Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What are your expectations with this game?

First of all, I want to humbly implore you, please stop being silly and just play BG2, even if it's on the easiest settings with god items from mods. How can you have fun that way? Be kinder to yourself. Experience the story. You're a Bhaalspawn. Why shouldn't a Bhaalspawn be a badass? You can work up to higher difficulties as you get used to the trappings of the game--if it's fun for you to do so.

Andromeda was Andromeda. It was an established universe tainted by a huge mistake of an ending (ME3's). It wasn't unreasonable expectations but rather plot and lore betrayals that made ME3 so controversial. Andromeda took some of the brunt of that, mostly because the developer had doubled down on giving the finger to their fan base about every concern they had, pretending it was about not having enough time to say goodbye or some bs when it was actually more about not finishing the story, dropping important plot threads, and relieving themselves on the core values and themes of the series. (If anyone disagrees with me, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but please know you will not change my mind and I prefer not to rehash all that here.) Andromeda couldn't really fix what came before so it avoided it, and if successful it could've revitalized the series. It just couldn't live up to what it had to live up to under the circumstances. It had big shoes to fill, and a wrong to right, and it couldn't. Tragic and unfortunate. I still appreciated some things about it, but I wasn't able to love it as I wanted to or as I'd loved 1 & 2 (and some parts of 3.)

That's interesting about the vandalism, I hadn't known that, but I heard they did waste a lot of development time on technology that never panned out and the game ended up feeling unfinished in ways. Personnel changes surely didn't help. There were originally too few skin tones and way too few options for character creation overall. Andromeda just wasn't the game it should have been. I didn't feel motivated enough to keep going and finish it once I started hearing that the ending wasn't much to speak of. Maybe I gave up too easily, but something was missing, for me.

Larian will benefit from time. Many years have passed and saying up front "the whole Bhaalspawn thing is a story apart; we're going to do our own thing here related more to the city than to the first two games" is a good idea. It shows respect to the previous story that they aren't trying to coast on anyone else's laurels. Unlike Andromeda, they seem to have their tech figured out and their ducks in a row. I loved NWN2 even though it wasn't Bioware. I prefer it to NWN1, actually. I don't prefer KOTOR2 to KOTOR, though I do wish 2 had been properly finished--wish Obsidian had been doing back then what they've done for Pillars, then it would've been amazing. I truly think that people are more likely to get upset when it's the same developer as before and the story of previous titles isn't finished well. This being its own thing and made by another developer changes the game a bit.



Back to Baldur's Gate 3: My expectations for this game are being fulfilled so far. Characters I find intriguing and want to interact with, a proper D&D feel, a story I want to engage with, a world I want to survive in, the ability to play the class I like...and best of all, the romances don't seem to be so limited as they were in BG2 or many other games. Larian seems to get that people like playing different body types and races, but that most of the time we have to roll our eyes and suck it up and go "OKAY, I'll just play another stupid boring human because otherwise no one will want to bang me," and they're not doing that. Words cannot begin to express how delighted I am that my lady dwarf's bosom will not have to remain unoccupied (and that she will not be forced to have a beard.) I also know that I can kill things with my shoes, which I hadn't even expected. There you go, expectations already surpassed!

My two main causes of hesitation in what I've seen are character creation and tense.

I really want to have more control over facial features than DOS2 provided--at least, choosing individual features/colors. If it's too static, just set faces to choose from, I will be disappointed because I'm so used to customization. What I saw in DOS2 wasn't bad, and I could handle it if it's like that but more up to date... but I wouldn't be ecstatic, whereas really meaty character creation that tempts me to waste ridiculous amounts of time doing exactly what I want to do with it... that would make me ecstatic rather than just feeling like, "okay, I guess I'll deal with this but sigh in longing and hope mods come out soon." They might already have this on lock, or maybe there'll be enough races that I don't mind so much, and I do have to say I love what I've seen so far--but I'm just not sure yet, so I mention it as one thing that makes me go, "hmm" with uncertainty on how I'll feel.

The tense thing... I just don't love the way it's set up right now. I feel more involved and drawn in when I'm given present tense options, and if at all possible I prefer "What brings you to this tavern?" to *I asked her what brought her to the tavern.* The former is more Baldur's Gate to me, and it also feels more like I'm talking. I am more in the moment and in the experience that way--more roleplaying. I gave the current way a chance while watching, and I'm not opposed to options like, *I couldn't take the sorrowful expression on her face and gave her a warm hug*, but overall for dialogue I'd rather it look like dialogue, and I want it to feel like Baldur's Gate. So I can endure the current way, but I'd truly prefer if they changed their style for this specific game--let dialogue be dialogue, let the present be the present. I think that would help satisfy the more rabid of oldbies among us. (And I played BG2 when it came out, and BG1 shortly before that, so I am indeed an oldbie myself.)

I do have high standards, and I am not afraid to be vocal about them, but that doesn't mean I or the community are necessarily unreasonable. I don't expect exact replication or for the game to jump out of my computer, satisfy me, then go do my dishes. I just want the most important of the familiar staples along with the modern basics we're used to. If Larian makes it there, I will be more than delighted. And from playing DOS2 so far, I feel comfortable. They get the old school RPG feel. They gave me a world where I have opinions about things, characters I have feelings about, and let me murder anyone I think needs to be murdered. (Mostly Magisters. I just had a Special Moment with a really nasty one and it truly felt very nostalgic to then go through a harrowing combat to avenge the innocent person he just basically lobotomized.) That seems pretty right to me, and it makes me smile.

All in all, I don't wish this game was in the hands of anyone else than Larian, and I will keep updating my opinions, but I'm not worried in the way I sometimes have been. I feel more like I did before Inquisition--and I personally loved that, it was like an ES world with a Bioware plot/romances to me. I always used to say that if Bethesda ever learned to make stories like Bioware, or if Bioware ever learned to make game worlds like Bethesda, they'd own the market--greatly disagree with that meme.