Dear Larian, congrats to a game that is very addictive and that I enjoy very much. However, I can't fully jump the hype train so I'll focus on what's bothering me. I'm currently at the beginning of Act 3 with my main character and I won't go fully into Act 3 before 1 or 2 more patches.
Design
- Everybody is voiced with exception of the main character. That feels really odd, especially as the repertoire of facial expressions and body language is very limited and my dude is very chatty just exploring.
Technical
- Simply said, the camera is a hate crime, can be fixed with a mod.
- Frame drops, textures not loading, clipping occur frequently, game runs stable though (1 crash).
- Most fun bug I had was a character only half loading in act2, I essentially followd a set of legs.
- Sound volume too low, some audio probably very low quality, in some instances I can't understand the narrator, no matter how much I crank up the amp.
- Shadowheart romance scene in act 1 triggers twice.
- Pathfinding of companions sometimes does not work, especially Lae'zel likes to wander of, triggering dialogues / encounters she should not trigger.
- Pathfinding is kinda broke when there are elevation differences and/or obstacles.
World Mechanics
- To much save scumming, yeah I know its D'n'D and you should live with the consequences of bad dice rolls, but I want that door open now and that trap disarmed, and...
- Inventory management is slow and sloggish, mostly because sorting options and containers are missing.
- Trading is slow and sloggish, as you have to auto sort everything (add to wares) and the screen shows everything instead of showing sorting containers e.g. alchemy stuff.
- Running speed feels painfully slow, maybe speed up the party a bit, I'm in a hurry to kill some goblins.
- Most loot is inconsequential junk like potions and spells I never use because they are too situational or already available, basic and boring weapons...
- Don't know if this is D'n'D, but so far I haven't found anything I'd like to actually build around, like I find an armor or weapon that was really made for a specific build. Poison seems to get some love, but that is about it. I keep reading that there is so much insane overpowered gear, but e.g. Blood of Lathander feels rather weak. I'm coming mostly from soulslike games, so maybe I have different expectations, what good gear, a damage or defense boost is...
- Alchemy is kinda strage, crafting e.g. haste potions would be very useful but for that you need a spot to farm hyena ears. Farming spots don't exist as enemies don't respawn.
Combat and Combat Mechanics
- Too much emphasize on pushing, I had to redo a battle at least 10 times cause 3 members of my party where pushed into the void in the first 2 rounds of combat.
- You get surprised, you die. It is almost impossible to win a battle where 10 enemies get free attacks.
- I had to redo an encounter many times because the boss got pushed into the lava making it impossible, to finish a quest. Ended up using my party to protect him from that by
blocking paths.
- Wizards feel rather useless, my party is always stronger without a wizard in it, no matter the composition or level.
- Concentration spells are a pain in the a... Most concentrations spells could be useful, but concentration is easily broken.
- Balancing is quite odd from time to time. Some boss fights feel like the bosses are using an entirely different rule set. E.g. how can a certain Paladin of Tyr at Level 3 or 4 smite me 4 times in row?
- After reaching maybe level 8 the combat gets to easy, I kinda steamroll most encounters and I'm probably a very bad player.
Story and Characters
- Companion and world interaction seems bugged, I replayed stuff a lot and it seems completely random if companions take part in a conversation or not. Once they decide to interact it feels integral like it should always happen.
- The game does a bad job of giving me context/world information, I as a player know literally nothing about Faerun, it would be nice if a NPC would explain e.g. what Moonrise acutally is/was.
- Act 1 is very good, but I feel we get rather quickly from "lets find a cure" to "lets safe the world and I'm totally ok with being everybodies savior".
- Act 2 is great but feels very convoluted, I feel the order in which you do quests matter a lot, but the game does very little to point me in the right direction.
- Act 3 starts really odd, there should be a huge sense of urgency, but there is none. Feels more like starting into a new game and not playing the final act of one.
- You can kinda feel that there is a lot of (last minute) cut content, I hope some stuff gets returned.
- Story felt more complex and grown-up in early access, same for companions.
- While every companion quest contributes a lot to the overall story, I'm really missing some normal dudes. Not everything needs to be over the top, I'm missing simple, personal quests.
- The over-sexualisation of literally everything. I don't mind adult content but this game pushes things a bit too far for my taste.
- I feel most of the romances are broken and bugged, I turned Gale down three times in a row and still end up in a sexually charged private dialogue scene.
- For straight males romance options are kinda lacking, I can chose between a terminator from hell (great personality), an alien with a severe superiorty complex
that lays eggs (not so great personality) and the worshipper of a dark god probably on a quest to end mankind (great personality glimpses through from time to time). So while there technically are romances in the game and I'm romancing Shadowheart, I feel like staying is single would be the safe and sane choice.
