Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback My feedback so far

To put my PoV into perspective, I am a long time fan of the original BG series, repurchased the EE of both 1 and 2 and a fan of DOS2, never really played DOS1 but many other cRPGs make my list of favourites. Not a lot of tabletop experience as tabletop gaming in my area is.... not easy. I am a programmer that has worked on a number of smaller game/mod projects and have had some limited success as a writer, so I like to think I can see things from the other side of the coin to some degree. Just a few hours into the early access content but my thoughts so far:

Camera

- Moving the mouse to the edge of the screen doesn't pan the camera. It should and there's no reason why this isn't default behaviour.
- Holding down mouse3 to rotate camera again stops rotation when the pointer hits the edge of the screen. There is no reason why this should prevent further rotation.
- The camera frequently gets confused by height change.
- On the ship in the prologue roof textures clip in and out, often blocking the camera's view or turning things you want to see invisible even though they aren't between the camera and character, other times these invisible objects are gaining the pointer's focus, which at times resulted in my character attempting to interact with objects upstairs despite me clearly clicking on the ground beside my character.
- The button to highlight interactable objects seems to only highlight a small fraction of them. Bookshelves, crates, vases and many other interactable objects aren't highlighted. I can only assume this is intentional but must ask, why? The reason this button exists in cRPGs is to highlight ALL interactable objects so that you can see things that otherwise blend in to the background. This seems like a leftover mistake from DOS2 which had the same issue (no other cRPG I've played has had this issue). If something is meant to be hidden then it should actually be hidden (as with traps such as the grease vents in the ruins near the start) every item AND character not hidden should be highlighted by this control... every... single... one. Come on guys this your third major cRPG release this really shouldn't need to be said. Whether your character's ability to interact with the object is relevant to the situation at that moment is irrelevant, it needs to be highlighted by that button.

Models and Animations

- Frequently breaking mouth animations. People talk frequently with their lips closed.
- Shadowheart's stretchy neck. Many occasions where her neck seems to stretch slightly, looks a bit off. Haven't noticed this with other NPCs or the main character (I haven't tried a half elf female yet to compare)
- Elves and githyanki use the same body shape and size as humans and half elves, elves should be slimmer and shorter, gith should be slimmer and taller..... these are meant to be very obvious differences.

Textures

- Textures seem very slow to load higher detail. Many textures seems to remain blurry for an extended period.

Gameplay
(disclaimer: consider this section much more subjective)

- Can't seem to access my 5th and 6th party members. Huge mistake and no amount of 4-person-party confirmation will ever convince me otherwise. 4 characters limits the party to frontliner, rogue, arcane caster, divine caster (I understand this is less of an issue with 5e mechanics than previous editions but still it's difficult to have a "balanced" party without 3 of those roles going to rogue, wiz/sorc and cleric/druid), this impacts which companions you can take with you even though some of which may not be suitable companions for your character's outlook and actions. I know this has been raised many times before but it feels overly-limiting and is one of the things I disliked most about DOS2, it honestly had a major negative impact on replay value especially in combination with the extremely limited pool of potential companions in DOS2 which brings me to....
- Too few potential companions. Again, this is a major limiting factor hampering replay value. BG1 and 2 had such good replay value in large part due to the great variety of party make up, in terms of both class combinations and party banter/outlook (more so for 2 and TOB in that aspect).
- Surfaces and spell changes. I understand the spell changes in the context of having more surface interactions but I really, really wish surface interactions were extremely limited. This is a common concern I saw in the run up to EA and a huge complaint in regards to DOS2 where surfaces interaction sound good and fun and interesting but in reality boiled down to "fire everywhere". It wasn't fun and interactive, it was annoying that no matter what else was going on the player would have to deal with lots of fire, always. While it certainly doesn't seem to be on the same scale as it was in DOS2, the fact that cantrips have surface interactions built in makes me worried about the higher spell levels to come.
- I would be incredibly surprised if these three issues are touched at all even in the months following proper release. Still, I would urge Larian to consider making these changes for the earlier DLC releases that may be on the cards. More companions, available at different points in the game with different motivations than "i have a tadpole too". As well as a rebalancing of major encounters to make it appropriate for a real party. I have waited decades for BG3, not Baldur's Sin. Though I'm sure I'll enjoy Baldur's Sin reasonably well it will never in its current design be a baldur's gate 3.

My conclusions at the moment

Its pretty, haven't seen anything game-breaking yet, some minor issues and visual bugs. However, having recently played through the BG series (EE versions) twice (and about half way through SoA in a third), which makes perhaps my 50 somethingth playthrough of 1 and 2 all in all (probably quite a few more of just SoA and ToB) I have once again been reminded of just how amazing the original series was and continues to be in spite of its age and limitations. As such I will say that unless the three issues mentioned under gameplay above are changed, this game will never stand any chance of getting anywhere near its predecessors' replay value and will continue to make the same mistake that has been made in almost every cRPG since in that context, lack of variety. Variety is the spice of life. BG1 and 2 are still considered some of the greatest RPGs of all time, with only Planescape Torment frequently considered their equal (or even their superior) among cRPGs and no other cRPG coming close to those three titles. They have never been unseated. I can think of a fair few with writing and storytelling of a similar quality, many with better mechanics or gameplay, but none of them offered the variety of BG1 and 2. I find it utterly perplexing why developers refuse to acknowledge this aspect of design and the impact it has on the replay value of their game. It doesn't matter how amazing the writing is (and I know Larian is phenomenal in that regard), if you really want to do justice to the BG name, you need, at an absolute minimum, 6 - 8 more potential party members and 1 extra party slot..... minimum.