Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Feedback from a new player to the BG franchise

So, it's probably nothing new, but I just wanted to compile my feedback on the game as is, coming from a guy who's played next-to-no Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 but completed Divinity 1 and 2 multiple times and extensive experience with all editions of D&D since 2nd edition.

Gameplay
Pros:
- Lots of options for builds even at low levels
- Lots of interaction, both with surfaces, terrain, heights/falling etc.
- Each combat round is quite fast-paced despite turn-based approach

Cons:
- Too few options for your actions on a given round. Most rounds boil down to smacking X enemy with sword, firing bow at X enemy or using your favourite cantrip at X enemy. This round, next round and every round. Take a hint from your previous Divinity games and find a way to introduce more action options, so the situation changes your action/ability priority rather than the somewhat spammy thing we have now
- The aforementioned (good) interactions need more explanation, in that some cantrips create surfaces, acid makes AC go down etc. A new player will likely be overwhelmed
- With how damage values and health pools scale (this is a D&D issue as well, pretty much every edition), combats end up stretched out due to enemies being bullet-sponges. This is further compounded by the fact that AoE is MUCH less readily available than in, say, Divinity. Please consider adding more variety and AoE in terms of attack options
- Please show the specific dice rolls in all applicable situations. Looking at dice is a main feature of D&D, and it really should be here too.

Story
Pros:
- After the introduction, you feel like a scrub doing small-village type quests, fighting goblins #1-1000... this is GREAT! Really feels like low-level D&D
- Decent introduction to Faerun and the setting in general, but maybe some more overt exposition would be good? Mainly for people like me who haven't played the previous Baldur's Gate games

Cons:
- Okay... the whole Illithid thing is cool, I get what you're going for, but having the game start off with being an Illithid prisoner, fighting intellect devourers on an Illithid battle ship being attacked by red dragons just feel... decidedly NOT low-level D&D, which is a damn shame.
- Main character (if custom) is just about the most bland character ever in the history of D&D... which is impressive in its own right. Having just about no backstory outside your background (which is almost exclusively a mechanical system) means you feel veeeeeeeery disconnected to the main character. Yes, I might be spoiled with great characters in recent games like Commander Shepard and Geralt but seriously... don't make the main character the porridge equivalent of characters... nobody likes porridge without toppings, not really

Misc:
Pros:
- Cinematic cutscene dialogue with just about every character... well frickin' done, Larian. This is the one thing Divinity lacked in my opinion, and here it is. In great form, and it looks like a Bioware dialogue system. 11/10.

Cons:
- Why... oh god, why... why is the main character the only character that isn't voiced!? You put so much damn time and effort into these characters, the dialogue system, the individual lines, the cinematics they play out in, the facial expressions, it's all great... and then the whole thing is ruined by a mute main character? I would much, much, MUCH rather have a slim selection of voices but a voiced character than a library of voices but a mute character. Most of the dialogues lose so much impact due to the main character having little to no reaction to... well, anything, really


Overall, I like the game as-is, but the two things that really stand out to me are
1) Trying to adhere to the D&D 5e ruleset as vigorously as you can makes the game less than it could be. 5e is great, sure, but it ain't perfect, and, and this is just my 2 cents, it could be improved by adapting more Divinity into the gamesystem and adhering to Faerun in terms of setting and spirit more than mechanics
2) The existence of the blandest main character in recent memory (mine, anyway) really is a stark contrast to the colourful and interesting setting he or she runs around in as well as the characters that they interact with. It feel like running around controlling a stat-sheet rather than a character

Just my 2 cents, ofc, but there ya go.

First round's on me if we ever meet in the Blushing Mermaid,
Chris

Play BG1 and 2 and come back

And what would that accomplish?

Sure, some background lore/setting stuff - that I mostly know from D&D anyway, although I'm sure there's something I don't know.
Other than that, I imagine I'd spend hours playing a couple games I don't particularly like as they're simply too dated for me, and I personally despise real-time combat in this type of rpg. Personal preference, nothing wrong with it as such.

So please don't take this as a snarky comment, I'm genuinely curious as to what playing those 2 games would accomplish, and in what way it would improve BG3 and change the way I currently view BG3 as well as my feedback?

I don't agree with voicing your own character. It is DnD, so you can voice it yourself, just read the lines Immerse yourself fully
Besides, I rather they spent their time now on making new content, and adding new voices that you can choose from, as from time to time your character is indeed saying something to what is happening. But I guess we don't need it during the cut scenes.

Suppose I'm reading it all anyway, but... you'd really rather have it non-voiced? The thing that made me super aware of it was actually how the character DOES have a few voiced lines when in the open world, for example when interacting with stuff on the ship at the beginning. It just feels to weird to me, considering everything else IS voiced, and the character does in fact have a voice... it just doesn't work when talking to other people?

Such a stark contrast, but oh well. Difference of opinion I guess.

In multiplayer you do actually hear the main character voices when you speak to other players, its pretty nice.

I agree with most you said. Now this will become a debate again about Voiced PC, but I agree with you. It is immersion breaking when EVERYTHING is so cinematic and then your character is mute. It's different in games with top down views only OR something like Origins which during most dialogue isn't...exactly the most cinematic thing. On some big plot moments sure, but not always. This game does though and it feels really off. I'm not a big fan of no voiced main character in games that rely heavily on cinematic feels. (in this games instance, goes for origin and custom characters).

I also already made a thread about Custom Character being the most blandest thing in the history. Like they didn't exist at all before the game. What was your character doing before all this? ANYTHING?!

Even the most blankest characters in RPGs/CRPGs have something. Pillars had a character going to another city and a mandatory NPC asked you about your past and you could answer in multiple ways, giving your character an actual backstory that didn't rely on headcanon. Same with Fallout NV which is considered an amazing RPG by majority, has something. You were a courier. This game virtually has nothing except sometimes the drow underdark or baldurian thing but that's...just not you as a character, that's just race. It's not exactly unique.

They had this mechanic in Divinity as well, where after certain story hooks had unfolded, you would be prompted to talk to one another. Those lines were voiced as well, as were certain interactions and reactions in the open world... so yeah, same as in BG3 now, I guess, which I still think is a damn shame. I really hope they end up voicing the entire dialogue system, I'd personally be more than happy to sacrifice a bit of content to have it fully voiced

This is Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite comment in the thread

Funny how I think like the opposite of the OP :

Gameplay : Not that many options for build at low level, Wizard barely have any spell, everyone auto attack.
-agreed for interractions.
- Combat is face paced? Lol? tried the large fight at groves or goblin fortress?

Story :
- Doing scrub quest is cool? What? I mean, didn't you have enough goblin slaying and farmer type quest in about every RPG and MMORPG of the last ten years? Its one of the most generic story start. Seen that so many time already.
- You re not really introduced to Faerun, you re stuck in a relatively small map with some farmer and a melting pot of fantasy races . Like it has been said before, try baldurs gate 1 &2 and come back.
- Seriously, you want scrub quest but you don't like dragon and illithid? I really don't understand , but okay, lets says its just tastes.
- You make the backstory of your own character. Sadly, we can't have Andrej sapkowski writing the backstory of every RPG (he doesn't like video games anyways). Making your own character has always been like that by the way, in old D&D games.

Misc : I'm not sure I would like the main char to talk. I read fast, and having to wait through answers of my character when I already know what he will say is boring.

Hi,

first let me thank you for lovely and detailed feedback. I'm going to snip the positives, and address some of the things you view as negative.



In order:

Combat options: Ultimately in any game (tabletop or online) you pretty much have a move and an action. I really appreciate that here in BG3 we can also do partial moves, hide, jump, throw things or even eat. That is in addition to sword [weapon] strikes and spells/cantrips. I think that's a lot.

As far as AoE availability; I'm not seeing a lack. Surfaces (via spell or thrown item) function this way, along with some of the spells. Heck out of combat there is even AoE healing which was a trip for me to get used to.




The intro is amazing; but it also makes clear that the PC's are too low level to do much but escape; the ship, the dragons, the demons, the illthids very clearly out class us. And also offer a tease of the future. I found that cool; I'm sad that you didn't find it enjoyable.

Main character being "bland".
Only if you ignore all the choices you made - heck it MATTERS (to me, to my head-cannon of my character, and for that matter to the fanfiction I write) that my half-drow was a sailor on the seas of the underdark. It MATTERS to many of the rolls if the character knows Arcana, is a good judge of people (deception or investigation).
I think that the PC being interesting or not is a player problem, not a game problem.
But then I'm old enough to remember playing in the box the refrigerator came in - my and my brother navigated our ship to Mars, and also defeated evil armies - and what we had to work with was literally cardboard.
I urge you to use your creativity - it's very enjoyable!



Okay... ya got me there. We already picked a dern voice; why not use it instead of standing there with resting-WTF-face.





I'll buy the second round!!

I don't think we disagree as much as it might seem, Newtinmpls! It's really mostly the small stuff.

The thing that nags me about the intro, isn't actually the intro which I found quite enjoyable on its own merits and fairly well-done too! What annoys me, is how I would love to build up to Illithids, demons and dragons. Letting me experience just a taste of that and then smacking me in goblin country just seems so strange. I've had a couple traditional D&D campaigns start similar to this as well, none of which I've enjoyed.

I guess my point is simply that I just don't like seeing my dessert before I'm served my starter and main course...