The Underdark and Mountain Pass are both act 1, not act 2. Also, with the level cap, reaching it early in act 3 allows you to play longer with your 'full build', barring specific gear. Is that really worse than only reaching it right at the end of the game?
I would have preferred a higher level cap. Bioware managed to institute higher spells into BG2, so I believe it can be done. That said, this game is long enough as is, so making it longer isn't my cup of tea. And if it's the same length, going 1-20 in that length of time seems too fast. So perhaps level 14 would have been a better stopping point. But what will most likely happen is they adjust XP gains like they did with DOS2 definitive edition to make leveling slower. Although I don't actually want slower leveling in Act 1 and 2, that is just right imho. Act 3 however, gives away massive XP too easily.
I think a good Compromise would have been to keep EXP and Levels of Mobs to what they are in the Table Top. This would have made the latter parts of the Game require a lot more encounters in order to hit the Cap. I know this whole Level Scaling has pretty much become the Standard, but in Games like D&D they dont work just for this reason.
I would be happy with level 12 being a soft cap. Player can get still get a little hp and maybe plus 1 to attack roll for every level after and maybe unlock one more feat for level 15. Larians reason for not wanting to level higher is to keep 7th level spells out is a bit weak imo. You don't have to follow dnd rules to the dot. Don't want 7th level spells but want to keep leveling? Larian you're the developer here and can make that balance call.
Holy moly! I had no idea we capped out at level 12 until just now! That's idiotic! I'll be putting tons of mods onto my copy. I'm done playing by Larian's stupid, boring rules.
This. And I mean... okay, sure, let's assume that we stick with WotC's choice to make the novel adaptation Playchar the Canon Bhaalspawn(tm), which would basically mean that Viconia's redemption arc has never happened.... *But the novels redeem Sarevok, so even that doesn't hold the hell up*. Also... Emperor's true identity. Really, Larian? Really? Couldn't you have taken a more reasonably low-hanging fruit instead?
100 years have passed. Bhaals blood eventually reasserted itself, clearly. Viconia? She simply went back to serving her evil goddess. Even she expressed anger at Shar demanding she leave her previous enclave, form the new one in Baldurs Gate and go through with the kidnapping and torture plot of Shart and her parents. She says this herself in her dialogue when you confront her with Shart and ask her about why she did what she did.
@@chipsalomwhen you resurrect Sarevok in the Throne of Bhaal he literally says "I'm not a Bhaalspawn anymore", so what is the Bhaal blood you are talking about?
Wizards of the Coast is known to actively despise and ruin the Bhaalspawn Saga with the Abdel Adrian novels. Before BG3 came out, they assassinated Viconia and Sarevok with the Supplement: Minsc and Boo's Guide to Villainy.
I'm a 32 year old boomer without much free time so I'm only ending act 1 in the underdark, but so far this is the most fun I've had in this genre since KOTOR, which iirc is based on 3e/3.5e mechanics. If I have any complaints, it's dialogue. Sometimes the options I pick end up meaning something other than what I intended to say. Especially anything related to romance. I get that every companion is playersexual, but sometimes I just want to be a bro with a character. The way it always gets interpreted as a romantic advance is annoying. Outside of that I love how much this game demands replaying with new campaigns.
Kotor and kotor 2 are the only other dnd type games i've played besides baulders gate 3. Love those games. And I completely agree. I found it really bizarre and off putting when Gale or Wyll were flirting with my straight male character. Like these dudes are clearly written to be straight, especially Gale who's entire backstory is about literally dating a goddess. And Wyll flirts with the other female characters in the party pretty often. I initially wanted to be homies with gale, but I wasn't allowed to without making my character kinda gay for him or just being a dick to him for no reason. So I basically stopped talking to him. Also, weird when Astarion tries to flirt with a female protaganist. Like my guy Astarion is clearly gay lmao, its just weird. There would be nothing wrong with making certain characters either straight, gay or bi. It would make the characters much more believable, instead of making them all blank slates of whatever sexuality the main protagonist is.
@@bmbrowns1778astarion is the type we straight think as gay but is the jack sparrow kind of guy , that every girl love ... Yes i had the same problem and i written on steam discussion about it but it seems people really like the idea of playersexual . I'm not a fan of it
The fact alone that they, in contrary to pretty much all other D&D cRPGs, just cut the gameplay by 40% and sell it with a lazy lie about balance, makes it at best the opposite of GOTY. Balance? They added a giant lot of absurd homebrew nonsense that made it much worse than high levels could ever be, especially when enforcing turn based, what overall simply doesn't work well in computer games without a DM handling the things and it feels they mainly used it to stretch the time you need to play through, since battles are 10+ times longer that way. BG 1 and 2 were RTwP and other D&D games like the WotR simply gives you both, so you can choose how you want to play it. Overall RTwP is simply way more realistic. When you make it turn based you must keep the actions limited, as other games do as X COM game or Wasteland and of course for sure not work with "pushed to insta death" things, which rarely make sense (as if anyone would just stay there and wait will someone runs from 20m away, climbs up and behind you to kick you from the cliff...). And high levels are no balance problem anyway, since just as they cut down all the big NPC to make them beatable - what just ruins them - you can do the opposite and use the levels to make it more interesting and diverse, instead of making world ending threats feel little above the level of a Goblin Camp... Other D&D cRPG not only give you the 20 level but often even more and made it work and the BG3 story clearly does not fit a level 1-12 campaign at all. At best level 6-16, but of course they cut at 12 out of laziness, no rother reason. And the first levels in the D&D systems are awful anyway without a DM who can handle them, since the D20 RNG is much too big for the little values you have to work with on that level. Also: what's that BS with critical success an even worse critical errors in skill checks? And the writing is awful. Again you see with the romances how lazy they are. This is not abotu "diversity", but they simply did not care to give the characters different traits, so everyone is just fine with everything and zero build up. It's enough to not make them angry and they want to f*** you. Worst "romance" system ever. Barrelmancy and so on is also stupid. It makes all the NPC look stupid - like a bad computer AI, utterly destroying every immersion, what is terrible in a story RPG.
My biggest beef with BG3 is you can just smash open locked chests and the items inside are undamaged. What's the point of lockpicking if you can just smash them? They should have made it so that if you smash open chests, there is a high chance of the items inside being damaged.
I’m pretty sure it’s made like that so barbarian classes or the like dont NEED to have a rogue w them or else they miss out on loot. Magic users also have the unlock chest spell
Try it with heavy sturdy chests Also, items with enchanted qualities can only be destroyed via stripping the enchants, in all but very few cases. Potion bottles are incredibly durable, considering they need to survive intact even when being beaten on while in combat.
I have been waiting for this video, and boy did you deliver! Outstanding work Alex! We'll fight over some points and agree on the remaining 99% on the discord channel!
I must say, your reviews are really something, I'm really confused why don't you have more subscribers, hope that changes soon. Good luck and great job.
Most problems in this game. Level cap 12, really, remove wish and some other spells, and things are simple enough. Really, really bad choice. Broken quests in 3rd act. I think some quests should end in same act, less confusing and not so much bugs. Also main plot is boring and end is bad. Uh, epic character stories who are in 1st level. I dislike that kinda thing. Also in cut scenes, Gale uses magic, that he hasn't in game. If there was reason, it was bad one. Man characters felt really gay. So not my type. But this problem started when games let every race and every sex have relationships. Last game I remember with limitations was dragon age origins. Characters are better written when they don't like everyone. And more reasons to play game. Also ending was so limiting and kinda sucks. However, level limit is worst one.
I consider BG3 expensive BG fan-fiction as far as lore and the aftermath of the 'actual' BG games are concerned. I like BG3, but a BG game it is not. WotC and Larian clearly did not really care, or understand, or respect what BG was all about. The decision to use the BG name reeks of corporate influence. It doesn't feel like BG, it doesn't play like BG, it doesn't look like BG. Hell, even the Forgotten Realms of 4th and 5th edition don't feel like the Forgotten Realms of 2nd and 3rd edition, which I would argue is another big factor in why the games have a vastly different vibe. Pillars 1 and 2, Tyranny, and the Pathfinder games feel much more like BG than BG3 does, because BG3 is just Original Sin 3 with a modern Forgotten Realms veneer.
Not sure if it's just me but it was difficult to concentrate on what you were saying while the combat action music kept playing so loud in the background :(
You can do both the underdark and the mountain pass in a play through. I cleared the underdark did the mountain pass then went back to the underdark. I believe that the warning when you go to the mountain pass has more to do with the Druid grove if you hadn’t completed it yet
@@YeOldEntertainment My mistake then I didn’t catch that part. In the section on them it sounded like you were praising them for being mutually exclusive and how great it was you got to experience the githyanki chreche on your second play through. It does seem like that was the original intent in game though. Haslin heavily implies there’s an actual choice in how you get there, but really there isn’t. Going through the underdark isn’t any easier and doesn’t really get you that much closer (if at all) to moonrise in my experience (maybe there is more than one exit from the underdark? Going through the forge got me on the path to the safe inn, but my character didn’t know of its existence ahead of time). Lore wise it’s a bit confusing since from what I understand is that the underdark is an incredibly dangerous place meant for higher level characters, but I was clearing it at level 5 (also fighting mind flayers as by level 8 later in act 2). The mountain pass was arguably easier than the underdark and a lot faster in game since you can just run past the temple of Lathandar if you really wanted. In my play through I fully cleared the underdark, then went back to do the mountain pass, then went back to the underdark to get to moonrise. While exploring the shadow area I found the pass that takes you to moonrise which again had no significant difference from going through the underdark. It’s really weird. The game makes it out like there is a choice you have to make and you will miss out on something based off of it, but there isn’t really. You can do all the content in both paths (underdark and mountain pass) in the same play through. Now that I think of it I did parts of the underdark before even finishing the Druid grove. All in act 1
@@YeOldEntertainmentyes, I'm glad you pointed it out. I can't count how many ppl I've seen get stuck in analysis paralysis regarding whether to use the pass or go through the under dark. "But I don't want to miss the content in the one I don't choose". Then don't!!! 😂
I just couldn't get into this game, I tried. I regret wasting money on something I do not enjoy. It's not the story, it's just the gameplay. I've never played DnD and with this being my first introduction to it, I don't think DnD is for me and I really don't think it works in videogame format, for me anyway. The dice roll mechanic is just a turn off, seeing dice pop up on my screen whenever I make a choice in the game, it just broke my immersion constantly, and made me want to save and reload constantly whenever things went poorly. Turn-based games aren't my favorite style of game, and BG3 turn-based lands at the bottom of the list for me. I hate that my friends pressured me into buying this game when I could've spent my hard earned money on something I would enjoy.
I think they game would be much better if they didn't make companions playable and instead made a couple more Origins like the Dark Urge, basically did something similar to what Dragon Age Origins already did. What I really liked about DAO's system is that it grounded your character in the world, you were actually someone who lived there, you were a part of a group, you had family, friends, enemies etc. You weren't just another blank slate nobody and it made the game so much more immersive and enjoyable, I wish more games took this route. About companions: I thought I'd hear you praise Minthara or Lae'zel, but you liked the most basic girl in the game .... I feel like she has a similar conflict to Lae'Zel, they both have to challenge their faith in their god\ god-queen, but I feel like Shadowheart's resolution to that conflict can be a little underwhelming. Otherwise yes, Wyll is boring af. They should've given him more of a conflict with his Warlock thing, cause they make it out to be such a big deal that he is a Warlock, but his reasons for making a pact with a Devil are perfectly reasonable and even admirable, he wanted to save his city and then he used his pact to protect people of the Sword coast lmao like ... WHERE IS THE CONFLICT??? Also you completely lost me on all characters having modern day opinions and zoomer mentality, I can concede about most, but again Lae'Zel and Minthara are clear examples of characters who are in opposition to modern day values or sometimes just alien to us, because they are literally aliens. These two by far are the most compelling characters for me. Definitly agree on characters having preferences, it's a little immersion breaking that Githyanki who literally moments ago told me how they are disgusted by my race, would drag me into bed the next moment?? Although they do make a point that it's not the physicality that attracts them, still it's strange how they are literal space-lizard communist-nazis??? and they are dtf with any race ...
I liked Act 1 and 2, Act 3 really seemed lacking. The combat had worn out its welcome by then and the story/events just weren't compelling enough to keep me going. Unlike BG1 there was no personal investment in the plot, you're just sort of there. Act 2 I was still at least partially invested in the world/story
I'm mid watching the video, love it as usual, and as usual I'm a nitpicky fucker - regarding stealth, you're right most classes don't let you see the difference, but for example Assassin subclass of Rogue lets you crit on sneak hits (when you surprise the opponent + you still get all the extra dmg from the rogue'a sneak dice, and he also recovers all his actions after a surprise round, so you can double down), Gloomstalker Ranger also has great benefits from Stealth. That's why my Astarion could clear half the map sometimes, when he attacked from stealth, insta-killed someone, got invisible (via a Dark Urge cloak that gives you invisibility on every kill), rushed to someone else and again sneak fucked them, renewing the invisibility on kill. Stealth is OP on all characters, because of the advantage mechanics, but specifically on Assassins and Gloomstalkers. Stealthy Warlock stealthily throwing someone from a cliff with Repelling Eldricht Blast and insta-killing them (and often not triggering a fight) is also quite OP. It's mostly those simple martial classes that don't benefit as much from stealth, but you still have many characters that will let you be extra-hyper-OP while stealthed/invisible. A stealthy Sorcerer that clears a whole map in one turn, because he used quickened spell + tadpole power + normal action spell from stealth, surprised enemies with it so he gets another free turn to cast some control + dmg AOE also is mega OP and does much more with stealth than normal melee heavy hitter (aside from Rogues and Rangers). This combat has more to it than it may seem, but it's often buried behind synegies, good tactics, and creative use of the spells/abilities/environment. Cheers ❤
You can experience both paths to Moonrise. They are not exlusive at all. Nothing in their story changes if you take the other path before the others. Two companions starts to argue if you go one way first, but thats it. If they where exlusive, that would have been much better.
Yes! Finally, a fellow Expeditions: Rome enjoyer! I didn't expect much of that game only to then be absolutely blown away by how endearing the cast was, almost threw me back to my NWN 2 days with characters that are often cheesy, but also complex when it matters and able to experience growth/change throughout the story. Which is something I can't say about any of the BG3 characters apart from tentatively Shadowheart, so we agree again, lol. You're probably quite well-read, and as a fellow well-read person it just baffles me how so many people can find BG3's characters even remotely serviceable, not to mention GOOD. The same goes for the story and variability. The last modern RPG that succeeded making me go "Wow!" in that regard was Tyranny, and, well, that was the last Obsidian game I'll probably ever play since it's no longer the same company that made all those great RPGs back in the day and I see Tyranny as its flawed, rushed, unfinished, yet also an RP masterpiece swan song. I also agree with you that we, old timers, just have to accept that RPGs that are actually heavy on the RP part are a niche now, left for the AA and indie devs to fulfill. Well, time's change and so must we.
I've been playing since early access 3 years ago. And I've seen the changes Larian has made throughout. I think it would've better if they spent another year balancing out the last act. They had an unbelievable amount of work. I'm looking forward to an anniversary edition & of course their next game.
on the other hand , maintaining a 400 employ company running needs fuel which is not free , the sweet spot is ,if not, the most difficult of equation to solve
D&D used to be about Immersing yourself in the World, Playing a Character IN that World. Now its about Playing a Fantasy Version of YOURSELF, and seeing what effect you can have on it. Basically D&D has become an Isekai Adventure, instead of a Fantasy one. This along with the Simplification of the Rules is why I stopped playing after 3.5 (well also the Cost of buying all those Books again).
To be fair the simpler rules leave a lot of space to work with, which can be either a negative or positive take depending on what type of campaigns you like playing
Lol, that's a really intuitive way of explaining it. The first two games feel like you're on the Sword Coast adventuring, the third one feels like you're hanging out in a fantasy theme park.
skill checks are only nerfed if you play with karmic dice on. if you play with simulated rolls, skillchecks matter more. i have had pick pockets go sideways with my pickpocket specific build on multiple occasions🤷♂️
Camera on PS5 is horrible. Absolutely broken when there is any elevation involved, and for some reason it always goes max distance when a character is using any ability, and then focuses back on the character. I get the idea - they tried to make it “cinematic” but in reality, i never see 90% of spells and abilities because tue camera just jumps into someone’s asshole or into the sky when i cast a common fireball. Never see it actually connect
@YeOldEntertainment just reached the "inclusion" section and I cannot agree more. This pandering nonsense is so obvious and fake its insulting that the devs think were so stupid to not notice. Racism and racists exist. To pretend otherwise, is to bury your head in the sand screaming to drown out reality.
59:26 Encapsulates my mayor gripe with a lot of modern entertainment. They took the "northern Europeans" out and replaced them with the population mix of New York City or London, regardless if it fits the setting or not. The first game for me where this broke my immersion sometimes was Dragon Age Inquisition. The most egregious recent offender in that regard to me was Hogwarts Legacy, a game I nonetheless enjoyed quite a bit. In BG3 I'm still at Moorisetowers on my first play through, so I haven't seen some of the most annoying stuff, apparently.
@YeOldEntertainment as I haven't played that one, I can neither agree nor disagree, but as we seem to share similar views on the matter, I'll take your word for it.
Yeah, it's very immersion breaking and reeks of real world politics jammed in. Both of which suck. And it's even dumber because the Forgotten Realms has distinctive regions, ethnicities, races, and cultures. In the first two games when you saw a dark skinned person you assumed they were Calimshan or something. And then you'd talk to them, and they'd have a Calimshan accent, say they were from Calimshan, and it would feel like a living breathing world.
Is a very good game but for me personally is not better than second one, my biggest complain is the 4 party members and the horrible act 3 in story and performance department, seems rush and bland when compare to act 1(amazing) and act 2.
I share your opinion. Act 3 is a atrocious performance wise, Larian needs to give us "disable unneccessary non quest NPC" option, not only do they kill performance, but they never shut.the.fuck.up. Repeat dialogue non stop is something that annoyed the hell out of me in DivOS2 and is even more out of place here.
This review stands out for pointing out how some things can be good in one way and bad in another. Such as Karlach being a character who really doesn't fit into this world, but having such exceptional voice acting that you tend to forget this at least at times. I also appreciate how you point out the cognitive dissonance when entering the city, which is so unplausibly cosmopolitan that it actually manages to feel futuristic. Together with the trivialization of ethnicity and culture, this is disastrous for worldbuilding, and you give that fact the weight it deserves. "Everywhere is anywhere", as I've called this when talking about how this game deals with space and time as if they didn't exist. Considering companions, I think Lae'zel should be mentioned as someone who adds a lot to the story and who comes across as real. You might be tempted to kill her early in the game, but IMO she's one of the most authentic companions, who manages to stay authentic while undergoing significant character development. You don't see that all that often in games. Even her romance is good (I think it shouldn't be there unless you play a githyanki, since they are their own species, but that's a different topic), and the voice acting is superb and gives her great screen presence on top of that. All in all this is a review I would recommend watching over many others, if you can spare the time. It's worth watching, listening and considering even where you might be predisposed to have a different opinion.
2:07:26 Yeah, I can't help but agree with you. In Dragon Age Origins, I thought that an unvoiced protagonist just doesn't work with the shot-reverse shot conversation camera, and BG3 hasn't really convinced me otherwise. It just breaks immersion when I see my character standing there mute while everyone else is talking (I'm fine with an unvoiced pritagonist if the game's 1st-person, or if it keeps the isometric camera angle in conversations, since then I don't really see my character). Yes, yes, I know that an unvoiced protagonist makes it easier to imagine your character however you like, but the conversation camera also works against this. The game will often show your character's facial expressions in conversations, for example showing fear or disgust at certain moments, that may not match how I would imagine my character reacting. IMO, the gane should've either done an unvoiced protagonist and got rid of the shot-reverse shot conversation camera, or else gone all the way and make the protagonist voiced (although that latter option may have been prohibitively expensive).
Yup. Same feeling here. I think that Mass Effect works wonderfully and BG2 (or Pillars or any of the other games that doe this) also works wonderfully. But Dragon Age Origins (And BG3) are in an in-between that doesn't really do it for me.
@@YeOldEntertainment An interesting idea would be if the facial expressions your character made in conversations were based on your previous choices. That might actually make the compreomise work for me. It would be hard to pull off without Flanderizing your character though.
I wish I could see the character I'm building inside the game. I am having to use the wiki to see if a build will be fun/combine well. Wrath of the Righteous felt like I could explore the complex builds better, even though the rules are a bit munchkin
Good solid rpg. Well written 1st & 2nd acts. 3rd act is a tad undercooked. Ending is not the best. The dice roller (in my playthrough at least) seemed to be stuck between 2 & 7 ( I didn't use karmic dice). Party management via the camp system was annoying in that you had to have a character in your party to access inventory and levelling options. But that is a pet peeve of mine and not a game breaker. I'd give the game a very respectable 8/10
Its my GOTY, especially after playing the utter SNOREFEST that was Starfield. But act 3 is absolutely atrocious in its current state, not just with half its story content missing *cough* Karlach *cough* but its performance going to absolute shit due to the half a million completely unnecessary NPC's that the engine CLEARLY wasn't designed to render at once.
@jamesmorton7852 8 might be the most fair score I have seen from anyone so far. Well said and great assessment. Still underwhelming compared to Baldur's Gate 2 especially in the writing department but he isn't wrong. I would love to see some older CRPGs get this kind of treatment with such a big budget. Oh how I would love a high production modern Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, and/or Planescape Torment. That would be a CRPG dream for the old time fans of the genre.
@@Supadrumma441 I say The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom which actually improves vastly on almost everything Breath of The Wild did. Baldur's Gate 3 improves a few things from the second game but also fails in so many others in comparison and that game is 23 years old now.
@@YeOldEntertainment I don't really see any good in it. I mean a party of warriors and mages wondering the wilderness fighting monsters all everybody looks all fresh like they came out straight from a barber/ hairstylist for a photo session for Vogue LOL. What is this Fantasy Instagram? And all this woke nonsense. Since when did screwing a bear become normal?
Do you do a year-end round-up of lowest-to-highest scores (or something of the like)? Kind of your on-brand version of a GOTY video? Apparently I like hyphens
I really can't disagree with any of your criticism, if any thing, I am more against modern day issues being in a medieval fantasy setting than you are. But I really love finally getting a good turn based game that is not super difficult, and a little more relaxing...I have been playing on Balanced and find it a good difficulty for me, I feel I can play who I want and not have to worry about optimal builds, but instead I can embrace a role. I do think any infinity engine game of old, or Never Winter Nights game remade with a turn based mode would be a much better game than this. The most resent turn based games I have really enjoyed were Arcanum and ToEE and that was over 20 year ago. And both were quite a bit more difficult than I would prefer. I am thinking I really need to try Expeditions Rome, after watching this. I had a lot of the same issues with Divinity Original Sin, and the Pathfinder games as you did. Pillars of Eternity felt even more class locked than D&D does...I kind of want to play PoE 2 in turn-based but I never finished the first. I really just want a fun game with some nice story and world, with a freedom to be who I envision my character being, with a slow combat pace and never feeling like I need to be something stronger, or have a more balanced party. I have been running BG3 with a Hunter Ranger, Wild Heart Karlach, Shadow Monk Shadowheart, and Abjuration Gale. None of my party is OP, it is a very RP style party, I try to cast Buffs and protection before damage spells, and I have no healer, and I do not feel gimped or wrong in any way. I don't like the heavy handed romance, nor the modern day blandness of the world where nobody is unique. But I love being able to be who I want, do what I want, how I want without being punished by the game either killing me every 5 minutes nor the game just stopping me from doing something, that might break the game. You can completely destroy towns accidentally while trying to be good, and the game will let you keep playing, you miss some side quests, but the world persists. I loved Karlach though, I did not see her so much as a modern 20 year old, as much as just a huge dork. 5e sucks and won't let you dump a stat, but she should have had a charisma of, at most, 5. She's the only character in any game with romances, that I really felt I could go that extra step towards, just to see how that awkward personality played out. I am not into her look much at all, physically the least attractive companion...but that personality, or lack of one, made her cute. I would not have minded the silent protagonist as much if playing an origin character was voiced...though I much prefer being non-voiced than shoe horned into 1 person. But I would be more apt to play as an origin character if it was voiced, Lea'zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Karlach, even Astarian would be great if voiced when you played them, and give me a reason not to just go custom.
TY for sharing, frend. I too am an old school gamer that started in the mid 90s. I have played every kind of RPG out there, but this one, it still WOWed me. Sure it does not have a stellar story or the best writing, but it ticks so many boxes that many other RPGs dont even come close that i am confident in saying it is one of the BEST RPGs of the decade. For me, the best parts are the gameplay, amazing sandbox combat system, the great exploration, interesting dialogue options and so many branching stories that you would probably not see all of the game even in 5 playthroughs. I like some of the companions while others i just ignore, but i did play my own RP and when the dialogue options are poor i just invent my own. I started as a wise old elf ranger to play my Legolas from LOTR fantasy and i am pleased that the game allows you to play this stoic wise and good character in most interactions. I travel mostly with La'zael, Karlach and Shadowbabe because i just like their playstyle a lot. I made LZ my main tank, Karlach is a crazy berserker barbarian (i didnt go wild heart because she doesnt have a heart so it was not immersive). I try to play very immersive so i build my characters as i imagine it best fits their personalities and back stories. For example Wyll has to be a fiend warlok with a pact of the blade. It just wouldnt work any other way for me considering his back story. I never really liked Gale for some reason, always thought he was weak in combat so i turned him into the camp's alchemist as a transmutation wizard. Now he just sits in camp, reads the dozen books i put in his inventory and he makes some mean potions in my improvised alchemy lab. In act 2's camp i found an old abandoned house that has 2 tables and that is where i made my alchemy lab and a nice research and study desk. I like to craft immersively so i only brew potions with Gale at the alchemy lab now. The fact that the game allows you to take most items with you and use them as decorations was a BIG plus for me. As a man who appreciates a nice player home in an RPG, the camps in BG3 partially scratch that itch for me. And i spent many hours positioning some crates and placing objects on them and also adding small items to the tents of each companion. I like to play slowly and i also play on balanced because i just want to enjoy the game and not sweat too much at combat or have to reload a save 10 times because enemies just keep killing my allies. My fav part of the game is exploring and interacting with NPCs, discovering interesting ruins and also seeing the cool companion quest lines. I do enjoy the complexity of the combat gameplay but i like that it does not happen too often so as to become a nuisance. I like to play as immersively as possible and also make my characters look good with the armors and clothing i find in the game. In my second play i will make a melee character and will try a totally different party. Enjoy the game and have a great day :)
@@mancamiatipoola I like your thoughts here, Though I do disagree about Karlach's lack of a physical heart. She has a lot of love, passion, possibly more heart than any of the other followers. She also loves freedom, which I think makes her an ideal Eagle Heart, as I think of an Eagle as soaring free in the sky. She works well as a Berserker too, I have even thought about trying one for her, but I do like mixing up builds for the next run....especially if they fit the character, because I too, favor that immersion. I think with Wyll, while he is a Fiend bound Warlock, he also would break away, try to rely less on the pact, so then having him muticlass into a fighter, or a college of Blade Bard works, since both will allow him to master the way of the blade...he is the Blade of Frontiers after all. My next run will be as a Lore Bard, so when Wyll muticlasses to Bard to better hone his skills with the blade, it will be partly because of my teaching him the ways of a bard, to enhance what he already knows. I have also thought about Lae'zel going tank fighter, and then taking some levels in Vengeance Paladin, or Cleric...mostly depending on how I side with her in act 2. I could also see her as a full War Cleric for sure.
@@colmortimer1066 Interesting choices. Wyll could work as a bard since he is very well spoken and always tries to Woo the ladies. I took him with me in act 2 because of the story he is connected to, and he would not stop hitting on my girls LOL! As the Blade of Frontiers i would build him as a pact of the blade and fighter battle master, which seems to fit his fighting style and back story very well. However in my play i went with pact of the blade and sorcerer since i wanted to have more spell slots and interesting spell effects. Though i mostly just play melee with him XD. Will see how it goes. L'Z i am planning to multi into war cleric to have those extra attack charges, the guided strike and the magic weapon buff which are all amazing on a martial class. Will probably go with 8 fighter - 4 war cleric so i can pick up all those juicy feats. As for my ranger beast master i have no idea really... You kinda have to stick to BM until lv 8 to get the feat and make my pet stronger, but after that i dont know. I was thinking either druid or monk to get a few more spells or abilities, but really the BM ranger is missing nothing. He is great at massive single target damage and he also has one of the best AOEs in the game - spike growth. I should really get 1 wizard so i can learn the spell Haste, which is really one of the best spells for any martial class. What would you suggest? Druid - cleric - monk?
@@mancamiatipoola Honestly, I would probably not muticlass a ranger without a good reason. At level 9 you are going to get lighting arrow, then at 11 your companion will get and extra attack and hit points. My current character is a lvl 9 hunter with no plans of multiclassing. If you want haste, you can get it with a party member, or just buy or make speed potions. I often use the potions with Gale having haste, so he can use other spells. the potions do only have 3 turns of haste but they do not require concentration, and just a bonus action to use.
@@colmortimer1066 Yeah, i know, it is a dillema to either use haste or another good concentration spell. I have very few speed potions left and i honestly dont know how often you find hienas in the game. Im currently in act 2 and i see no hienas anywhere. I used them in tough battles and i only have 2-3 of them left. However i definitely dont need haste on my ranger because he usually uses hunter's mark or spike growth, which is really one of the best AOE spells in the game. At the moment i only use it on Wyll because he can use both melee attacks and some non-conc spells, but i always forget i have haste and cast hunger of hadar and get dizzy for one turn, which is hilarious. I also waste a spell slot because he does not cast the spell, he immediately gets dizzy from the loss of haste XD. I guess i still have a few things to learn in combat, but that is why i like to switch up my companions from time to time so i can learn more builds and combat styles.
Great review. Thanks for voicing out some of the criticism a lot of us old timers have about the game. As you mention, these critiques don't bring down an excellent game, one of the best we've got as of late, and one I'm still enjoying after a couple of hundred hours. But my main complain is that BG3 isn't a real sequel. The story could've happened in any city of the Sword Coast. It's extremely loosely tied to the Bhaalspawn saga, but not near enough. But story aside, the whole artistic vision is nowhere near the other two games. The color palette, the architectural composition, the geography, the city itself, the music, the tone... none are even close to the other two games. The city doesn't look anything like the original one, neither do the rural areas. (Not to mention the population composition) The music from the two first games doesn't sound anything like what BG3 gave us, no matter how good this soundtrack is. It's incredible how this game is so alien to the other two but still considers itself a sequel. As a standalone game. I agree with your score. As a sequel... well, it really ain't.
Yup, you pretty much nailed it. It would've been better if it had taken place in Waterdeep, Rashemen, the ten towns of Icewind Dale or somewhere else in Faerun and had had, of course, a different name. That is if they were all hellbent on making it a D&D game. Because they could've made it a Divinity Original Sin 3.
I played bg1 and it has the same problem with the soundrack as bg3. The soundtrack is AMAZING, but during combat it keeps repeating the same 3-4 tracks and it gets annoying
I was there for BG1 & BG2 originally. I played all the Shadowrun Games and they are some of my favourite games. I lean heavily towards tactical RPGs and those who aren't more action oriented (though I will play them too). I've always been a story first kind of gamer too. I absolutely adore BG3. I know some curmudgeons think that you have to be settling or that they did some stories dirty with it but I cannot agree. Is the game perfect, no, no game really is. But expecting games to be what they were 20 years ago is unrealistic and old man shouts at clouds stuff. There are choices that were made that impact on the world's lore that might not align with some people's wants and expectations, but you can't make sequels to games with choices like this that will appeal to everyone with the choices they made.
So if someone has negative criticism or an opinion that's different than yours, he's a "curmudgeon" and therefore his opinion isn't valid. So having played these games you mention, makes you an authority that can declare that this game is perfect in absolute terms and (it should be so for everyone) and anyone who says otherwise for whatever reason is deserving of an insult or a discrediting label. I think not. I liked this game very much but I do think the story is bad for the reasons I mentioned in the video. And if I were some "curmudgeon" who expects every story to be like they were 20 years ago and who rejects any new story, then that would also be true of my criticism of the story in Disco Elysium, Colony Ship, Expedition Rome etc, but it isn't. I liked the story in all those games.
@YeOldEntertainment I think there is some misunderstanding here. I didn't say that people who don't share my opinions aren't valid. If this is what you took from my reply I am sorry for the misunderstanding. Everyone has an opinion and they are equally valid. Even of theybare not equally valuable to all people. I am not saying I am an authority because I played these games but I am providing context to my opinion. You mentioned that Shadowrun for example is a game for people like you. I provide this context because I see our tastes as similar im many regards. But you relegated anyone who liked the game to being not a "hardcore" crpg fan, not a "core" Baldurs Gate fan unless they are an "okayer" (not familiar with the term but I can guess to its meaning). By making those statements you are however doing what you accuse me of here slapping people with an insult or a discrediting label. Heck I didn't even take that you hated BG3 by any means from this video. Clealy you enjoyed it but you want games to be different to what they are today. Thats fine, you do you. I also did say that the game isn't perfect, no game is, but it's easy enough to miss that bit in the block of text so I'll assume you just missed it and weren't just ignoring it to fit what you were saying.
@YeOldEntertainment Regarding the point about the story that was more about the people complaining that things like Sarevok and Viconia being evil again.
O.k, those are all fair points. Okayer is not an insult, though. It's a word I use to refer to people who have a high degree of tolerance to stuff that is not consistent with canon, they are most definitely not the hardcore fan (even if they reeeeally reaaaally like this or that game, film or show). I, for example, I'm an Okayer Vampire the Masquerade fan. I reeeally like Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, but I don't see anything wrong or disruptive in "Coteries of New York" or "Shadows of New York" and it's surely because I'm not neck deep in the lore, to me these are decent games. But some of the people who are hardcore fans of the IP seem to hate these titles for lore reasons.
A lot of issues you have with the game seem to come from your own choices, and your examples of other games doing great things just reinforces that. You say mutually exclusive paths are great and that you reached the level cap in BG3 too quickly. Well why? Because you did both the mountain pass and the Underdark. Larian doesn't believe in stopping you from doing what you want, but that does put some responsibility on the player to actually roleplay and not treat the game as a themepark where you do everything because you can do everything. It's *your* journey, you made the choice on how to interact with the game and the game did not hold your hand to keep you from overindulging. It treated you like an adult. If combat is too easy on tactician but you exploit every advantage you can have, well that was how you tackled combat. You prepared very well for combat and were rewarded with successfully completing them. I have pulled through many combats by the skin of my teeth, simply from making stupid unoptimized choices and sticking with them. Yes, I can also run through with Shadowheart and give everyone a twenty stack of Radiating Orbs, but where's the fun in that? I've seen multiple people lay out these criticisms and each one of them can't help themselves taking every little advantage they can. Make a deal with a hag for a stat-boost? "Of course, why wouldn't you?" is what those people think. They'd gobble up every little bit of power they can find and then seem surprised that they turned out powerful. This game is not made for them however, this game is made for the role-players who won't make a deal with a hag because it's not the right thing to do for their character. And it's made for the players who when they do choose their character to be power hungry, for those players to actually get a feeling that they did get that power. This game is about making the choices your character would make, not about minmaxing your build.
But you can get away with doing everything you feel is right, without that decision being too taxing on the gameplay end of things. I didn't make the deal with the hag because I felt it wasn't the right thing to do. I also didn't give Viconia the artifact. These decision resulted in fights. I still could overcome the ensuing combat challenges that resulted from taking "the hard right choice" without much difficulty. In higher difficulty levels, the game should've elevated the challenge so that "taking every bit of advantage" would not be enough to breeze through the fight. As for "who the game is for", gameplay-wise, the reason why there are different difficulty levels is because there are different people who want different challenges. And some of those aren't getting the challenge they wish they had.
Great video. There is one point that I want to add to the overall unbelievability of the setting: Underground temples in Baldur's Gate. There are simply too many of them. I can believe in the existence of one hidden underground ruin under the city, but when I was entering the second, third and even fourth massive underground construction "hidden" underneath the city I lost any belief in the reality of this world.
Many games fall into this trap. Let's not even go into how unrealistic the Temple of Shar is. It would take millions of slaves to build something like that. Something that isn't represented in game. But oh boy does it look awesome. It's obvious they went for looks over realism.
Finally got the time to sit and watch the whole video in one sitting. You bring many good points and observations and we seem to agree on many things, like how horny the characters are and how the game can be immersion breaking due to all the 'messaging' done all over. But gameplay, story branch, choice and consequence and production value wise the game is great and easily a game of the year contender. Heck, BG3 made many other game developers from AAA-industry tell us not to expect same level of quality from other RPGs because BG3 was made in exceptional circumstances. And while I can see where some of them are coming from (I'm not expecting smaller indie developers, who are sometimes just one guy, making an RPG like BG3), I am also, as a potential paying customer, expecting the so called AAA-developers to learn a thing or two from BG3 and make better RPGs in general if they want any of my money. One thing that I do disagree with you is regarding a voiced protagonist. The Witcher and Mass Effect games differ in a sense that in the former you play as Geralt of Rivia. A specific character who has a distinct voice, so it's easier and cheaper to voice a protagonist like him. In Mass Effect you play as either male or female Commander Shepard, so there's more voice acting work required, but they're both still humans. I can't imagine an elf, a dwarf and a half-orc male or female ever sounding the same, so hearing that same voice coming out of very different racial versions of Tav (the player character) would sound bizarre. Sure you could say 'hire more voice actors to provide different voice options in character creation'. Which would be great if Larian could've done that, but can you imagine how much work and thus money it would require to voice ALL of different Tavs' voicelines in the game? It's an impressive and no doubt costly achievement to voice every NPC down to every animal already. One of the reasons why I think Fallout 4 came out with only a few dialogue options compared to past games and limited roleplaying opportunities and choices is because the protagonist was fully voice acted. I rather have all the dialogue options possible and wide variety of choice and consequence over fully voiced player character in my RPGs any day of the week. And lastly I'd have a request for your future videos; next time whenever you announce that you're about to start talking about spoilers, add the timeline we can click to skip the said spoiler section on the screen. Thank you for the long, in-depth review! Edit: Fixed some typos.
Dark Urge seems to be the way the game is meant to be experienced in my eyes, but may have been too dark for it to be the default for modern audiences.
it definatly was, the dark urge playthrough is technicaly the continuation of bg1 & bg2 since hes a bhaal spawn and bhaals real chosen one according to the lore.
If it had pathfinder combat rules it’d be the best (complete with combat and exploration etc) crpg ever made. 5e combat rules suck. Disco is the only objectively better rp game I think, but it’s just roleplaying.
Esos libros fueron la gran mamá de todas las pollas. Definieron mi idea de D&D, grabaron a fuego en mi mente el ideal que tengo del concepto de literatura medieval fantástica e hicieron que me diera cuenta de que tener poder decisión sobre una historia, es lo que más aprecio en el entretenimiento.
La verdad que el juego me ha gustado pero el tema de relación de protagonista y compañeros pierde toda inmersión o sentido cuando todos te quieren llevar a la cama.
1:37:00 all of the relationship point so true the game is just filled with too much virtue signal to appear inclusive leading to broad actions and nothing actually to their "inclusion" devs too afraid to say "this character is only straight/gay/bi/for humans/tieflings/etc" leads to boring characters once they're actually analyzed the game is just bad and a far cry from BG 1 and 2
Even just the House of Hope and hearing Rapheal singing his own theme song is enough reason to play this game. No one should miss that, it is the best side quest ever, period. It is so absurdly good the rest of the game just can't compete and goes down after that.
i am like wtf. are you playing this on the switch?!?!?!?!? i didn't hear anything about a switch build!!!!!! but it looks SUPER LIKE IT'S ON THE SWITCH!!!!! then i check the time. release 3 minutes ago and i am watching this in 360p because of it 🤣
Nice review although I don't really get the criticism towards Astarion and Wyll, like, I myself wouldn't ever get along someone like Astarion acts but he has entertaining and pretty smart interactions with the possible party mwmbers. wyll may be boring but you can't say he "changes depending on the situation" like, doesn't any sane peopls have different approaches to different occasuons? Lae'zsl and Shadowheart I find to be the cooler characters in regards to how they act and develop honestly. I agree partially on the "if anyone can be anyrhing there's no distinction in races etc" since in bg3 you can clearly see that still there are Races which act and are treated as the stereotypes all the way through, which is good. People are kind of obsessed with inclusion as you say but still I didn't even notice until I came across your video that amount of "forced wokeness" aside from Dame Aylin trope. Still I enjoyed your perspective and look forward to see more of your passionate content
This, THIS. Is a Review. Im currently on the wait for the "rumored" anyversary update, because it seemed obvious to me that the act 3 got butchered to get the game to release this year. MAYBE we get something even better then.
Wait what, why would it be better to restrict voice and body type to gender? 0.o They simply offer more options for customizing your character, wanting to take that away is super weird and makes me think YOU follow some certain agenda after all The reason there are only a few faces for each race is bc the process they used to create each face was actually pretty elaborate. They had real people as models, using a somewhat extensive rig that used a crap ton of cameras to take photos of their head from every angle (basically, think the camera rigs they used to do bullet time shots in The Matrix, except it's a sphere around someone's noggin), then they used that scan to create the in-game face model and did stuff like minor tweaks here and there to bring the features more in line with the given race. Not saying that precludes the possibility of more heads, just means it wouldn't be a simple matter. Unlike not restricting some options to gender for no reason, which is 0 effort. Edit: Ok, later on you go like an hour about how its bad that the races are not segregated and not everyone is straight, you are definitely a weirdo about this
@BenjoCovers Being a D&D game it makes the most sense in the world you are playing in to restrict them. It is less immersion breaking for those actually well knowledgeable about the lore of Baldur's Gate.
You said it so well, how are more options bad? You can still build a very traditional character if you want. And I lost it when he said the relationship between Aylin and Isobel adds nothing. The triangle of them and Ketheric is based on it, and it deflates so much if they are just buddies.
Saying something is overrated isn't the same as saying it's bad, especially when most people are claiming it's the best thing ever. Personally, I don't think BG3 is bad, but I do think it's overrated and also not really to my personal tastes. There are so many CRPGs I would rate above it, it's not even funny.
As a huge CRPG fan, I honestly think BG3 has done the best overall. Yes if you look at specific things then other games have done better (even Larian’s own Divinity OS2 has a better combat than bg3 IMO). But if OVERALL, I think. bg3 is on top by far.
@@joshbarba2225I disagree about DOS2 being better combat wise. It’s just absurdly clunky, is there a bit more strategy at times. Maybe? But the systems are not nearly as fleshed out as BG3 imo. Talent system with DOS was horrible. Hot take
On the flip side, saying you think something is the best ever doesn't mean you think it is perfect. Personally, I think BG3 is the best CRPG I have ever played. Is it a perfect game? Hell no! Not even close.
I really wanted to like Baldur's Gate 3. It was clear that Latian put thought and effort into the game. But the game just isn't for me. One, I hate turn-based combat (I prefer Bioware-style real-time-with-pause combat) and two, I dislike cutscenes. And, boy, does Baldur's Gate 3 have a lot of them!! There were times when I felt like I wasn't playing a video game, I was watching a movie. That just isn't my idea of fun. I wan't able to finish my first playthrough and I doubt I have the patience to attempt a second playthrough either. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to pay for the game: a very close friend (a moderator on Bethesda's Discord, ironically) gifted me the game for my birthday. .
It all comes down to what kind of games you like. I don't get why you even tried playing a story-driven rpg if you don't like cutscenes. Seems like you have an issue with story driven turn based games
BG3 is a great game *despite* the woke crap laced throughout - not because of it. I believe rather that Wizards of the Sword Coast, a notorious pit of woke crazies, insisted Larian checked all their favorites little victim boxes, before agreeing to allow them to make this game.
Probably the most overrated game ever. I played 80 hours on lowest difficulty just to see what the fuzz was about and still had to cheese pretty much every fight hard, because it's just bonkers: Start fight purely for scouting, lose, restart and abuse every game mechanic to cheat the idiotic AI. That's not good gameplay. If you are not into D&D, minmaxing and build-tinkering, this is just idiotically hard to a needlessy frustrating amount. After those 80 hours thinking it was me that was the problem, i just gave up at another insanely hard battle, because i felt like the game took the piss out of me. No, thanks.
Thanks for the review! After the almost unlimited hype I'm really apprecative of a more balanced review. And you made me want to buy Solasta again, as well as give the Expeditions series some time. Oh, and maybe one day I will give BGIII a try as well :D By the way, for whatever reason the reviews over at gog seem to be much more negative on average.
Thanks for leaving a comment my man! You mean the reviews of Solasta and/or Expeditions Rome? Those games aren't perfect. Solasta is super linear and the story is a cheeseball, but the fun factor is off the roof and they nail "feeling of party". Expeditions Rome has irriating "conquest content" which I found boring and unnecessary, but the story is engaging and high stake and it's very well written (and I cared about companions in that game!). The combat is also beyond serviceable. I have reviews for both of those games should you want to check them out btw XD.
@@YeOldEntertainment I haven't watched the Expeditions Rome review, but you did definitely sell Solasta to me. Even with all of the caveats concerning the DLCs. Edit: It helps that they are a bit more digestible in terms of size. I'm kind of dreading Pathfinder: Kingmaker as it taunts me from out of the backlog ;)
It definitely is a contender for the game of the decade! While it may not please everyone, it certainly amassed hundreds of thousands of new fans... even a bigger fanbase than the prequels. This is the only "reliable" metric in giving that title. I have seen some non-gamers playing it and even investing in PC/Gaming platforms just to play. Its integration into pop culture is a statement of how popular it is, something that games of the decades-esque have... GTA, Pokémon, Skyrim, etc.
On the other hand it is sad that a lot of long time fans of the IP (doesn't matter if they are more or less numerous) will shake their heads, bury the franchise and look for something else.
@@YeOldEntertainment They don't seem to realize that there will be nothing left to look at, if they still stay in the past. A genre needs to evolve or it's going to die out.
@@flunkyballs4610 This is not true. Baldur's Gate 3 DOES NOT represent the "genre's evolution" it represents ONE particular IP taking a step into the broader mainstream market. It did what it had to do (that includes good things and bad things) to make an entrance into the big mainstream market, a market that is not rpg-specific. What will happen is that hardcore rpg fans will put that particular IP to rest. I sadly count myself amongst those. I thoroughly enjoyed the game but after the second play through I'm done with it. I'm first and foremost an RPG guy and there are things this game doesn't do for me. I am not going to adapt my tastes to what the game has to offer, I'd rather look for niche markets where there are products that suit my tastes. Many RPGs have come out since Baldur's Gate 2... BG3 is not a game that is "saving" "rescuing" or "putting the genre on the map". It's a great mainstream triple A game that just so happens to be an RPG and that just so happens to have the Baldur's Gate 3 title in it. Amongst the crowd who didn't like BG3, some people will mourn the classic RPG feeling, some people will dwell on it, some people will be angry forever, but some people will simply turn their gaze to other RPGs that aren't mainstream because (as good as it is) BG3 does not scratch the itches of the hardcore rpg player... which is a niche player. Iron Tower for example has a different idea of "evolution" from Larian. One that I suspect is more in tune with the expectation of hardcore RPG people They will publish colony ship soon. It's not a triple A game, it's not a mainstream game but it will likely become a cult classic. Sovereign Syndicate is also looking pretty strong. If you haven't heard of these games then you probably aren't the RPG crowd... you probably are the Baldur's Gate 3 crowd. And there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to understand that "accepting BG3" is not something that everyone "needs to do". There are other games to look at, fortunately. But this particular IP has taken a step into another market. The game was really good (really good) for what it was... but it's a farewell for me.
@@YeOldEntertainment yeah, agree 100% , i havent played bg3 but looking at the reviews and the gameplay it reminds me nothing of my favourite genre. pillars of eternity was a good game back in 2015 and i was waiting it for years. i havent played games since then but i got excited when i saw bg3 was released. now i edned up playing bg2 again instead of bg3. maybe i'll go for planescape and icewindale again later
@@Nikosk00 Went with a friend for a duo play through the Enhanced Edition classics last year. Storm right through both Bladur's Gates and the first Icewind Dale. The only QoL improvement we needed was turning character movement up, everything else was still a blast in its vanilla version despite the games being pretty old. In comparison, Larian's own Divine Divinity.... did not age well on almost any aspect beyond some jokes still being ha-ha funny.
@@jimmythegamer2231 Unfinished? The game is plenty long enough as is. Too long if you ask me. I can't be bothered to do every little thing in Act 3, I just want to finish it at that point.
In regards to the comment regarding the previous games being "clumbsily added in"... I just feel the need to ask: Did you try playing as Dark Urge? The story for that is literally different from all the others and makes this game feel like a true finale to the now trilogy.
No. but regardless of how that plays out. The very presence of Sarevok undoes his redemption arc from the previous games. Same with Viconia, who not only loses her character redemption arc, but also looks nothing like Viconia, sounds nothing like viconia, and says nothing that character would've said. Also the presence of Amelyssan... even if it's only as an "echo" cheapens the importance of the character. I don't think taking any path in BG3 had the potential of feeling like a "true finale" to the saga, simply because you cannot play as your Bhaalspawn from BG1, BG2 and throne of Bhaal. Good or bad... Throne of Bhaal's final succession of stills closed the Bhaalspawn saga for good.
@@YeOldEntertainment To be fair, the redemption arc in the ToB was difficult to accomplish and I wouldn't argue is the typical ending for Sarevok in that story. Regardless, a hundred years have passed and who knows what Bhaal has done to one of his favoured children. And to be quite honest, you're missing a lot of the story details if you haven't played as Dark Urge regarding the Bhaal plot, so I won't judge. As for Viconia I sort of agree with exception to the fact that Elves (and therefore Drow) are also long lived. If you're okay with Jaheira being around, then Viconia is far less of a stretch in my mind since she's not a half-elf. To play devil's advocate for Minsc, the story of him being turned to stone and coming back has been used before this game came out in Neverwinter and I believe somewhere else. It's something of a Minsc trope at this point and I'm totally cool with that. But to each their own. I'm a big fan of the first two games myself, and I would rather that they include the characters that I could reasonably see being alive. Sarevok being a half-alive husk that became a warlord I believe was his canon ending after burying Tamoko, doomed to a life of undeath. So his existence to me seemed more canon than offputting. Honestly though, I'd really suggest doing a Dark Urge playthrough. The redemption arc was better than the game's finale.
@@YeOldEntertainment Specific response to "Regardless of how that plays out." I think you'd be VERY surprised. You discover the roots of the entire story of BG3 ONLY by playing as the Urge. Details/certain items and available cutscenes and conversations do not exist. I cannot understate the impact Dark Urge has on the story of the playthrough.
@@crazedmike9907 Just to make one thing clear. I never said Viconia shouldn't be in the game because she's too old to be live. I just think that it doesn't add to the story. I don't these characters needed to be in the story regardless of how plausible it is for them to be alive. I even think this of Jaheira and Misnc (who I enjoyed for different reasons) . They just make the story more convoluted. It feels more like the writers went out of their way to include them rather than a consequence of how the events are unfolding. A bit like the legacy characters in the new Star Wars Fiilms.
@@YeOldEntertainment The presence of Minsc and Jaheira for Dark Urge playthrough is unbelieveable (EDIT: In a good sense, they play a bigger role). The fact that the story centers so much around Shar and Viconia was such a devout follower of the Dark Lady... I dunno. To me, exclusion of these characters from the game almost makes me go "How is this all connected to BG1 and 2"? Without those characters that we invested in and moved on from to connect us to the past, the whole premise that this is a continuation of those two stories goes out the drain if you intend to take these three as a "Trilogy". And particularly the characters of Minsc and Jaheira are impacted by the Dark Urge playthrough more than Viconia. Depending on your choices, you will find that they get very different options and endings available to those characters. Dark Urge is honestly the secret game mode that should be addressed when reviewing this game PARTICULARLY for those old fogies like us that are big fans of the originals. The Dark Urge playthrough is not for the light of stomach (especially if you don't save scum), but boy oh boy did they make me feel like I was back in BG1 and BG2 again.
Wait at 9:55 why is there valorant ganeplay in the corner? Anyways the new translations look really good are you planning to cover Starfield seems like everyone who talks about the game is just rage baiting instead of providing actual feedback.
Its not for me thats for sure. Writing kinda of sucks and i really dont like the characters. Not to mention the disrespect of returning ones like Viconia. That one hurt let me tell you. I honestly feel this would have been better had it not been connected to Baldurs Gate and just been its own thing.
Viconia got done sooooo so dirty. Same with Sarevok. My Sarevok was redeemed and even joined my party for the final battle in ToB. And now suddenly it's like "yeah... I am evil again," Also the Dark Urge origin, supposedly DUrge must kill because he is a bhaalspawn. Ok... somehow my Paladin on the original saga was able to resist the urges and even use healing magic due to being a good aligned Bhaalspawn. Basically, the lore is all kinds of f**ed up. Finally, I wholeheartedly agree. I've been saying this since the game launched, this is Divinity Original Sin 2.5 in with a D&D coat of paint. It would have been much, much better as that instead of tacking on the BG name. You can tell Larian really wanted to tell the story of mindflayers but had to tack on the Dead Three plotline just to have ties to Bhaal and thus to the original games.
@@Iridium-77-g yeah, the badly written lore and making to where you essentially have no impact by making character like Sarevok evil again really messed up the game for me. Then the story itself was really not that great and yup you can tell this would have been better had it just been about Mindflayers. Maybe then actually using Mindflayer powers would have had consequences as originally promised. The dead three didn't need to happen. It honestly would have been better that way, more respectful to BG 1&2 in my opinion.
@@cadis4257 So much this. I refrained from using the powers as I really wanted to avoid becoming a mindflayer so much. And in the end you don't even get a pat in the back. Also, if you end up becoming one, one the last lines the narrator says about your character is along the lines of "you've never felt so COOL". It really shows how much of a boner Larian had about mindflayers and making the Player into one. I played the entire game trying to avoid becoming a mindflayer only to realize it is ME3 all over again and you either choose to become one or convince someone else to do it, or side with the Emperor and onwards to either Control or Destroy the Reapers, I mean, the Netherbrain and then pretty much the same ending cutscene happens and then roll credits. What a terrible way to end a cRPG. What I don't understand is, when ME3 did it, EVERYONE gave them tons of flak, righfully so. But, when Larian does it, everyone claps. Why? This game will not have a direct continuation nor having to bottle neck save imports from previous games, so we could have had wildly different ending scenarios depending on our choices and it would have been fine. I understand that would require a lot of more work into it, and I am not really demanding it but, I do find curious that Larian gets a pass when Bioware got raked over the coals for doing the same thing.
@@Iridium-77-g yeah it is curious why people are giving such bad writing a pass and acting like choices matter in this game. Might be a combination of hype, standards being lower than ever thanks to normies, and just people being desperate for something just a bit above the micro transaction live service current industry. Gaming is worse than ever and keeps on getting worse.
Agreed. I don't think all the writing sucks, but it has a very 'modern day' vibe to it and much of it did suck. The mindflayer/githanki angle should have been the whole game and had nothing to do with BG at all. They could have even called it BG: Mindflayer something, something, and I wouldn't care. But when you call it BG3 I'm gonna compare it to the others, and that's a high bar to pass... which it does not.
People bitching about inventory management clearly have problem with organization in their lives as a whole... This game gives you bags (defaulted ones for a few things) and you can pick up additional ones. When looting all you got to do is be bit diligent in KNOWING HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN SHIT. "Armor, this bag, all these weapons that bag, trash you will sell all in common bag straight up marked as wares for sale." All these complaints about the inventory and its lack of "doing everything for you" sounds like baby entitlement and you do a disservice to yourself echoing it. Apart from that, very good video, especially your analysis regarding the catering to modern sensibilities.
I work with UX in my job.. The standard UX now is not what you mention. I didn't mind having to do that back in the 2000s with Baldu'rs Gate or Icewind Dale. That's how it was back then.. But you don't have to do this in Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder or even Black Geyser. I did do what you said with bags and pouches, but 1st. That was time invested in things I don't want to invest time in in these games. 2nd. That adds extra clicks that shouldn't be there.
I profoundly disagree with the character building. I think that it is DOS2 that led you to building always the same type of character, not BG3. It might be that I am biased of course because I deeply despise DOS2 and think it's the most overrated game ever made.
Well I played three times and all three times I built completely different characters. (Custom made human Summoner, Lohse as water/strom elementalist, Custom made Dwarf melee front liner). I don't think any of these characters had even one spell or talent in common.
I mostly agree with your takes. For me, it's a mixed bag. When the game is good, its great. But, when the game is bad, its terrible. The memberberries are both the best and the worst aspects. The "current day" stuff was terrible, as well as the script and their treatment of the lore. The ending sucked ass. However, the exploration was awesome. The voice acting was superb. I actually liked Wyll and he was my favorite companion because he was the only unambiguously heroic companion until Jaheria and Minsc came along. I like Real Time with Pause combat for these games a lot more than turn based, but the combat was fun and engaging almost all of the time. The problem is that my enjoyment for the game kept diminishing as it went on. Like you said, hitting that cap just as I start Act 3 was terrible because, since i played this at launch, the performance, bugs and glitches, plot and ending all came together at the same time as I am no longer rewarded for fighting since by that point my party was already decked out with awesome gear. Yeah there's some good things here and there but fighting started to feel more like a chore. Although I appreciate and recognize the ingenuity of it, I really dislike "barrelmancy" as too gamey for a game like this and there's some real stinkers in Act 3 in terms of combat encounters, like trying to save all those hostages. And then there's the wet fart of an ending and the Emperor doing a complete 180 because I chose Orpheus but instead of letting us die through the tadpoles by relinquishing his protection, he gladly allowed us enough time for Orpheus to protect us instead. The ending was so abrupt and devoid of closure and showing meaning to the journey that really soured the experience for me. Even ToB had ending slides for your companions. Here? we get nothing. Withers doing a Marvel after credits stinger. That's it. For me it is most definitely not the game of the decade. It is a very mixed experience that has some enjoyment to be had if you are a fan of the genre but it is not without having to look the other way more than once at its glaring flaws. Still, I really enjoy your content and appreciate you took the time to be as thorough as you always are and I really liked your review so thank you so much for your hard work!
The Orpheus route is ABYSMAL. There's absolutely no reason for the emperor to turn on you... The Netherbrain is STILL his enemy. And it's the apex of plot-convenient bullshit that Orpheus is immediately capable of protecting you... and also capable of lowering your defenses against the brain just enough for you to become Illithid (if that's what you choose to do) only to raise them again so that it doesn't fully consume you. And I agree with you on the lack of Falloutesque slides in the end (An RPG that doesn't have that automatically gets a minus 0.3 in the final score). And there's more we could've said but man... this review was exhausting! some things had to be left out. Of all the games I've played this decade, this has been the best so far. But then again... I did have to look the other way as you say.
@@YeOldEntertainment Agreed. I will wait for the eventual "Definitive Edition" rolls around and perhaps some mods to give this game a 2nd chance. Hopefully Larian expands on the ending but I think just letting time pass and replaying it knowing that the journey is going be way better and more enjoyable than the destination may lead me to enjoy the game more. So far, after the ending credits rolled out I really felt, and still do, that the real BG3 was the friends we made along the way. Anyways, looking forward to your next review. Always a happy time when I see your title cards on my notifications.
huh, i thought i could do all the skill checks bc i played a jack of all trades bard, but ig everyone can do everything after all. At least the illusion was there
I was a paladin but could lockpick and disarm traps. I even could pass arcane checks which after I passed alot of those I was like bro this system is weak.
BG3 is a good game with some serious flaws. Still, it's the best cRPG in the last decade at least, the best game made by Larian (D:OS2 was really bad by the way) and it's main competitors: POE and PF are no match (more so with a trash like Wrath of the Righteous)
@poMocnyMichal In the places that actually count no it isn't even close. You still got Tyranny, Disco Elysium, Pillars of Eternity, Age of Decadence, Wasteland 2, etc. All those have far superior writing which is the key element of CRPGs and are not even 10 years old by this point. Sad you would include POE and say it is no match. In terms of writing it is far superior even if many mechanics are much better in comparison with BG3.
I just can’t stand the idea that people were raving about “being able to adjust your groin area” when all you’re doing in the final product is Adding hair or not. 🤣🤣🤣. You essentially know what everyone looks like naked cause they all have the SAME BODY TYPE
Soo took me a while to finish watching this review (watched it more or less in chunks of 15-30min) and yeah, I agree with almost everything you said. Well aside from the voiced protagonist, sure, would've been nice but there are so many ways to ruin voiced delivery. Jennifer Hale did a stellar job with femShep, but would that work in BG3? I am not sure. I liked Hawke in DA2 and hated the Inquisitor in DAI for example. But everything else? Especially the 'meh' story beats? 100% agree! Even though Dark Urge is an improved Tav, their story reaaaaaaaaally feels tacked on, is full of plot holes and gigantic leaps of logic. I have finished 2 runs and am close to finishing a 3rd, mind you I tend to do a close to 100% of each playthrough. 1st run was a basic Tav (drow - silver dragon sorc), 2nd was a high elven (red dragon sorc - sadly no interactions with the many red dragons present in BG3, kinda sad about it) 'good' Dark Urge and my 3rd is another 'good' Dark Urge, but this time a tiefling cleric of Selune (wanted to see how badly the game's narrative would break in act 2 to accommodate that class and origin combo and it is hilarious btw.). Anyway, when it comes to the racial issues I am so damn sad to say that NWN2, a game's that almost 20 yr old handled drow better! Sure, gobbo camp lets you walk around because you're a drow and all the goblins bend over backwards to try to please you (which makes sense given Minthara's presence) and you get bunch of flavor dialogue and that's it! Nobody seems to care that you're a drow, totally a normal occurrence it seems! Compare that to everyone in West Harbor treating you differently because you're a drow, whispering behind your back and whatnot. Random bandits on the road commenting on your race, potential companions commenting on your race too! Everyone approaches you anxiously because you're a damn drow in NWN2! That is what I expected out of BG3 and sadly didn't get... same thing's with BG3's tieflings, it really seems like in BG3 (and in 5th edition of D&D) your race is just a costume, instead of being a defining characteristic of how you were raised, approach others (drow females tsk tsk) and how others approach you. Look I am a drow fangirl, if given an option to play a drow, I will pick it! Like crap, I love the stories of raising above one's inherent evilness to become a kind and compassionate hero! Those are imho some of the best stories there are and also a major selling point for 'good' Dark Urge runs, there is this one scene, when you complete your Durge's story arc in act 3 that is absolutely fantastic and worth replaying the game just for that!
I 100% agree about "raising above one's inherent evilness/shortcomings/exteral prejudices" to be great for role playing. That's why I love the castless dwarf origin in Dragon Age. But this opportunity has been all but neutered in 5th edition. I don't see these opportunities ever coming back... this started way back when Gypsies were removed. There were some seriously CYOA books in which you were the Gypsie who had to overcome the world's prejudices.
Yeah I was a little disappointed with my drow playthrough. I thought I would get more pushback. Most of the pushback I got was in Act 1 (which of course had the most time devoted to it in early access). I was hoping it would come when I got to the city. But so far it hasn't. I'm still enjoying my female drow playthrough, however.
I really like BG3 but I'm hesitant to recommended it to people who aren't already interested in CRPGs. It is a masterpiece _in its genre,_ but the genre is still pretty niche.
If anything I think this far and away the most mainstream RPG... probably ever. I'd be hesitant to recommend Underrail or any of the games by Iron Tower. But this one should be safe as sand for a casual.
The incentive to try new combat tactics is to do something imaginative and different. You're seeing the game combat as a challenge to defeat, rather than an opportunity to experiment and have fun finding imaginative, crazy, funny ways to win encounters. As far as stealth, anyone can be "in stealth" as long as they avoid sight lines. Try being in armor with stealth penalties and walking into a sight line vs being a rogue with high stealth and light armor. You can walk right into sight lines and succeed your stealth check right in front of them.
No dude, the best one is the one he has with your main character after you talk to the guild leader. That was soo freaking hilarious. The one with the banker.was another 10/10
Love the game, quite possibly the best game ever, in spite of the (extremely jarring) woke stuff. I could almost vomit at the relationship between Dame Aylin and Isobel and the other forced insertion of LGTV nonsense. But otherwise, the game is great - quite possibly the best game ever, actually. I fell in love with Shadowheart.
Dude! stop impersonating me XD haha. This is almost exactly were I stand, I don't know if the best game EVER, but so far, it's the best game of the decade for me.
I encountered 3 game breking bugs in act 3, last drop was infinite loop dialoge with Steel Watcher and decided to stop and wait for DE. Also Evil playthrough is more bugged and lacking, you lose or can't recruit 5 (or 6, if Gael is not convinced) companions and to replace them you get 1 (Minthara, that is bugged to boot). You close a lot of quests, but not open any new. I feel evil playthrough was not considered when making the game, and it treats evil as failure or accident instead. Also 1 thing that grinded my gears in addition to what you said (inventory etc.), skill check rolling dice is good for first few times, but I would like option to skip the rolling as it gets annoying after 10th time. What was your experince with/Did you try, evil playthrough?
Skill check wouldn't feel irritating if: 1st you could actually fail the damn things or 2nd, if you could fail them and they opened up different avenues of story progression instead of resulting in combat or failing the attempt. But as they are, they are so freaking annoying. As for the evil campaign, about 10 or 15 years ago I decided I was going to play evil campaigns anymore, because game developers have forgotten how to make evil campaigns rewarding. Their approach is "you are bad and you should therefore be rewarded with a bad ending" which is more like a punishment. They have forgotten the concept of evil in D&D as described in the manual in the original Wizardry: Good characters are really good. They go out of their way to help old ladies cross the street. Neutral characters take life as it comes. They would help an old lady cross the street if they were traveling in the same direction. Evil characters are not really evil when compared to some of the things they fight in the Maze. They are self-centered, and always want to know "what's in it for them." Evil characters help old ladies cross the street for a small fee. So... I just don't play evil characters.
I can understand each critique you made of the game but to be honest all of them are highly debatable. Is like there was no concrete or blunt critique at all, everything is subjective, personally I like 5e more than 3e but that is a personal taste that should not be a reason why bg3 will gain a critique, this is like an example just to make it a little more clear
Every critique/review everyone everywhere makes is highly debatable. These are just my opinions. I do not wish to establish the absolute truth of anything. I just like to structure my opinions with "This is what I like/dislike--> this is why" they don't have to be your reasons nor anyone else's, they are my reason just like, I imagine, you have yours to like/dislike things.
The tadpoles are potential and not a brain. The more you use does not have a negative effect on the game. The ending is still yours to choose. I think that makes this game so special and fantastic.
I both loved it and hated it at points. Best part is exploration, probably the best I played in a last decade. The down side, I found it clunky (I never had problem with miss clicking in games, here on hard difficulty I lost fights because of it), didn't like the writing style half of the time and really bad guest triggering and pacing. Going from point A to point B in act 3 had me stumbling into quests, triggering parts of the quests I was already on (but I wanted to do at a later date) or simply whisking my character away from a quest I was currently doing, to do something else. It was so, so messy. The biggest crime of all for me, really bad as a sequel, mainly with Viconia and Sarevok. I might play it again when it's all properly fixed in year or so (to give myself some breathing room). As a standalone RPG 7.5/10 As a sequel in the series 6/10
Very interesting point. As a new comer to the BG games i had the fresh perspective on this game so i could only judge it as a stand alone game. I knew about he old ones, i had seen reviews, but i never played them. I have played a lot of RPGs of different kinds so i can make an informed opinion based on that experience. For me, as a standalone RPG it ticks many of the boxes that i expect to see in such a game and i have to say that i see BG3 more as a spiritual successor to Dragon Age Origins than BG2. This game did raise the bar of all RPG games quite high now, so i really like that. Although i loved most things about it like gfx, great gameplay, sound and music is very good and also the exploration and questing is fantastic, i have to say i never really did get too invested in the story. The main quest was soo convoluted that i kinda lost interest in it and just had fun following some random small quests and the companion quest lines which were absolutely stellar. This happens in many RPGs like this because the main story has to take the player by the hand and take him/her through all the game world from start to finish and that can become diluted when there is no sense of urgency. However i would say that the writing in general is not that great and perhaps they could have used some better writers. But my biggest gripe with the game is the UI. As Ye Old said, the inventory management, party management and trading is some of the worst in many CRPGs because of how clunky and outdated the UI is. The camera is also pretty atrocious at times during some battles you have to fight the camera more than the enemies. How hard would it have been to create a camera that can spin around 360* and didnt have incremental zoom levels in 2023?? Thankfully there are a couple mods that fix this, but the devs should have remade the entire camera system not just import it straight from DOS2. Even with all these minor inconveniences, i still think the game is a masterpiece and any RPG player should try it at least once in their life. :)
The only gripe I have with playing on a controller which has been great is that the end turn button is triangle. If you accidentally hit it with your thumb that character loses a turn. They could have made it L2 which you're less likely to inadvertently hit.
For the eyes, Ye Old! For the eyes! A very fair and balanced review, indeed! I'm currently enjoying the game and despite it's faults, its a very impressive package, but it's not the best game ever, let alone the best Baldur's Gate game.....I'll take 1 and 2 over this....but, as I said, it's still enjoyable. I think a problem with us old farts, is we're still wrapped up in nostalgia and the oooo, ahhh factor. The other thing is the over horny characters seems so current generation, but is just a weird distraction to me. But for all that it's a fun jaunt, but once I'm done....I'll be back in Faerun via BG 1&2.....
@@YeOldEntertainment Thx for the advice and response. Funny thing, though.....I've played BG 1 and 2, literally dozens of times since they first came out....and will continue to do so....this one, not so much......lol!
I tried to get into this game, put about 60 hours or so in (and it was fun) but all it made me end up doing was putting it down and re-installing the old games. Started a level 1 character and now I'm nearing the end of Throne of Bhaal. Nostalgia is a factor, but I'd argue it's less nostalgia and more that the first two are simply legendary games. They hold of very well.
The Underdark and Mountain Pass are both act 1, not act 2.
Also, with the level cap, reaching it early in act 3 allows you to play longer with your 'full build', barring specific gear. Is that really worse than only reaching it right at the end of the game?
12 is too low. By the time you get to the third act, you'll still want to continue growing your character but you cant
I would have preferred a higher level cap. Bioware managed to institute higher spells into BG2, so I believe it can be done. That said, this game is long enough as is, so making it longer isn't my cup of tea. And if it's the same length, going 1-20 in that length of time seems too fast. So perhaps level 14 would have been a better stopping point. But what will most likely happen is they adjust XP gains like they did with DOS2 definitive edition to make leveling slower. Although I don't actually want slower leveling in Act 1 and 2, that is just right imho. Act 3 however, gives away massive XP too easily.
I think a good Compromise would have been to keep EXP and Levels of Mobs to what they are in the Table Top. This would have made the latter parts of the Game require a lot more encounters in order to hit the Cap. I know this whole Level Scaling has pretty much become the Standard, but in Games like D&D they dont work just for this reason.
I would be happy with level 12 being a soft cap. Player can get still get a little hp and maybe plus 1 to attack roll for every level after and maybe unlock one more feat for level 15. Larians reason for not wanting to level higher is to keep 7th level spells out is a bit weak imo. You don't have to follow dnd rules to the dot. Don't want 7th level spells but want to keep leveling? Larian you're the developer here and can make that balance call.
Holy moly! I had no idea we capped out at level 12 until just now! That's idiotic!
I'll be putting tons of mods onto my copy. I'm done playing by Larian's stupid, boring rules.
I cannot get over the fact that they've overwritten Sarevok´s and Viconia´s redemption arcs.
This. And I mean... okay, sure, let's assume that we stick with WotC's choice to make the novel adaptation Playchar the Canon Bhaalspawn(tm), which would basically mean that Viconia's redemption arc has never happened.... *But the novels redeem Sarevok, so even that doesn't hold the hell up*. Also... Emperor's true identity. Really, Larian? Really? Couldn't you have taken a more reasonably low-hanging fruit instead?
@@mazerumaze So BG3 got the Disney Star Wars treatment?
100 years have passed. Bhaals blood eventually reasserted itself, clearly. Viconia? She simply went back to serving her evil goddess. Even she expressed anger at Shar demanding she leave her previous enclave, form the new one in Baldurs Gate and go through with the kidnapping and torture plot of Shart and her parents. She says this herself in her dialogue when you confront her with Shart and ask her about why she did what she did.
@@chipsalomwhen you resurrect Sarevok in the Throne of Bhaal he literally says "I'm not a Bhaalspawn anymore", so what is the Bhaal blood you are talking about?
Wizards of the Coast is known to actively despise and ruin the Bhaalspawn Saga with the Abdel Adrian novels. Before BG3 came out, they assassinated Viconia and Sarevok with the Supplement: Minsc and Boo's Guide to Villainy.
I'm a 32 year old boomer without much free time so I'm only ending act 1 in the underdark, but so far this is the most fun I've had in this genre since KOTOR, which iirc is based on 3e/3.5e mechanics. If I have any complaints, it's dialogue. Sometimes the options I pick end up meaning something other than what I intended to say. Especially anything related to romance. I get that every companion is playersexual, but sometimes I just want to be a bro with a character. The way it always gets interpreted as a romantic advance is annoying. Outside of that I love how much this game demands replaying with new campaigns.
Kotor and kotor 2 are the only other dnd type games i've played besides baulders gate 3. Love those games. And I completely agree. I found it really bizarre and off putting when Gale or Wyll were flirting with my straight male character. Like these dudes are clearly written to be straight, especially Gale who's entire backstory is about literally dating a goddess. And Wyll flirts with the other female characters in the party pretty often. I initially wanted to be homies with gale, but I wasn't allowed to without making my character kinda gay for him or just being a dick to him for no reason. So I basically stopped talking to him.
Also, weird when Astarion tries to flirt with a female protaganist. Like my guy Astarion is clearly gay lmao, its just weird. There would be nothing wrong with making certain characters either straight, gay or bi. It would make the characters much more believable, instead of making them all blank slates of whatever sexuality the main protagonist is.
@@bmbrowns1778I mean officially Astarion is pansexual, but yeah he’s pretty fruity lol
Are you an idiot?! If you are 32 this year YOU ARE NOT A BOOMER!!! You are Milennial.
@@bmbrowns1778astarion is the type we straight think as gay but is the jack sparrow kind of guy , that every girl love ... Yes i had the same problem and i written on steam discussion about it but it seems people really like the idea of playersexual . I'm not a fan of it
The fact alone that they, in contrary to pretty much all other D&D cRPGs, just cut the gameplay by 40% and sell it with a lazy lie about balance, makes it at best the opposite of GOTY.
Balance? They added a giant lot of absurd homebrew nonsense that made it much worse than high levels could ever be, especially when enforcing turn based, what overall simply doesn't work well in computer games without a DM handling the things and it feels they mainly used it to stretch the time you need to play through, since battles are 10+ times longer that way.
BG 1 and 2 were RTwP and other D&D games like the WotR simply gives you both, so you can choose how you want to play it.
Overall RTwP is simply way more realistic. When you make it turn based you must keep the actions limited, as other games do as X COM game or Wasteland and of course for sure not work with "pushed to insta death" things, which rarely make sense (as if anyone would just stay there and wait will someone runs from 20m away, climbs up and behind you to kick you from the cliff...).
And high levels are no balance problem anyway, since just as they cut down all the big NPC to make them beatable - what just ruins them - you can do the opposite and use the levels to make it more interesting and diverse, instead of making world ending threats feel little above the level of a Goblin Camp...
Other D&D cRPG not only give you the 20 level but often even more and made it work and the BG3 story clearly does not fit a level 1-12 campaign at all. At best level 6-16, but of course they cut at 12 out of laziness, no rother reason.
And the first levels in the D&D systems are awful anyway without a DM who can handle them, since the D20 RNG is much too big for the little values you have to work with on that level.
Also: what's that BS with critical success an even worse critical errors in skill checks?
And the writing is awful. Again you see with the romances how lazy they are. This is not abotu "diversity", but they simply did not care to give the characters different traits, so everyone is just fine with everything and zero build up. It's enough to not make them angry and they want to f*** you. Worst "romance" system ever.
Barrelmancy and so on is also stupid. It makes all the NPC look stupid - like a bad computer AI, utterly destroying every immersion, what is terrible in a story RPG.
My biggest beef with BG3 is you can just smash open locked chests and the items inside are undamaged. What's the point of lockpicking if you can just smash them? They should have made it so that if you smash open chests, there is a high chance of the items inside being damaged.
My biggest beef was at Zeppelin’s at Hangar 38 in Florida. I almost couldn't eat it... almost.
I’m pretty sure it’s made like that so barbarian classes or the like dont NEED to have a rogue w them or else they miss out on loot. Magic users also have the unlock chest spell
Try it with heavy sturdy chests
Also, items with enchanted qualities can only be destroyed via stripping the enchants, in all but very few cases. Potion bottles are incredibly durable, considering they need to survive intact even when being beaten on while in combat.
I have been waiting for this video, and boy did you deliver! Outstanding work Alex! We'll fight over some points and agree on the remaining 99% on the discord channel!
I must say, your reviews are really something, I'm really confused why don't you have more subscribers, hope that changes soon. Good luck and great job.
Thanks man! The subscribers I do I have are awesome though.
Most problems in this game. Level cap 12, really, remove wish and some other spells, and things are simple enough. Really, really bad choice. Broken quests in 3rd act. I think some quests should end in same act, less confusing and not so much bugs. Also main plot is boring and end is bad. Uh, epic character stories who are in 1st level. I dislike that kinda thing. Also in cut scenes, Gale uses magic, that he hasn't in game. If there was reason, it was bad one. Man characters felt really gay. So not my type. But this problem started when games let every race and every sex have relationships. Last game I remember with limitations was dragon age origins. Characters are better written when they don't like everyone. And more reasons to play game. Also ending was so limiting and kinda sucks. However, level limit is worst one.
I consider BG3 expensive BG fan-fiction as far as lore and the aftermath of the 'actual' BG games are concerned. I like BG3, but a BG game it is not. WotC and Larian clearly did not really care, or understand, or respect what BG was all about. The decision to use the BG name reeks of corporate influence. It doesn't feel like BG, it doesn't play like BG, it doesn't look like BG. Hell, even the Forgotten Realms of 4th and 5th edition don't feel like the Forgotten Realms of 2nd and 3rd edition, which I would argue is another big factor in why the games have a vastly different vibe. Pillars 1 and 2, Tyranny, and the Pathfinder games feel much more like BG than BG3 does, because BG3 is just Original Sin 3 with a modern Forgotten Realms veneer.
Not sure if it's just me but it was difficult to concentrate on what you were saying while the combat action music kept playing so loud in the background :(
You can do both the underdark and the mountain pass in a play through. I cleared the underdark did the mountain pass then went back to the underdark.
I believe that the warning when you go to the mountain pass has more to do with the Druid grove if you hadn’t completed it yet
I know. I said they weren't mutually exclusive in the video.
@@YeOldEntertainment My mistake then I didn’t catch that part. In the section on them it sounded like you were praising them for being mutually exclusive and how great it was you got to experience the githyanki chreche on your second play through.
It does seem like that was the original intent in game though. Haslin heavily implies there’s an actual choice in how you get there, but really there isn’t. Going through the underdark isn’t any easier and doesn’t really get you that much closer (if at all) to moonrise in my experience (maybe there is more than one exit from the underdark? Going through the forge got me on the path to the safe inn, but my character didn’t know of its existence ahead of time). Lore wise it’s a bit confusing since from what I understand is that the underdark is an incredibly dangerous place meant for higher level characters, but I was clearing it at level 5 (also fighting mind flayers as by level 8 later in act 2). The mountain pass was arguably easier than the underdark and a lot faster in game since you can just run past the temple of Lathandar if you really wanted. In my play through I fully cleared the underdark, then went back to do the mountain pass, then went back to the underdark to get to moonrise. While exploring the shadow area I found the pass that takes you to moonrise which again had no significant difference from going through the underdark.
It’s really weird. The game makes it out like there is a choice you have to make and you will miss out on something based off of it, but there isn’t really. You can do all the content in both paths (underdark and mountain pass) in the same play through.
Now that I think of it I did parts of the underdark before even finishing the Druid grove. All in act 1
@@YeOldEntertainmentyes, I'm glad you pointed it out. I can't count how many ppl I've seen get stuck in analysis paralysis regarding whether to use the pass or go through the under dark. "But I don't want to miss the content in the one I don't choose". Then don't!!! 😂
I just couldn't get into this game, I tried. I regret wasting money on something I do not enjoy. It's not the story, it's just the gameplay. I've never played DnD and with this being my first introduction to it, I don't think DnD is for me and I really don't think it works in videogame format, for me anyway.
The dice roll mechanic is just a turn off, seeing dice pop up on my screen whenever I make a choice in the game, it just broke my immersion constantly, and made me want to save and reload constantly whenever things went poorly. Turn-based games aren't my favorite style of game, and BG3 turn-based lands at the bottom of the list for me.
I hate that my friends pressured me into buying this game when I could've spent my hard earned money on something I would enjoy.
I think they game would be much better if they didn't make companions playable and instead made a couple more Origins like the Dark Urge, basically did something similar to what Dragon Age Origins already did. What I really liked about DAO's system is that it grounded your character in the world, you were actually someone who lived there, you were a part of a group, you had family, friends, enemies etc. You weren't just another blank slate nobody and it made the game so much more immersive and enjoyable, I wish more games took this route.
About companions: I thought I'd hear you praise Minthara or Lae'zel, but you liked the most basic girl in the game .... I feel like she has a similar conflict to Lae'Zel, they both have to challenge their faith in their god\ god-queen, but I feel like Shadowheart's resolution to that conflict can be a little underwhelming. Otherwise yes, Wyll is boring af. They should've given him more of a conflict with his Warlock thing, cause they make it out to be such a big deal that he is a Warlock, but his reasons for making a pact with a Devil are perfectly reasonable and even admirable, he wanted to save his city and then he used his pact to protect people of the Sword coast lmao like ... WHERE IS THE CONFLICT??? Also you completely lost me on all characters having modern day opinions and zoomer mentality, I can concede about most, but again Lae'Zel and Minthara are clear examples of characters who are in opposition to modern day values or sometimes just alien to us, because they are literally aliens. These two by far are the most compelling characters for me. Definitly agree on characters having preferences, it's a little immersion breaking that Githyanki who literally moments ago told me how they are disgusted by my race, would drag me into bed the next moment?? Although they do make a point that it's not the physicality that attracts them, still it's strange how they are literal space-lizard communist-nazis??? and they are dtf with any race ...
I liked Act 1 and 2, Act 3 really seemed lacking. The combat had worn out its welcome by then and the story/events just weren't compelling enough to keep me going. Unlike BG1 there was no personal investment in the plot, you're just sort of there. Act 2 I was still at least partially invested in the world/story
I'm mid watching the video, love it as usual, and as usual I'm a nitpicky fucker - regarding stealth, you're right most classes don't let you see the difference, but for example Assassin subclass of Rogue lets you crit on sneak hits (when you surprise the opponent + you still get all the extra dmg from the rogue'a sneak dice, and he also recovers all his actions after a surprise round, so you can double down), Gloomstalker Ranger also has great benefits from Stealth. That's why my Astarion could clear half the map sometimes, when he attacked from stealth, insta-killed someone, got invisible (via a Dark Urge cloak that gives you invisibility on every kill), rushed to someone else and again sneak fucked them, renewing the invisibility on kill. Stealth is OP on all characters, because of the advantage mechanics, but specifically on Assassins and Gloomstalkers. Stealthy Warlock stealthily throwing someone from a cliff with Repelling Eldricht Blast and insta-killing them (and often not triggering a fight) is also quite OP. It's mostly those simple martial classes that don't benefit as much from stealth, but you still have many characters that will let you be extra-hyper-OP while stealthed/invisible. A stealthy Sorcerer that clears a whole map in one turn, because he used quickened spell + tadpole power + normal action spell from stealth, surprised enemies with it so he gets another free turn to cast some control + dmg AOE also is mega OP and does much more with stealth than normal melee heavy hitter (aside from Rogues and Rangers). This combat has more to it than it may seem, but it's often buried behind synegies, good tactics, and creative use of the spells/abilities/environment.
Cheers ❤
Holy video! 2 hours! I'll have to make an appointment to watch the whole thing. Wouldn't expect less from you my friend 🔥🔥🔥
I know watching the review will take you longer than beating Sekiro, and that's why I appreciate your view.
You can experience both paths to Moonrise. They are not exlusive at all. Nothing in their story changes if you take the other path before the others. Two companions starts to argue if you go one way first, but thats it. If they where exlusive, that would have been much better.
Yes! Finally, a fellow Expeditions: Rome enjoyer! I didn't expect much of that game only to then be absolutely blown away by how endearing the cast was, almost threw me back to my NWN 2 days with characters that are often cheesy, but also complex when it matters and able to experience growth/change throughout the story. Which is something I can't say about any of the BG3 characters apart from tentatively Shadowheart, so we agree again, lol. You're probably quite well-read, and as a fellow well-read person it just baffles me how so many people can find BG3's characters even remotely serviceable, not to mention GOOD. The same goes for the story and variability. The last modern RPG that succeeded making me go "Wow!" in that regard was Tyranny, and, well, that was the last Obsidian game I'll probably ever play since it's no longer the same company that made all those great RPGs back in the day and I see Tyranny as its flawed, rushed, unfinished, yet also an RP masterpiece swan song.
I also agree with you that we, old timers, just have to accept that RPGs that are actually heavy on the RP part are a niche now, left for the AA and indie devs to fulfill. Well, time's change and so must we.
My man... you made my day with your comment! thank you!
I've been playing since early access 3 years ago. And I've seen the changes Larian has made throughout. I think it would've better if they spent another year balancing out the last act. They had an unbelievable amount of work.
I'm looking forward to an anniversary edition & of course their next game.
on the other hand , maintaining a 400 employ company running needs fuel which is not free , the sweet spot is ,if not, the most difficult of equation to solve
I've been waiting for this. Thanks, Alex! You're awesome!
Thanks man! you can drop by our Discord any time if you like the channel! We have some of the most awesome people there.
D&D used to be about Immersing yourself in the World, Playing a Character IN that World. Now its about Playing a Fantasy Version of YOURSELF, and seeing what effect you can have on it. Basically D&D has become an Isekai Adventure, instead of a Fantasy one. This along with the Simplification of the Rules is why I stopped playing after 3.5 (well also the Cost of buying all those Books again).
Xactly.
To be fair the simpler rules leave a lot of space to work with, which can be either a negative or positive take depending on what type of campaigns you like playing
Lol, that's a really intuitive way of explaining it. The first two games feel like you're on the Sword Coast adventuring, the third one feels like you're hanging out in a fantasy theme park.
skill checks are only nerfed if you play with karmic dice on. if you play with simulated rolls, skillchecks matter more. i have had pick pockets go sideways with my pickpocket specific build on multiple occasions🤷♂️
Camera on PS5 is horrible. Absolutely broken when there is any elevation involved, and for some reason it always goes max distance when a character is using any ability, and then focuses back on the character. I get the idea - they tried to make it “cinematic” but in reality, i never see 90% of spells and abilities because tue camera just jumps into someone’s asshole or into the sky when i cast a common fireball. Never see it actually connect
Me: *See's 2hr review of BG3*
Also Me: *Cries* ITS SO BEAUTIFUL
I ended up agreeing with your WotR review, so I suspect I will enjoy this one as well.
Let's hope you do... and if you don't ...let's hope you don't hate it!
@YeOldEntertainment just reached the "inclusion" section and I cannot agree more. This pandering nonsense is so obvious and fake its insulting that the devs think were so stupid to not notice.
Racism and racists exist. To pretend otherwise, is to bury your head in the sand screaming to drown out reality.
59:26 Encapsulates my mayor gripe with a lot of modern entertainment. They took the "northern Europeans" out and replaced them with the population mix of New York City or London, regardless if it fits the setting or not. The first game for me where this broke my immersion sometimes was Dragon Age Inquisition. The most egregious recent offender in that regard to me was Hogwarts Legacy, a game I nonetheless enjoyed quite a bit. In BG3 I'm still at Moorisetowers on my first play through, so I haven't seen some of the most annoying stuff, apparently.
I think the worst offender is still Pathfinder Kingmaker.
@YeOldEntertainment as I haven't played that one, I can neither agree nor disagree, but as we seem to share similar views on the matter, I'll take your word for it.
Yeah, it's very immersion breaking and reeks of real world politics jammed in. Both of which suck. And it's even dumber because the Forgotten Realms has distinctive regions, ethnicities, races, and cultures. In the first two games when you saw a dark skinned person you assumed they were Calimshan or something. And then you'd talk to them, and they'd have a Calimshan accent, say they were from Calimshan, and it would feel like a living breathing world.
Is a very good game but for me personally is not better than second one, my biggest complain is the 4 party members and the horrible act 3 in story and performance department, seems rush and bland when compare to act 1(amazing) and act 2.
I share your opinion. Act 3 is a atrocious performance wise, Larian needs to give us "disable unneccessary non quest NPC" option, not only do they kill performance, but they never shut.the.fuck.up. Repeat dialogue non stop is something that annoyed the hell out of me in DivOS2 and is even more out of place here.
Act 3 has some of the best and worst story moments, but yea performance is bad. It’s also bad that i hit level cap 50 hours before the end😂
@@Supadrumma441 Larian is infamous for they're stupidly fucking annoying town NPCs. No wonder why so many people love killing everyone in DOS2
This review stands out for pointing out how some things can be good in one way and bad in another. Such as Karlach being a character who really doesn't fit into this world, but having such exceptional voice acting that you tend to forget this at least at times. I also appreciate how you point out the cognitive dissonance when entering the city, which is so unplausibly cosmopolitan that it actually manages to feel futuristic. Together with the trivialization of ethnicity and culture, this is disastrous for worldbuilding, and you give that fact the weight it deserves. "Everywhere is anywhere", as I've called this when talking about how this game deals with space and time as if they didn't exist.
Considering companions, I think Lae'zel should be mentioned as someone who adds a lot to the story and who comes across as real. You might be tempted to kill her early in the game, but IMO she's one of the most authentic companions, who manages to stay authentic while undergoing significant character development. You don't see that all that often in games. Even her romance is good (I think it shouldn't be there unless you play a githyanki, since they are their own species, but that's a different topic), and the voice acting is superb and gives her great screen presence on top of that.
All in all this is a review I would recommend watching over many others, if you can spare the time. It's worth watching, listening and considering even where you might be predisposed to have a different opinion.
Thanks man!
This is still stuck at 360p, I'll keep checking back but that is a little crazy.
You can watch now!
@@YeOldEntertainment Nice, thanks :)
Bruh of course even 10 minutes long videos get stuck sometimes
2:07:26 Yeah, I can't help but agree with you. In Dragon Age Origins, I thought that an unvoiced protagonist just doesn't work with the shot-reverse shot conversation camera, and BG3 hasn't really convinced me otherwise. It just breaks immersion when I see my character standing there mute while everyone else is talking (I'm fine with an unvoiced pritagonist if the game's 1st-person, or if it keeps the isometric camera angle in conversations, since then I don't really see my character).
Yes, yes, I know that an unvoiced protagonist makes it easier to imagine your character however you like, but the conversation camera also works against this. The game will often show your character's facial expressions in conversations, for example showing fear or disgust at certain moments, that may not match how I would imagine my character reacting.
IMO, the gane should've either done an unvoiced protagonist and got rid of the shot-reverse shot conversation camera, or else gone all the way and make the protagonist voiced (although that latter option may have been prohibitively expensive).
Yup. Same feeling here. I think that Mass Effect works wonderfully and BG2 (or Pillars or any of the other games that doe this) also works wonderfully. But Dragon Age Origins (And BG3) are in an in-between that doesn't really do it for me.
@@YeOldEntertainment An interesting idea would be if the facial expressions your character made in conversations were based on your previous choices. That might actually make the compreomise work for me. It would be hard to pull off without Flanderizing your character though.
I wish I could see the character I'm building inside the game. I am having to use the wiki to see if a build will be fun/combine well. Wrath of the Righteous felt like I could explore the complex builds better, even though the rules are a bit munchkin
Good solid rpg. Well written 1st & 2nd acts. 3rd act is a tad undercooked. Ending is not the best. The dice roller (in my playthrough at least) seemed to be stuck between 2 & 7 ( I didn't use karmic dice). Party management via the camp system was annoying in that you had to have a character in your party to access inventory and levelling options. But that is a pet peeve of mine and not a game breaker. I'd give the game a very respectable 8/10
Its my GOTY, especially after playing the utter SNOREFEST that was Starfield. But act 3 is absolutely atrocious in its current state, not just with half its story content missing *cough* Karlach *cough* but its performance going to absolute shit due to the half a million completely unnecessary NPC's that the engine CLEARLY wasn't designed to render at once.
1st and 3rd were the best. 2nd was undercooked.
@jamesmorton7852
8 might be the most fair score I have seen from anyone so far. Well said and great assessment. Still underwhelming compared to Baldur's Gate 2 especially in the writing department but he isn't wrong. I would love to see some older CRPGs get this kind of treatment with such a big budget. Oh how I would love a high production modern Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, and/or Planescape Torment. That would be a CRPG dream for the old time fans of the genre.
@@Supadrumma441
I say The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom which actually improves vastly on almost everything Breath of The Wild did. Baldur's Gate 3 improves a few things from the second game but also fails in so many others in comparison and that game is 23 years old now.
@@Supadrumma441 Act 3 plays just fine on PC after the latest patch. At launch, however, it was very bad.
Great review, very in depth.
Sometimes a bit too nitpicking about unimportant details, after all it's a video game and it has to be fun.
9:50 This is exactly why I want a Savage Worlds Video Game
An adaptation of any classless RPG with a good amount of options would be great. It's not like there's a lack of them to choose from.
@YeOld: Would you say that BG3 is "marvelized" in comparison to BG1 and 2?
Pretty much yes. There's good and bad things about that but... yes.
@@YeOldEntertainment I don't really see any good in it. I mean a party of warriors and mages wondering the wilderness fighting monsters all everybody looks all fresh like they came out straight from a barber/ hairstylist for a photo session for Vogue LOL. What is this Fantasy Instagram? And all this woke nonsense. Since when did screwing a bear become normal?
hehe. I think it was post 2016
@@YeOldEntertainmentWhat happened in 2016? I guess I'm not up-to-date.
An evil mantle fell over entertainment, academy and other industries... it's been dark ever since...
Man, your pronunciation of Alhambra and Granada was perfect. I doubted for a moment that you are from Spain
Well I am a native Spanish speaker hehe
@@YeOldEntertainment Ya me parecía. Pues entonces enhorabuena por tu inglés 😉
@@cmdrf.ravelli1405 hice solamente un video en castellano, fue de Stray.
@@YeOldEntertainment enhorabuena por la calidad del canal, dicho sea de paso
@@cmdrf.ravelli1405 Bienvenido abordo.
Do you do a year-end round-up of lowest-to-highest scores (or something of the like)? Kind of your on-brand version of a GOTY video?
Apparently I like hyphens
Yes I do! You can check the channel to see the two previous ones.
Good review, i don't agree on every part, but majority of the things you mentioned are head on.
I really can't disagree with any of your criticism, if any thing, I am more against modern day issues being in a medieval fantasy setting than you are. But I really love finally getting a good turn based game that is not super difficult, and a little more relaxing...I have been playing on Balanced and find it a good difficulty for me, I feel I can play who I want and not have to worry about optimal builds, but instead I can embrace a role.
I do think any infinity engine game of old, or Never Winter Nights game remade with a turn based mode would be a much better game than this. The most resent turn based games I have really enjoyed were Arcanum and ToEE and that was over 20 year ago. And both were quite a bit more difficult than I would prefer. I am thinking I really need to try Expeditions Rome, after watching this. I had a lot of the same issues with Divinity Original Sin, and the Pathfinder games as you did. Pillars of Eternity felt even more class locked than D&D does...I kind of want to play PoE 2 in turn-based but I never finished the first. I really just want a fun game with some nice story and world, with a freedom to be who I envision my character being, with a slow combat pace and never feeling like I need to be something stronger, or have a more balanced party.
I have been running BG3 with a Hunter Ranger, Wild Heart Karlach, Shadow Monk Shadowheart, and Abjuration Gale. None of my party is OP, it is a very RP style party, I try to cast Buffs and protection before damage spells, and I have no healer, and I do not feel gimped or wrong in any way. I don't like the heavy handed romance, nor the modern day blandness of the world where nobody is unique. But I love being able to be who I want, do what I want, how I want without being punished by the game either killing me every 5 minutes nor the game just stopping me from doing something, that might break the game. You can completely destroy towns accidentally while trying to be good, and the game will let you keep playing, you miss some side quests, but the world persists.
I loved Karlach though, I did not see her so much as a modern 20 year old, as much as just a huge dork. 5e sucks and won't let you dump a stat, but she should have had a charisma of, at most, 5. She's the only character in any game with romances, that I really felt I could go that extra step towards, just to see how that awkward personality played out. I am not into her look much at all, physically the least attractive companion...but that personality, or lack of one, made her cute.
I would not have minded the silent protagonist as much if playing an origin character was voiced...though I much prefer being non-voiced than shoe horned into 1 person. But I would be more apt to play as an origin character if it was voiced, Lea'zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Karlach, even Astarian would be great if voiced when you played them, and give me a reason not to just go custom.
TY for sharing, frend. I too am an old school gamer that started in the mid 90s. I have played every kind of RPG out there, but this one, it still WOWed me. Sure it does not have a stellar story or the best writing, but it ticks so many boxes that many other RPGs dont even come close that i am confident in saying it is one of the BEST RPGs of the decade. For me, the best parts are the gameplay, amazing sandbox combat system, the great exploration, interesting dialogue options and so many branching stories that you would probably not see all of the game even in 5 playthroughs. I like some of the companions while others i just ignore, but i did play my own RP and when the dialogue options are poor i just invent my own.
I started as a wise old elf ranger to play my Legolas from LOTR fantasy and i am pleased that the game allows you to play this stoic wise and good character in most interactions. I travel mostly with La'zael, Karlach and Shadowbabe because i just like their playstyle a lot. I made LZ my main tank, Karlach is a crazy berserker barbarian (i didnt go wild heart because she doesnt have a heart so it was not immersive). I try to play very immersive so i build my characters as i imagine it best fits their personalities and back stories. For example Wyll has to be a fiend warlok with a pact of the blade. It just wouldnt work any other way for me considering his back story. I never really liked Gale for some reason, always thought he was weak in combat so i turned him into the camp's alchemist as a transmutation wizard. Now he just sits in camp, reads the dozen books i put in his inventory and he makes some mean potions in my improvised alchemy lab. In act 2's camp i found an old abandoned house that has 2 tables and that is where i made my alchemy lab and a nice research and study desk. I like to craft immersively so i only brew potions with Gale at the alchemy lab now. The fact that the game allows you to take most items with you and use them as decorations was a BIG plus for me. As a man who appreciates a nice player home in an RPG, the camps in BG3 partially scratch that itch for me. And i spent many hours positioning some crates and placing objects on them and also adding small items to the tents of each companion.
I like to play slowly and i also play on balanced because i just want to enjoy the game and not sweat too much at combat or have to reload a save 10 times because enemies just keep killing my allies. My fav part of the game is exploring and interacting with NPCs, discovering interesting ruins and also seeing the cool companion quest lines. I do enjoy the complexity of the combat gameplay but i like that it does not happen too often so as to become a nuisance.
I like to play as immersively as possible and also make my characters look good with the armors and clothing i find in the game. In my second play i will make a melee character and will try a totally different party.
Enjoy the game and have a great day :)
@@mancamiatipoola I like your thoughts here, Though I do disagree about Karlach's lack of a physical heart. She has a lot of love, passion, possibly more heart than any of the other followers. She also loves freedom, which I think makes her an ideal Eagle Heart, as I think of an Eagle as soaring free in the sky. She works well as a Berserker too, I have even thought about trying one for her, but I do like mixing up builds for the next run....especially if they fit the character, because I too, favor that immersion.
I think with Wyll, while he is a Fiend bound Warlock, he also would break away, try to rely less on the pact, so then having him muticlass into a fighter, or a college of Blade Bard works, since both will allow him to master the way of the blade...he is the Blade of Frontiers after all. My next run will be as a Lore Bard, so when Wyll muticlasses to Bard to better hone his skills with the blade, it will be partly because of my teaching him the ways of a bard, to enhance what he already knows.
I have also thought about Lae'zel going tank fighter, and then taking some levels in Vengeance Paladin, or Cleric...mostly depending on how I side with her in act 2. I could also see her as a full War Cleric for sure.
@@colmortimer1066
Interesting choices. Wyll could work as a bard since he is very well spoken and always tries to Woo the ladies. I took him with me in act 2 because of the story he is connected to, and he would not stop hitting on my girls LOL! As the Blade of Frontiers i would build him as a pact of the blade and fighter battle master, which seems to fit his fighting style and back story very well. However in my play i went with pact of the blade and sorcerer since i wanted to have more spell slots and interesting spell effects. Though i mostly just play melee with him XD. Will see how it goes.
L'Z i am planning to multi into war cleric to have those extra attack charges, the guided strike and the magic weapon buff which are all amazing on a martial class. Will probably go with 8 fighter - 4 war cleric so i can pick up all those juicy feats.
As for my ranger beast master i have no idea really... You kinda have to stick to BM until lv 8 to get the feat and make my pet stronger, but after that i dont know. I was thinking either druid or monk to get a few more spells or abilities, but really the BM ranger is missing nothing. He is great at massive single target damage and he also has one of the best AOEs in the game - spike growth. I should really get 1 wizard so i can learn the spell Haste, which is really one of the best spells for any martial class.
What would you suggest? Druid - cleric - monk?
@@mancamiatipoola Honestly, I would probably not muticlass a ranger without a good reason. At level 9 you are going to get lighting arrow, then at 11 your companion will get and extra attack and hit points. My current character is a lvl 9 hunter with no plans of multiclassing.
If you want haste, you can get it with a party member, or just buy or make speed potions. I often use the potions with Gale having haste, so he can use other spells. the potions do only have 3 turns of haste but they do not require concentration, and just a bonus action to use.
@@colmortimer1066
Yeah, i know, it is a dillema to either use haste or another good concentration spell. I have very few speed potions left and i honestly dont know how often you find hienas in the game. Im currently in act 2 and i see no hienas anywhere. I used them in tough battles and i only have 2-3 of them left.
However i definitely dont need haste on my ranger because he usually uses hunter's mark or spike growth, which is really one of the best AOE spells in the game.
At the moment i only use it on Wyll because he can use both melee attacks and some non-conc spells, but i always forget i have haste and cast hunger of hadar and get dizzy for one turn, which is hilarious. I also waste a spell slot because he does not cast the spell, he immediately gets dizzy from the loss of haste XD.
I guess i still have a few things to learn in combat, but that is why i like to switch up my companions from time to time so i can learn more builds and combat styles.
I hate customization. So much details but only 2 body types and as always my left handed option is missing
Never heard of a game where you can make your character left handed
Pathfinder kingmaker@@lorexmusic1067
@@lorexmusic1067 Pathfinder
Great review. Thanks for voicing out some of the criticism a lot of us old timers have about the game. As you mention, these critiques don't bring down an excellent game, one of the best we've got as of late, and one I'm still enjoying after a couple of hundred hours.
But my main complain is that BG3 isn't a real sequel. The story could've happened in any city of the Sword Coast. It's extremely loosely tied to the Bhaalspawn saga, but not near enough. But story aside, the whole artistic vision is nowhere near the other two games. The color palette, the architectural composition, the geography, the city itself, the music, the tone... none are even close to the other two games. The city doesn't look anything like the original one, neither do the rural areas. (Not to mention the population composition) The music from the two first games doesn't sound anything like what BG3 gave us, no matter how good this soundtrack is. It's incredible how this game is so alien to the other two but still considers itself a sequel.
As a standalone game. I agree with your score. As a sequel... well, it really ain't.
Yup, you pretty much nailed it. It would've been better if it had taken place in Waterdeep, Rashemen, the ten towns of Icewind Dale or somewhere else in Faerun and had had, of course, a different name. That is if they were all hellbent on making it a D&D game. Because they could've made it a Divinity Original Sin 3.
I played bg1 and it has the same problem with the soundrack as bg3. The soundtrack is AMAZING, but during combat it keeps repeating the same 3-4 tracks and it gets annoying
with the current state of the gaming industry anything above mediocrity is already celebrated as the greatest of all time
I was there for BG1 & BG2 originally. I played all the Shadowrun Games and they are some of my favourite games. I lean heavily towards tactical RPGs and those who aren't more action oriented (though I will play them too). I've always been a story first kind of gamer too. I absolutely adore BG3. I know some curmudgeons think that you have to be settling or that they did some stories dirty with it but I cannot agree. Is the game perfect, no, no game really is. But expecting games to be what they were 20 years ago is unrealistic and old man shouts at clouds stuff. There are choices that were made that impact on the world's lore that might not align with some people's wants and expectations, but you can't make sequels to games with choices like this that will appeal to everyone with the choices they made.
So if someone has negative criticism or an opinion that's different than yours, he's a "curmudgeon" and therefore his opinion isn't valid. So having played these games you mention, makes you an authority that can declare that this game is perfect in absolute terms and (it should be so for everyone) and anyone who says otherwise for whatever reason is deserving of an insult or a discrediting label. I think not. I liked this game very much but I do think the story is bad for the reasons I mentioned in the video. And if I were some "curmudgeon" who expects every story to be like they were 20 years ago and who rejects any new story, then that would also be true of my criticism of the story in Disco Elysium, Colony Ship, Expedition Rome etc, but it isn't. I liked the story in all those games.
@YeOldEntertainment
I think there is some misunderstanding here. I didn't say that people who don't share my opinions aren't valid. If this is what you took from my reply I am sorry for the misunderstanding. Everyone has an opinion and they are equally valid. Even of theybare not equally valuable to all people.
I am not saying I am an authority because I played these games but I am providing context to my opinion. You mentioned that Shadowrun for example is a game for people like you. I provide this context because I see our tastes as similar im many regards. But you relegated anyone who liked the game to being not a "hardcore" crpg fan, not a "core" Baldurs Gate fan unless they are an "okayer" (not familiar with the term but I can guess to its meaning).
By making those statements you are however doing what you accuse me of here slapping people with an insult or a discrediting label.
Heck I didn't even take that you hated BG3 by any means from this video. Clealy you enjoyed it but you want games to be different to what they are today. Thats fine, you do you.
I also did say that the game isn't perfect, no game is, but it's easy enough to miss that bit in the block of text so I'll assume you just missed it and weren't just ignoring it to fit what you were saying.
@YeOldEntertainment Regarding the point about the story that was more about the people complaining that things like Sarevok and Viconia being evil again.
O.k, those are all fair points. Okayer is not an insult, though. It's a word I use to refer to people who have a high degree of tolerance to stuff that is not consistent with canon, they are most definitely not the hardcore fan (even if they reeeeally reaaaally like this or that game, film or show). I, for example, I'm an Okayer Vampire the Masquerade fan. I reeeally like Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, but I don't see anything wrong or disruptive in "Coteries of New York" or "Shadows of New York" and it's surely because I'm not neck deep in the lore, to me these are decent games. But some of the people who are hardcore fans of the IP seem to hate these titles for lore reasons.
sees title
sees length
me: man, i wonder if he liked it
There's only one way to find out.
A lot of issues you have with the game seem to come from your own choices, and your examples of other games doing great things just reinforces that.
You say mutually exclusive paths are great and that you reached the level cap in BG3 too quickly. Well why? Because you did both the mountain pass and the Underdark. Larian doesn't believe in stopping you from doing what you want, but that does put some responsibility on the player to actually roleplay and not treat the game as a themepark where you do everything because you can do everything. It's *your* journey, you made the choice on how to interact with the game and the game did not hold your hand to keep you from overindulging. It treated you like an adult.
If combat is too easy on tactician but you exploit every advantage you can have, well that was how you tackled combat. You prepared very well for combat and were rewarded with successfully completing them. I have pulled through many combats by the skin of my teeth, simply from making stupid unoptimized choices and sticking with them. Yes, I can also run through with Shadowheart and give everyone a twenty stack of Radiating Orbs, but where's the fun in that?
I've seen multiple people lay out these criticisms and each one of them can't help themselves taking every little advantage they can. Make a deal with a hag for a stat-boost? "Of course, why wouldn't you?" is what those people think. They'd gobble up every little bit of power they can find and then seem surprised that they turned out powerful. This game is not made for them however, this game is made for the role-players who won't make a deal with a hag because it's not the right thing to do for their character. And it's made for the players who when they do choose their character to be power hungry, for those players to actually get a feeling that they did get that power.
This game is about making the choices your character would make, not about minmaxing your build.
But you can get away with doing everything you feel is right, without that decision being too taxing on the gameplay end of things. I didn't make the deal with the hag because I felt it wasn't the right thing to do. I also didn't give Viconia the artifact. These decision resulted in fights. I still could overcome the ensuing combat challenges that resulted from taking "the hard right choice" without much difficulty. In higher difficulty levels, the game should've elevated the challenge so that "taking every bit of advantage" would not be enough to breeze through the fight. As for "who the game is for", gameplay-wise, the reason why there are different difficulty levels is because there are different people who want different challenges. And some of those aren't getting the challenge they wish they had.
@@YeOldEntertainment Time to dive back in for a Dark Urge Honor Mode run?
Great video. There is one point that I want to add to the overall unbelievability of the setting: Underground temples in Baldur's Gate. There are simply too many of them. I can believe in the existence of one hidden underground ruin under the city, but when I was entering the second, third and even fourth massive underground construction "hidden" underneath the city I lost any belief in the reality of this world.
Thanks! Hadn't thought of that, but it's true.
Many games fall into this trap. Let's not even go into how unrealistic the Temple of Shar is. It would take millions of slaves to build something like that. Something that isn't represented in game. But oh boy does it look awesome. It's obvious they went for looks over realism.
Finally got the time to sit and watch the whole video in one sitting. You bring many good points and observations and we seem to agree on many things, like how horny the characters are and how the game can be immersion breaking due to all the 'messaging' done all over. But gameplay, story branch, choice and consequence and production value wise the game is great and easily a game of the year contender. Heck, BG3 made many other game developers from AAA-industry tell us not to expect same level of quality from other RPGs because BG3 was made in exceptional circumstances. And while I can see where some of them are coming from (I'm not expecting smaller indie developers, who are sometimes just one guy, making an RPG like BG3), I am also, as a potential paying customer, expecting the so called AAA-developers to learn a thing or two from BG3 and make better RPGs in general if they want any of my money.
One thing that I do disagree with you is regarding a voiced protagonist. The Witcher and Mass Effect games differ in a sense that in the former you play as Geralt of Rivia. A specific character who has a distinct voice, so it's easier and cheaper to voice a protagonist like him. In Mass Effect you play as either male or female Commander Shepard, so there's more voice acting work required, but they're both still humans. I can't imagine an elf, a dwarf and a half-orc male or female ever sounding the same, so hearing that same voice coming out of very different racial versions of Tav (the player character) would sound bizarre. Sure you could say 'hire more voice actors to provide different voice options in character creation'. Which would be great if Larian could've done that, but can you imagine how much work and thus money it would require to voice ALL of different Tavs' voicelines in the game? It's an impressive and no doubt costly achievement to voice every NPC down to every animal already. One of the reasons why I think Fallout 4 came out with only a few dialogue options compared to past games and limited roleplaying opportunities and choices is because the protagonist was fully voice acted. I rather have all the dialogue options possible and wide variety of choice and consequence over fully voiced player character in my RPGs any day of the week.
And lastly I'd have a request for your future videos; next time whenever you announce that you're about to start talking about spoilers, add the timeline we can click to skip the said spoiler section on the screen.
Thank you for the long, in-depth review!
Edit: Fixed some typos.
Past and torch turn-of-phrase was cool.
Can't claim authorship over that one, unfortunately. That's Mauler's phrase www.youtube.com/@MauLerYT/videos
Dark Urge seems to be the way the game is meant to be experienced in my eyes, but may have been too dark for it to be the default for modern audiences.
it definatly was, the dark urge playthrough is technicaly the continuation of bg1 & bg2 since hes a bhaal spawn and bhaals real chosen one according to the lore.
If it had pathfinder combat rules it’d be the best (complete with combat and exploration etc) crpg ever made. 5e combat rules suck. Disco is the only objectively better rp game I think, but it’s just roleplaying.
Nah pathfinder rules are too difficult for an average gamer who just wants to have fun
Joder, que nostalgia me ha venido cuando has enseñado los libros de D&D de Timun Mas, eres un grande.
Esos libros fueron la gran mamá de todas las pollas. Definieron mi idea de D&D, grabaron a fuego en mi mente el ideal que tengo del concepto de literatura medieval fantástica e hicieron que me diera cuenta de que tener poder decisión sobre una historia, es lo que más aprecio en el entretenimiento.
La verdad que el juego me ha gustado pero el tema de relación de protagonista y compañeros pierde toda inmersión o sentido cuando todos te quieren llevar a la cama.
Probably not the best. But very damn close to it.
1:37:00 all of the relationship point so true
the game is just filled with too much virtue signal to appear inclusive leading to broad actions and nothing actually to their "inclusion" devs too afraid to say "this character is only straight/gay/bi/for humans/tieflings/etc" leads to boring characters once they're actually analyzed the game is just bad and a far cry from BG 1 and 2
Come on, even James Ohlen said that BG1 companions were like cardboard cutouts. In my opinion BG3 is below BG2 in writing, but way above BG1.
Even just the House of Hope and hearing Rapheal singing his own theme song is enough reason to play this game. No one should miss that, it is the best side quest ever, period. It is so absurdly good the rest of the game just can't compete and goes down after that.
i am like wtf. are you playing this on the switch?!?!?!?!? i didn't hear anything about a switch build!!!!!!
but it looks SUPER LIKE IT'S ON THE SWITCH!!!!!
then i check the time. release 3 minutes ago and i am watching this in 360p because of it 🤣
Nice review although I don't really get the criticism towards Astarion and Wyll, like, I myself wouldn't ever get along someone like Astarion acts but he has entertaining and pretty smart interactions with the possible party mwmbers. wyll may be boring but you can't say he "changes depending on the situation" like, doesn't any sane peopls have different approaches to different occasuons? Lae'zsl and Shadowheart I find to be the cooler characters in regards to how they act and develop honestly. I agree partially on the "if anyone can be anyrhing there's no distinction in races etc" since in bg3 you can clearly see that still there are Races which act and are treated as the stereotypes all the way through, which is good. People are kind of obsessed with inclusion as you say but still I didn't even notice until I came across your video that amount of "forced wokeness" aside from Dame Aylin trope.
Still I enjoyed your perspective and look forward to see more of your passionate content
This, THIS. Is a Review. Im currently on the wait for the "rumored" anyversary update, because it seemed obvious to me that the act 3 got butchered to get the game to release this year. MAYBE we get something even better then.
Wait what, why would it be better to restrict voice and body type to gender? 0.o
They simply offer more options for customizing your character, wanting to take that away is super weird and makes me think YOU follow some certain agenda after all
The reason there are only a few faces for each race is bc the process they used to create each face was actually pretty elaborate. They had real people as models, using a somewhat extensive rig that used a crap ton of cameras to take photos of their head from every angle (basically, think the camera rigs they used to do bullet time shots in The Matrix, except it's a sphere around someone's noggin), then they used that scan to create the in-game face model and did stuff like minor tweaks here and there to bring the features more in line with the given race.
Not saying that precludes the possibility of more heads, just means it wouldn't be a simple matter. Unlike not restricting some options to gender for no reason, which is 0 effort.
Edit: Ok, later on you go like an hour about how its bad that the races are not segregated and not everyone is straight, you are definitely a weirdo about this
@BenjoCovers
Being a D&D game it makes the most sense in the world you are playing in to restrict them. It is less immersion breaking for those actually well knowledgeable about the lore of Baldur's Gate.
You said it so well, how are more options bad? You can still build a very traditional character if you want.
And I lost it when he said the relationship between Aylin and Isobel adds nothing. The triangle of them and Ketheric is based on it, and it deflates so much if they are just buddies.
Saying something is overrated isn't the same as saying it's bad, especially when most people are claiming it's the best thing ever. Personally, I don't think BG3 is bad, but I do think it's overrated and also not really to my personal tastes. There are so many CRPGs I would rate above it, it's not even funny.
As a huge CRPG fan, I honestly think BG3 has done the best overall. Yes if you look at specific things then other games have done better (even Larian’s own Divinity OS2 has a better combat than bg3 IMO). But if OVERALL, I think. bg3 is on top by far.
@@joshbarba2225I disagree about DOS2 being better combat wise. It’s just absurdly clunky, is there a bit more strategy at times. Maybe?
But the systems are not nearly as fleshed out as BG3 imo. Talent system with DOS was horrible. Hot take
Ffs don't say these things out loud. The Larian fanboys will stone you to death!
@@joshbarba2225bg2 is better.
On the flip side, saying you think something is the best ever doesn't mean you think it is perfect.
Personally, I think BG3 is the best CRPG I have ever played. Is it a perfect game? Hell no! Not even close.
so much truth still
especially on the virtue signaling of the game that's often ignored in mainstream reviews
its all so cringe and propagandist
Thanks my man!
I really wanted to like Baldur's Gate 3. It was clear that Latian put thought and effort into the game. But the game just isn't for me. One, I hate turn-based combat (I prefer Bioware-style real-time-with-pause combat) and two, I dislike cutscenes. And, boy, does Baldur's Gate 3 have a lot of them!! There were times when I felt like I wasn't playing a video game, I was watching a movie. That just isn't my idea of fun. I wan't able to finish my first playthrough and I doubt I have the patience to attempt a second playthrough either. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to pay for the game: a very close friend (a moderator on Bethesda's Discord, ironically) gifted me the game for my birthday. .
But Bioware games also had a lot of cutscenes. 🤨
@@flunkyballs4610 You missed my point. I will simplify my words so that you can understand: "I prefer real-time-with-pause combat."
It all comes down to what kind of games you like. I don't get why you even tried playing a story-driven rpg if you don't like cutscenes. Seems like you have an issue with story driven turn based games
@@flunkyballs4610bg1 and 2 (superior BG games) didn't tho 😮
BG3 is a great game *despite* the woke crap laced throughout - not because of it. I believe rather that Wizards of the Sword Coast, a notorious pit of woke crazies, insisted Larian checked all their favorites little victim boxes, before agreeing to allow them to make this game.
Yup.
Probably the most overrated game ever. I played 80 hours on lowest difficulty just to see what the fuzz was about and still had to cheese pretty much every fight hard, because it's just bonkers: Start fight purely for scouting, lose, restart and abuse every game mechanic to cheat the idiotic AI. That's not good gameplay.
If you are not into D&D, minmaxing and build-tinkering, this is just idiotically hard to a needlessy frustrating amount. After those 80 hours thinking it was me that was the problem, i just gave up at another insanely hard battle, because i felt like the game took the piss out of me. No, thanks.
This was really weel done, you have a new subscriber! Keep it up.
Thanks for the review! After the almost unlimited hype I'm really apprecative of a more balanced review. And you made me want to buy Solasta again, as well as give the Expeditions series some time. Oh, and maybe one day I will give BGIII a try as well :D
By the way, for whatever reason the reviews over at gog seem to be much more negative on average.
Thanks for leaving a comment my man! You mean the reviews of Solasta and/or Expeditions Rome? Those games aren't perfect. Solasta is super linear and the story is a cheeseball, but the fun factor is off the roof and they nail "feeling of party". Expeditions Rome has irriating "conquest content" which I found boring and unnecessary, but the story is engaging and high stake and it's very well written (and I cared about companions in that game!). The combat is also beyond serviceable. I have reviews for both of those games should you want to check them out btw XD.
@@YeOldEntertainment I haven't watched the Expeditions Rome review, but you did definitely sell Solasta to me. Even with all of the caveats concerning the DLCs.
Edit: It helps that they are a bit more digestible in terms of size. I'm kind of dreading Pathfinder: Kingmaker as it taunts me from out of the backlog ;)
It definitely is a contender for the game of the decade!
While it may not please everyone, it certainly amassed hundreds of thousands of new fans... even a bigger fanbase than the prequels. This is the only "reliable" metric in giving that title.
I have seen some non-gamers playing it and even investing in PC/Gaming platforms just to play. Its integration into pop culture is a statement of how popular it is, something that games of the decades-esque have... GTA, Pokémon, Skyrim, etc.
On the other hand it is sad that a lot of long time fans of the IP (doesn't matter if they are more or less numerous) will shake their heads, bury the franchise and look for something else.
@@YeOldEntertainment They don't seem to realize that there will be nothing left to look at, if they still stay in the past. A genre needs to evolve or it's going to die out.
@@flunkyballs4610 This is not true. Baldur's Gate 3 DOES NOT represent the "genre's evolution" it represents ONE particular IP taking a step into the broader mainstream market. It did what it had to do (that includes good things and bad things) to make an entrance into the big mainstream market, a market that is not rpg-specific.
What will happen is that hardcore rpg fans will put that particular IP to rest. I sadly count myself amongst those. I thoroughly enjoyed the game but after the second play through I'm done with it. I'm first and foremost an RPG guy and there are things this game doesn't do for me. I am not going to adapt my tastes to what the game has to offer, I'd rather look for niche markets where there are products that suit my tastes.
Many RPGs have come out since Baldur's Gate 2... BG3 is not a game that is "saving" "rescuing" or "putting the genre on the map". It's a great mainstream triple A game that just so happens to be an RPG and that just so happens to have the Baldur's Gate 3 title in it.
Amongst the crowd who didn't like BG3, some people will mourn the classic RPG feeling, some people will dwell on it, some people will be angry forever, but some people will simply turn their gaze to other RPGs that aren't mainstream because (as good as it is) BG3 does not scratch the itches of the hardcore rpg player... which is a niche player.
Iron Tower for example has a different idea of "evolution" from Larian. One that I suspect is more in tune with the expectation of hardcore RPG people
They will publish colony ship soon. It's not a triple A game, it's not a mainstream game but it will likely become a cult classic. Sovereign Syndicate is also looking pretty strong. If you haven't heard of these games then you probably aren't the RPG crowd... you probably are the Baldur's Gate 3 crowd.
And there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to understand that "accepting BG3" is not something that everyone "needs to do". There are other games to look at, fortunately. But this particular IP has taken a step into another market. The game was really good (really good) for what it was... but it's a farewell for me.
@@YeOldEntertainment yeah, agree 100% , i havent played bg3 but looking at the reviews and the gameplay it reminds me nothing of my favourite genre. pillars of eternity was a good game back in 2015 and i was waiting it for years. i havent played games since then but i got excited when i saw bg3 was released.
now i edned up playing bg2 again instead of bg3. maybe i'll go for planescape and icewindale again later
@@Nikosk00 Went with a friend for a duo play through the Enhanced Edition classics last year. Storm right through both Bladur's Gates and the first Icewind Dale. The only QoL improvement we needed was turning character movement up, everything else was still a blast in its vanilla version despite the games being pretty old. In comparison, Larian's own Divine Divinity.... did not age well on almost any aspect beyond some jokes still being ha-ha funny.
The bg3 review I was waiting for
Can't we just say it's one of the better, least expected games in a while without going for best game ever
Yes but the fans of Bg3 love fighting over whether or not it's a masterpiece and the greatest thing ever and any critique is blasphemy.
@@grizzlyadamblack BG3 fans blindly shill for the game and blatantly ignore the fact that the game is unfinished.
@@jimmythegamer2231 Oh ik.
@@jimmythegamer2231 Unfinished? The game is plenty long enough as is. Too long if you ask me. I can't be bothered to do every little thing in Act 3, I just want to finish it at that point.
Best BG3 review! As always, pure quality from Ye Old
In regards to the comment regarding the previous games being "clumbsily added in"... I just feel the need to ask: Did you try playing as Dark Urge? The story for that is literally different from all the others and makes this game feel like a true finale to the now trilogy.
No. but regardless of how that plays out. The very presence of Sarevok undoes his redemption arc from the previous games. Same with Viconia, who not only loses her character redemption arc, but also looks nothing like Viconia, sounds nothing like viconia, and says nothing that character would've said. Also the presence of Amelyssan... even if it's only as an "echo" cheapens the importance of the character.
I don't think taking any path in BG3 had the potential of feeling like a "true finale" to the saga, simply because you cannot play as your Bhaalspawn from BG1, BG2 and throne of Bhaal. Good or bad... Throne of Bhaal's final succession of stills closed the Bhaalspawn saga for good.
@@YeOldEntertainment To be fair, the redemption arc in the ToB was difficult to accomplish and I wouldn't argue is the typical ending for Sarevok in that story.
Regardless, a hundred years have passed and who knows what Bhaal has done to one of his favoured children.
And to be quite honest, you're missing a lot of the story details if you haven't played as Dark Urge regarding the Bhaal plot, so I won't judge.
As for Viconia I sort of agree with exception to the fact that Elves (and therefore Drow) are also long lived. If you're okay with Jaheira being around, then Viconia is far less of a stretch in my mind since she's not a half-elf. To play devil's advocate for Minsc, the story of him being turned to stone and coming back has been used before this game came out in Neverwinter and I believe somewhere else. It's something of a Minsc trope at this point and I'm totally cool with that.
But to each their own. I'm a big fan of the first two games myself, and I would rather that they include the characters that I could reasonably see being alive. Sarevok being a half-alive husk that became a warlord I believe was his canon ending after burying Tamoko, doomed to a life of undeath. So his existence to me seemed more canon than offputting.
Honestly though, I'd really suggest doing a Dark Urge playthrough. The redemption arc was better than the game's finale.
@@YeOldEntertainment Specific response to "Regardless of how that plays out." I think you'd be VERY surprised. You discover the roots of the entire story of BG3 ONLY by playing as the Urge. Details/certain items and available cutscenes and conversations do not exist. I cannot understate the impact Dark Urge has on the story of the playthrough.
@@crazedmike9907 Just to make one thing clear. I never said Viconia shouldn't be in the game because she's too old to be live. I just think that it doesn't add to the story. I don't these characters needed to be in the story regardless of how plausible it is for them to be alive. I even think this of Jaheira and Misnc (who I enjoyed for different reasons) . They just make the story more convoluted. It feels more like the writers went out of their way to include them rather than a consequence of how the events are unfolding. A bit like the legacy characters in the new Star Wars Fiilms.
@@YeOldEntertainment The presence of Minsc and Jaheira for Dark Urge playthrough is unbelieveable (EDIT: In a good sense, they play a bigger role). The fact that the story centers so much around Shar and Viconia was such a devout follower of the Dark Lady... I dunno. To me, exclusion of these characters from the game almost makes me go "How is this all connected to BG1 and 2"? Without those characters that we invested in and moved on from to connect us to the past, the whole premise that this is a continuation of those two stories goes out the drain if you intend to take these three as a "Trilogy".
And particularly the characters of Minsc and Jaheira are impacted by the Dark Urge playthrough more than Viconia. Depending on your choices, you will find that they get very different options and endings available to those characters.
Dark Urge is honestly the secret game mode that should be addressed when reviewing this game PARTICULARLY for those old fogies like us that are big fans of the originals. The Dark Urge playthrough is not for the light of stomach (especially if you don't save scum), but boy oh boy did they make me feel like I was back in BG1 and BG2 again.
Wait at 9:55 why is there valorant ganeplay in the corner? Anyways the new translations look really good are you planning to cover Starfield seems like everyone who talks about the game is just rage baiting instead of providing actual feedback.
That's a stream from Fextralife, that's their website.
@@YeOldEntertainmentyeah I realised it later I just commented in the video sorry about that
Its not for me thats for sure. Writing kinda of sucks and i really dont like the characters. Not to mention the disrespect of returning ones like Viconia. That one hurt let me tell you.
I honestly feel this would have been better had it not been connected to Baldurs Gate and just been its own thing.
Viconia got done sooooo so dirty.
Same with Sarevok. My Sarevok was redeemed and even joined my party for the final battle in ToB.
And now suddenly it's like "yeah... I am evil again,"
Also the Dark Urge origin, supposedly DUrge must kill because he is a bhaalspawn. Ok... somehow my Paladin on the original saga was able to resist the urges and even use healing magic due to being a good aligned Bhaalspawn.
Basically, the lore is all kinds of f**ed up.
Finally, I wholeheartedly agree. I've been saying this since the game launched, this is Divinity Original Sin 2.5 in with a D&D coat of paint. It would have been much, much better as that instead of tacking on the BG name.
You can tell Larian really wanted to tell the story of mindflayers but had to tack on the Dead Three plotline just to have ties to Bhaal and thus to the original games.
@@Iridium-77-g yeah, the badly written lore and making to where you essentially have no impact by making character like Sarevok evil again really messed up the game for me.
Then the story itself was really not that great and yup you can tell this would have been better had it just been about Mindflayers. Maybe then actually using Mindflayer powers would have had consequences as originally promised. The dead three didn't need to happen. It honestly would have been better that way, more respectful to BG 1&2 in my opinion.
@@cadis4257 So much this. I refrained from using the powers as I really wanted to avoid becoming a mindflayer so much. And in the end you don't even get a pat in the back.
Also, if you end up becoming one, one the last lines the narrator says about your character is along the lines of "you've never felt so COOL". It really shows how much of a boner Larian had about mindflayers and making the Player into one.
I played the entire game trying to avoid becoming a mindflayer only to realize it is ME3 all over again and you either choose to become one or convince someone else to do it, or side with the Emperor and onwards to either Control or Destroy the Reapers, I mean, the Netherbrain and then pretty much the same ending cutscene happens and then roll credits.
What a terrible way to end a cRPG. What I don't understand is, when ME3 did it, EVERYONE gave them tons of flak, righfully so.
But, when Larian does it, everyone claps. Why? This game will not have a direct continuation nor having to bottle neck save imports from previous games, so we could have had wildly different ending scenarios depending on our choices and it would have been fine.
I understand that would require a lot of more work into it, and I am not really demanding it but, I do find curious that Larian gets a pass when Bioware got raked over the coals for doing the same thing.
@@Iridium-77-g yeah it is curious why people are giving such bad writing a pass and acting like choices matter in this game.
Might be a combination of hype, standards being lower than ever thanks to normies, and just people being desperate for something just a bit above the micro transaction live service current industry.
Gaming is worse than ever and keeps on getting worse.
Agreed. I don't think all the writing sucks, but it has a very 'modern day' vibe to it and much of it did suck. The mindflayer/githanki angle should have been the whole game and had nothing to do with BG at all. They could have even called it BG: Mindflayer something, something, and I wouldn't care. But when you call it BG3 I'm gonna compare it to the others, and that's a high bar to pass... which it does not.
People bitching about inventory management clearly have problem with organization in their lives as a whole... This game gives you bags (defaulted ones for a few things) and you can pick up additional ones. When looting all you got to do is be bit diligent in KNOWING HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN SHIT. "Armor, this bag, all these weapons that bag, trash you will sell all in common bag straight up marked as wares for sale." All these complaints about the inventory and its lack of "doing everything for you" sounds like baby entitlement and you do a disservice to yourself echoing it. Apart from that, very good video, especially your analysis regarding the catering to modern sensibilities.
I work with UX in my job.. The standard UX now is not what you mention. I didn't mind having to do that back in the 2000s with Baldu'rs Gate or Icewind Dale. That's how it was back then.. But you don't have to do this in Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder or even Black Geyser. I did do what you said with bags and pouches, but 1st. That was time invested in things I don't want to invest time in in these games. 2nd. That adds extra clicks that shouldn't be there.
I completely agree on the level cap, and no one else mentions it. It ruins part of the fun in an RPG
I profoundly disagree with the character building. I think that it is DOS2 that led you to building always the same type of character, not BG3. It might be that I am biased of course because I deeply despise DOS2 and think it's the most overrated game ever made.
Well I played three times and all three times I built completely different characters. (Custom made human Summoner, Lohse as water/strom elementalist, Custom made Dwarf melee front liner). I don't think any of these characters had even one spell or talent in common.
It's finally here! Hell Yes! Gonna listen to this masterpiece at work tomorrow!
I mostly agree with your takes. For me, it's a mixed bag. When the game is good, its great. But, when the game is bad, its terrible.
The memberberries are both the best and the worst aspects.
The "current day" stuff was terrible, as well as the script and their treatment of the lore.
The ending sucked ass.
However, the exploration was awesome. The voice acting was superb. I actually liked Wyll and he was my favorite companion because he was the only unambiguously heroic companion until Jaheria and Minsc came along. I like Real Time with Pause combat for these games a lot more than turn based, but the combat was fun and engaging almost all of the time.
The problem is that my enjoyment for the game kept diminishing as it went on. Like you said, hitting that cap just as I start Act 3 was terrible because, since i played this at launch, the performance, bugs and glitches, plot and ending all came together at the same time as I am no longer rewarded for fighting since by that point my party was already decked out with awesome gear. Yeah there's some good things here and there but fighting started to feel more like a chore. Although I appreciate and recognize the ingenuity of it, I really dislike "barrelmancy" as too gamey for a game like this and there's some real stinkers in Act 3 in terms of combat encounters, like trying to save all those hostages. And then there's the wet fart of an ending and the Emperor doing a complete 180 because I chose Orpheus but instead of letting us die through the tadpoles by relinquishing his protection, he gladly allowed us enough time for Orpheus to protect us instead.
The ending was so abrupt and devoid of closure and showing meaning to the journey that really soured the experience for me. Even ToB had ending slides for your companions. Here? we get nothing. Withers doing a Marvel after credits stinger. That's it.
For me it is most definitely not the game of the decade. It is a very mixed experience that has some enjoyment to be had if you are a fan of the genre but it is not without having to look the other way more than once at its glaring flaws.
Still, I really enjoy your content and appreciate you took the time to be as thorough as you always are and I really liked your review so thank you so much for your hard work!
The Orpheus route is ABYSMAL. There's absolutely no reason for the emperor to turn on you... The Netherbrain is STILL his enemy. And it's the apex of plot-convenient bullshit that Orpheus is immediately capable of protecting you... and also capable of lowering your defenses against the brain just enough for you to become Illithid (if that's what you choose to do) only to raise them again so that it doesn't fully consume you. And I agree with you on the lack of Falloutesque slides in the end (An RPG that doesn't have that automatically gets a minus 0.3 in the final score). And there's more we could've said but man... this review was exhausting! some things had to be left out. Of all the games I've played this decade, this has been the best so far. But then again... I did have to look the other way as you say.
@@YeOldEntertainment Agreed.
I will wait for the eventual "Definitive Edition" rolls around and perhaps some mods to give this game a 2nd chance. Hopefully Larian expands on the ending but I think just letting time pass and replaying it knowing that the journey is going be way better and more enjoyable than the destination may lead me to enjoy the game more.
So far, after the ending credits rolled out I really felt, and still do, that the real BG3 was the friends we made along the way.
Anyways, looking forward to your next review. Always a happy time when I see your title cards on my notifications.
You mentioned the Shadowrun games!!!!
That is all.
I think the second one in the "Return" saga is brilliant.
huh, i thought i could do all the skill checks bc i played a jack of all trades bard, but ig everyone can do everything after all. At least the illusion was there
I was a paladin but could lockpick and disarm traps. I even could pass arcane checks which after I passed alot of those I was like bro this system is weak.
BG3 is a good game with some serious flaws. Still, it's the best cRPG in the last decade at least, the best game made by Larian (D:OS2 was really bad by the way) and it's main competitors: POE and PF are no match (more so with a trash like Wrath of the Righteous)
@poMocnyMichal
In the places that actually count no it isn't even close. You still got Tyranny, Disco Elysium, Pillars of Eternity, Age of Decadence, Wasteland 2, etc. All those have far superior writing which is the key element of CRPGs and are not even 10 years old by this point. Sad you would include POE and say it is no match. In terms of writing it is far superior even if many mechanics are much better in comparison with BG3.
I just can’t stand the idea that people were raving about “being able to adjust your groin area” when all you’re doing in the final product is Adding hair or not. 🤣🤣🤣. You essentially know what everyone looks like naked cause they all have the SAME BODY TYPE
Exactly. Boobs and penis. XD
Very good video! I enjoyed it very much. 😊
Thanks. Not everyone shared your opinion, so double-thanks.
@@YeOldEntertainment Is it the PC crowd? I am not american so I don't partake.
PC is Politically Correct.
Soo took me a while to finish watching this review (watched it more or less in chunks of 15-30min) and yeah, I agree with almost everything you said. Well aside from the voiced protagonist, sure, would've been nice but there are so many ways to ruin voiced delivery. Jennifer Hale did a stellar job with femShep, but would that work in BG3? I am not sure. I liked Hawke in DA2 and hated the Inquisitor in DAI for example.
But everything else? Especially the 'meh' story beats? 100% agree! Even though Dark Urge is an improved Tav, their story reaaaaaaaaally feels tacked on, is full of plot holes and gigantic leaps of logic. I have finished 2 runs and am close to finishing a 3rd, mind you I tend to do a close to 100% of each playthrough. 1st run was a basic Tav (drow - silver dragon sorc), 2nd was a high elven (red dragon sorc - sadly no interactions with the many red dragons present in BG3, kinda sad about it) 'good' Dark Urge and my 3rd is another 'good' Dark Urge, but this time a tiefling cleric of Selune (wanted to see how badly the game's narrative would break in act 2 to accommodate that class and origin combo and it is hilarious btw.).
Anyway, when it comes to the racial issues I am so damn sad to say that NWN2, a game's that almost 20 yr old handled drow better! Sure, gobbo camp lets you walk around because you're a drow and all the goblins bend over backwards to try to please you (which makes sense given Minthara's presence) and you get bunch of flavor dialogue and that's it! Nobody seems to care that you're a drow, totally a normal occurrence it seems! Compare that to everyone in West Harbor treating you differently because you're a drow, whispering behind your back and whatnot. Random bandits on the road commenting on your race, potential companions commenting on your race too! Everyone approaches you anxiously because you're a damn drow in NWN2! That is what I expected out of BG3 and sadly didn't get... same thing's with BG3's tieflings, it really seems like in BG3 (and in 5th edition of D&D) your race is just a costume, instead of being a defining characteristic of how you were raised, approach others (drow females tsk tsk) and how others approach you.
Look I am a drow fangirl, if given an option to play a drow, I will pick it! Like crap, I love the stories of raising above one's inherent evilness to become a kind and compassionate hero! Those are imho some of the best stories there are and also a major selling point for 'good' Dark Urge runs, there is this one scene, when you complete your Durge's story arc in act 3 that is absolutely fantastic and worth replaying the game just for that!
I 100% agree about "raising above one's inherent evilness/shortcomings/exteral prejudices" to be great for role playing. That's why I love the castless dwarf origin in Dragon Age. But this opportunity has been all but neutered in 5th edition. I don't see these opportunities ever coming back... this started way back when Gypsies were removed. There were some seriously CYOA books in which you were the Gypsie who had to overcome the world's prejudices.
Yeah I was a little disappointed with my drow playthrough. I thought I would get more pushback. Most of the pushback I got was in Act 1 (which of course had the most time devoted to it in early access). I was hoping it would come when I got to the city. But so far it hasn't. I'm still enjoying my female drow playthrough, however.
I really like BG3 but I'm hesitant to recommended it to people who aren't already interested in CRPGs. It is a masterpiece _in its genre,_ but the genre is still pretty niche.
If anything I think this far and away the most mainstream RPG... probably ever. I'd be hesitant to recommend Underrail or any of the games by Iron Tower. But this one should be safe as sand for a casual.
😬...
Yikes bud...
The incentive to try new combat tactics is to do something imaginative and different. You're seeing the game combat as a challenge to defeat, rather than an opportunity to experiment and have fun finding imaginative, crazy, funny ways to win encounters.
As far as stealth, anyone can be "in stealth" as long as they avoid sight lines. Try being in armor with stealth penalties and walking into a sight line vs being a rogue with high stealth and light armor. You can walk right into sight lines and succeed your stealth check right in front of them.
Minsc dialogue with thief's guild leader is the best thing in a whole game. Minsc 10/10, game 7/10 with all patches and bug fixes.
No dude, the best one is the one he has with your main character after you talk to the guild leader. That was soo freaking hilarious. The one with the banker.was another 10/10
Love the game, quite possibly the best game ever, in spite of the (extremely jarring) woke stuff. I could almost vomit at the relationship between Dame Aylin and Isobel and the other forced insertion of LGTV nonsense. But otherwise, the game is great - quite possibly the best game ever, actually. I fell in love with Shadowheart.
Dude! stop impersonating me XD haha. This is almost exactly were I stand, I don't know if the best game EVER, but so far, it's the best game of the decade for me.
Almost vomit? Why? Or is it your usual reaction towards same sex couples?
I encountered 3 game breking bugs in act 3, last drop was infinite loop dialoge with Steel Watcher and decided to stop and wait for DE.
Also Evil playthrough is more bugged and lacking, you lose or can't recruit 5 (or 6, if Gael is not convinced) companions and to replace them you get 1 (Minthara, that is bugged to boot). You close a lot of quests, but not open any new. I feel evil playthrough was not considered when making the game, and it treats evil as failure or accident instead.
Also 1 thing that grinded my gears in addition to what you said (inventory etc.), skill check rolling dice is good for first few times, but I would like option to skip the rolling as it gets annoying after 10th time.
What was your experince with/Did you try, evil playthrough?
Skill check wouldn't feel irritating if: 1st you could actually fail the damn things or 2nd, if you could fail them and they opened up different avenues of story progression instead of resulting in combat or failing the attempt. But as they are, they are so freaking annoying.
As for the evil campaign, about 10 or 15 years ago I decided I was going to play evil campaigns anymore, because game developers have forgotten how to make evil campaigns rewarding. Their approach is "you are bad and you should therefore be rewarded with a bad ending" which is more like a punishment. They have forgotten the concept of evil in D&D as described in the manual in the original Wizardry:
Good characters are really good. They go out of their way to help old ladies cross the street.
Neutral characters take life as it comes. They would help an old lady cross the street if they were traveling in the same direction.
Evil characters are not really evil when compared to some of the things they fight in the Maze. They are self-centered, and always want to know "what's in it for them." Evil characters help old ladies cross the street for a small fee.
So... I just don't play evil characters.
Thank you for the amazing review I have watched at least 20 or more this is by far the best one more to say than just BG3 good!
I think the opinions have been very extreme. I though I'd pour out everything that I like and everything that I don't like about the game.
I can understand each critique you made of the game but to be honest all of them are highly debatable. Is like there was no concrete or blunt critique at all, everything is subjective, personally I like 5e more than 3e but that is a personal taste that should not be a reason why bg3 will gain a critique, this is like an example just to make it a little more clear
Every critique/review everyone everywhere makes is highly debatable. These are just my opinions. I do not wish to establish the absolute truth of anything. I just like to structure my opinions with "This is what I like/dislike--> this is why" they don't have to be your reasons nor anyone else's, they are my reason just like, I imagine, you have yours to like/dislike things.
u need far more viewer and subs
The ones I have are awesome. But thank you!
Over two hours! Alright, let's start this multi-day endeavor.
1:28:00 ironic
The game is good but not great. Agree with your point that they definitely put a lot of effort inserting woke elements into the game though.
Dangit I was almost caught up on my queue
The tadpoles are potential and not a brain. The more you use does not have a negative effect on the game. The ending is still yours to choose. I think that makes this game so special and fantastic.
I both loved it and hated it at points. Best part is exploration, probably the best I played in a last decade. The down side, I found it clunky (I never had problem with miss clicking in games, here on hard difficulty I lost fights because of it), didn't like the writing style half of the time and really bad guest triggering and pacing. Going from point A to point B in act 3 had me stumbling into quests, triggering parts of the quests I was already on (but I wanted to do at a later date) or simply whisking my character away from a quest I was currently doing, to do something else. It was so, so messy.
The biggest crime of all for me, really bad as a sequel, mainly with Viconia and Sarevok.
I might play it again when it's all properly fixed in year or so (to give myself some breathing room).
As a standalone RPG 7.5/10
As a sequel in the series 6/10
Very interesting point. As a new comer to the BG games i had the fresh perspective on this game so i could only judge it as a stand alone game. I knew about he old ones, i had seen reviews, but i never played them. I have played a lot of RPGs of different kinds so i can make an informed opinion based on that experience. For me, as a standalone RPG it ticks many of the boxes that i expect to see in such a game and i have to say that i see BG3 more as a spiritual successor to Dragon Age Origins than BG2. This game did raise the bar of all RPG games quite high now, so i really like that.
Although i loved most things about it like gfx, great gameplay, sound and music is very good and also the exploration and questing is fantastic, i have to say i never really did get too invested in the story. The main quest was soo convoluted that i kinda lost interest in it and just had fun following some random small quests and the companion quest lines which were absolutely stellar. This happens in many RPGs like this because the main story has to take the player by the hand and take him/her through all the game world from start to finish and that can become diluted when there is no sense of urgency. However i would say that the writing in general is not that great and perhaps they could have used some better writers.
But my biggest gripe with the game is the UI. As Ye Old said, the inventory management, party management and trading is some of the worst in many CRPGs because of how clunky and outdated the UI is. The camera is also pretty atrocious at times during some battles you have to fight the camera more than the enemies. How hard would it have been to create a camera that can spin around 360* and didnt have incremental zoom levels in 2023?? Thankfully there are a couple mods that fix this, but the devs should have remade the entire camera system not just import it straight from DOS2.
Even with all these minor inconveniences, i still think the game is a masterpiece and any RPG player should try it at least once in their life. :)
The only gripe I have with playing on a controller which has been great is that the end turn button is triangle. If you accidentally hit it with your thumb that character loses a turn. They could have made it L2 which you're less likely to inadvertently hit.
@@mickpratt8327
But can't you rebind keys on a controller?
Great vidéo congrats
Thanks!
That was a long wait but worth it:)
For the eyes, Ye Old! For the eyes! A very fair and balanced review, indeed! I'm currently enjoying the game and despite it's faults, its a very impressive package, but it's not the best game ever, let alone the best Baldur's Gate game.....I'll take 1 and 2 over this....but, as I said, it's still enjoyable. I think a problem with us old farts, is we're still wrapped up in nostalgia and the oooo, ahhh factor. The other thing is the over horny characters seems so current generation, but is just a weird distraction to me. But for all that it's a fun jaunt, but once I'm done....I'll be back in Faerun via BG 1&2.....
I think you can play it twice over There's enough content to have a thoroughly enjoyable second run.
@@YeOldEntertainment Thx for the advice and response. Funny thing, though.....I've played BG 1 and 2, literally dozens of times since they first came out....and will continue to do so....this one, not so much......lol!
@@athenassigil5820 Oh of course. But I think you can milk the investment and the fun with two runs.
@YeOldEntertainment you can get 2 playthroughs just by doing a Dark Urge run-through. I'm definitely doing that when I finish my first run.
I tried to get into this game, put about 60 hours or so in (and it was fun) but all it made me end up doing was putting it down and re-installing the old games. Started a level 1 character and now I'm nearing the end of Throne of Bhaal. Nostalgia is a factor, but I'd argue it's less nostalgia and more that the first two are simply legendary games. They hold of very well.