Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The Map is too Constrained

Balder's Gate MP, where the only reason was to create an entire party to control by yourself, or just to have a save where you could sub out your protagonist for another imported one if you wanted to later on hehe.

I sometimes wish I had a great Multiplayer LAN experience with this franchise, and sometimes I can invent MP reasons why such and such might be better for whatever, but BG was always a single player game for me. I have memories of randos showing up in an MP session, and think to myself, what are they doing here? No time to chat, Insta Boot! Like I'm sure it worked great for some people, who maybe really bonded over a shared campaign, but not I.

I think the reasons the old gold box CRPGs worked pretty well was that they made no real pretense about trying to accommodate more than one player, but instead just tried to simulate a multiplayer type D&D 'feel' for the single player. So the single player could have the type of campaign experience which is usually reserved only for the small group.

I actually think shit started to go downhill pretty quickly once the internet made actual multiplayer RPGs possible. Then the non RP oriented meta gaming that the earlier games were sort of structured around, started to become problematic, and the games had to start doing all sorts of new things they never had to do before, once players could actually link up and type to one another. I had Ultima and played some other early iterations of what would eventually become MMOs, but they never sold me on it like BG sold me on Dungeons and Dragons. I was already it into from books, and a few rogue gold boxes in early days, but BG clinched the love. It was the best shit since Xeen and totally absorbing. But really, that had nothing to do with anyone else except for me and my custom portraits folder, and the writers I guess.

That's why godmode full party control is so important to this particular game. For Baldur's Gate. Solid party controls and an expansive gang of companions to choose from. It has a legacy that's very different from say Neverwinter, which basically went in the opposite direction while still somehow managing to remain 'not an MMO' thing, but oriented instead around the small party and DMing. It did that pretty well, but it was never BG. DA was closer, but it wasn't the Forgotten Realms.
I'm not really sure what this one is supposed to be if its primarily co-op driven in design, I guess its like D&D Double Dragon or Contra or whatever happens in DOS, bouncing off screen with a younger sibling maybe. But that's not why I came back out of retirement. I wanted that fix of the other thing. But yeah, I agree. It does sort of feel like this whole game is geared towards fans of a Co-Op console type experience. It's kind of a bummer, since that's not really what I'm after.


As for the map, I also agree there. Especially the point about it seeming more like a maze than a world. And not in a good Mazeworld sort of way. More like a pre-written module with every square in the labyrinth worked out primarily to conserve graph paper. The compass/mini map orientation also makes it feel even more mazelike, since I'm constantly getting lost as to which direction I'm facing/moving. I love maps. I like the idea of big maps that might be unfolded and hung on the wall, with all the key stuff clearly dilineated and marked out with Xs. But that's different than what the world exploration should feel like. Least coming out of the first two games