Here is a challenge: Mention 1 cRPG (especially DnD-based cRPG) that has reactivity to your race better than BG3, I *will* prove you wrong.
Kenshi might be a contender, dunno if that counts as a C RPG tho.
BG3 absolutely does not deserve the review scores it got, or the level of slobbering praise it got. I don't pay super close attention to these sorts of things, so I don't know *why* so many game journalists seemed so uncritical when it came to BG3, but I don't want to blame Larian for it if it's not their fault.
Thats kinda one of the reasons why I joined this forum cause it just annoys me more than it should.
This has to be the most overrated/overpraised game I have ever seen in recent history.
Even the previous highly praised games, Witcher 3 and Elden Ring, wern't nearly as praised as this and they both don't need a DE for the game to be actually complete. (Although I still remember people hyping up Outer Worlds as a Bethesda killer which then quickly dissapated)
I can only think that some/most of the reviewers (and players) only have experiences with Bethesda/CDPR games, who prefer linearish ARPGs and now suddenly theres a extremely high budget AAA RPG that does RPG elements they've never seen before and don't realise that it's just what cRPG's have always done (even tho this game really doesn't).
(Exceptions exist ofcourse but still I doubt > 1 million people have played a cRPG before)
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(Might've gone on abit, sorry)
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I keep seeing takes all over about how the game is:
Groundbreaking/Pushing the Genre -> How? Other AAA RPG companies don't care about this subgenre of RPG; Bethesda likes making infinite content ARPGs and CDPR (+ most other AAA RPG devs) prefer linear story based ARPGs. Even if they did, does it really do anything new compared to cRPGs released in the last 10 years?.
Setting RPG/AAA Standards -> The game didn't even release finished, it's basically following the same standard as other AAA companies, let alone Larians' own standard of the past 4 games, of release early, fix later. And it doesn't even keep up these RPG standards past Act 1.
(Personally abit salty about one reviewer who usually harps on developers that release unfinished products but still gave it a 10)
Choice and Consequences -> Theres alot of choices, but most consequences are either just an illusion, where the character just dies now instead of later (*cough* 90% of the Tielfling refugees if you save them *cough*) or they become a useless ally for the final battle, or just suck (Choosing the goblins over druids). There is no meaningful consequence on the main story (except the Hammer I guess), your character or companions. (Having no epilogues doesn't help this either)
Reactivity to Race/Class -> To BG3's credit, it does recongise your race/class... until it doesn't (Usually by Act 2). But same as above, not much in the way of meaningful difference, although there are definately a few that I've seen atleast (Drow for entering the goblin camp, Draconic Sorc vs Harpies). I mean, I played a Gith after a Half-Elf where I chose most Gith responses when available (except for murder) and my game ended pretty much the same way (except Rolan was bugged and the Tiefling children + Dex + Rolan's siblings were MIA)
In the end, all I can see from the game is it's exploration and combat thats rather enjoyable and the graphics + dialogue/voice acting/mocap.
With BG3 we are feeling like a real A tier effort has been put into the CRPG space and the fact it is wildly successful fills us with hope that this segment will not be delegated to the bottom of the development list any longer.
See idk, I doubt we'd ever see a cRPG at this budget ever again (aside from maybe Larian), I doubt Obsidian/inXile is going to get $100 million to make PoE 3/Wasteland 4. Even Obsidian gave up on cRPGs and pivoted into ARPGs, especially when PoE 2 bombed in sales.
I mean, you might get those anyway, thanks to BG3, but with a far lesser budget + maybe some new IP's from new indie devs but doubt they'd be as popular (Too much reading lol, not fully voice acted, no romances, etc).
But I doubt AAA Companies will care to make any as ARPG's generally just make more money and don't have much risk attached.
Although, I am very interested to see how Rogue Trader fares with reviewers such as whether or not they suddenly care about bugs or gliches and especially because it's going to be compared to a game that, frankly, doesn't exist.
