Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Low pool of EA testers worries me

I think at this point, people are just waiting for a major gameplay update to dive back in. Something that would be equally important to everyone, instead of small tweaks or updates that are only really that appealing to a specific faction. Something like a new companion or a level cap increase to 5.

I've tried getting back into BG3 with each patch, but I've only ever managed one full playthrough shortly after patch 3. Every other playthrough since stalled around the time I reached the goblin camp, knowing not much has fundamentally changed afterwards, and the game's writing and party interactions are currently in a state where I don't find it compelling enough to sit through a bunch of unskippable cutscenes just to see how combat encounters have changed due to a few tweaks - especially when the combat balance at this low level is a bit gimmicky, though it's not exactly Larian's fault that low level 5E is as barebones as it is and admittedly some of their more questionable tweaks do make it slightly more interesting... Just maybe not in the way they intended or what people would consider good balance.

I would say the game's a bit slow too, although not in the way most people would think when most people bring up that word. CRPGs are by nature slower games, but when you really think about it... Solasta's pretty fast and snappy, Pathfinder is, uhhh, Pathfinder, and BG3 is getting faster in combat too. But things like unskippable cutscenes, almost every NPC having mini cutscenes for a one-liner, jumping not being automatic outside of combat, no shared inventory so you have to manage four separate inventories at once... That all adds up to constant interruptions in pacing that feels off enough that if there aren't any improvements in this category upon full release, I'd probably just do one full playthrough and then drop the game afterwards, something no other cRPG has yet to make me do as I usually commit to at least 2 full playthroughs (usually trying to optimize/perfect run the second time around).

Like honestly, when I think about exactly what I did in my sole full playthrough of the EA last year, I feel like I spent more time in cutscenes or walking around or managing my inventory rather than doing anything compelling.

Now that I think about it, my DOS2 playthroughs have usually stalled for similar reasons around the end of Act 2, though it usually takes a lot longer for me to get to that point there for entirely different reasons (knowing most encounters in the second half of the game becomes rocket tag extreme with how the stat balance becomes, and that the writing just falls apart around that point too).