Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Discussing introductions/starts to cRPGs - How Baldur's Gate 3 starts in compatison to other games

Hi, Alice here, so I thought it would be interesting to compile how other cRPGs start in comparison to BG3. This is partly because I am interested and partly because there has been criticism of BG3 for its bombastic start and I wanted to see how it compares to others.

Baldur's Gate 1
The last day of childhood intro. The classic last day of childhood life before reality sinks in, killing rats and doing other menial tasks before your foster father is killed.

Baldur's Gate 2
Prison escape intro. Imo this intro is the closes to BG3 at the moment - Imprisoned, experimented on and needing to escape as a tutorial. Of course the comparisons are not 1to1, Irenicus dungeon was a 2 floor dungeon with a lot going for it as opposed to the short BG3 tutorial; but the style of the start - a frantic escape after being captured and your captor being attacked by someone else - is certainly similar.

Icewind Dale
Random adventurers in a tavern intro. Followed by the everyone dies but you hook.

Icewind Dale 2
In medias res town under siege intro. Arriving just in time to save the day.

Neverwinter Nights
Graduating from Hero High before being supprise attacked intro.

Neverwinter Night: Shadows of Undrentide
Surprise attack before you have a chance to graduate from Rural Hero High intro.

Neverwinter Nights 2
Last day of childhood intro redux. This is very much the BG1 intro but more bucolic, it even has a foster father.

Dragon Age: Origins
Custom origins The Human Noble is a last day of childhood into, I can't remember any of the others.

Pathfinder:Kingmaker
Random adventurers in a tavern hall followed by surprised attack intro.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Random adventurers in a tavern intro

Please add your own for things I have not included if you would like. I am interested in anyone's thoughts on the BG3 intro compared to other cRPGs including ones I have not listed. Personally, it is clear that BG3 starts with more bombastic-ism than pretty much any of the others, the only comparable is BG2, which was a Level 7 (approx) start adventure, the only one of the above. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I think it is interesting to compare it to others.

I just got some feedback not 5 minutes ago from an irl friend who I got to buy the game and play and he said that the start for Bg3 is too over the top and confusing. I am talking to him now to get more of his impressions. He is about my age, a few years younger. He feels younger kids will not be able to focus on the complexity.

funny this thread came up. I just started a playthrough of Icewind Dale and the difference is striking. You create a group of adventurers, hear a very well done voiced intro over a book showing some history of the area. Very relaxing, but it adds some intrigue to the story. And then you're in a tavern relaxing, and someone approaches you with an opportunity. Straight out of a D&D adventure book. It was like putting on a well worn hoodie lol. So comfortable. Meanwhile my latest BG3 playthrough is just this chaotic blur of action, DRAGONS, MINDFLAYERS, GITH everywhere. So much more over the top. Bombastic as you said.

Agreed, of all the "starts in a tavern" style ones IWD1 really did it the best imo.

Interesting thread and a refreshing one in many respects. My experience is limited to BG, IWD, the first DA and NWN so can’t speak for the other games on the list.

I guess it’s subjective but I am a fan of what can possibly be described as a more ‘traditional’ introduction. Perhaps it’s a cliché but intrigue, nuance, immersion are some of the key things I like in a RPG intro (don’t get me wrong, a great mystery is hugely appealing but this whole Absolute plot line feels so complicated I haven’t got a clue who or what I am fighting…after a while I just stopped caring).

I didn’t enjoy the white knuckle ride intro to BG3 with its Hollywood big budget action movie vibe. Why am I on a mind flayer ship? Why did I fall out of the ship but something magically stopped me from landing on my head a matter of feet above the ground? Questions that after dozens of hours into Act 1 I still couldn’t find an answer for.

When you have seen mindflayers and devils and dragons in the prologue, realistically where does the game have to go? Killing rats in a tavern basement might be tedious but you also need a palpable sense of evolution to create a bonafide sense of achievement.

Apparently it is now possible to kill the Cambion at the end of the prologue…which feels a little ridiculous for a level 1 character who wakes up on a mindflayer ship…or is it just me?

I like the BG3 intro! I thought it was creepy and exciting.

Kingdoms of Amalur - You were dead and now you're not! Oh, and the place you're in is under attack.

Pool of Radiance - City puts out a call for adventures... you all meet as you come to town.

Curse of Azure Bonds - You wake up with mystery tattoos!

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor - the city is under attack, call for mercenaries!

Lands of Lore - The kingdom needs a hero, who are the candidates?

Anvil of Dawn - The kingdom needs a sac... hero, who are the candidates?

Temple of Elemental Evil - Unique origins based on alignment

Legend of Grimrock - Condemned prisoners promised freedom if they can escape the mega-dungeon

Dungeon Hack - Impatient sorceress hires and teleports you somewhere.

Eye of the Beholder - The city recruits in a very public ceremony that puts a target on your back.

Planescape: Torment - You were dead, now you're not. Get out of the morgue.

Numenera: Torment - You have no memories and wake up in this place. Escape.

Shadowrun Returns - You get a job from an old colleague's will to investigate his death with promise of payment.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Run goes bad, survive until you figure out what's what.

Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Your step-father asked for help, and now you're wanted by the police in a foreign country.

My secret hope is that the Moonrise Towers climax will be like Waukeen's Promenade climax of BG:2, "Act 1" being the dungeon crawl that ends with you starting from square one again but in a much larger context.

Also Dragon Age Origin origins...the city Elf origin has you playing out a Prima Nocta scenario with the Lord snatching either you or your bride, I thought that was far from the usual in our trope heavy genre.

Gothic 1: thrown into magical prison. People go in, only ore comes out.
Gothic 2: End of gothic 1 basically rocks fall you die (?), beginning of 2 you get pulled out of the rubble by a wizard (and quest giver!)
Gothic 3: You start in the middle of a battle with fairly badass orcs. You basically have to dodge a one shot kill at the moment you get control of your toon. I didn't like this beginning very much.

Risen 1: shipwreck survivor
Risen 2: you begin the game at the tail end of an alcoholic bender that is implied to have lasted many months.
Risen 3: Your die, but not permanently.

Elex: You are betrayed and (almost) killed. In the process you recover from an addiction to a superman drug.

There, that's the Piranha Bytes list.

That's a particular moment alright. That emergence into sunlight. Similar to: finding Majula for the first time in Dark Souls 2 and Escaping the Prison/Dungeon in Oblivion. Really good effect. Would be killer to emerge from the underdark like that.

Sword Coast Legends - Your guild comes under attack, survive and figure out what's going on.

Jade Empire - Your marital arts school comes under attack, survive and figure out what's going on.

Jade Empire, Sword Coast Legends, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Shadowrun: Hong Kong are all very similar, actually.

Grim Dawn - You were possessed, now you're not! And you can control rift gates now!

Titan Quest - You're a wandering soldier and look satyrs are attacking people!

Pillars of Eternity - Local lord offers free land to people willing to settle but something horrible is happening.

Greedfall - You get to practice diplomacy in your hometown before heading to the island.

Jade empire how could I forget! This is another good example of "last day of tranquility" style beginning same as BG1 and NWN2.

I was remembering that KoToR1 is waking up in the middle of an attack - perhaps similar to IWD2's "in the middle of action" beginning, while KoToR2 is somewhat different - yes you start by waking up - but it is waking up into a mystery: "what the hell is going on" style.

Kotor 2 is actually pretty similar to what we have here. Wake up in a tank with no idea what's going on, while shit goes haywire on a spaceship.

It's interesting to see all the times amnesia is used to create a blank slate character who already has history in the world.

Disco Elysium, wake up with no memory of who you are, learn you're apparently a cop three days into a murder investigation.
Of course you might have remembered everything all along.

Alpha Protocol, you're American special forces(?) sent on a black ops mission to capture an arms dealer in a Gulf Emirate. ends with you choosing what flavor of spy movie you're the protagonist of.

huh, that sounds like mass effect...3 was it?

Mass Effect 2 is definitely that. Mass Effect 2 is:

You were dead, now you're not, also, the ship is under attack.

Comparatively, I'm in the camp that feels that a softer, comfier start is better, ramping into a dramatic-for-your-level scenario to conclude the intro/prologue.

I'm actually REALLY fond of the West Harbour start in NWN2. Not only does it teach you the mechanics of D&D, and how those mechanics work in this game, but it does so smoothly and more or less in universe, without penalising or punishing you if you've made a character that can't do some of those things very well. It teaches you organically how the party and companion system works at the same time, and then, during the climax of the intro allows you to make meaningful and impactful decisions about what sort of a person your character is and wishes to be (And also worth mentioning, dialogue during the earlier intro allowed you to define elements of your history and relations with your friends and community, to flash out your own character in a natural-feeling way). It's really well crafted to bring you into the game world and anchor you there with conviction.

I just wish the companions were better.

I LOVE Neeshka... Neeshka is best rogue. But a lot of the others read like "We read a list of alignment stereotypes"

Yeaaahh....

If you read the code in the editor, you can see that Neeshka was originally PLANNED to be a romance option, and Bishop was planned to be a proper and fully fledged one too... but they ran out of time/budget and never got them done. I'm still really sad about that... more Neeshka than Bishop, but still.

I still can't quite get over Cassivir (late thirties early forties human goodly paladin) propositioning my fifteen year old, only-recently-left-home-for-the-first-time, never-done-that-before, halfling girl on the night before a dangerous battle, and trying to claim it was love... when we've only known each other a week or two at best.

Sand was probably my favourite companion after/alongside Neeshka. I'm a sucker for dry wit and clever banter. Elanee always rubbed me the wrong way, but I love that it's canon that she doesn't wear undergarments, and that Neeska checked/confirmed this.

I love that the Construct is more intelligent than several of our party members, including Qarra, who I really enjoy hating and putting in her place at every opportunity.

I'm always a bit sad when gnomes are played for nothing but laughs, but I did enjoy Grobnar. My bard stole his kazoo before I exported her after the adventure.