Originally Posted by Henry NYC
Originally Posted by Eddiar
TDLR It feels as though I am fighting against the game with meta knowledge rather than playing the curated path (with many branches) up to End of act 2.
From Act 1 to end of Act 2 everything felt natural, we went from one thing to another naturally. Having foresight was not necessary to not miss things or feel mislead to feeling false urgency, it felt like having read the book of a movie, I know whats coming but it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of it.
Act 3 feels like its somehow broken and only with my spoiler knowledge that I can correctly navigate. Otherwise I lose things or I am lost. It doesn't help that in Act 3 where there is supposed to be tons and tons of character development and conversation that there are less. Or it feels like its less.
I think Act 3 is great but the rush framing and the ending with the Squid question plot holes just brings everything else down. But there are solutions that don't require a complete rewrite either!

The story-wise essential difference between Act 1-2 and Act 3 is that the story is very linear from Act 1 to 2.

The story in Act 1-2 is essentially like this: you have a logical goal (survive the tadpole infection, understand as "get rid of that thing in my head"). You soon find out the goal is bound to a location called the Baldur's Gate. While there are more than several bridges you may cross, you know where is your destination. Your only decisions to make is which bridges to cross to get to there.

The story in Act 3 is significantly different: You only have a logical goal, but you don't know where to go. Surely, you still have the same logical goal, but the goal is now no longer bound to any specific destination that you know for sure. You feel lost at which bridge or bridges to cross, while there is always a force to push to move forward to cross your next bridge.

From Act 1 to 2, the game holds your hand and meticulously guides you in getting you set on the "right" path to the Baldur's Gate.

Once you have reached Act 3, especially the Lower City, the game won't hold your hand any more. You have to discover your own destiny. Even your goal is only literally the same - its actual meaning has shifted, especially after you have discovered you do NOT have to rid yourself of this infection - it's now understood as "do I have to get rid of that thing in my head or use it for my own benefit?").

Act 3 may have a lot of bugs (loose ends are hard to close after every major change). But it is not nearly as bad as it is occasionally phrased by certain posts online. Without the non-linear nature of Act 3 or the end-game, how may we get up to reportedly 17,000 different endings?




In short:

I like the linear nature of Act 1-2, both in term of story and in terms of adventure.
I like the non-linear nature of Act 3, which means I just have to make own choices then.

I think the "complaints" here are essentially due to some players preferring a more linear story and/or a more guided gameplay.

I agree with you but I think the problem with Gortash, Orin and the Emperor/Orpheus is something that poisons the non-linear aspect of act 3.
Because they TELL you to take care of something or deny its possibility but you know for a fact thats its not true. So you have to ignore them and what the game story is telling you until you get around to it.


Its odd that Gortash is revealing all his evil plans in a room full of people right before his coronation.
He should explain his plans while you are in a private setting and then take you to the coronation and THEN relocate himself to a proper throne room where he and his minions can face you as a final boss instead of a small office.

We should be able to find out who the imposter is immediately or at least have a chance to. Its odd that the rescue mission could be put off for several long rests, There should be a time limit or a linear way of dealing with the situation of the captive until we confront Orin properly.

You can't just put urgency in the story and then not respect it. Either it is urgent or it isn't!
As for Emperor and Orpheus, its very rail roaded, we are lied to that Orpheus would kill us or without the emperor for even a second we would die.

If that were true the moment we tell Emperor that we intend to free Orpheus, he should have turned us into mindflayers and joined the absolute... rather than let us live long enough for Orpheus to be freed.

Something is not working with these three, we need an editor to correct some of the events and contexts so that we may explore the city in peace at our own time rather than meta knowledge our way into ignoring things until we are ready.