Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 Early Access Review & Feedback Full Run

Finished my 1st run of the E.A, and wanted to compile all my thoughts and feedback in this post. Some of this will be repeated from my 1st impressions here: http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=680788#Post680788 ,but well over half of this is new (ballooned from over 4000 words to over 10,000). My thoughts are after 50 hours of play time according to steam, but my save file said 30 hours 38 minutes. I won’t be doing another run until the tag issue has been addressed for Half-ELF and Half-Elf Drow, because I felt its current state really hurt my experience narratively, or until half-orc is in, because that’s the other race I like playing (I’ll make an exception for Goblins as well, because I think that would be a very interesting experience). I’ll also be speaking from a place of someone that’s somewhat picky about the crpg’s he enjoys. To list the ones I liked: BG1 (completed multiple times), Planescape: Torment, Dragon Age: Origins (completed multiple times), DOS1 (completed multiple times), DOS2 (my favorite crpg to date, and completed too many times to count), Kotor 1 & 2 (both completed many times). Ones I didn’t enjoy: Pillars of Eternity 1 (got to the Adra Dragon and never wanted to play it again), BG2 (a good story that I was unwilling to finish myself, because of uninteresting combat, horrible U.I, and game ruining bugs and glitches). I'm not as much of a fan of the Forgotten Realms setting as I am of the Divinity setting, however BG3 has gotten me way more invested in this setting than BG1 & 2 ever did. That being said except comments regarding Lore to be next to none. There are several spoilers in here, so be warned.


Character Creation

Faces:
There needs to be more faces of varying types across the board. When I was going through male Half Elf-Drow’s faces I could barely tell them apart because they were all so similar. I did pick up on very minor differences eventually, but they were all just too similar. I’d like some more faces with softer features. Same with human male faces when I was selecting a face for “Who I dream of”. I went with #6, but I had difficulty telling 1-5 apart from each other. 150 faces might sound like a lot on paper, but for the player that actually boils down to maybe 5-6 per races, which is barley anything. You guys could save yourself a lot of headaches, and work by investing in character creation tech that lets you alter faces for the Divinity Engine, but if you are unwilling to uncompromised on this you’d need well over 20 faces per race/sub race option.

Hair:
Hair is the most important thing for me in character creation, and I won’t say I was disappointed, but I would like more. I would very much appreciate, and I know many others would too, some dreadlock styles like these of varying lengths:













As someone with shoulder length dreads with bangs, if you give me that option that will probably be the only thing I pick going forward, and I’ll love this studio for all eternity (I mean I already do, but shhh). The last time a game had dreads in a character creator I liked was Saints Row 2. Still a big fan of Arhu’s DOS1 design. Oh and the fact that females have beards as an option is awesome. Please don’t create hair styles players can’t use, and don’t lock hair styles to a specific race, because it is the most frustrating thing in the world. There is a reason the character creation+ mod for DOS2 exists. That’s not me saying don’t make new hairstyles at all, or don’t have cool looking npc’s, I know this is a lot of work, and I can feel the “ugh I made this hair for a new character now I gotta make sure it works with every race in the game” in some poor art designers head, but I’m telling you it’s worth it.

Tatoos & Makeup
Zero complaints you guys nailed it. My personal favorite was the tentacles around the eyes, because it matches my Great Old One Warlock esthetic. I guess you could add more, but you already exceeded my expectations in this area. You could add a scars and blemishes section, but honestly I’d rather more focus go into getting more faces and hair (especially good looking dreads, because few games do that style justice).

Colors:

Much like in the Tatoos & Makeup section I have zero complaints. The wide variety of colors for every option, skin, hair, eyes, etc. for every race is very impressive. The only thing I'd consider changing is separating beard color from hair color.

Portraits:

Please use a different light for the character portraits, because every time I pick a darker skin color my portrait comes out beet red. If I had to hazard a guess it’s because the lighting used to take the picture is using the same lighting as the starting room. I’d like to be able to see what the portraits will look like during character creation (like in DOS2), and the ability to edit my portrait like Dragon Age origins did where you could decide the background color, and the expression of the character https://youtu.be/O5G958qZSJM?t=185 .

Menus:
As a whole the character creator’s U.I is an improvement from DOS2, but there is one thing you really need to improve on. Make the options a drop down menu. It gets exhausting flipping back and forth between two hair styles, faces, etc. that aren’t right next to each other. While I was making the finishing touches on this document JoCat also complained about this in his critique of the character creator.

Voices:
I like that you can use any voice regardless if you are male or female, but the male voices sound too similar to each other imo. Have different voices you’d expect for each race like a stereotypical Scottish accent for dwarves etc. I don’t know how possible this would be considering the character creator voice is used for “who you dream of”, and that character has a lot of dialogue, but there absolutely needs to be more than just 4 voices for what you have now.

Origin Characters:
I'd love it if you added the ability to customize the appearance of the Origin Characters during character creation even if I'm not playing them. Somethings should be locked of course like Wy'll's eyes, but I'd love to change small things like Gale's hair.

Closing Thoughts On Character Creation:
I still love what you guys are trying to go for, and I am eagerly looking forward to more improvements going forward (hopefully more dreadlocks<3). Also to whoever decided male characters wear leather briefs I see you, and I appreciate you, best underwear I’ve seen in a crpg 11/10.


Avernus Tutorial
Bugs and glitches aside this tutorial is breath taking. Absolutely gorgeous with stunning visuals, great voice acting, and incredibly interesting and memorable set pieces. The tentacle physics on the illithids needs a lot of work though. Us is awesome, everything about the way they speak, and interact with the party is fantastic, and I really hope we get to see more of them. A unique tadpole that isn’t working as most people expect is a REALLY strong plot hook, and it’s probably my favorite impetus for going on an adventure in a crpg since Dragon Age Origins. It seems as of right now there is no way to free Shadowheart, and if there isn’t currently I’d like it to be possible even if doing so is really difficult.

After Avernus
Just change the beach sand to something like smolddering grass and ash. Sooooo many people have compared that opening bit to Fort Joy its actually gotten frustrating to hear. The brick texturing and rubble layout near Gibblebock looks too much like something you'd see in Fort Joy as well, so you should probablly change it to something else, just so its more visually disinct.

Characters

Custom Character
Half-Elf, and its sub races are bugged, because it’s showing duplicate tags (Shadowheart had the same issue), and I didn’t get the Baldurian tag as a half-drow maybe give the player an option during character creation to say whether or not they are from the Underdark or Baldur’s Gate in character creation, since half-drow are usually raised on the surface, but not always. I did get a dialogue option called [Rare] in the Druid Groove, but Rare is not listed as one of my tags on my character sheet, and its tag option that’s only shown up once in 6 hours of playtime. Conversely I’ve seen Baldurian pop in a lot of streams for other players, and Warlock pops up all the time (this part isn’t a bad thing more dialouge options is always a good thing) Moving past that I did feel like the custom characters in BG3 are significantly better than the custom characters of DOS2, but I don’t think they have quite hit the level of quality an Origin character yet, or the quality of main characters in other crpgs like Dragon Age: Origins, Kotor 2, etc. They need to have more unique plot hooks that ONLY they get in order to be on par with Origin characters, and those hooks need to be as cool as what Origin characters have. The fact that several Origin characters hail from Baldur’s Gate takes away from our uniqueness, but you can make this work by giving custom characters more unique Baldurian dialogue among other things.

For example you could have multiple [Baldurian Custom Character] dialogue options that can help flesh out what our character was like before the parasite. Who we were is just as important as who we are now, and who we will be developing into, which is part of the complaint people have with Origin characters. They have a defined past, and we don’t which lessons how strong our own character development can be. Take Gorion’s Ward for instance. He had people who knew who he was before we took control of them, and as result we had an inkling of who we are playing from the get go, but they still felt like our character. Another important thing about BG 1 & 2’s protagonist I want to draw attention to is that being a Bhalspawn isn’t what made them unique, there were other members of the party that were children of Bhal, much like how most of BG3’s potential party members are infected with tadpoles. What made Gorion’s Ward unique among BG1 & 2’s gaggle of weirdos was that he was Gorion’s Ward in addition to being a spawn of Bhal, and that feeling needs to be captured for a player character.

A better example is the Exile from Kotor 2. A player character with a clear defined past, but through dialogue we could shape who they were, why they did what they did, and it also let us think about the person we are now, and are becoming. Our dialogue boss battle with Atris is a fantastic example of this: https://youtu.be/2DKXJcS1m1I?t=1164 . The Exile is probably my favorite crpg protagonist, so if you need more inspiration on how to make custom characters feel more alive, as well as examples of masterful exposition, definitely look to how that character and Atris were written for inspiration.

I feel I should draw attention to Dragon Age Origin’s Warden for how to make custom characters feel better as well. In Origins your race, gender, and class dictated what origin you could have, and then you played out that origin story. Every origin you played ended with you being recruited to become a grey warden, and that’s where all the potential origins for your custom character in that game intersect. When you got to the areas where your origin took place several of the events you experienced come up, and in several instances your party reacted to the decisions you made. Essentially how you could flesh out custom characters is by fusing all of these different methods into one. Your background and class would dictate your origin, but instead of playing out your origin at the start you play out your origin in various dreams in act1, the dreams play out in a similar fashion to the Atris dialogue boss exposition, and the final origin dream is you being abducted by the Mindflayer.
For example if you pick a noble, your family had you learn from 1 of several tutors for your respective class. Maybe if you select Goblin, or Gith you can’t pick noble. For rangers, bards, fighters, etc. you could have dream sequences of your mentors, which you have the player create during character creation, or perhaps extend this to the backgrounds as well where if you have a criminal background you make your criminal contact, or as a charlatan you create the last person you scammed. These are just broad ideas I wanted to suggest that can be fleshed out by the writers, and scripters latter, but custom characters still need a lot more fleshing out before they are genuinely good.

From my understanding of how the game works you don’t get dream sequences if you refuse to use the tadpole ever, which I don’t know if I’m a fan of. I like that there is going to be a greater emphasize on making an evil playthrough satisfying, but I like to play neutral characters, so I’m worried the narrative experience for good aligned and neutral parties won’t be as strong in regards to dreams. I also never got the 1st moment of introspection, because I waited to long rest after I got a full party, so that scene should probably be scripted, so that you’ll always get it on your 1st long rest. Maybe have several dialogue boss battles like Atris and HK-50 from Kotor 2. In my 1st impressions I mentioned I watched a dream on youtube to make sure I knew what I was talking about. For this review I purposefully did a lot of tadpole options just to see the dreams, and I’m convinced this is a very good place to flesh out our relationship with our deity/patron too.


An Example
GOO Patron: Do you remember the last time we spoke?
Player:
() = current relationship for the play through
1. You speak to me so little I had thought you’d forgotten about me. (detached)
2. We’ve never spoken before, actually. I was under the assumption that you didn’t even know I existed. (oblivious)
3. How could I not? It’s always SUCH a pleasure to hear from you [sarcasm] (unfriendly)
4. How could I not? It’s always a pleasure to hear from you. (friendly)
5. It wasn’t that long ago since we last communed, what’s this about? (often spoken to, next dialogue could decide if it’s a friendly relationship, or not, and then back to what the patron wants to discuss)
6. Refresh my memory. (default)

I’d like to establish what my dynamic with my Great Old One is, and I’m sure clerics and fiend warlocks would like to do the same. Kind of like this dream establishes Astarian’s dynamic with his master https://youtu.be/FuD0Mqszi-0?t=6951 . It’s a fantastic scene, and I’d like to get stuff like this for custom characters. Talking to Origin characters like Astarian, Shadowheart, Gale, and Wyll about our relationships with our patron/deity/master could lead to some very interesting scenes, and character moments. Maybe Astrian is jealous of my patron’s friendly relationship with me, or maybe we bond over having cruel masters. You could even have scenes where your patron/deity has moments of conflict with “who you dream of”, because they don’t like someone else moving in on their turf.

Romance in multiplayer shouldn’t only work if your friends are playing origin characters; this is a complaint a friend of mine had with DOS2, but she is too busy with work to be able to give feedback herself, so I thought I’d mention it on her behalf. The voice barks for custom characters aren’t great, because they often conflict with the character we are currently roleplaying. Either give us multiple personality types for our voice barks like excitable, apathetic, easily frightened, agitated, nonchalant etc., or just don’t have them at all. I accidently saw someone on Reddit complain about this, and I agree. I’d also extend this to the character in the cut scenes. I don’t like that my character falling over like a dope is the default when a dragon flies by. It would be way better if a strength/dexterity check decided if I they fall over or not, same for every cut-scene of that nature (the getting knocked out of the nautaloid one is fine, cause it’s just too funny not to give to everyone, but if you could have multiple checks to see what scenario we get for the crashing nautaloid scene that would definitely improve the experience.

Closing thoughts on Custom Characters:
Better than DOS2, but it still needs way more work. You need to get this right. Most people are going to pick custom characters over Origin Characters, so they need to be AS good if not better than them. I have faith in the writing team’s ability to improve on this! Maybe consider having intellect as a secondary stat option for tadpole powers as well. I never wanted to use the tadpole as my character (even though most Tadpole options are guaranteed success), because he is not very wise at all (my stats were strength 8, dex 16, con 8, intellect 16, wisdom 8, and charisma 17). Don’t be afraid to have longer conversations like Atris in Kotor. It’s ok to go to the player and say “look…we are gonna sit here and talk for 10 minutes straight”, because not only can this lead to players discovering who their character is as a person, but it also shows confidence in your ability to have good dialogue boss battles (I do consider Raphael to be in this category, and I do think he’s a decent one). https://youtu.be/2DKXJcS1m1I?t=1710 . In my 1st impressions review I said the dialogue options I had at the start were pretty strong. This became less so the further I went through the game. It is partially because Half-Elf and Half-Drow are bugged, and aren’t getting dialogue options, and aren’t getting the reactions that they should be, but there is more wrong than just that. I feel like the more I played the more instances I ran into where I could only say 1 of 3 things, and in several cases 1 of 2 things, which isn't good. It’s hard to role play when choices are a binary, which is actually a big problem the end of Kotor 1 had where you could play the game being very neutral, self-interested, and money hungry, but the end of the game forced you to either be a paragon of light, or a hideously evil tyrant, with next to no nuance in between, so please watch out for this. Try to avoid instances where the player’s only dialogue options are “be a complete dope”, or “needlessly cruel”. Now that’s not me saying those options shouldn’t be there, in fact I like when those options are there, but most characters I try to role play wouldn’t say these things, so they shouldn’t be the only things a player can say. Big instance of this that immediately came to mind was the Astarian reveal.

Images:
Sir I’m a half-drow what do you mean child of the sun!? https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....C28F707883E76F6105492BCB37359CBDAABAD6E/

I should be able to answer something along the lines of “I don’t know yet”, or two unique warlock answers of “My patron probably wants that, but I don’t know if I would”, and “My patron would want it, and I aim to please”. : https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....D6B2C3AF4865FC5F3020CF05B57CBD205496698/

Me & Who I Dream of:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....81F2C9B0DD6A8DB058FF6CAE5AA757C0A9B81F0/

I should be able to tell her that I gave in, but the voice told me I wasn’t ready, which is what happened to Gale atleast in my playthrough: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....26EC306DF64E7389FFA5EB1C378257323C077AB/

One of the many instances of binary dialogue options: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....1577B2DA7A1E8F6CB61EA4014551711EBA7556B/

Game Auto selected Shadowheart the 1st time, and she had more interesting dialogue options than me, which again is one of the many complaints people had about custom characters in DOS2: My options: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....1577B2DA7A1E8F6CB61EA4014551711EBA7556B/

Shadowheart’s options: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....0CEEE8FB7B5B6BB362512EC7A3D7B643A42C372/

Half-Elf and Half-Tags bug: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....0CEEE8FB7B5B6BB362512EC7A3D7B643A42C372/

Another instance of binary dialogue options with no nuance and flavor. Act 1 really needs another dialogue options pass. : https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....19E93B7FE691AD64560CADE9343B75BA44BD85F/

Origin Characters
I should be able to ask all of them how they feel about me at any given time, not just Shadowheart, and I should also be able to ask them what they think we should be doing at any given time (this is usually the case, but the option is never there for Gale). I should also be able to ask how they are currently feeling about each other. One of my favorite moments in Dragon Age Origins is when Allistair took me aside, and asked me what I thought of everyone, and he did so in turn. Video on this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9n2qTqa72E . Zevran was also my romance of choice for DAO like in this recording. On to things I like, I love that things as simple as being able to comprehend texts and languages can get me in good standing with Shadowheart and Gale, and that they notice that I try to go for diplomatic options even if my means are more forceful or deceptive. This type of approval system where everyone is actively paying attention to how I handle things in the world, not just what I say to them in private, was something sorely missing in DOS2. Good decision to make approval/disapproval happen even if they aren’t in the party. It makes a lot sense for them to find out what I have been doing either from the tadpole informing them, or from just hearing about it from each other.

Specific Origins

Shadowheart:
She’s awesome. I don’t know what else to say really. I had a moment where I picked the attack dialogue, and she basically told me to chill out, and remember why we are here, and then it gave me the option to back down, and I didn’t lose approval at all. Do you know how rare it is for an rpg to do something like this!? Normally you take a disapproval hit right away, or they’ll just let you do whatever then tell you after the fact you shouldn’t have done that even though they helped you do it. I love this game so much. I did reload and Gale chimed in instead and stopped me, but for a different reason that was less pragmatic, but still really cool. It seems to be proximity based, if two characters could chime in on a certain situation, the closer one wins out. I’d personally like to hear what everyone thinks in that moment, not just who is closest, but maybe others feel differently. Most of my issues with Shadowheart are on the technical axis. Like certain things we have already talked about shouldn't keep showing up if they aren't going to lead to anything. Also my approval with her is high, but when I ask her what she thinks of me the answer has always been the same, and that shouldn't be. Also she lists Guts as one of my options for curing that tadpole, but we killed her a long time ago (because the game turned most of the people in the Goblin temple hostile after I attacked the Minthara, which broke some of the story beats, so I never got to learn the type of person Dror Ragzlin is among other goblins), she should either not mention her at all, or there should be some sort of alternative line. She has by far the most party banter, and I hope the other characters get a lot more additional conversations too, especially Gale.

Gale:
I love him, but I’ve run in to the same problem I did with Ifan; when I go to talk to him there’s usually just the 1 line of text telling him to wait at camp. I can’t question him further, or ask his opinions on things like I can Shadowheart. Now I just wanna gush for a moment about how we were pretty much on the same wavelength for pretty much every interaction. I knew from the moment I saw him at Pax he was the romance for me (yes I got the Gale romance bug like many others). Gale said he'd talk to me the next night after the party and didn't. I had to gain more approval, and then go to rest at camp, which was annoying, and then I got a repeat scene of needing to feed on artifacts, which I shouldn't have gotten, because he already trusts me. Also I keep getting repeated dialogue regarding feeding him artifacts. Also I wanted to romance him, but couldn’t, because I got a certain scene after the party instead of before, which is horribly annoying.

Lae'Zel:
I hate her… in a good way. She is the type of character that is going to end up being my bitter rival, and I can just feel it. I feel like we are gonna have a falling out eventually. I'd like the option to tell her I never had any interest in having sex with her anyway, when she starts talking about how great it would have been to feel her up, but the way I treated her ruined that chance. After a certain point in the game Lae’Zel just couldn’t be selected to talk to. I have zero clue as to what caused this bug, it just sort of happened, and this was the breaking point that made me go “alright time to hurry up, and finish Early Access, so I can write my review”. I know that there are lots of characters, and events I didn’t see, so I will comment on those things the next time I playthrough EA for review and feedback. Hated having to bench her for the rest of the playthrough, but its early access and things are bound to break.

Astarian:
I am genuinely surprised by how much I like him. Pretty much every time he opened his mouth he made me laugh, just like Fane…hmmm…I wonder why. Oh, and his introduction had me dying! It's like you guys heard every complaint about Sebbile's recruitment scene, and wanted a do over. In camp hes very obviously trying to seduce me, so I can be his snack, but he was so transparent that even my 8 wisdom character would know somethings up, especially with how quickly he tried to make a move on me. My approval is highest with Gale right now, and he hasn’t hit on me once, which makes me think it’s a bug, but it could just be Astarian’s character (he comes off a bit dimwitted and foolhardy, which makes a fair bit of sense given his stat distribution). Alas my heart belongs to Gale. There should be various insight, nature, or arcana checks with him that if I succeed I should be able to tell he's some kind of vampire before the camp scene where he attempts to feed on me, and also before talking to the hunter. He makes it way too obvious all the time for it to be some kind of big reveal by default. He also never talked about how the reason he can walk in the sun is likely the tadpole, and in my brief looks at streamers they haven't had this talk yet either. This talk should happen pretty much as soon as you learn he's a vampire. When Astarian attacks the player, the player should also be able to ask whoever is in your party at the time for assistance in dialogue, which includes the friends in multiplayer. Maybe even have approval from Gale, Shadowheart, and Lae'Zel for handling it without their assistance

Wyll:
In my 1st impressions I said this about Wyll: “like him a lot, and this gives me an excuse to talk about how custom characters in BG3 are already better than DOS2’s. In DOS2 there was no reason to make a character that had similar tags to an Origin character, if you want to run a mystic jester you might as well play Lohse, because her dialogue options, and the way the world responded to her was more organic. If you played a mystic character there was only one instance in the game, and it was at the very beginning, where you being a mystic let you interact with Lohse in a unique way, and that was it (an interaction you could also get if you were playing Fane). Conversely, in Bg3 if I pick a warlock there is a lot for me and Wyll to talk about, and because I’m a warlock as well I can tell when he’s making things up, or trying to dodge my questions, and not only that being a warlock lead to a fair number of cool dialogue and approval moments with Shadowheart and Gale, and hope the whole game can keep this up. This all good stuff!” I feel the longer the game goes on the less and less I'm seeing unique warlock and arcana checks, not just with him, but with other origin characters as well, so please double check all interactions throughout the game to see if you could add some where none were previously.

Us
I have yet to see more of them since the tutorial, so far and that’s a shame, because they are really cool, and they remind me of the nonstandard party member of Morte from Planescape: Torment.

Other Characters:
Halasin:
I wouldn't mind him becoming a full on party member (infact I hope he does become one). He's really cool, and I love his design. It would be nice if I could ask him to fix me in my camp if someone like Volo or Auntie Ethel does permanent damage to my body. It would be a nice reward for keeping him alive. His voice acting, and general demeanor had me weak. Never thought I’d be thirsty for a druid. There is a voice bark bug where every time I go to camp I can hear him shouting that Kagha should be banished.

Kagha:
I like what was done with the character, and the various permutations of events surrounding her. In my run, Halasin broke out of the Goblin camp on his own after I killed Minthara, and he forced her to stop the ritual. In the final game I’ll likely stop the ritual myself by convincing her what she is doing is wrong, but I love there are so many ways it can go. Really looking forward to how this character develops in latter acts depending on our choices. Also this might be one of the creepiest bugs I’ve ever seen: https://youtu.be/xAwhONftchg?t=368

Ethel:
A really cool character I'd like to see more of in the future. I killed her in my run, because I'm trying to play this according to what my character would do rather than just straight good or full evil, and she crossed a few lines for him. Also got a bug where she wouldn't fight back. She also bugged out in my run, and she just stood there as I beat her to death.

Scratch:
He's neat, kind of like a replacement of Han, except you don't get to choose what he brings back to you, so I guess he’s more like Dog from Dragon Age Origins. He seems to be a cheap way to max out approval for Shadowheart, Gale, and Wyll, which I don't think I'm a fan of. There should more interactions with him than just petting him and taking actions from him, like playing fetch, and doing those actions increases approval rather than just letting you constantly gain approval by petting him over and over. I’d also like to see the other party members interact with him sometimes like Dog in Dragon Age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCkjsWWTb8

Minthara:
A really cool character that I didn’t get to interact with really at all in my run, so I had to look up how interactions with her go. She won’t find her way into my party in the final game, but I think I will go for her route during my next play through of early access, where I will be playing a more deliberately evil character rather than the Chaotic neutral leaning towards evil like I did for this run.

Karlach:
She seems like she'll be an intresting character, but not enough has been shown for me to form an oppinion.

Abdirak:
Another neat character I wish I got to interact with more. Perhaps you could also make him a camp follower if he isn’t already.

Blurg & Omelumm:
Love them both. Please give me more. I hope they become potential camp followers as well.

Volo:
“Do not trust Volo. Do not go on quests offered by Volo. Do not listen to Volo. Avoid being seen with him for risk of guilt by association. If Volo ever appears in your campaign, your DM is undoubtedly trying to kill your character in a manner that can be blamed on your actions. The DM is probably trying to do that anyway, but with Volo’s appearance, you know for sure”. I love what you guys are doing with so far. It would be nice if there were other things to talk about with him other than just the tadpole. Actually I’d say this statement rings true for every conversation in the game. I’d also love it if increasingly bad and terrible things happened while Volo is in your camp.

Hooded Skeleton:
He’s an interesting character, and I wish I could talk to more about things other than resurrection. I’d like to hear his opinions on the various plot points of the game even though he has no real stake in anything that’s happening. I should also be able to tell him I think his prices are fair, but that’s another instance of the lack of dialogue options.

Zevlor:
I like him, and he is, quite literally, the only character to remark on me being a half-drow. I look forward to seeing more of him in latter acts.

Lump:
I love him. Please let us make him a camp follower if we pay him enough.

Thoughts on losing characters after ACT1:
Don’t do that. The end. I’m only somewhat joking. I tolerated it in DOS2 (partially because my favorite character in the entire setting did the killing), but it was a very weak point of the narrative for me, and a lot of other people. I’m cool with party members potentially dying, or leaving my party because they just don’t like me, or like if they are below neutral threshold by the end of the 1st act you have a cut-scene over why they are leaving, and this is the last chance for the player to win them back over. The way I played Dragon Age: Origins was by constantly switching party members in and out based on the region, and who I thought would have the most to say about the subject matter we would be facing. The character I am romancing in any given playthrough, in most cases Zevran, would stay in my party at all times, and I’d like to do something similar with BG3. In DOS2 I installed the extended party mod just to keep other party members for future acts. I was pretty happy to hear your decision on the matter for BG3 wasn’t set in stone.

The Moment Where I fell In Love With The Game
The first dungeon I did, which was the one where you meet Shadowheart, and the one Swen showed off at Pax is awesome. The traps are great, getting perception checks that are succeeding and failing all around, force turn based mode is the best and I wish it was in DOS2, the combat encounter with the skeletons, and the mysterious polite skeleton I met at the end. Also that really cool instance where I asked my patron to salvage a book, it worked, and I got approval from Shadowheart for it. More of everything this dungeon is about, please.


Combat Difficulty:
Maybe it’s because I studied a fair bit of what D&D5e is like, but I felt like the early game has been a bit too easy. 90% of my deaths were the result of dying to surface fire that already existed, because my character walked into it of their own accord, and I didn’t have a chance to put it out, not from enemies. I felt like firebolt may have been too good, atleast early game. It’s essentially a guaranteed hit even if it misses, because of the fire surface it leaves behind, and it often did more total damage than the fire bolt impact. Maybe have a roll to see if the fire surface actually hurts a character or not like the vines near Gibbleboc. Also increase the distance a character has to walk before they take more damage on a surface. I do think what you are trying to do with firebolt is a good idea, because otherwise eldritch blast would out class it 9 times out of 10 like it does in the pen and paper game, but it needs some fine tuning. As I progressed through the game firebolt felt worthless in combat, and at times it never put a surface down. I can’t tell if it was nerfed, or if this is a bug. I think having it be 1D8 fire damage with a less lethal surface would make a lot more sense for it. The player should have to manually roll for death saving throws. Not only will this make being downed more intense, but it will cut down on annoying environmental deaths outside of combat. Maybe have a timer to where if the player doesn’t roll within 20 seconds the game will roll for them, and then include a setting in the options menu to increase or lower it. Perhaps have an option, that’s turned on by default, where if a character goes down the game auto switches to force turn based mode, which is something you could toggle in BG 1 & 2.

Jump should not be a disengage for anyone that is not a rouge by default, because it is way too powerful for that, even with my character that only has a strength of 8. A feat called Jumper (or something cooler sounding, you can workshop it) that gives the player a choice between 1 point in strength or dex, jump as a disengage like rouge, and substitutes the higher value between strength and dex for jump distance would be a good way to let players access to this, but now it’s not for free. The way help is implemented is simultaneously too powerful, but also mandatory to be used constantly, because of the way the game is currently designed. Perhaps you can introduce a system of increasingly more debilitating debuffs every time the help action is used on you until you long rest, like reviving in Dragon Age Origins, and then rework encounters to be less brutal. There is an encounter I latter rant about in this review that’s pretty much most of my complaints about the combat all in one. The only thing not featured in that encounter really is my disdain for how lethal surfaces are currently, so I’ll be talking about that first.

Surfaces:
You guys need to tone down the surface gameplay ALOT. Unlike DOS1 & 2, where the player has just as many defensive options for surfaces as offensive, on top of having an open ended system. BG3 does not have these options, and isn’t an open ended combat system, and when you combine this with the fact that surfaces are significantly more lethal in BG3 than in DOS2 it just makes make me not want to fight things, where as in DOS2 I was always excited to get into a fight with someone. As someone who’s favorite rpg of all time is DOS2, you know this is a problem when I say it. Every time an enemy throws fire or poison at my party my response is a groan and burning hatred at best. Make surfaces less lethal, make sure less enemies have access to surfaces, and make help less powerful. Lots of fine tuning, and balancing needs to be done, but that’s part of what early access is for, so I’m not worried!

Short Rest
It should be 2 short rests before you have to long rest instead of 1. As it is now I just long rest all the time instead. As the difficulty spiked post the 6 hour mark I started long resting constantly.

Thoughts on Multi-classing:
When you gain your 2nd class there should be a cutscene that shows the other party members reacting to you gaining that class. If you multi-class into the same class as someone else in your party/camp there could be a cutscene of that character teaching you. If no one of that class is at your camp you could have a traveler come by to teach them. For a class like warlock or cleric you could have a cutscene with the player’s selected entity. If you spec a party member into a class that you are, you could have us teach them.

Thoughts on Warlock:
Super fun to play even at early levels. Disappointed Pact of the Chain was the only pact available during the first EA build, but the base kit is still really fun. Before I used my familiar with combat I did throw him to see how the throw command works (it’s really cool, have I mentioned how much I love this game). Eldritch blasting is fun to do, and it looks good, which is very important, because it’s the most important spell in their arsenal, so players are going see it a lot. I did feel like fire bolt was significantly stronger than it, provided the enemy isn’t resistant or immune to fire, as mentioned previously. Very excited for Pact of the Tome, and multiclassing to get in, so I can experiment with a pact of the tome Sorlock in a video game!

Charm Person:
It’s terrible, and its a complete waste of a slot. If you attempt to charm an npc they turn hostile. Blowing a spell slot on a spell that still lets the enemy attack my party members isn’t great. Not only this, but charmed characters can actually still attack you using aoe.

The Fight that Almost Made Me Rage Quit the game:
Almost everything I despise about playing this game all wrapped up in a single encounter. The Underdark Spectator encounter is nonsense. A spectator is already a really rough encounter for a group of level 4’s (I already struggled with one on the surface for this), but there are a bunch of petrified drow that the spectator un-petrifies with a unique charm spell. Oh and it surprises my entire party, because of course it does. The charmed characters are neutral, and attack my party (even though that’s NOT how charm works in this game for the player, but whatever). The drow get uncharmed, but instead of attacking the Spectator these jackasses attack me and my party instead despite being neutral. I kill the Spectator, and they continue to attack me despite being neutral. Several Drow in this encounter get multiple attacks per round, without action surge, which is something none of my party can do, which only adds to the frustration. The enemy hits me all the god damn time, but my party misses them constantly, and they have more health than me (an issue that would frustrate me less if you dice being rolled for both plays and enemies was always visible). The spectator constantly jumps and flys around, making it really annoying to pin down, and actively makes my hard work positioning my party pointless, and every round takes pot shots at Shadowheart with a beam attack, that as far as I can tell never misses. Normally this is when the DM relents a bit, and fudges dice a smidge, because they realize the entire fight has been a struggle, and the players are having really bad luck, but no, the game goes out of its way to frustrate and anger me, and I eventually die. I only won, because I had enough sense to make a save when I realized the uncharmed characters were going to keep attacking me. Oh and as far as I can tell all the Drow here ignore attack of opportunity. At this point I’d ask the DM why they are all these Drow immune to attack of opp, and in game this would be the equivalent of right clicking a character and looking at their sheet for talents or features that let them do this. Oh and the auto unlocking skill bars screwed me over again, because I went to click the poison attack option for my imp (btw imp is easily the best familiar for pact of the chain warlock in the game, and the others really need buffs), and it got removed from my skill bar. There is no reason not to have locked skill bars be the default! After experiencing all this I really, REALLY wanted to quit the game. Had I not been playing it to write a review, and give Larian feedback, I absolutely would have! This is, no pun intended, the absolute worst. I hope the kind folks at Larian appreciate how much work I’m putting into this review.

Speaking of positioning being really annoying to do in this game:
The Minotaur fight is really gosh dang annoying. They constantly jump around, and if they don’t kill a party member outright by knocking them off into the abyss by jumping at them, then the next action they take will likely down or kill someone (if Jump is going to have this many benefits for the enemy it should be a full action, not a bonus action). This fight is really frustrating, and in Projared’s stream he just kills them outright with barrelmancy (dropping an item should be a bonus action).

The Bulette:
Really cool mechanic. It’s basically like a roaming super boss, which reminds me of Death Gaze from FF6. My main issue with it is the same as Minotaur. It gets more mileage out of jumping around and stun locking my party than it does actually attacking them with its own unique abilities. It also sucks you don’t get anything at all for killing it. Maybe a couple magic items like a ring that lets you cast mirror image once per short rest, a necklace that lets you cast blur, and a powerful staff, but it’s a weapon Gale can absorb magic from. In my run I asked the Ogres for help every time I ran into it. I mentioned it before, but it would be cool if you could keep calling them indefinitely, so long as you keep them happy with gold, and violence, and they could become camp followers.

Tutorials:
I’d like a tutorial on bartering to be added to the game. The U.I is just different enough from DOS2’s that I’m not quite sure what I’m doing at any given time, so I’m afraid to click on anything. Never got a tutorial for the thievery system, so I’d like one to be there if there isn’t already (I do like how the new system works compared to DOS2’s, though its janky in places as I’m sure others will tell you). There was no voice acting or cutscenes for any crime scenes like in the 2nd gameplay showcase Swen did, and there were no cinematics for any of the animals i've talked to so far. Dialogue altering spells could also use a tutorial. It took me a while to figure out how and when guidance was applying.

Performance
Reloading feels like it takes forever sometimes, which wasn’t the case for DOS2 even with many mods. I really hope you can fix this in future updates. Divine Divinity’s load times on my machine are why I still haven’t finished that game. Please make saving work during cut scenes by the next build. The lack of saving during cut scenes and the long load times makes testing permutations really annoying (that said what permutations I have seen are really cool, so keep it up). The game runs terribly, and it’s only gotten worse the longer I play. I've watched people like Pat Stares At (ex-member of Super Best Friends Play, and currently co-host of Castle Duper Beast), stream BG3, and his machine is way more powerful than mine, and he's still getting performance issues.

My specs:
GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB
16 GB of RAM
Windows 10
803 GB free disk space


Keybinding & Options:
For whatever reason alternative bindings for tooltips did not work for me. Please add a button that toggles tooltips on or off, so I don’t have to hold a button down like Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2’s Enhanced Editions. The more I can interact with the game with only a mouse, the better, because my keyboard gets really hot playing your games. Also edge panning only works if I start by using wasd 1st, which defeats the point of enabling edge panning, which also wasn’t how DOS2 had it. World tooltips need to be moved closer to the item. I keep running into instances where a tooltip says a book is present, but its nowhere near the book, so I have to pixel hunt for its location.

New Knock unconscious command:
Should reset the knocked out creature’s state from hostile to neutral, so long as you don’t kill any of their allies as well, otherwise there is little point for having such an action, outside of very specific circumstances like the Goblin at the windmill, and there should be dialogue for having knocked out a person or animal, like Scratch, the next time you talk to them. It’s a really cool feature that will make pacifist runs possible, but it needs to be fleshed out more to make it truly special. https://youtu.be/m8beKjxFhHk?t=1595 . Currently what happens is you knock out a party member at camp, you go to sleep, and they attack you when they wake up.

Automatic Conversations:
The game choosing characters other than my character to automatically speak to SUCKS. Literally no one likes this, and all it does is frustrate people. It was bad in DOS2, and it’s as bad if not worse here. You will see people complain about this in pretty much any DOS2 let’s play, or Baldur’s Gate 3 stream, and they are right to complain about it. Either always assume the player wants to use their main character for this moment or have a pop up right before the scene happens that lists everyone nearby, and you can click on the name of the character you want to be the speaker. Some people would also like to be able to transfer the conversation to another speaker mid dialogue. I also wouldn't mind you just straight up copying Star Wars The Old Republic's multiplayer conversation system, which is something Projared also mentioned in his video.


Skill Bar:
There is currently a bug where every time you reload it unlocks the skill bar. It’s driving me insane! Also don't auto add things to the hot bar be the default in options. Have it off by default, and tell the player that they can turn it on in the options menu.

Up casting Spells:
Up casting spells should display a similar U.I to the Disguise Self, instead of multiple version of the same spell being on the hot bar. Sorting the spell list of the party is frustrating the way it is now. Pat of Pat Stares At, and Castle Super Beast also brought this up.

Targeting Woes:
The indicators for things are a bit frustrating to work with. I have moments of things like fog cloud saying target is out of sight, but I can still put the fog cloud down so long as long as I don’t click on the character which is misleading information. Make it more clear to the player that this how fog cloud works, possible by removing the “target is out of sight” message entirely for this spell. Misty step lets me go onto terrain that is impossible to walk on, and there’s no way to tell this until you’ve done it. Jump has the opposite problem of misty step. There are places that my character can very clearly jump to, but it takes me like a minute to pixel hunt where my character can jump to. Also make it more obvious the player can jump into holes, and make it less strict on when the game says you can or can’t. Had to use the overhead tactical view to make it work. For the sake of having a fun video game just fudge the dice so that as long as one character can make a jump, other characters auto make the jump too, so long as they are chained to the jumping character. I should also be able to use skills and abilities on allies and enemies by just clicking on the portrait like I could in DOS2, it’s a lot more expedient than clicking on the character themselves.

Inventory Sorting
The mouse and keyboard U.I for inventory is terrible, much like it was in DOS2. You guys said you were going to add multi select features for mouse and keyboard like controller has, but it never came :(, so please don’t forget to do it for BG3 (also please go back and add it to DOS2, but no rush right now though).


Theives Tools:
A D20 should show up for lock picking just like it does for trap disarming. It’s a very satisfying feeling. Also don’t break tools unless a player rolls a 1. I think that may be how it works currently, but its hard for me to tell.You could also role a check on a fail to see if anyone near buy hears you making a racket lock picking.

Illithid Powers:
These shouldn’t be class based. The one given to warlock is too specific, and was mostly useless for my current build. I would have rather had the cleric one, because my character, near the last few hours of the game, died as often if not more so than Shadowheart. The power we get should be determined through dialouge. They also need to be way more powerful considering they seem to increase what everr variable is leading to the dreams the same amout as using the tadpole in dialouge

Percentages:
The % chance hit is frustrating, and everytime I missed on 60% chance I feel cheated, and I couldn’t articulate why I felt this way until I saw Projared’s video on what BG3 needs. Showing percentages is fine, especially for new players to D&D that don’t know the math behind these things, is a good thing, but only seeing a percentage is just going to fill the player with rage. You shouldn’t hide the dice rolls behind the scenes by default. Show me what I need to roll when I mouse over a creature to hit, and then show me the dice roll on screen. When I failed a dice roll in dialogue I actually got a good laugh out of it, and in a normal playthrough I would have accepted those, but for EA I’ve been trying to test the permutations, and see as many out comes as I can. Embrace dice rolls not just for dialogue, not just for exploration, but for all aspects of the game, including combat. Projared’s Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMqW7f4KgDM

Multiplayer Conversations
They aren’t good, and it hurts me to tell you guys this, especially after Kevin Vanord explained to me what you guys were trying to do on stream. Every single one I’ve seen boils down to 2 dialogue options for every exchange. You can’t capture the wide variety of characters someone might be trying to roleplay with just two options, it’s physically impossible, which is why I get so annoyed whenever I get into a conversation, and I can say only 1 of 2 things all throughout this review. Here’s how you fix this, not just for multiplayer, but for every dialogue exchange throughout the game. Use the classic D&D alignment chart of lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, lawful neutral, true neutral, chaotic neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil, and chaotic evil to give you a template for how many dialogue responses there are. You write a dialogue line for each alignment type, but you don’t limit what the player can choose with an arbitrary alignment system, and if you add this to the dialogue responses that already exist in the game, + the class & race specific dialogue, the player has so many options the player is bound to have at least 1 thing they think is appropriate for their character in every exchange.

I like to play very sarcastic morally grey characters that hover around chaotic neutral to chaotic evil, and are borderline sociopathic, but very loyal to people proven to be allies and companions (kind of like The Boss from Saints Row 2 onward). He’s the person that will save the day in the end, and will side with the good guys “like the druids and tieflings over the goblins & drow), but mainly out of self-interest, and the only line he don’t cross is betrayal. Sometimes I can capture the character I’m going for, and other times not, and the times where that is most difficult is in voice barks, instances of multiplayer dialogue exchanges, and other instances of two dialogue lines. Please address this. So far the games that did the best job of letting me capture my character in dialogue was Dragon Age: Origins, which was a master class of roleplaying dialogue options, and DOS2 where the game says your intent rather what you actually say (the multiplayer conversations, which weren’t written in this style, detracted from this, and were a weak point of DOS2 for me). Dragon Age: Origins showed it is ok to have multiple dialogue options that were of a different tone that lead to a similar, or the exact same response from an npc. This aspect isn’t the “illusion of choice”. Illusion of choice would be picking different actions, but they always lead to the same conclusion, which BG3 does not do. You guys have nailed the ability to express ones character through combat (balance hiccups aside), and expression through player choice, but you still need to work on letting players express themselves through dialogue. Right now dialogue options is easily the weakest aspect of the game for me so far, way more so than the bugs, and combat balance.

Bartering
When selling I should be able to set how much I’m willing to sell the item for (for example a bottle of wine), and then roll to see if the vendor accepts the trade. I should also be able to do the same thing when buying an item. Its kind go like haggling with your DM for the prices of items and gear. This gives players a powerful, but reasonable alternative to thievery, and characters who are more built for social interactions rather than combat. Without a system like this there is no reason for the U.I to look and function the way it currently does.

Speak With Dead:
A cool mechanic, but really frustrating in the current build. If I can only use the spell once per long rest, it shouldn’t waste a charge if the corpse doesn’t respond. Either don’t use a charge, or don’t allow me to select the corpse in the 1st place. Apprently there is a tell for when speak with dead will actually work, but it needs to be made more obvious, and the tell should be included in a speak with dead tutorial.

Coat Weapon:
Add a coat weapon action to the bar, and allow us to coat our weapons in substances from our inventory like poison, to add poison damage, or alcohol to add a chance of getting an enemy drunk off an attack. Coating weapons is in the game, but currently it’s not a single button like throw is.

Dodge Action:
Please add a dodge action. Projared also mentioned it in his video.

Stealth:
The A.I needs to be better at handling targets that go into stealth like attempting to go to the target’s last known location. When I attempt to attack a character from stealth with dual wielding daggers, the target shouldn’t wake up before the second strike. The way it is now my criminal stealthy Warlock has a harder time killing sleeping targets from stealth than, Lae’Zel who is a two handed fighter. Spifing Brit Video on stealth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv37JEeJ2as. I like that stealth is a bonus action, but I don't like how the A.I just can't handle stealthed characters in combat.

Detect Thoughts & other social skills:
This spell should just last until, either concentration is broken, or there is a long rest considering you have to use a spell slot on this thing, just like speak with animals or find familiar. You could probably change guidance to be another spell that’s permanent until long rest, or concentration is broken, for the sake of not wasting the player’s time reapplying it over and over again.

Systemic Design
You guys did a great job though there are handful of annoying scripted sequences you’ll need to fix like Auntie Ethel running away mid combat on another players turn (she should have to physically get to the exit like Reimond in DOS2), and the snake that auto kills the tiefling child if you attack it rather than making a role for it. Now to talk about the good stuff. I couldn’t figure out the intended way to get around the Auntie Ethel’s trap surfaces, so I had Gale cast feather fall, and had each of my party members jump past them. I felt really clever for doing so.

The Journal

The journal is fantastic. Is tells me pertinent information, and more importantly it doesn’t tell me how my character feels. This is drastic improvement over DOS2’s journal, and I’d say also better than BG1 & 2’s because those journals had the same problem as DOS2’s, but in some areas were even worse, because the U.I for them was just not good. I would like to be able to write my own notes in it, but I’m more than satisfied with what’s there. The U.I is simple, clean, and easy on the eyes, nice work! For an example of why I hated DOS2’s journal, there was a line along the lines of “I am no hero, I was a pawn”. Upon reading that line I never wanted to read the journal ever again, because my character would never say that. DOS2’s journal also had statements in it that either my character shouldn’t know, or worse information that was flat out wrong. So far I haven’t really encountered anything like that in BG3, but I will list the journal entries I think that need to be altered.

Removing the Parasite:
“Our luck is starting to turn. We found some people taking refuge in some kind of grove. We should explore it – there might be a healer inside”.
Change it to: “We found some people taking refuge in some kind of grove. If we explore it we may find a healer”

“The parasite reacted after we tried to use its powers. We need to be careful – the last thing we need is for these things to wake up.”
Change it to: “The parasite reacted after we tried to use its power. Continuing to do so may have adverse effects”.

“Last night, we felt early symptoms of ceremorphosis, followed by vivid dreams of our greatest desires. But this morning, our symptoms were gone. We really need to these things out of our heads.”
Change it to: “Last night, we felt early symptoms of ceremorphosis, the process of turning into a mindflayer, followed by vivid dreams of our greatest desires. But this morning, our symptoms were gone”.

Save the Refugees:
“Grateful for our help, the tieflings are celebrating our victory. Time to have some fun.”
Change to: “Grateful for our help, the tieflings are celebrating our victory”

“Kagha plans to seal the grove shut, while Zevlor won’t leave until the roads are safe. We need to resolve this.”
Change to: “Kagha plans to seal the grove shut, while Zevlor won’t leave until the roads are safe. Solving this could pave the way to a healer.”

Find the missing boots: “We offered to help a duegar track down a runaway slave. The slave escaped with a pair of boots belonging to the duergar’s sergeant” I actually told him this wasn’t my problem.
The Blade of Frontiers: “Spike died before he could tell us anything useful. Wyll wasn’t too pleased, but we’ll have to carry on – the goblin leaders still need to die.”
Change to: “Spike died before he could tell us anything useful. Wyll wasn’t too pleased, but we’ll have to carry on .”

Soundtrack
Bobby knocked it out the park as he always does. I don’t know if I like it more than Dos2’s yet, because DOS2’s is something truly magical, but dear God BG3’ ost is giving it a run for it’s money. Never stop being incredible, Borislav Slavov. I could listen to the Druid Groove theme for hours. Down by The River is absolutely fantastic, and I've been listening to it on repeat while formating this review. Special mention to Raphael 's theme, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of it, because usually my favorite songs in a work involve the leitmotifs of the antagonist (Dancing Mad for Kefka, and Magna Insomnia for Ardyn).


Final Thoughts

I love this game, and I love Larian, but there is a lot of incredibly frustrating things that need to be worked on. Playing evil/neutral doesn't seem to be satisfying yet. Combat & surfaces in general are really frustrating. Character Creation leaves alot to be desired. Custom Characters need so much more work done on them, but inspite of these things, i’m looking forward to playing more, and though a lot of what I had to say was critical, there is still a lot of fun to be had, and there is heaps of potential here. You guys said this is your most ambitious game yet, and I believe you, and I have absolute faith you meeting, and exceeding all my expectations. I think I've covered everything that I've experinced, and could think of, in my 30-50 hours of playtime, and I sincerely hope it helps you all, and motivates you some going forward. I will happily spend multiple days writing up another feedback review for the next major update. Until then!

Holy crap this is a big review mate.

Respect where respect is due.
Just as a tip though... its best to break down your review even further to bullet form.

Much more digestible that way.
And yeah character creation, evil gameplay and proper companion dialogues is at the top of my list too.

I want to be an evil muscled up drow lady on a never ending flirt fueled adventure with one bae or another to Baldur's Gate.

Is that too much to ask? I say no sir. No! It isnt too much to ask.

I tried to break it down and segment it as much as possible, while also being thorough, but I guess I didn't do I great job lol.

I am afraid you just need a TDLR section where you just give us the bullet points of what is missing and needed.