Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Help me love this game

I've played through BG1 and BG2 10+ times each, I bought both games at least 3 times (original CD versions, then regular GoG versions and finally enhanced editions).

As a software developer, I consider myself a person with an open mind - there's always something new to learn and like, even if you're used to "the old ways" it's kind of mandatory to accept learning new things on a regular basis.
I have a huge respect towards Sven and Larian, I love the PR and presentations. I deeply enjoy the passion I see.

I was incredibly hyped seeing the BG3 trailer, thinking "my dreams are coming true".
Then the February gameplay reveal came - "oh, they went easy way, they just modding DoS into a BG game. This is heartbreaking".

I would really like to enjoy what I see. I don't expect a remastered version of the original BG called "BG3", but what I see in this game deviates so much from the originals, I can't help but wonder - what did they actually keep?

View:
Obviously not an isometric.

Music:
There seems to be no inspiration with the old style.

Combat:
Obviously, this is TB.

Narrator:
This would be language-dependent, but this game isn't even going to have voice overs other than English (I understand that it would be very costly, all the voiced dialogue considered vs the originals).

New D&D rules:
This one is perfectly fine, I would not expect them to use the old rules.

Graphics:
Beautiful, modern graphics, BUT it just looks like a modded DoS game. What's more, graphics was never the main focus or the selling point of these games.

At this point, despite my great desire to play and enjoy the game with friends and my SO, I can't help but feel scammed - "it's called BG3, but it is literally nothing what I would even remotely expect from the game".
You could say "times have changed, nostalgia is speaking through you".

HOWEVER, take a look at Diablo 2 Resurrected - given it's a remake of a game and it's supposed to be as close to the original as possible, shouldn't Larian put more effort into actually making the game feel connected to the previous 2 games, which it supposedly is a sequel to? Vicarious Visions can respect both the original game and the community and I'm hyped like a 15 year old for D2 Resurrected, but I just don't feel the same looking at BG3, and Baldur's Gate franchise was always the one I felt more deeply connected to.

Is the problem myself, or is the game not what it should be?

How to love this game? One way is to wait for full release, another way is to provide feedback and insight on the forums.


What is Loveable (I would advise to give all of these a chance)
The music is very well done, the story is interesting, and all the little tangents for microplots are fun. The sights and sounds are all engaging, the voice acting is great.

Needs Improvement (I would advise to provide feedback on this)
Combat is lopsided and usually requires prior knowledge of the encounter to succeed, controlling the party can be a chore, and we don't know what the good characters are like at this point.

I'm not sure what you're looking for. I played all the early dnd games, including Baldur's Gate. But I still don't know what similarity you're asking for.

The music in this game is fine. It's good. The plot is strong, and there are plenty of interesting characters, including villains. I particularly like the layout of many of the combat areas. In the goblin camp, you can crawl along the rafters and fight from there. There are pits enemies can be pushed into. Theoretically, your enemies can push you into those pits.

5e has a very different feeling/flavor in regards to the rules, but it is what it is when it comes to that.

There are things I don't like. I don't like that so many people seem to know magic. It's not at all rare. Everyone's casting spells against you in this game, or so it seems to me.

Some things feel rough, like eating food for health or not having a lot of variety when it comes to equipment. The inventory management system is a mess. It's hard to tell which abilities refresh with a short rest versus a long rest (they should be in separate quick bar areas).

I'm not in love with only having four characters, but meh, I can accept it. ("Can't join you cause you're all full up." --uhm, I only got three people with me. You're going to ignore the tadpole in your head and the goblin crisis because I have three people with me instead of two? How does that make sense?)

I hate the way the underdark looks. Hate.

Scenes are still buggy.

The romance stuff is painfully sophomoric.

Volo is a buffoon that brings nothing to the game, in my opinion.

I don't like that the refugee camp is full of tieflings instead of humans. Personally, I think the situation undermines the tieflings and makes them appear weak. It strips them of their cool factor, so to speak. I'd prefer a world where tieflings were actually thought to have "devilish" powers as opposed to a world that throws their victim status in your face.

But all of that said, the game itself is enjoyable because the story is enjoyable. The terrain offers interesting combat strategies. And I suppose it's nice to see things iron out over time.

Really, I think the best way to find enjoyment in the game is to find connection to the characters. To only reload if you experience a party wipe, but otherwise to accept every choice and roll of the die.

Just my opinion.

This, participate on the major topics that get brought up during community arguments and hope larian even looks at there own forums...yep

I agree with the others about story, music and interesting npcs. COntrary to JoB I especially love the Underdark - for me the most beautiful area in the game.
The combat could be handled better - for now, it's a lot of waiting around. I sometimes tab out and read social media while waiting for enemies to finish, whatever they are doing. That's not too immersive. The food is strange too. I would be ok, if it worked outside of combat, but I want to see the fight, where your opponent just drops everything to eat a wheel of cheese.
There are some bugs, but that is to be expected in EA.
Some scenes/encointers, I really like are: Auntie Ethel - possibly my favorite part in the game, it is so creepy and yet so funny. The goblin camp is surprsingly interesting - you meet some interesting npcs, you get to know your companions better and you have some challenging fights. As I mentioned: everything Underdark (apart from the bulette): the magical tower, the Myconid colony - it's just breathtaking.
And I like, that there are a lot of situations, you can handle in many different ways.

I think this game can become FANTASTIC!!! <3

I just hope they change the rules a bit more, to tune it in more towards the core ruleset equivalents. Make it truer to the core rules, and combat enjoyment will follow. I also can't wait for them to add more stuff, but if they keep homebrewing everything, then all the stuff they add will need to be homebrewed aswell, and suddenly it's going to be an unbalanced mess I fear.

I join the club.
The game is fantastic regarding graphics, locations, stories, characters and interactivity/reactivity.
It could be the greatest game ever if we had:
- Game mechanics of Solasta
Much of the Larian cheese goes really on my nerves. Surface effects everywhere, barrelmania, jumping all the time and so on. On the other hand we miss stuff like proper reactions, ready and dodge action and so on.
- A better inventory system. Moving items all the time between characters and the chest in the camp is not fun.
- A proper spell menu. No, a hotbar does not count as spell menu.

Agree on all points there! <3

Diablo 2 Resurrected It's like a remaster Mass Effect for me. They don't make a new game, they repeat the old one, it's not same. Larian is making a new game, which is why action happend 100 years later. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Your question: how to love this game?

This is not old BG. And do not think that game should be similar, then it will be easier for you. It's still BG but absolutely new. There are 20 years between these games and this is not a remake or remaster, it's normal that they are so different and also made by different developers. What could affect the style.

also, do not judge game by early access, it is created for test. a lot of things can change, you shouldn't expect it, I'm just saying it's possible.

I also want to say that Larian is trying to attract new players, rather than focusing only on old fan base, and that's right. Do you know what that means? Some things will change for a new audience.

The game is great on many points but it require improvement on many other (especially combats according to me).

That said I also regret A LOT that they just didn't consider anything from the old games. Those games are great and that's not for nothing.

+ Party of 6
+ A usefull world map
+ Many companions
+ Companions a bit more normal
+ A UI closer to cRPG and TTRPG than MMORPG
+ Quiver, scroll-gem-potion bags
+ Ammunition management and +1/+2 arrows/bolt
+ I'd also like references to the musics
+ A classic control scheme
+ A usefull D/N cycle + meteo
+ A living world in which things can change (new monsters, random encounters, special encounters, quest or merchants only during the night,...)

I think they could have met the expectations of their audience AND getting inspired by some of the old mechanics or "concept".
Of course things has to be upgraded but changing things =/= upgrade and it's not always better.

We will definitively get more companions.
Swen said they released the evil/neutral ones first because most players are good and they wanted EA players to do stuff they usually not do.

I see complaints like this as similar to the way people feel when an IP based on novels or comics becomes a film, and is handled differently by different directors.

For example, you may prefer Christopher Nolan's take on Batman in the film to the way Tim Burton handled the character, but it's just the same underlying IP being handled with different tastes. The core concept of the caped crime-fighter remains.

Larian isn't Bioware, so naturally they'll have their own take on the Baldur's Gate IP. As long as there is a "family resemblance," and I think there is, that should be good enough. At least it is for me. You just have to get used to the new direction, the same as when a favorite character is handled by different directors in a movie franchise.

There will probably have 3 more companions and nothing more.

I agree with you, but I like to say one thing:
If they make a game with the official DnD licence they should use the DnD rules.
Some changes from PnP to computer cannot be avoided, but Solasta or Pathfinder proove that you can make a great game and stay relatively close to the rules.

I don't have too many issues with Larian's artistic take on BG3. I do have a problem with their 5e ruleset changes when changes were unnecessary. It's clear to me they never bothered to faithfully translate the ruleset. They figured just using DOS as a base and adding 5e features would be satisfactory.

I think it's four. So 3 evil 3 good and 3 neutral.

Also share the same feelings. I was hyped until PAX reveal. Larian was known for their creativity, but they decided to play safe and stick to DOS design.

My hope was that the EA would provide enough feedback to help shape the game into a masterpiece. But I think Larian got enough money already that they feel entitled to completely ignore their own forum.

These are fair points though one thing I would suggest is that movies are a more passive endeavour than playing a CRPG. We do not get to make decisions while watching a film that affect how the film plays out (apart from those rare interactive movies).

You are right though, the core concept of BG remains fundamentally the same in BG3 ie. a party based RPG set in DnD universe, but for me a vague resemblance to the prequels alone is not good enough to honour the legacy of those games.

Like the OP I have also struggled to fall in love with this game. Nostalgia probably has a hand in tainting my experience but nevertheless after my initial and considerable excitement at playing BG3, the novelty soon wore off when I found the combat to be repetitive, classes felt far less distinct, the map felt like a series of corridors ushering my party from one encounter to the next, the infuriating party control system, cluttered UI. There was no night time, no weather, hardly any animals in the woodland areas, the world didn’t truly feel ‘alive’ to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy playing the game but it hasn’t seduced me like the originals did. I understand this is a purely personal experience; some posters are already exclaiming this as the greatest game ever made and it seems to have spawned an entire industry of Astarion and Shadowheart memes...whatever floats your boat. I suspect I am not truly the target market for this new iteration of the BG series.

I often wonder what would the community response be if another studio took on the development of DOS:3 and changed many of the facets of that series that made it so popular?

If we are suppose to vote, then i vote for option A.

I have never been so insulted in my life!

Jokes aside, after thinking a little bit more about it, I think the combat is the biggest problem here.
The combat seems very long and, in all honesty, a little bit boring. I remember that I couldn't go back to TB after RTwP was introduced in X-COM: Apocalypse (1997). It simply took too long for my teen self, save for my boomer ass now.

I see the story being complimented, so that's a huge plus in my eyes and motivates me to give it a chance.

Would you think that TB makes it a better multiplayer experience, though? I remember that pretty much the one and only weakness of RTwP for me was how sloppy it felt playing BG1 and 2 with friends ("is everyone ready? I will resume the game now!").