Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 VR: possible lipstick on the pig?

Posted on Steam too. There were no serious responses.

Anyways, I'm always serious.

I decided over Christmas that instead of investing in a charity, I’d buy a VR headset.

Anyone who hasn’t bought one of these is missing out on what’s an absolutely mind-blowing glimpse into an alternate reality.

It’s the visual artistry that does it for me – but there's no doubt the repetitive ‘1st person shooter’ gameplay is saved a million times over by its VR equivalent in (eg) Half Life Alyx. It is an absolute gem, apart from a monstrous U-turn in writing quality (apparently written by the same writers who crafted the very witty, dark and mature Half Life 2).

I digress.

BG3 VR. Think about it. You’re overlooking the whole thing as a god, and can finally zoom out as much as you want (let’s be honest, the game looks far better when it glitches out and lets you zoom further than you normally can).

Or zoom in, looking through the eyes of the wizard as they blast off a fireball etc.

It’s perfect for VR.

Motion sickness is negated in a chess-like game, where you’re moving pieces not shooting guns.

I’d replay Act 1 for sure if they went with VR. It has no story – aka, Larian haven’t ruined it yet – and it's very well polished, gameplay-wise.

My review of HLA (just to further the case for this game-changing, incredible tech):

Is it the best gaming experience I’ve ever had?

Yes.

The game design – the puzzles, gameplay and enemy encounters – are pure genius.

This is in direct contrast to possibly the worst writing I’ve ever had to endure, in any format. Execrable is too mild an adjective. Googling it, I see the writing changed hands a few times, but apparently the original Half Life writers were eventually summoned back with success.

What happened?

Is this their artistic suicide note?

Wait until you see the deus ex machina ending, which completely erases all the good work of their former selves – if it’s even the old Half Life writers to begin with.

I personally don’t believe it.

This was written to clearly appeal to a non-existent ‘moron’ target audience, who’s even a level below your average Marvel junkie, the She-hulk era.

The voice actors sounded like they couldn’t take any of it seriously. It’s complete thrash. As in, it’s written in the most cynical ‘quippy’ way you could possibly think of – braindead crassness.

This is in direct contrast to the visual narrative – the story told by what you see – which is pretty much VR Mozart: beautiful and harrowing and thought-provoking and mysterious.

And ‘epic’, of course. The last ‘boss’ fight against a strider is simply glorious, unprecedented adrenaline fuel.

The various spatial awareness mini-games that only work in VR are the most innovative video game puzzles ever created IMO. Fantastic.

The environmental puzzles range from brilliant to about 2-3 overly obscure additions, such as an obnoxiously subtle support bar you’ll have to raise to get to the next point in the level. It’s not even a spoiler, because you will 100% miss this without a game guide.

Otherwise, these are again the best environmental puzzles (IMO) ever designed.

The enemies, while brilliantly designed, are too few in variety to sustain the length of the game. Zombies, in particular, are overused. But overall, this is once more the most thrilling ‘pure combat’ video game experience you’ll ever encounter, by a million miles.

To close off, it’s truly a VR masterpiece – and the pinnacle of what humans can create as a ‘gameplay’ experience. No ‘flat screen’ alternative can hold a candle to what has been achieved here. The gameplay innovation, making exemplary use of VR novelties, is the human imagination at peak inventiveness – absolutely awe-inspiring.

The narrative, meanwhile, seems to be written to appeal to I-don’t-know-who – cynically, an audience of gauche geeks, or something?

Certainly the creepy ‘I’ll show you my gun when this is all over’ banter between Alyx and whatever-his-name-is is laced with all kinds of cack-handed ‘dirty’ innuendo.

Lame and moronic – if Valve are to do a HL3, hopefully they sack these idiots and hire someone from CD Projeckt Red to save them.