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To me, the story elements so far look promising and potentially complex; but I will withold judgement, as many games start with interesting scene-setting, only to taper off into a bland finale.
Ticking clocks don't need to be literal to spur the narrative along, video games are interesting because they allow for them to actually be literal, but in most stories they serve as a way of adding tension and drama to every choice the character makes. If the tadpole in BG:3 was turned into a literal ticking clock, that would be fantastic but I would enjoy just as much a more clear introduction of their danger, as it is we have a scary thing in our head, everyone tell us how we need to be rushing to find a cure, but then everything else that happens in the first Act undercuts that as you dither around.
I was comparing introductions between BG2 and BG3, I was frustrated (in a good way) by the hurdles placed before me at the end of BG2's intro, while for BG3 I question the motivation of my character and the party.[/quote]
Hmmm. Well, a literal "ticking clock" tadpole would lead to a pretty short game
, since the host brain is devoured within hours. And ( if I remember correctly ), the first long rest conversations make it very clear that there is something unexpected happening. As do almost any and every conversation you have with anyone that claims they can heal you, but ( surprise ) find they can't.
I don't think we are really disagreeing; a good story has a narrative hook that drives you forward, and in BG3, "fear" of the tadpole is it, at least for the average "good-aligned" player. Shadowheart and Lae'zel, being sensible ladies, take the view that getting rid of the tadpole is paramount; but Astarion certainly doesn't, and both Wyll and Gale are curious about alternatives. We don't yet know other companions will think, but I suspect that any miniature giant space hamster that appears in the game will have a low opinion of tadpoles.
I don't know that BG2 ( which I preferred over BG1 ) was particularly narratively good after leaving Irenicus dungeon. The narrative pull was that you needed to free Imoen, but you couldn't do it directly, and were pretty much forced to run around doing side content to the point where you realised that there wasn't really that much urgency. At least, that was the way I felt. What made BG2 interesting for me was that, as you engaged in the side content, it began to weave a larger web of interactions between different actors. I see a lot of that in the way BG3 is constructed, but we are all different, so maybe you don't.
Mod edit to snip quoted post: Please reduce the size of any long posts being quoted. Use <snip>, selective quoting or spoilers.
