Putting the TL;DR up front, because this post got out of hand!
1. Don't hide so many meaningful conversations with NPCs behind ability checks, or provide alternatives or later chances when the check fails.
2. If possible, create some party banter that reflects a growing sense of camaraderie, and involve more than one party member at a time in conversations.
3. Give PCs some privacy at camp. Party members shouldn't be privy to every single scrap of information the PC has, especially when it's told to the PC in confidence. If they're going to talk about it, there should be permission given or some kind of general reveal beforehand.
4. There's a lot of work to do to make relationships/romances feel organic. I get no sense that any member of my party is developing feelings for my character other than approval/disapproval of various actions. Thus, I'm blindsided when they suddenly throw out propositions.
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Thank you so much for all the hard work and creativity that is going into the making of this game. Even in an early access state, it's overall a superior gaming experience that I'm enjoying and want to see more of. Since plenty of others (better versed in 5e than I am) are talking about mechanics and rules, I want to talk about character/relationship development. I'll try to keep this as un-spoilery as possible. If anyone doesn't like long reads, just save yourself some time and stop here. You already got the TL;DR.
Each character is very distinct and interesting to me, which I was pleasantly surprised to discover. No matter what character you write, someone is going to have read or seen something that's going to make them think that character is derivative, but I think that the companions mostly manage to be unique, and each has a compelling story that doesn't begin and end with the tadpole. There is a ton of potential for character development here. So far, they stay true to their personalities, which is good and bad for your own character depending on the type you're playing. It definitely drives home the saying that you can't please everyone. I quickly realized this and mostly stopped trying, which made me focus more on my own character and her motivations, so well done.
Also, the beginning of the game up until the point when you've recruited everyone and spent you first night at camp doesn't suffer from what I point out below, so I'm hoping that most of this was left out of EA due to time constraints and not because it isn't there to begin with. I also haven't explored every single character interaction. Anyway, here goes.
BEGIN MILD SPOILERS
1. Too many opportunities to actually learn something about the companions are lost in failed ability check rolls. My dice are notoriously unlucky with either tabletop or RNG, and that holds true with this game. I fail almost every persuasion check when talking to my companions at camp, and the rebuffs (at best rude, but usually hostile and even sometimes threatening) make me disinclined to try again. Mind you, I'm not even picking the tadpole option to try to read their minds because I consider that a violation. I just try to talk to them. The end result is that I barely know anything about my companions by the end of the early access content other than exactly what they want me to know, which in the case of two of them is completely transactional and only revealed to me because it benefits them to do so. I feel like I'm in a party of users, liars, and manipulators, and it's pretty off-putting. Objectively speaking, I find them interesting, but I care less about them than I'm probably supposed to at this point because it's way too hard to get to know them. Maybe that comes in Act 2?
2. Camaraderie is mostly missing in the single-player experience. One of the greatest things about D&D is that you're gaming with friends. The more obstacles you overcome, the more you feel like a team with a shared sense of pride and accomplishment. You accrue anecdotes and inside jokes. You get to rib people over stupid choices they made and get some grief of your own in return, and it's generally all in fun. “those boots will never be the same again,” or “does anyone know what gets out goblin slobber?” “Eye of newt, water, and lye.” Or whatever. You get my point.
I realize that at the outset of BG3, you have a party of disparate characters that don't know each other at all and would likely have never chosen one another's (or your) company. Still, I would expect that as enemies pile up at your feet, the individuals would begin to come together to some extent to form a team, not just a party. Every conversation with a party member or other NPC is, with a handful of exceptions, is one-on-one. It's like only one party member at a time can have an opinion, and even when they give it, no one else seems to even realize that they spoke. Other party members don't react to what someone says. I remember in BG1 and BG2, other characters would butt right in when you were having a conversation that wasn't private. That kind of party interaction helps make it feel like a team, or at least reveals personalities, natural conflicts, and party dynamics, and I wish there was some of that here.
3. And speaking of privacy... Oddly enough, even though conversations are so limited in general, what the PC knows, everyone knows. I guess my party members aren't nearly as averse as I am to using the tadpole to read minds, because when one person in my party tells me something one-on-one, in what I assume is a moment of privacy at camp, suddenly everyone knows it.
Does Gale want everyone to know about his condition? Because he “trusts” my PC enough to tell them about his condition, even demanding an unconditional agreement to his terms before he reveals it, does that suddenly mean he trusts everyone else to know? Yet they must know, because every time we see an artifact that might be of interest to Gale, it just gets blurted out in front of the whole party. And then there's Astarion. He hides his actual nature from the PC until caught, in the middle of the night while everyone else is apparently asleep, and then suddenly everyone knows about it. Naturally they should know it the first time they see him feed in combat, but they know regardless. It kind of negates the whole concept of developing a unique level of trust and understanding with the PC if everyone, without explanation, is in the know. Of course, this is a flaw with this kind of game across the board, so I imagine there are cost- and time-related issues to making interactions more realistic.
I very much appreciate the moments in camp when one party member admits to eavesdropping, because at least it explains how they know. Sadly, eavesdropping seems to be the rule rather than the exception around the campfire. In a party full of secrets, only my character seems to be unable to keep one.
4. Finally, romance is not very organic as far as I can determine. Or at least it's not organic across the board. There is little to no flirtation from companions toward the PC. Through cut-scene conversation and random party banter, I've seen party members flirt with one another with varying degrees of success. What I have not seen is anyone voluntarily showing any romantic interest at all in the PC, male or female, prior to the celebration that is held at camp after rescuing Halsin. That content either isn't there, or is locked behind persuasion ability checks that I couldn't make (which automatically makes it non-voluntary). Then, without the slightest preamble and provided their approval is high enough, everyone seems to want to catch the PC's interest at the party, under conditions. For example:
Astarion will outright ask you to sleep with him. While for him this is probably fairly in keeping with his character, he's never so much as hinted at genuine interest. His nature is wickedly flirtatious, but he applies it unilaterally, so I don't personally give it any special credence when applied to my character.
Gale and Wyll will not ask the PC to spend the night with them in “that way” or even hint that they're thinking about the PC as more than just another party member/friend, and they will in fact firmly friend-zone the PC if you probe the waters. Which you really shouldn't, because neither to this point has even so much as winked at your character, so what do you expect? However, if you first talk to Lae'zel, Shadowheart, or Astarion and agree to one of their propositions, both Gale and Wyll will express dissatisfaction or jealousy over your choice. WTF? At least with Lae'zel and Shadowheart, they make it plain that they're interested in the PC whether or not you talk to someone else first. I found the secluded scene with Shadowheart to be the only true example of romance in Act 1, but for my PC at least, the request to spend time with her still came out of left field, because I had not a single clue she was interested.
And back to the privacy thing, how the hell does everyone instantly know that your PC has agreed to spend the night with anyone else? Seems like you wouldn't be shouting it. They should at least have to ask what that whole conversation with so-and-so was about rather than just inexplicably knowing and acting on it.
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Other items:
- Love the soundtrack and sound quality in general. The atmosphere is amazing!
- Love the character models in general and the whole character creation process in particular.
- Love the absolutely stellar voice acting and writing. The director is amazing. I'm going to point out one thing in particular even though this post is already so ridiculously long. When the narrator is speaking during Astarion's reveal, at the exact moment she says "vampire," Astarion gives an almost imperceptible wince. He's already looking away, and the impression that gives is one of shame that he probably won't even acknowledge to himself. It made me feel sorry enough for him to let him feed, and that is something I swore up and down I would not do until that very moment of that scene. Bravo.
- Love the landscapes and visuals.
- Love that every NPC you can talk to has a little face time.
- Love that you can talk to so many NPCs.
- Love rolling that stupid 20-sider! Even when I fail, which happens way more often than I succeed.
- LOVE having to think my way to victory by using the environment instead of just hack-n-slashing through.
- Love having to decide which artifacts I can bear to part with to keep Gale alive. Will there come a time he asks for too much? We'll see.
Basically, I'm having a ball and spending way too much time playing this game even in early access. Thank you for providing it and allowing the players to help shape the experience.
