Hey all, I just finished two playthroughs of BG3 Early Access (Patch 3) and have decided to do something I never do: write a review. I apologize for its length and if the topics have been covered in the many other reviews; I just want to give what feedback and suggestions I have, as a player new to the BG series and as a D&D 5e player and DM for 3 years, so this game has the best chance of succeeding. To make this easy, I'll be breaking this down into 3 separate sections, after the '3 pillars of D&D': Exploration, Combat, and Social Interaction.
Spoilers ahead.
Exploration:
- Lighting should play a big role
- Lighting should be an important decision, as even with Darkvision, Dim Light imposes Disadvantage on Perception (-5 to Passive Perception), making it harder to find traps and hidden doors, yet having a Light Source might give away your position and hurt sneaking. Decisions and consequences.
- Perception checks shouldn't be rolled where the player can see
- Running through a hallway and seeing a Perception check get rolled (and fail) is a bit immersion-breaking, and tells the player 'I just missed something important'. It adds a level of metagame that can detract from the experience. Maybe have the check be rolled in the background; if the check succeeds, you get the satisfying 'click' and a revelation. Otherwise, no hint is shown that you failed the roll.
- The narrator should play a bigger part
- It's a crime that the narrator only speaks in a few dialogue cutscenes. Imagine if he/she would give a short, flavorful description of a new area to really set the scene. I think Darkest Dungeon really showed how awesome a good narrator can be, and BG can make full use of it, with it's D&D roots.
Social Interaction:
- Certain spells should be usable in a dialogue
- There were several times where my character had a spell that would be super useful, and game-changing, during a dialogue (Having Lesser Restoration prepped while the little tiefling girl gets poisoned, or Nettie poisoning me, or Kagga getting poisoned...what's up with poison?). Maybe an option can be placed in a dialogue situation that checks if the character talking has a certain spell prepped, like Speak With Animals when encountering the Owlbear, rewarding you for having certain situational spells prepped, and allowing some good immersion.
- Going out of your way to find extra information should come up in, or allow a new, dialogue
- I remember I found a set of letters, behind a waterfall in the Goblin Camp, written by a Goblin named Klagga that spelled out his love for a drow named Z'rell. This is cool worldbuilding, but it surprised me that, when I found Klagga, there was no way to bring this up. Situations like this can be a really cool and rewarding moment for players who took their time and read letters and books.
- Can romances go at a slower pace?
- Romances are cool, but towards the end of Act 1, everyone who was totally indifferent to me suddenly wanted to f*ck, with absolutely no build-up and no good way to say 'no'. Maybe this is an Early Access way of showing us who is even
able to be romanced, but a rework of this would be nice.
Combat:
- Increase the max party size to 5
- 5 is the golden number in adventuring; not too few, not too many. It lets the player fill all the necessary roles without having to give up a major component of a party
- An extra character would help alleviate the eternal struggle of carrying capacity, as well as having another character to give items to: Throwing away cool items because 'no one can use it' is always feelsbadman.
- A lot of fights in Act 1 have the party being seriously outnumbered, sometimes hilariously so. Action Economy is very important factor, and having that extra party member can make or break a fight that would otherwise feel unfair.
- Action Economy might be too forgiving
- Disengaging, Shoving, and Hiding as a Bonus Action is a really cool idea, but it might be a bit...much. In tabletop, these abilities are Actions, but some classes get them as Bonus Actions as incentives. Having everyone be able to move, shoot, retreat, and Hide is a very easy way to cheese encounters (the AI doesn't know how to handle hidden characters, yet), which hurts encounter balancing. This might be a necessary and fun change for BG, and I'm down with it, but if it's leading to abuse, it should be limited.
- As a side note, Weapon Toggling should be either 'once a turn' or a Bonus Action, as you can swap to a secondary weapon, attack with it, then swap back to a main-hand and shield, giving you an effectively-permanent shield bonus to AC. I know it seems small, but it's super cheesy and will become a much bigger deal when the level advances and we start getting 'Shield +1/2/3'.
- Lighting and Obscurement needs some work
- As mentioned above, myself and most other players have found that Lighting is not working as intended (slack is given; it's early access), and many enemies have the 'target is obscured by shadows' text despite being right next to them in melee with Darkvision, being next to a light source, or being in melee with a character that has the Light spell on them.
- Party member shouldn't surprise each other
- Several times I've recognized a threat (that damn hag) and have chosen to attack first, hoping for surprise. Attacking with Astarion (the man, the myth, the legend) will surprise the enemy...and my own party. This isn't quite right, nor fun; it seems to punish the player for seizing the initiative by not allowing them to make full use of coordination.
- As a side note, it's possible to get around this, but it requires a weird maneuver where all party members are Hiding 60ft back, around a corner. As each member creeps up, makes an attack, and joins initiative, you must then repeat this for each other Hiding party member. It's do-able, but it doesn't feel fleshed-out or particularly enjoyable.
- Sneak Attack isn't working as intended
- Sneak Attack doesn't trigger if an ally is standing nearby or if the attack has advantage; it's in a weird state where it can only by triggered by either having 'High Ground' or 'Backstab', and if there's absolutely no form of disadvantage (even if Advantage cancels it out, it will prevent a Sneak Attack).
- Spells like Bless should function like Magic Missiles
- Just a quality-of-life change to Clerics, as Bless is one of our best spells, but it's frustrating to want to target 3 or 4 particular party members, but be unable to because someone else is in-between them.
- There's no safe way to give a Health Potion to a downed party member
- Right now, the only way to give a Healing Potion to another person, downed or not, is to 'Throw' it at them, which causes damage (and a failed Death Saving Throw). Maybe add a button of 'Administer x' for Health Potions or buff Potions?
- Pathing could use some clarification
- When I first started playing, pathing took some getting used to; clicking right next to an enemy was a no-go, but 2ft away from an enemy puts you in melee range. Maybe implement a toggle that highlights parts of the ground that can be moved to, so as to prevent 'scavenger hunting' for places to move.
- I've also noticed when I send a party member to 'Jump to x location', which is totally within range from where they're standing, they'll first run away (usually provoking an Opportunity Attack), then Jump. There doesn't seem to be a way around this, and could probably be fixed in a single patch.
- Prone shouldn't cost you a turn
- This might just be a carry-over from DoS2, but going Prone shouldn't cost you a turn. In tabletop, you can stand back up from Prone for half of your movement; I don't see why it should function differently in BG, and will probably increase the fun.
Last edited by Kothblade; 25/12/20 04:06 AM.
