Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback First Impressions

So I just reached the level cap (or more accurately just realized I was capped at level 4) and so I thought it would be a good time to stop and summarize my first impressions.

Overall Impression: I like it. It's beautiful. it's immersive, it's engaging. Some of the mechanics could use a little tweaking, and the party could use a little more character development that doesn't rely on my not rolling infinite ones, but I have faith it will only get better as more gets released.

Top 5 Likes:

1: Intuitive Gameplay, even for those who are not overly familiar with RPG or D&D: I played with my wife, who has really only gotten into video games since we've been married, and has practically no experience in D&D. We were able to figure out most of the mechanics and controls together, and she was even able to give me a few pointers.

2:Beautiful Environment and Characters: I'm not usually a huge graphics lover, and I tend to judge game developers pretty harshly for overinvesting in graphics at the expense of gameplay. Not only is this a beautiful and immersive environment (which might be nice to see in 1st person mode if it ever becomes a thing), with beautiful and immersive characters (we have departed the uncanny valley), but it appears to have taken nothing away from a focus on solid gameplay mechanics to boot.

3:Combat: Overall, combat made sense to me and I enjoyed it. I know some people dislike the turn based mode, but I think it brings the game closer to D&D rules and makes it easier to follow what is happening

4:Room for Creativity: There is almost always more than 1 way skin every cat in the game. Looking forward to see how our decisions impact the game long term!

5: Streamlined in the Right Places: D&D can be clunky, with one fight taking an hour or more, or needing to make constant perception checks while sneaking through a dungeon. This game has manages to streamline most of the tedious bits without deviating from the core mechanics too much.

6: Definitely leaves me wanting more


Top 5 Dislikes:

1: Lag: A bit laggy for multiplayer partners, hoping for smoother gameplay in the future.

2: Autosave: The autosave doesn't trigger often enough to be very helpful. It's incumbent upon the player to remember to save frequently, which breaks the immersion and leads to frustration when it gets forgotten.

3: Gale: I hated him from the moment I met him, I solved his death puzzle but chose not to revive him anyway, but his stinky dead body keeps killing Shadowheart who loves to sit close enough to soak up his death farts. Can we turn off his death gas, or toss him in a river or something?

4: With friends like these...: Gale gets his own bullet here, but I feel like I'm not connecting with anyone in my camp except Wyll. Why am I travelling around with people who clearly want to kill me? I know the Baldur's Gate games are a bit on the Grim-Dark side, but there's no incentive to play nice with the other characters, like in Mass Effect or KOTOR (and I'm NOT talking about the pre-mature aging that comes with being evil in a Bioware game). Maybe make it easier to build rapport with the companions and springe in a friendship or love interest?

5: The level cap: If this is just because the higher level abilities haven't been developed yet, that's fine, but please do not limit character progression by region, or vice versa.

6: I WANT MORE!



Notable Suggestions:

5E RULES INTEGRATION

Combat Pathing: I know a lot of people have said that they want a real time with pause mechanic like the BioWare games, but I actually like the turn-based model just fine. If anything, I would try to keep it even more true to the D&D ruleset, such as dividing the map into 5'x5' squares.

Imps should have Devil's Sight, which is like having darkvision, except it cannot be obscured by magical darkness


GAME MECHANICS

Deliberate Executions: I'm labeling this as a suggestion because it's not an outright bug, but I've noticed the AI will ignore living player or friendly combatants to attack fallen players. I suggest making fallen characters a lower priority target so they don't get executed as often, and the enemies engage with the players who still pose an actual threat.

Autosave (revamp to trigger more frequently): Make Autosaves a more regular thing, like after entering a new area or after the end of every combat. I had 15+ autosaves before I left the grove, but then it didn't autosave at all for the next 2 hours of gameplay, which I only noticed because I died and was sent back to the Grove. I have adapted by hotkeying quicksave, but this means that saving is up to me, the player, to remember to do. In an immersive game like this, it really tarnishes the game experience when I have to either (a) remember to be less excited about the game for a second and save because I know the autosave will leave me only with option b, or (b) have to redo huge sections of the game because the autosave is infrequent or unreliable.

Force Turn Based Mode for everyone whenever combat initiates: Whenever any party member is in combat (turn based), all other characters (party and NPC) should be forced into turn based mode. The unholy union of turn based for some but not others results in enemies randomly walking into the battle during the PC's turn, enemies taking their turn and interrupting PC's not in combat while in-combat PCs are busy, etc.


STORY

Race/Class Plot Hooks: I'm playing as a drow, and have been amused by the more or less inconsequential "drow" conversation options, but was disappointed that this conferred no advantage when meeting drow in the cavern beneath the Temple of Selune with the Spectator. If you're going to take the time to write special drow dialogue, I would recommend making some relevent plot points to go along, like maybe a chance to cooperate with the drow against eh Spectator

Death by Neglect: Ditch the necrotic aura around Gale's body in camp. It seems like a neat concept, but in practice Shadowheart always stands next to him and dies, so going to camp to heal for the day often results in her just dying there. It just makes the game more frustrating and tedious, especially after reviving him is no longer an option.

Show, Don't Tell: I would also recommend streamlining the plotlines a little (it gets convoluted fast) and putting fewer plot points in written notes and instead into dialogue -- this would make the world more meaningfully interactive and ensure the player receives the prompts (I find it easy to pick up a note and forget about it until later). After all, you put so much effort into the dialogue that it seems a shame that it is often the least important way to gather information and receive plot points.



Notable Bugs:

GRAPHICS/ANIMATIONS:

Graphics Rendering: This is probably an easy fix that will be made naturally during the development process, but I wanted to at least highlight it. The graphics are not always rendered smoothly, and objects tend not to behave as they probably should. For example, Mindflayer tentacles move through other solid objects like their own bodies, the ground, and demons' wings. In conversations, the speaker sometimes teleports back to their starting position after a line of dialogue (looks like resetting body and face for next line), sometimes do not move mouth when delivering spoken dialogue, which can be confusing with the tadpole mechanic.

Non Sequitur: Some social encounters do not have intended effect. I talked my way past the goblins in the ruined town, but they attacked after the conversation was over anyway.

Convo Initiation: Conversation with Anders does not initiate (but did for my multiplayer partner, not sure what made the difference)

Puzzle Rendering: The puzzle in the temple of Selune sometimes glitches, showing dirt where some of the symbols should be, and failing to exchange puzzle pieces from disc to disc.

CONTROLS:

Multiplayer: My multiplayer partner gets lag when they are in the same area of the map as me, and sometimes get stuck, such as the gate at the grove not opening for them.

Movement: AI pathing is tedious -- the AI tend not to follow the player character when they climb or jump if a walking path is available, which can trigger encounters without the player present. They also make no effort to avoid falls, fire, or acid even when out of combat, sometimes even if the player purposely pathed around these hazards. This makes movement near hazards or special areas tedious

HUD: The lock function on the action bar is not really locking the bar. Every time I pick up a new item or ability it resets to the unlocked position, extends itself, and adds the new stuff inside. If I want it locked, it means I want control over what goes there and where.

Reactions (need to improve triggering): Reactions don't seem to work -- it's supposed to be the player's opportunity to interrupt someone else's turn to use. Recommend utilizing the existing turn based mechanics to interrupt an enemy turn whenever a reaction is available to offer the option

Magic in Social Encounters (Need to improve triggering): Conversation spells like Friendship and Detect Thoughts don't come up as social options, and therefore never come into play. Recommend adding a dialogue option or something with which player can trigger the ability

GAME MECHANICS

Item Effect Gone Wrong: Item "Gloves of Power" Castes Bane on the Wearer instead of the Target

Likely Unintended Instant Death: Arcane turrets in Underdark paralyze targets when shooting, effectively making them insta-kills

Spell Slot Misallocation: Feat "Warlock Initiate" Allowed me to pick a lvl 2 spell, which is higher than the feat's slot, effectively wasting the bonus spell.

No Illusion?: Illusion spells NEVER distract the enemy. They should at least need to make some sort of check. Otherwise, these spells are useless