Since I can’t talk about literally everything I will mainly be speaking from the perspective of a Half-Drow, male, Warlock, because that’s as close to what I’ll be playing for the final game, and I’d like to see that experience be great (I will play other characters and make different characters for the sake of giving feedback). 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’ve tried to stay as far away from the opinions of other players, for the most part, so my 1st impressions and feedback can be as genuine, and from the heart as possible. I'm not as much of a fan of the Forgotten Realms setting as I am of the Divinity setting, so expect critique on lore to be minimal to nonexistent. Most of my critique will be on mechanics, systemics, U.I, and characters themselves, rather than the story as a whole. There’s a lot of negative to unpack here, so please don’t think I’m picking on you Larian, and there’s also a lot of positive gushing here too, so I hope you can find time to read through it all. At the time of writing this I am level 3, and my party has just met the Archdruid of the Groove. Playtime 6 hours according to my savefile. I’ve spent an extra 2 hours experimenting with the character creator, and replaying the tutorial over and over because I forgot to do simple things like naming my character.

Character Creation

Faces
Needs 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.

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:

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Big fan of dreadlocks with bangs, and if you give me that options 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). 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
Again, much like Tatoos & Makeup I have zero complaints. The wide variety of colors for every option, for every race is impressive. The only thing I'd consider changing is seperating beard color from hair color.

Portrait
Please use a different light for the character portraits, because everytime 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 .

Menu
As a whole the character creator’s U.I is an improvement from DOS2, but there is one thing you could 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 I was listening to JoCat’s critique of the character creator, and he brought up similar complaints here too.

Voice
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.

Miscellaneous
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 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 can’t wait 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.

Characters

Custom Characterr
Half-Elf, and its sub races seem to be 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 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. 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.

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, 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. 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 initially had a dream when I went to camp before I recruited anyone, because I just wanted to test out how the camp works, and then reloaded to get a full party (myself, Gale, Shadowheart, and Astarian), but when I went to camp I never got a dream/moment of introspection. I can’t tell if this is bugged or intentional, and I’ve gone to camp several times since and still nothing. That said I think these moments would be another good spot to flesh out our custom character. Maybe have several dialogue boss battles like Atris and HK-50 from Kotor 2. I did watch one dream on youtube to be as informed as possible on what I’m talking about given my current circumstances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK_zWoR5YVo . 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.

Closing thoughts:
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, 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 good one). https://youtu.be/2DKXJcS1m1I?t=1710 . To end on a positive note I felt the dialogue options I had throughout the game so far were very strong. There were several instances were I was struggling internally on what to pick like Woolie in the Kotor 2 videos I linked, and there were only a handful of instances so far where there were only two dialouge choices, and I only recall 1 instance where there was just a long string of single dialogue options (I think 4 or 5 single dialouge options in a row, please avoid doing this) Small addendum: I love that by making a character with high int and low wisdom I have a character thats really smart, but fails constantly to tell when people are lying or stealing from him, its great.


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 rarely 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.

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.

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.

Astarian:
I am genuinely surprised by how much I like him. Pretty much everytime 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.

Wyll:
I 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!


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 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 feel firebolt may be too good. 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. 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. Jump should not be a disengage for anyone that is not a rouge; it's way too powerful for that, even with my character that only has a strength of 8. The way help is implemented may just be way too powerful. Perhaps you can introduce a system of increasingly more debilitating debuffs everytime the help action is used on you until you long rest, like reviving in Dragon Age Origins.

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. I have not used my familiar for combat yet, but 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!

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.

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!

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.

Loadtimes
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.

Keybinding
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.

Final Words
I’m having a lot of fun so far, so much fun in fact, I wanted to hurry up and write this critique before finishing the game, so I could go back to just enjoying myself without my critic review glasses being on. There were several moments where I was paralyzed by choice on what do next in the Druid Groove, and I went “alright I got to write this now, because I’m probably not gonna be done with my 1st run within the next 40 hours, and theres a hurricane on the way”. Lots of room for improvements, but I can see where the game is headed, and that horizon makes me very happy. I hope you kind folks at Larian found this helpful, and I can’t wait for the next build of the game. P.S I've basically had to type and format this twice, because a miss click deleted most of my review, which was over 4000 words, so if some of my feedback and criticism doesn't get addressed in a future build I am to cry.

Last edited by Damashi; 08/10/20 07:42 PM.