Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback My feedback after 1 playthrough

Preface

Alright let me start by saying this is going to be a long ass post, and I’m also going to give a bit of context. I've finished one playthrough of the EA so far, I played a drow Wizard, and tried to do everything I could find. I'm a fan of DnD but I'm not a PnP player, so this will be extremely light on ruleset discussion. What I am, however, is a HUGE Baldur's Gate fan, BG2 is probably my favorite game ever, and I have huge amounts of fond memories regarding the series, so I will probably reference the old games a lot, I also really like RTwP combat, although I'll play turn-based without complaint if well implemented. I should also mention I will hardly mention any technical issues and bugs here, as I think that's a different topic.

As a broad statement, I believe BG3 right now shows a lot of promise, like, truly a lot, potentially the best cRPG in decades, but there's also many points of concern. I'll try explaining myself in detail here.

1.- Graphics:

Overall, the graphics are excellent. I never thought I'd see a cRPG look THIS beautiful. The environments are believable, they look "lived in" and plausible, it's also very colorful but overall, the more "childish" or "playful" tone of Divinity games isn't very strong in BG3. It is still there though, and I think there's improvements that you could make in this regard, making it just slightly darker. A big example of this for me is the intellect devourer scene at the beginning. Maybe I misunderstood it, but it seems to me this is meant to be a very brutal and dark scene. After all, there's a man's brain exposed and his expression shows suffering, however, the animations, colors used, and models make the scene more "gory in a goofy way" than anything else. This is sort of a common thing I see throughout the EA, and I believe it's derived from divinity's overall lighter tone, or it might be an issue with 5th edition's tone. To use a clear example, I’d like the game’s tone look more like the nautiloid in the opening cinematic, and less like the nautiloid in game.

Character models and especially faces are incredibly detailed and expressive, and you can tell there has been an incredible amount of work put into them, the main cast in particular, is stellar in this regard.

The elephant in the room, however, are the animations, that suffer from rather poor quality in general with the exception of facial expressions (And yes, I'm only talking about those that work correctly here), clipping is extremely frequent, and all of this is ESPECIALLY noticeable on in-game cutscenes, which really are not up to par. Combat animations, on the other hand, are mostly well done, but they have a bit of a cartoonish look that detracts from the more serious tone of the older games. Even the font used in the game text has this issue.

As a final comment, I'd really like to see more variety in armor models, otherwise characters of the same class end up looking the same.

2.- Sound:

Really there isn't much to complain here, the sounds in general are excellent, while the soundtrack is simply spectacular. While I have some personal issues with some of the tracks sounding TOO similar to divinity original sin ones, I believe this to be more of a "composer" issue, than a "game" issue. I respect Mr. Slavov's work a lot, and I truly believe he's done a remarkable work so far, so I won't question the OST choices. Finally, voice acting is awesome, on point, all of the actors nail the tone of the dialogues and their characters marvelously, I have nothing to criticize here. Again, the presentation of the game in general is far above what I'd expect for a cRPG so I commend you for all your work. That said, there's some stylistic choices that don't align too much with the old games.

3.- Character creation

Leaving aside the missing classes, races, etc, I think this is one of the weaker points of the game so far. Making the character creation process exclusively a point-buy system means all characters of a given class are pretty much the same. I think a dice roll system combined with a point buy system could work better. Yes, you'll have some people rolling dice for hours just to min-max, but that's also a choice that makes character creation more fun. Maybe a system of random rolls in which you get to pick from a set number of different tries, maybe 5 or 6 tries and then be forced to choose between those. All in all, the point-buy system is, in my mind, one of the weaker ways of creating a character. Mostly because anyone with even mild knowledge of cRPGs or PnP DnD will always have the choice of making an ideal character.
Also, I understand why faces are somewhat limited, but I think we need a little more customization in finer details. Different body types and proportions should ideally also be allowed, as well as height settings, maybe body tattoos and markings that aren’t tattoos or makeup, like moles, freckles, spots and wrinkles would also be very appreciated, but this is all just stretching it.

4.- Companions

This point will surely be a very contentious one among fans, but here I tend to incline to the DOS2 crowd, with some caveats. I really like what you did with the origin characters in DOS2, and I really like it here as well. All of them have interesting and engaging stories, however, I do have a few concerns regarding what this means for the overarching story, as I’m not entirely convinced a conflicting storyline between many “main characters” suits the more traditional fantasy storytelling set in the older games. In BG series, your Bhaalspawn was the CLEAR protagonist, while in DOS2 this wasn’t clear at all, and the game in general felt like it had 6 main characters, with the additional drawback that when you created your own character, it felt, in my opinion, like he/she was a secondary character in your own game. I don’t know if I’m explaining this correctly and this is a strictly personal take, but this is how DOS2 felt to me, and also how BG3 feels right now, which contrasts heavily with the approach taken by the old game.
Besides from that, the fact that companions are so incredibly well made, has the obvious drawback of requiring extensive dev time and work, meaning there’s less of them, with the corresponding decrease in playthrough variety. This is also closely related to party composition, as a 4-member party feels restrictive not only from a gameplay perspective (I will address this later on), but also from a story one.
In conclusion, I hope there’s enough time to make more companions, and also not all of them need to be necessarily found at the beginning of the game, meeting people is a big part of the game after all.

5.- Story

We have not seen enough of the story to make a judgment on it, however, I will make only one comment: As a big fan of the old games, I would be EXTREMELY dissapointed if there’s nothing connecting BG3 to the original BG series. To me this would feel like a something very dear to me was utilized as an advertisement point and nothing more. I know this sounds overly dramatic but what can I do, it’s just what I think LOL.
I kinda hope the game assumes one of the endings in ToB as canon (Maybe the Bhaalspawn became a new god of murder?). Anyway, it’s looking good so far, the story threads are interesting, and it’s also interesting as it seems you can take branching paths that might take you to entirely different areas (Go through the mountain pass vs take the underdark boat maybe?)

6.- Non-combat gameplay mechanics

I decided to divide my comments about gameplay like this so it’s a bit more organized, as I want to mention quite a few things that bother me so far.

a.- Non-combat dice rolls: Rolls in general are excellent things, and the fact you can irreversibly fail (disregarding save-scumming), is great, however I want to emphasize how important it is that the fail states are actually interesting and fun. There’s some of that here, but not enough in my opinion. If a majority of failed dice rolls simply lock you out of things then save scumming is incentivized too heavily, although I’m sure you already know this, I still think it’s worth mentioning. Additionally, the process of rolling die in BG3 severely impacts the game and dialogue flow. Simply put, the animation and the need to click afterwards is simply too slow and removes tension from an act that is inherently supposed to be tense because of randomness, I suggest you look at Disco Elysium and the way they do it. The dice roll is quick, you don’t need to read anything to know whether you failed or succeeded (The screen flashes immediately to show you), and any dramatic consequences happen immediately without input from the player, it makes everything a lot more dynamic and fun.

b.- The jump mechanic: Right now, this feature is EXTREMELY slow, and easily the worst part of the gameplay loop, mostly because of the need to click on each individual character to use it, it single handedly slows navigation to a crawl, especially because there is no way to use it with a keybind, and also because the game forces one character to completely finish their jump animation before you can change to a second one and input the jump command, it is extremely awkward right now. Finally, in most situations, the jump mechanic feels like needless extra padding while navigating from one place to the next, mostly because even my 9 strength wizard can make all the jumps required with ease, so it feels like it serves no purpose other than being an obstacle to my exploration. There are some specific segments in which it works well, namely the tower in the underdark, and also the fact the access to the Festering Cove is blocked by a mandatory jump is great, such optional areas could add a lot to exploration, sort of like finding an illusory wall in dark souls.

c.- Inventory management: I suppose you’re trying to keep it simple, but the truth is the current system results in pure chaos in the inventory screen. I wish the inventory spaces were limited, and I’d also like a multiple slot system common in action RPGs like Diablo, while dedicated tabs or spaces for potions and a quiver for the different types of arrows are natural additions to a very bare bones inventory system. These subsystems could also be extended to combat, with a “potions” button in your quickbar that allows you to see pick among all potions in your inventory with a simple prompt. Also applicable to bombs and other types of ammunition.

d.- The UI: In its current iteration it is very unintuitive. Personally, I think having a single character screen that allows you to quickly change equipment and see your stats at the same time (A combination of the “character sheet” and “equipment” screens) works better than showing the screens for all characters at the same time. I’d also like some more statistic details and somewhere I can see records, like “strongest enemy slain”, “highest critical hit damage”, etc, I don’t know why but I really liked this in old Infinity engine games. A bestiary with lore and art about creatures slain or otherwise learned about, with information like weaknesses, stats, etc, would also be great, although this would probably take a LOT of effort. Also please for the love of all that is sacred give my wizard an actual spellbook, maybe even a somewhat customizable one. Simple things like having to right click to pick locks or disarm traps are just QoL annoyances that don’t work smoothly at all and interrupt the gameplay flow.

e.- Navigation: There’s some issues besides just jumping that I’d like to point out. I think many people have probably said this already, but the absence of both formations and the “hold right click and drag” to determine orientation when arriving at destination is very detrimental, for some reason I always like to think of my character as the party leader, so I like to have him/her always selected when moving around the map. Well, since my character is a wizard, this usually means that if I find hostiles by surprise my wizard ends up on the frontline, absolutely NOT where I want to be in combat. On the flipside, if I’m selecting Lae’zel for walking to avoid this problem, and I happen to find an automatic dialogue situation, well, I’m stuck with having her as the dialogue leader, which is also NOT what I want at all. This is all solved by being able to walk in formation, and defaulting to dialogue with the selected character, if in range of conversation. AI pathfinding has some big problems here as well, my characters have suicided from rooftops on multiple occasions, instead of taking the obvious safe route, and I also think that the pathfinder should automatically avoid any known traps, especially considering the chaining system makes individual movement of characters so unwieldy. The root of this problem is, in essence, the character chaining system. I think ditching the DOS chaining and opting for a classic selection box approach would solve most if not all of these issues.

f.- Dialogue: I have no qualms with the dialogue system at all, plus the great writing helps make it even better. However, I’d like it if for example you have memorized a spell like detect thoughts or things like that, there’s dialogue options that allow you to use them, much like the “illithid” choices, while spending the appropriate spell slots. This might be in-game and I didn’t notice so ignore if this is the case.

g.- Resting and camping: Overall I like the camping mechanic implemented right now. I just wish the camping area changed a bit depending on where you are. Maybe if you’re traveling the underdark the camping zone can reflect that, or maybe if you’re camping inside of a crypt or a cave you can set up a small camp with less story options (Like in Pathfinder: Kingmaker) instead of going back to the main camp, reserved for camping in the overland, this could have some mechanic implications (Maybe characters like Volo or the revival skeleton will only be available in the big camp). I say this because clicking “camp” in the underdark and showing up on the camping site is very immersion breaking in my opinion. Finally, there should be some limit to the camping mechanic, right now it’s overpowered, although this was a problem in infinity engine games as well. I suspect the camping area will change when you switch acts so I won’t comment on that. Short rests, on the other hand, are on a very awkward spot on the brink of complete uselessness as a feature, right now, they’re basically a glorified party heal, a fact that is compounded by my next topic.

h.- Time: One very disappointing aspect in my mind is the complete absence of a time system, whether we’re talking just about a day/night cycle or a complete calendar system, I mean, the forgotten realms even have an established calendar system (The calendar of Harptos) with names for months and seasons. This could have large implications in story and gameplay. With a day/night cycle, choosing a character with night vision has even bigger consequences than before, maybe we could have more bandit ambushes, or maybe the overland encounters could have different monsters at night compared to the day, maybe if you walk the streets of Baldur’s gate at night you’ll get assaulted by a Vampire or whatever, it just opens a world of possibilities (And if my memory serves, I think BG games had this feature). If there’s a calendar system implemented, maybe if you take too many days to solve the druid conflict, they will complete the ritual of thorns and expel the refugees, completely changing the story for the act. This could also be complemented with a dynamic weather system which could affect combat too, especially considering how much environmental interactivity your game engine has.

7.- Combat mechanics

a.- Combat dice rolls: I don’t know why, but looking at the dice rolls in the dialogue box while playing the old games was always great for me. I could also access a summary of the roll modifiers and modify my strategies accordingly. I wish we could have that amount of detail in the box in this game. Also, knowing my chance to hit opponents of which I’m not supposed to know their armor class seems weird to me, I’d prefer to find out after the roll. Finally, the critical hit animations don’t work, the die shown is on the way of the action, and it breaks the flow of combat as much as the die animation does in non-combat scenarios. I suggest fixing this by just having characters do flashy attack animations, and foregoing the die.

b.- Weapon abilities: I heard this on a WolfheartFPS video, but I’m going to replicate it since it sounded like such a good idea. I like the implementation of special weapon attacks, but I think it would be great if the special attack for each weapon would change depending on the class of the character wielding it. For example, maybe a Rogue with a shortbow can pin targets, while a ranger with a shortbow can shoot a single target twice, things like that.

c.- The Jump mechanic: Unlike the non-combat issues I have with Jump, in combat I think the implementation is really great, it allows for tactical choices and is overall a great addition. That said, the ability is grossly overpowered, and the fact you can avoid opportunity attacks by jumping is too powerful. It should definitely trigger an attack of opportunity, and if hit, maybe your character should be penalized by going prone.

d.- Quickbar and UI: In combat, quickbars rapidly become incredibly hard to keep track of, especially because anything you pick up gets automatically added to the bars, making it impossible, for example, to customize your bars with spaces between categories of abilities, since said spaces will inevitably be occupied by some apple you picked up and your quickbar will be cluttered again. Also, right now you’re not penalized for not organizing and dividing your potions, since you can pass them among your party during combat without even using a bonus action. Finally, adding a “potion” button or tab and a “bomb” button or tab would be a big QoL change in my opinion, and it would make it so people are much more likely to actually use these items instead of forever hoarding them in their inventory.

e.- Cover: I’m not sure how much of this is actually in the mechanics and I just missed it, but I think a cover system akin to that of wasteland 3 and X-COM would benefit combat immensely. I don’t think it’s beneficial to the game that the only real tactical concern you need to have right now is getting into high ground. In short, combat tactics are too simple, and a cover system could help with that.

f.- Party composition: I firmly believe 6 party members would be the ideal setup in a DnD based game, in comparison to DOS in which I feel 4 members is perfectly fine. The reason for this is that DOS has a flexible character system in which your “class” is determined by your equipment. This isn’t true at all for DnD. This means that you will be forced to select your party members not by what characters you like the most, or are more interested in, but by the class you choose for your own character since you’ll always need either 2 “tanks” or a “tank” and a “healer”. This is even worse if you choose to play an origin character, since you’ll have even less choice available. A 6 member party system would allow you to be flexible since you have 2 extra slot with which to do whatever you want. Since I’m pretty sure you’re already set in a 4-member party, I propose the following: Make every party member have a choice of two (Lore and character friendly) classes when recruited, and maybe give them the option to multiclass, for example maybe Shadowheart can be either a cleric or a paladin (With differing stat rolls). This system has already been implemented in PoE 2 and would allow for a ton of variety without compromising the 4 member party system.

8.- General feel of the game and final thoughts:

You’ve probably heard this enough, but I will say it anyway: Right now, the game feels more like Divinity original sin 3 than Baldur’s gate 3, and I don’t want this to be understood necessarily as criticism, I understand this game is different from the old ones, it’s made by a different team, it has been 20 years for christ’s sakes, and as such, a large distancing from the original games is inevitable. I can deal with that. I also prefer RTwP over turn based but I’m not going to complain about that, I’m perfectly OK with turn based as well.

With all that said, I’m more concerned with the general tone of the game, the story, and the characters. I don’t really know how to express this correctly and English is not my first language so I might be making mistakes here, but I’ll exemplify this in the following manner: BG 3 feels like “YES!, We’re infected with a mind flayer tadpole so we’re going on an exciting and jolly new adventure!!” while original BG feels like “Oh my god my life is in danger, and we’re forced into an epic adventure with everything on the line, dreading every step of the way”. The originals just have a much darker tone narratively, graphically, even in writing and in sounds, while BG3 shares much of the lighter tone of DOS. If I can offer a different way of viewing it, right now BG3 has a mixture of DNA from both series, but only has like a 30% of BG DNA, with a 70% of DNA from DOS.

Like I said, this isn’t necessarily bad, I have no doubts at all BG 3 is going to be an incredible game, maybe even the best cRPG ever made, I’m just not sold on it being an incredible BG game, and that could sour a bit what would otherwise be a very sweet drink.

I want to include a brief comment about traveling in BG3, as this is also an issue borne of DOS similarities. The way acts are structured in DOS games makes each of them feel almost like a completely separate game, as in, they feel disjointed, each act feeling like a small playground you get to use for a while, but it doesn’t seem like they are part of the same world. Meanwhile, even if comprised of smaller maps, individual areas in BG (And also in pillars of eternity 1, but especially in pathfinder: kingmaker and PoE 2) feel like they’re a part of a cohesive, larger world your party is exploring. When I saw the world map near the end of EA this concern was alleviated a bit, but I think the sense of traveling the world with your party is extremely important for the type of adventure the series is known for.

Also I said I wouldn’t complain about it, but I would definitely be interested in Larian’s approach to RTwP haha. Maybe in a future enhanced edition?. I’ll just leave that there.

Okay… that’s enough for now, I will be back once I’ve experienced a second playthrough. I really hope you guys at Larian read this, and I hope it’s helpful to you in any way. Thanks for all of your hard work!