Baldur's Gate III

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Baldur's Gate III for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[DaMonth]

This game is an immaculate take on the feeling of playing in a DnD campaign, in all the best and worst ways. To start, not the game's fault but I wish I didn't go into it with the idea the whole thing was full of absolute freedom. Because it isn't. There's a lot of ways you can tackle situations, sure, but those many ways can be very railroaded. And things that you think should just work sometimes don't because the DM didn't plan for it. Or in this case, the developers. Simple things like being able to wake up characters you knock out with non-lethal damage, for example, or setting a Minor Illusion in the middle of an ambush so you don't get surprised.

I also think the game has a problem with being clear about consequences? Like yes maybe I'm supposed to just commit and roleplay but I'm glad I asked a friend about the tadpoles or else I would have rushed through this game assuming I was gonna turn at any moment, afraid of an invisible timer that didn't exist. Or how using tadpoles actually has no gameplay downsides until the Ascended version but I didn't touch any until lategame because I was worried it would hasten the infection. Telling you which quests will end if you go past a certain point would be nice because I ruined one assuming I wasn't supposed to touch Moonrise until the very end of Act 2.

Initially went into the game with the one rule I wouldn't save scum but by the end of it, I felt like the game cheated me enough with dumb luck that I didn't feel bad cheating back. That being said, it's still a great experience and at the time of writing I plan on replaying it with a mod that doesn't limit the party, considering how the game feels like it's made at odds with how half your warriors just hang out at camp all day but still talk like they were there at the amazing events.

Oh also, I got over it eventually but disappointing that the level cap's at 12. I wanted to play the power fantasy of a Lv.20 wizard you need to dedicate five years of weekends in a basement to achieve.

EDIT: I did replay it this summer with mods, the game is a lot more lively when all your members are there to react to events instead of just most of them twiddling their thumbs back at camp but also it's very funny how many difficult intricate encounters are trivialized by having 12 characters to use.

[TheEmailer]

I'll post some excellent feedback in 2027, should have finished it by then

[ashman86]

I'm sure the panel will do a great job of discussing all of Baldur's Gate 3's individual strengths, and I want to instead contribute the viewpoint of someone who grew up with the the original Baldur's Gate games by BioWare. These are some of the most formative games of my childhood, and even today, I place Baldur's Gate 2 on my most epic of epic shelves. For decades BioWare was my favorite development studio, hoisted up high by those earliest games in their catalogue and rarely faltering as they gathered their parties and ventured forth into new worlds and original IP.

Now that classic BioWare doesn't really exist, Larian felt like the right choice of studio to carry the torch on an official sequel, and Baldur's Gate 3 was everything I had hoped for and more in a successor to those classic games as well as a follow-up to Divinity Original Sin 2—another, more recent favorite of mine. While some oldschool fans decried the decision to make combat turn-based, rather than the real-time-with-pause system of the original games, I couldn't have been happier. Like in DOS2, it made every combat encounter feel meaningful and enjoyable, and I think the system's part of what I love so much about this game.

Like its predecessors, BG3's greatest strength might just be its delightful, charming, and sometimes polarizing cast of characters. I love them, plain and simple, and I hold up the likes of Karlach and Shadowheart beside older favorites like Minsc, Jaheira, and Viconia. They even included several of these classic fan favorites as recruitable and/or non-playable characters, and, by and large, I think they did right by them. When Jaheira finally said, "nature's servant awaits," I got goosebumps. And Matt Mercer is a suitable Minsc now that Jim Cummings has turned out to be a problematic person.

It's not all perfect. Their treatment of

Spoiler: show

Sarevok and Viconia

left me feeling a little nonplussed. AT best, it was a bit of fun fan service. At worst, Larian's treatment of these characters undercuts their respective arcs in Baldur's Gate 2. Some of this is just a symptom of those original games having multiple endings, however, so it's hard to feel definitively about them one way or another. I guess the redemptions I worked so hard to earn for and from them in Throne of Bhaal just aren't canon according to Wizards of the Coast.

Some of the old guard on places like Reddit would have you believing that Baldur's Gate 3 is a sequel in name alone, but I don't think that's the case at all. There are plenty of nods to the original games, and it feels thematically in line with them. It carries forth its legacy proudly, and I hope Larian's success means we continue to get incredible cRPGs in the years to come. I would have liked to see how they would have handled a Baldur's Gate 4, but, I mean, I waited 23 years for this sequel. Even if the series ends here, I'm just happy we got this one.

[Girard]

There are so many facets of this enormous game to explore and expound upon, it's probably best to just focus on one. For me, Larian's consistent dedication of resources to meaningful cooperative play helped make Baldur's Gate an extremely special experience.

My partner of five years has chronic health issues that impact her ability to travel, socialize, or engage in physical activity out of the house. She also grew up without any exposure to video games. During our time together, I've sought out cooperative video games as something fun we can do together that respects her body's needs and limitations, and to introduce her to a medium of art that I've found meaningful all my life.

Larian's games have been perfect for us, and Baldur's Gate really takes the cake. It lets us both have agency and autonomy in the choices we make, rather than relegating someone to copilot or 'girlfriend mode,' and its turn-based structure, difficulty controls, and accessibility options make it inviting to novices and folks whose bodies don't play well with 'twitch' style gaming.

I could go on for ages about all of the wild experiences we shared during our time in Faerun, but I suspect you'll get a lot of that. I just want to say kudos for Larian for committing to cooperative play. They've made life-long fans and customers out of us.

[Tolkientaters]

Baldur's Gate 3 is an all timer for me and functioned as my introduction to CRPGs outside of Disco Elysium.

I think part of the reason is just the production value. It's not the most technically advanced game in terms of visuals, but it's got a lot more production value than most other modern CRPGs and what's there is great and always feels crafted. It's a vibrant world with some great interpretations of D&D areas and creatures. Those visuals do a lot to immediately introduce you to the slightly weirder side of D&D with some immediate Lovecraftian elements.

That early tone is important, but a good cast is arguable more important for a game like this and BG3 delivers in that area. The bickering between the cast was pretty great, I think having some elements of friction is essential for a party based game like this. Astarion and Karlach were my favorites even though Astarian is pretty evil sometimes. The whole cast functions well together.

Another really important aspect that seperates this game from a lot of others is the world and encounter design. Every area and encounter feels meaningful and crafted in a way few other (open world) games with this much combat do, I never felt like I was doing filler combat, which was an essential element in making it feel like an actual tabletop session.

[Ben Dover]

BG3 is probably going to be the peak of video game RPGs for some time. Even on release with Larians signaturely broken final act I could tell it was a supremely special game, the level of reactivity available in the first act was something far beyond anything we've ever seen before and is a testament to the love and care Larian put into all aspects of their art. But as I'm sure many will be gushing about the game I though I'd touch on something a bit different.

I was very lucky to get tickets for both Elden Ring symphonic adventure and BG3s symphony of the realms live concerts in London and while I enjoyed Elden Rings and adore that game, Larian truly went above and beyond to make the experience a special one. Amelia Tyler was present to narrate, build anticipation and make D&D jokes, they flew in the original recording soloists who blew us away with every song, and for the final send-off to have legendary (in my own humble opinion) composer Borislav Slavov and Raphael himself to join the stage for his self titled final act was an experience I'll never forget. It was one so good it even inspired my girlfriend, who has previously only played animal crossing on my switch and joined in a few D&D sessions, to pick it up and she has since saved the realms once and immediately upon completion started making a new character to begin the experience again.