Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback What do you really enjoy in this game?

The question is in the title: What do you really enjoy in this game? What do you think is really well made, what do you find most interesting and what do you simply just love about it?

While I like a good debate on constructive criticism, this time I just want to relish in all the good things with you all, so let's hear it!

To be fair, I like most of it. First playthrough was pure joy despite the flaws.

The game is immersive and gives you plenty of choices that at least feel like they matter. It's also beautiful and full of life, and I love every single VA and how they make the characters come alive in a way I haven't really experienced before (I mean there's been some really great VAs in other games too, but somehow I still think BG3 is among the best out there).

For me, it's the best game in years and I'm just sad it's over.

Here are some from the top of my head:

- Companion interactions and storylines.
While I'd love to have more of them, what we had really was the essense of my experience! I kid you not, I wasn't able to let go of the game when I first started playing, because I really, really, really wanted to see if the companions had something else to say if I just finished one more quest or one more long rest. I mean, I have a job, but I didn't go to bed before sunrise after being so beat up and horrified about the idea that I'll have my first meating in just a few hours.

- Astarion.
Oh my gosh, this character was so interesting! All the kudos to the writer for making a character with so many nuances. It was refreshing to see a character who doesn't say everything explicitly and who at times is an unreliable narrator. All directions to his storyline felt equally worth to be told, which was really impressive. And Neil Newbon, gee, how can anyone even be that talented! While I was playing it suddenly clicked in my head that I've heard his voice in so many games during the years, and he has always been phenomenal. Now I just have this terrible realization that his job is the best in the world and I start to question my life choises.

- The eyes.
Maybe this is a weird thing to be so excited about, but... I've been a gamer my whole life, so I've seen the games evolve from glumsy pixel characters to something I never could have even dreamed of when I was a kid. So when I was creating the character I remember thinking that it's nice to pick a color for their eyes, but that I probably wouldn't even see it during the gameplay. And then when I saw the first dialogue cut scene with one of the companions I realized, first, that I actually do get to see their beautiful eyes and, secondly, their eyes move during dialogue! I tell you, I was so much more impressed than a person probably should have, and still keep telling my gamer friends how awesome time we are living to finally see the eyes move! (Sure, BG3 isn't the first one, but it was the first one where it really hit me and now I'm such a happy geek!)

- The combat gameplay.
I haven't yet figured out why I enjoy the combat so much in this game. I normally don't! Normally in turn based games the moment the combat area loads, I start to realize I'm going to be just utterly annoyed struggling through it. But BG3's combat proved to be actually enjoyable for me during the whole game. Maybe it was the feeling that I have multiple solutions to the situations and I'm not going to realize 20 turns from now that I started the wrong way. It wasn't too difficult, but it was varied enough to encourage me to try different things. Whenever I wanted to spice things up, I just changed the party.

Things I love about BG3:

• Cinematic dialogue!!!
• Map design: I love how everything is close together with lots to do!
• Quest design: I love how the quests are interesting with very few fetch or collection quests
• Hand-crafted combat encounters with no trash mobs
• Ability to create and customize your character
• 3rd person
• Lots of spells
• Great voice acting
• Owlbear cub

1. In-depth companions with cinematic dialogue. I like it a lot, but wish there was even MORE.
2. The times when the game respects my decisions and tailors my experience based on my specific choices.
3. Animations. Sometimes the bodies can be a little janky, but the facial animation is wonderful thanks to performance capture.
4. Combat found a way to speed up DND turn-based system and make it fun.
5. Vertical exploration is encouraged.

1. VAs were fantastic and breathed a lot of life into their characters.
2. Especially early on, I feel like the game approached a blend between open-world exploration and classical cRPG that I found really compelling. Act 1 really felt like in all places there was multiple layers (underground, DEEP underground, above ground) to explore with multiple contact points between them.
3. More than any other game, it felt like certain monsters were treated as the setpieces they are actually *supposed* to be in tabletop, rather than just something thrown at you as cannon fodder.
4. Wither's blatant "No" when asked to elaborate on something makes me laugh every time.
5. The verticality in combat. It is very satisfying to bully enemies by pushing them off ledges.

I liked most of the game. I loved the characters and having Scratch and Owly in camp, the companions stories, especially Lae'zels to my surprise.
Sometimes making hard decisions, some really fun scenes and some truly creepy moments ( which includes nearly all of act 2.
Playing a bard and just convincing everyone of everything.

My favourite part so far is in Act 1 where you ask Lae'zel if she knows anything about what ceremorphosis involves and she goes into a graphic blow-by-blow account with that voice and that look. Cracks me up just thinking about it.

Oh yeah, Lae'zel being so overdramatic with this explanation, with all the dramatic hand gestures and over-the-top expressions, was what made me like her. She's definitely got a goofball side to her.

I like the variability - it's obvious. I don't like randomness in battle - when my barbarian hits twice and misses twice....this is complete nonsense

If you didn't know better you would think she was looking forward to it.

My top three features in this game:

1. The maps. Holy shit are they just fantastic. There's a little more room for improvement (a few secrets only reachable by long distance teleport/flight), but not a lot. Can't wait to get the map editor to play around with.

2. The body language of all the characters. Massive feature, but being able to see it on all the characters is so fantastic, makes everything and everyone feel so real. I especially loved meeting Jaheira's family.

3. I'm torn here, so many things I could list, but I'm going with the long rests. They aren't perfect, since it's easy to get an overabundance of resources for them, but it's such a nice pacing tool that I'm annoyed more games don't have them. They would be a tad better if you had to delay them a little more, more often, to have some more challenging stretches where you have to ration your resources. And if there was at least a small chance of running out of food, but I think you can do the game twice over just with the loads of alcohol you can find. Even with those shortcomings, still one of my favorite three things about this game.

So tempted to just keep going with "4. Throwing people in more ways than I can count." =D

The companion characters are incredible, literally top tier among the best, most fully realized characters in all of gaming. Gale, Astarion, and Laezel in particular. Their writing, acting, personalities, animations, just everything about them. They might as well be real people.

They are very good, and the VA is superb, particularly Astarion, though I find him incredibly tedious as a character and usually won't have him in a group - Gale is even worse. I like playing with hirelings though they are dull as characters.

Lots to like in this game but it's very short and of course the story falls off a cliff faster than you can push a halfling into a chasm.

Astarion: ever since DAO's Alistair and Zevran and NWN2:MotB's Gann have I seen such a compelling character with so much depth to him... and that absolutely amazing redemption arc of his! And that romance! Snap, okay, there was Daeran in PF:WotR who was also amazingly written but imho Astarion completely blew all of these characters I mentioned out of the water! With maybe the only exception being Daeran. I could gush all over how awesome Astarion is but it would take hours and would bore you guys to death, so I'll refrain. Also, it's my first encounter with Neil Newbon as I am pretty much a PC gamer only and most of the games he's VA'd in are console only... ported to PC years after the hype died down. Legit, if it wasn't for Astarion I don't think I would enjoy playing BG3 as much as I do now.

Jaheira's relationship with Dark Urge origin: On the good, reject the urges path she basically takes the role of the mother Durge has never had! On my 1st run I wasn't too impressed by her (played basic Tav), but on my Durge run she's quickly become one of my favorites! And writing wise she's pretty damn close to the original Jaheira from BG1/2. Which yeah, big congratulations for that Larian!

Owlbear cub: cuteness overload, what can I say?

Boo: did you guys know you can throw him around and ALL companions (Tav/Durge included) have special shouts recorded just for that? "Go for the neck, Boo!"

The sheer production value, especially for an crpg like fully voiced characters, mocap, tons of great cutscenes, the epic, cinematic feel of the game...

The amount of freedom you have in exploration and combat, feels like a big sandbox to toy around

The combat, while I find it to easy and not every encounter is well made, I really enjoy it. Part of it is due to visual and over the top sound effects

A lot of the environment design, especially in act 2, along with the monsters / enemies

Lots of memorable characters with amazing voice actors. Shadowheart is amazing, Raphael, Lae'zel... the characters are written in a way that I emotionally react to them e.g. I hate that vampire dude with a passion, if he wouldn't be useful from time to time I'd stake him 10 times over

The overall complexity of the game, I don't like streamlined games, I like something to sink my teeth in, especially into build making

The artwork!

This is the first Dungeons & Dragons computer game since the original Planescape that completely nailed the visual vibe for me. The whole thing! Truly, it just has that look that you'd usually only get on the rare front cover once in a blue moon. Like as if we'd entered the Spectrum backcatalog and got to inhabit the most fantastic for a couple hundred hours. It's really quite impressive. Not just the modelling and environment design, but the way things move and sound, the whole sweep of it. It looks so cool that invariably my criticisms end up something like, I just want more, can we get more please? hehe

Clearly it's got heart. They must really have poured their love into this thing, and their laughter and their pain, and whatever else it is that makes art worthwhile, cause you can just feel it in this one. It's like deep in the marrow. Plus they made it when the whole world was falling apart at the seams, which makes it somehow even more triumphant on that count. There are moments where this game touches the sublime, and you don't get that very often. Not just in games, but on the whole, so when I see that it makes me smile.

Oh my, the eyes though! Right!?

I had that exact same first impression! But then the way Lae'zel hooks in on that and reels it in - just totally floored me from the getgo!

Love how music and sound design create atmosphere and make the world feel alive in general. And the opera of a fight against Raphael is legendary.

I agree with a lot of people here, that the game has memorable characters. Not only the companions, but a lot of NPCs, often in small roles, too. I mean, I loved Barcus from the first moment on and was so glad, he has more content later. Alfira is cute, Dammon is a bro, Raphael and Ethel are by far my favourite antagonists. I also really liked the harper, we And the nice older tiefling lady, that shares her food with us or Rolan and his siblings. Arabella is a great character too.
I could go on for hours.

And last but not least: Jaheira- how great is she?