot, or some kind of serious something to get Silvanus involved again, since that was all the opener. There are many spells like charm animal and dominate beast that don't get used very often. Mostly cause the stuff we face is already hostile. Talking the city animals is fun, but I just remember in BG1 and BG2 when there was a reason to go back out into the Wild right before the climax. Instead of funneling us from Rivington direct to the Coronation, it could instead push us back down towards the river and the woods so there's a bit of a break between Rivington and the City proper.

I think following up on the murders and the dribbles stuff works if you're playing a chatty sort of character who wants to double as a investigator, but for other character types it felt a bit out of character. The Orin stuff was much more direct, so I feel like she should take the spotlight at this point. Not like we need to defeat her first, but where she's the second main bad. When playing as Durge I think it's more fitting to do Gortash first, then Orin before the Brain, because of all the Bhaal stuff in that origin. Whereas for Tav I feel like the reverse would make more sense, and give a better pacing maybe.

Either way preparing for a large battle or ambush and trying to put the pieces together on that before doing the big act III things, would give the player a chance to get their bearings again after spending so much time in the shadowlands, or brief visits across the veil or into the astral, with interludes set at night. I went down by the river first when I got to Act III, and expected to find more room to roam on the outskirts. I think this might be another place where they could try to recapture the vibe of BG1, but make it more elective. Like where the party could choose to stay out of doors and do some druidy ranger-y barbarian-y type quests, or charge headlong into the urban maelstrom with a million things competing for our attention. Even just having a place to blow back to between doing the various missions in the city might be nice. I get a little tired of the Elfsong Tavern. The Rivington camp is nice to return to. A stronghold type quest either within the City or outside it would also be cool. It's fun to see Rolan in charge of the the Wizards Tower, so I wouldn't want to steal his thunder, but just seems like a taking over a spot and having it function as a camplike waypoint hub but more in world. A camp where all the inactive party members are somehow being tasked with the defense of the city's perimeter or advanced scouting along the borderlands, things like that. Perhaps one team is based inside the city, one outside, and the challenge might be to resupply or maintain contact and order between the groups. Sometimes one group might have to deal with something on their own, so there's a reason to have all the camp followers kitted out. Maybe Scratch caries the notes back and forth? Stuff like that could be fun I think, and might help with the Act III overwhelm or sense of burn out.

I feel, act 3 is like i feared the devs would do it....

They added new stuff and didn't give a F** about the bigs and issues that were in before. After patch 4, half of act 3 was bugged for me. Now party banters stop and romances stop, after the story is finished. I mean, come on, at least if you romance a companion, they should have a bit more to say.

Major Act 3 spoilers

Yes as Mindflayer nautiloids and Githyanki commonly travel large distances by "portal" I assumed this was the way they transported the brain from Moonrise to Baldur's Gate also.

Isn't the point of the army also that it is not supposed to attack the city proper. It is supposed to cause havoc in the surrounding area so the city gets swarmed by terrified refugees and Gortash is granted more power to deal with the supposed thread - that's what most conversations with Gortash point to - overheard or otherwise. Intercepting it makes little sense. .... but dealing with the aftermath of that army once the Elderbrain has caused all of them to transform should be a fun clean-up process for the months to come. *coughs*

Act 3 has been a struggle for me. I didn't realize how little party interaction there was until folks started mentioning it on here... I knew something was off but couldn't put my finger on it other than the sheer amount of stuff I need to do, not feeling very natural... like, right now I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go next, and that's a constant in this act. I think they've done an incredible job with this game but may have lost steam (or time) to really polish act 3? I just have this urge to restart so bad the enitre time I'm in Act 3 and I didn't feel that way in Act 2 even though the constant darkness was started to get to me.

Act 3 is rushed Larian definitely lost it there it doesnt feel like act 1 and 2. At first is not that bad but the moment you meet with Gortash everthing goes bad and then Orin comes out everything starts to happen too fast it feels really rushed like they ran out of ideas or had no time I dont know but im sure of one thing act 1 and 2 are way better than act 3. Hopefully they will do something about it especially now when the game won goty I really hope they do. The game is awesome but it needs polishing.

That's my view. The guard at the gate leading to the camp says they were already victorious although some are still out there.