Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General A lengthy review after pondering about the game.

Good thread. Saying anything critical about BG3 has me feeling like I'm being gaslit.

For context, I've got about 600 hours in BG3. I've nearly completed 5 playthroughs. I've had fun. But the cracks in the game are becoming increasingly apparent with each playthrough, and as a longtime D&D fan I feel like I'm done with this one until modders can hopefully give it more longevity. I started adding difficulty mods by the time I hit Act 2 on playthrough #1 because the game is so ridiculously easy, and I don't use half of the changes Larian made to the 5e ruleset... much of which is completely out of scope for a D&D game. 12 attacks per round? Seriously? No other D&D game, ever, has fubarred the ruleset this badly.

There's a handful of companions, and the only one who seems to have a different story from the rest is Wyll, who has the least content. Every other companion is essentially, "I was abused by people in my past."

Credit where credit is due, the voice-over performances are very good. Some of the changes to the classes are good and addressed flaws in the 5e ruleset. But it's overshadowed by just how ridiculous the other changes are.

The story is all over the place. We don't know much about the antagonists until it's time to kill them. Ketheric seemed like an interesting character for a hot minute there. The only antagonist we are exposed to throughout the game is Raphael, who's probably the best character.

The maps are beautiful and the terrain makes for interesting vertical combat, but again I'm forced to adhere to a list of self-restrictions just to feel any sense of being pressured. The AI is buggy and can't handle when you use spells like Darkness. The players are flooded with consumables but the enemies have access to none of it.

The camping/rest system is pretty terrible. It's something that D&D games have always struggled with a bit, usually refined by community mods, but BG3 was supposed to be closer to a tabletop experience, where you can't rest constantly and go nova at the start of every encounter. Instead we got OC NWN1 where we can rest constantly. They added a few zones that prohibited rest - they were SO close. All they needed to do was extend this idea to more areas on higher difficulties.

Speaking of difficulties - having Story Mode, Easy Mode, and Normal Mode is not enough granularity for a cRPG in 2023. Look at the other games in the genre today. Look at them 20 years ago. They all have more complex difficulty settings that allow the player more control over their experience. I shouldn't be walking over modded high difficulty on my first playthrough without even utilizing any multi-class builds or specific D&D knowledge.

I really want to put this game up with the greats on my replay list. I replay most of the D&D cRPGs annually. At this point it will need a massive overhaul mod, or just huge changes in the Definitive Edition, for that to happen. At the very least I need a good tactical experience that pressures me to make decisions about my resources and doesn't require that I hold myself accountable for not breaking the game at every turn.