I wasn't a huge fan of act 2; while it had some very interesting stuff in it with the different Thorm siblings etc., I found it lacking in variety; I enjoyed it the first time around but found it felt like more of a depressing chore the second time. Acts 1 and 3 are much better in terms of variety, and as maxyd says the more you think about it the weirder it feels within the setting.
According to the loading screen/concept art the shadow cursed lands lie between the Emerald Grove and Baldur's Gate, but that puts them north of the river on the main road to Elturel; the lore says the lands have been cursed for something like 50+ years, there's no way the leaders of Baldur's Gate and Elturel would have allowed such a major trade route (and the river itself) to be threatened for so long without mobilising in force to clear it.
But for me the bigger problem is that it's act 2; while I enjoyed it well enough the first time I played, it felt like more of a chore on a second run because I knew I had to get through it before I could do the parts I really wanted to do. Acts 1 and 3 have a lot more variety and freedom (though not narratively, as they're both constantly telling you to do the main quest right now at every opportunity).
I'd much prefer the game had got us to the city sooner (it's called Baldur's Gate 3 after all) and then been structured with more individual quests. For example, if the Dead Three avatars had met at the goblin camp, with a requirement for us to be there no matter what (either having defeated them, or successfully attacked the Emerald Grove) where we learn of their existence and the elder brain. We could have then arrived at the city knowing we need to find out who these three are and how to defeat them, but without quite so much of an imperative (save Gortash's inauguration, the Absolute army and the earthquakes for after we've started moving against the Dead Three avatars), leaving us free to do side quests in the city, only venturing out to the shadow cursed lands when we're ready to deal with Thorm. I'd also have maybe transplanted some of the Thorm siblings into the city to make the shadow cursed lands smaller, made the whole Thaniel thing a side quest that lets you go back later if you want to etc. rather than lumping so much together into act 2 with the hard cut (can't go back) into act 3.
There's definitely ways they could have structured BG3 differently to make it a lot easier to replay; I hope they learn from the experience and try to create more of a hub structure in future games, as I much prefer to gain freedom to roam and complete side quests in any order as soon as possible. While it makes sense for a main quest to push you at times, it shouldn't escalate too quickly or it starts to make you feel like you're wasting time doing anything else.
In terms of when is best to buy the next game; I actually had the smoothest experience with BG3 playing from day one. I encountered no major bugs, the worst thing that happened to me was during one of the finale fights I had three harper allies trapped in a test area rolled into initiative (which made the fight super slow switching to them and back), but nothing that really caused a problem. By contrast my later playthroughs have been very unstable, especially the one I've been doing co-op – I understand multiplayer is challenging, but after so many patches it still feels like the game is hanging together by a thread at times).
Last edited by Haravikk; 01/04/24 11:09 AM.
