The best I can describe it is at the end of Act One I was already planning my next play through and the fun builds I could try. By the end of Act Three I was still thinking of those fun builds... But will wait a minute before playing them. I want to play the game more. Just not right now.
Definitely, I find multiplayer still incredibly fun but I don't have the drive to run through solo runs. Excited to see where the game goes and am more than happy with the time I've sank just gonna have to wait a bit fore another playthrough.
@@critical-thinker666 you can, but I like to make a character like I would for tabletop. I come up with a little backstory for them, and changing their class would feel wierd to me.
It has been a decade since I enjoyed a game this much. The feeling of Waking up at 10 AM, fire up the PC while I drink some coffee, man... This is what gaming is all about!!!
@@Maknorr-v8w Imagine thinking anyone forgot about Elden Ring. No, child, no one forgot about the game and you will forever have validation from internet strangers for thinking Elden Ring is a good game.
@@99mage99 because I’m responding a guy that said it has been a decade since he enjoyed a game. I was trying to recommend Elden Ring because it’s objectively a good game and gameplay is awesome. So no need to be butthurt for trying to help other gamers to play good features complete games. Go enjoy your shitty unfinished gotcha games you probably spend 1000 dollars on.
Yea the best analogy I can come up with is... Act 3 is like a beautiful Vase, it's magnificent, but there's a few cracks it, there's some pieces missing and it looks like someone tried to glue some pieces back together but they don't fit correctly. Honestly that's not the only problem with the game either though. Minthara is a buggy mess if you ever try to do an Evil Playthrough. A lot of her content was cut or is buggy.
They won't do a "definitive edition", this is pretty much a repeat of Divinity Original Sin 2, and they just kept patching it until it was great, which is what they're doing with BG3.
I have just arrived in act 3 last night, and I felt this same thing going in but I attributed it to having actually learned from the world of acts 1 and 2 - the feeling of awestruck wonderment fueled exploration wasn’t there as I walked into the outer city because I had lived in this world. The faults and unfinished nature you mentioned are absolutely present, but even with that the immersive feeling of finally making it out of the forest, through the under dark/mountain pass, past dangers and deaths and fights and everything, the character was me and I was the character. I know you can get that with any rpg with the right mindset but this game has a whole other level to the world around you and I found myself continuing to explore every alleyway and corner I could. I can’t wait for it to be fully finished with a couple patches.
@@GabKaulem Not really. Still a load of bugs in act 3. Almost none of the doors have opening animation. They open like Minecraft. Fights starting at random. A huge number of NPCs are just "villager". Flying not working properly.
Just rolled credits myself today cohh and i gotta say im with you, one of the most absolutely immersive experiences and best games ive ever played, it just needs a few patches to restore some stuff at the end and expand a few things and it will be perfect
Absolutely agree. But I don't think it's going to be a few patches. I think it's going to take quite some time. It could be a good year or more before it's where they want it to be. Spectacular game either way though.
@@Ikit1Claw I mean larian added content to divinity original sin 2 by patch so don't see why the same couldn't happen here, especially for the definitive edition
@@sergiolandz6056 I was around actually and not one game in the 90s was as cinematic or as large as this game in the crpg genre, the original baldurs gate games were not 150 to 300 hour long cinematic RPGs, they were 30 to 40 hour RPGs with little to no voiced dialogue, they were absolutely fantastic games that I've replayed over and over the past 20 years but I can safely say I've not played a game that did this much so well before. I can overlook a few wonky storylines and some bugs in the last act when the first 2 acts were 80 to 100 hours of incredibly solid narrative and mechanics rich gameplay where your choices have long reaching and defined consequences
I feel the same way. It needs some patches, but even then it still is very good as is and you can tell they have learned a lot from their previous games
Not only from their previous games, but it also feels like they learned something from prime bioware. The writing feels so much better in this game than Dos. The characters are also much more interesting to me.
@@kojk2545 you mean the ending of mass effect 💀 I love ME as much as the next guy but that ending was in so much controversy among the fans and even to this day if you check the subreddit Kotor on the other hand is perfection Edit: grammar
@@amadeux5471 He was saying "bioware of old" which is like pre dragon age 2, cause besides mass effect 3 (which was overall a good game with a horrible ending) they werent the same at all after dragon age 2. Baldurs gate 1 2, dragon age origins, mass effect 1 2, never winter, jade and ofc kotor were all master pieces.
Taking your time can be good. They had one of the first major patches early today actually!. I have beaten the game twice with two very different playthroughs. (Good then evil). But don't fear getting into act 3 tho! While it is a little bit less than act 1, it's also a very, verrrrrry different feel in a good way. Besides, you can always get another playthrough going when you are done.
@@vama3704 Yeah, act 3 is actually far better than act 1 and 2 in many ways with more challenging, more varied encounters, and better and more satisfying loot, along with finally having a fully fleshed out character build. Gameplay wise it's when I really got invested, I spent more time in act 3 than I did in act 1 and 2 combined. Cohh put it perfectly though, it's really when you start to feel like you're playing a video game, I think the lack of updates from your companions (besides the very poor FPS and crashes and sometimes gamebreaking bugs like oathbreaker paladins not being able to restore their oaths) really sort of take you out of it.
@@rose_qwq Exactly that yeah. Act 3 is not bad at all but with it's size has a lot more bugs than anywhere else. (Crashed many times on a certain big fight in a certain origin character's story conclusion) but pushed through to fix it because of how good everything was. Looking forward to their patch fixes for sure though!
Don't need to wait too long, the game will be completely different in a year, Patch 1 is out, my final chapter save from a week ago can finally have a Shadowheart ending, it feels much better
@@trendqiang3921 Yeah I literally finished my first playthrough and immediately started another and though I ran into a LOT of problems (before the patch) that I didnt the first time through, after the patch Im actually noticing a lot of dialogue I never heard before even though Im essentially playing the same character except durge. I think it's likely some of that dialogue wasn't working because it was broken, and overall it has been much more cohesive. Unfortunately it seems like act 3 has some new bugs but that's game dev
I had the same feeling on Act 3. I actually stopped the 1st run and started up a couple others with a custom party via multiplayer to try out different things and try some of the mods in hopes they fix some of the bugs soon.
The point about it setting standards for itself is the best way I’ve seen it put, acts 1&2 are so good that with them as the bar act 3 falls short despite it still being pretty incredible for the most part, can’t wait to see what it looks like with some tidying up
I don't think that is fair though. Sure, there are some bugs and slowdown in Act 3, but it will all get resolved. The scope of the game is just so immense. Trying to cover literally all the bases, and allow almost all possibilities (except for, you know, letting Shadowheart's parents live AND for her to stay Selunite).
2:20 this is true, I am already on Act 3, some questline there seems to be broken and incomplete especially the doors in the bank but still it is not hinders your gameplay experience nor stuck you finishing the quest.
I felt the same way. I was riding high in acts 1 & 2 and then act 3 kinda soured me some. A lot of stuff felt unfinished or missing. Don't even get me started on the endings
@@sebastiandalessandro4221 Act 1- 100% Act 2- 95% Act 3- 65% But it's a story based game. The buildup matters, but at the end of the day stories should be judged by their ending. Only people giving this game a 97 are people still in the first act.
What are you talking about? There are so much more dead people you can talk to in act 3. Murder quest, vault quest, sewers several quests and so on. The other thing though that in all acts it's not the most useful thing to do overall and even the very first person you kill in act 1 (if you kill, gang near Withers temple) refuses to talk to it's killer. But that's fine.
There's more corpses to talk to in Act 3 than Act 1 and 2 combined, there's just also more useless corpses but that's fine - they literally glow if they can be spoken to
Honestly felt like act 2 dropped the ball with corpse dialogue, there’s a whole group of them that I would have expected to be able to talk to and couldn’t.
I completely agree with your take on the state of the game (act 3 specifically). Combat in act 3 felt so sloppy. While working on killing Gortash, his guards would get in combat with me from different areas and floors of the castle (including the guard on the roof making his way all the way to main floor lmao). Pathing problems with NPCs in act 3 would stretch turn time way too much. I've had a fantastic experience overall, but Larian needs some time to cook this one to perfection.
It’s worth mentioning that act 2 has a LOT of the same problems that act 3 does. If you don’t do the tiefling party the game assumes Halsin hasn’t been saved from the goblin camp and nothing involving him can be done beyond that point. You can brick a playthrough by ignoring something you are completely allowed to ignore. It also removes 90% of the tieflings from act 2 but the game still assumes they haven’t died so if they are involved in a cutscene they will be in it, but as soon as you leave they are gone. That’s not the only issue it’s just the biggest that I’ve found.
Cheers - I'm taking it slow out of Act 2 as we speak. Having alot of fun and enjoying it. I expected the latter parts of the game to have issues so was in no hurry. Waiting for 1 or 2 major patches and will then finish the game. Will do second run with modz that are coming out thick and fast now.
To me the scope of the game caught up with them and they ran out of time. Game isn't broken persay. But you really see just how much wasn't added in act three. And normally I'd be mad. But they cramed so much shit into this game and such a high level that I get it.
I thank you with all my heart for this fenomenal experience. As a hugh fan och RPG table tops for the last 40+ years, and an almost as big fan of RPG computer games, this was one of the total highlights of what I have seen and experince. To be able to follow you in my own rythm on YT instead of live makes it much easier for me and that way I have been able so see all of it as well. Ones again. Big thanks to you Cohh, and an equeal big thanks to all your mods that helps you get everything up and running.
I couldn't agree more. A phenomenal experience. The storytelling and writing not only keep up but surpass many plots in film and TV. What I especially like is that many situations allow different approaches, depending on the skills you use. The other thing is that there are very few random combat encounters (no "wandering monsters"), the huge majority of fights have a purpose. The same goes for dungeons/areas. They are all story related, there are very few that are just there to grind XP and pick up loot. I'm about to go into the finale and will wait for my second playthrough until the major patches have happened. I've not had any characters talking about stuff that hadn't happened etc. and I'm just about to go into the finale. Two minor things: If there's a character in camp you've not talked to in a while, you can't talk to them about current events, you have to go through the previous ones and possibly click on them several times to do that. And some questions/tell character about x lines keep appearing despite you having talked about it already. Only one side quest broke for me: Dribbles the Clown and according to forums and reddit, that's an issue across the board. What happens is that apparently if you don't do things in the "correct" order and one thing in a specific way and despite having all the items required in your inventory, your quest giver won't talk to you. However, it's a minor one and you're just missing out on the item reward. It is, however, also a rather tedious one as you need to search all Act 3 locations for the items without any quest markers to help.
Also, I truly appreciate HOW you talk about a game. I am usually less interested in what people are saying about games, but way more interested in what the games they play and what they say about them say about them as human beings/characters ;-). So, you have my curiosity and I appreciate how much you express the love for this specific art form!
Yeah, I've had some big issues on my first playthrough. Examples would be me failing the persuasion check in Act 1 when Shadowheart and Lae'zel where fighting, and so by all accounts, Shadowheart had killed Lae'zel... but after the cutscene, Lae'zel was in camp as if nothing had happened. Other companions were acting like she was gone, but then I started bringing her with me and it was like nothing had never happened, I brought her to the Crèche, kept her happy through the end of the game, etc. The other example was how, after I saved Nightsong, Shadowheart was supposed to get a big reveal... but it never came... I tried to spend several nights in camp hoping it would happen... and then out of nowhere, later in Act 3, Shadowheart surprised me with some noticeable cosmetic change, at first I thought it was a texture glitch. I picked up quickly on what I missed, but I was a little miffed. Overall, still the best game I've played in a while, but yeah, it had some issues.
Act 1 and Act 2 were fantastic. It's a shame that Act 3 is in a rough state. I'm loving the game and Act 3 does have some really awesome moments so far but I can't help but feel like it's a shell of what it's supposed to be. It feels rushed compared to the previous acts and I hope Larian restores some of the alleged cut content and bugs (like not being able to get SH's romance ending scene) in Act 3.. I also hope they fix Minthara's romance soon as it's been confirmed by Larian that it's bugged out and not cut content. It being bugged is the main reason why I'm not doing an evil playthrough anytime soon.
Yea sadly Minthara's story is pretty much completely broken atm and the complete fix will most likely require an entirely new save file. It's pretty sad because I did 2 playthroughs, my romance choices was Karlach for good and Minthara for Evil... both of which are a buggy mess. (Karlach's ending is locked into failstates due to the cut content: Avernus and Uppercity were cut last minute meanwhile Minthara feels more like a Hireling than a Companion)
yeah no reactions mostly, consequences are almost irrelevant, ending is really disappointing, I don't want all cut content added but I'd like the ending be more meaningful and companion interaction more substantial
I was lucky . . . I got SH's romance ending scene . . . it was really nice and finished off my story perfectly. But Act 3 does have quite a few continuity errors
So far I've mostly enjoyed playing BG3 with only a few issues (besides needing to reset every few hours from memory leak). I would LOVE to have the option to setup ambushes like you could with other D&D games, I know its not a pause style game but it would be nice to have an ambush option because that actually kinda makes sense for combat and gives a few more options for playstyle. It was really fun moving characters around into positions, trying to coordinate planned attacks to take down groups/individuals as a team, almost like you were making a plan and signals to do it. As it is now you can't have all of your party attacking at the same time and if they are in view after an attack they have to roll for initiative ruining any type of ambush or setting up some kind of trap within the rules of D&D. BG1, BG2, Neverwinter Nights, etc. all allowed you to do this in a way and I loved that aspect personally. The camera movement does also need some work as its very easy to get into a fight where you basically can't target an enemy because of verticality and not being able to pan the camera up & down or getting it stuck behind some other map element. And a bit less gameplay thing, it would be nice if Larian replaced the sex deprived furry from their writing staff. If you MUST have "romance" options in your mostly fighting game, flesh it out some and make the "relationships" feel far more real and purposeful. As it is it feels as though they just wanted to make it so you can bang other characters, there is no relationship just how quick you can have sex with them when resting, it doesn't really effect your game and serves very little purpose. And thats not even delving into the disturbing parts to it that cross every reasonable bounds even in the D&D universe.
I mean if this type of game is something you enjoy, don't wait. it is still amazing. But if this is a far stretch for you, waiting might be a good idea.
@@CMAC.1483 why not wait if you enjoy this type of game? not like they gonna pull it of the market again or it's somehow worse in the future? If you have no trouble waiting why not give yourself the best experience the game can offer
Same. Was on the fence, had heard from friend and forums that Act 3 was.. rough, but still good. But now that I saw Cohs thoughts about Act 3, then I am more than happy to wait a few months or for the inevitable "Definitive Edition with all the cut content and brand new content" that Larian literally always make and for cheaper too.
"by Act 3 I was constantly looking behind my back for things that were missing" This is THE perfect way to put it. When the immersion starts to break even a little bit, your gameplay gets poisoned very quickly. Where previously everything seemed so in place, even too good to be true, now you start discovering some faults, and you even start imagining things. "Wait, is this really how this was supposed to happen?" or "Hmm, I think this was the perfect opportunity for this character to speak up, I wonder if its bugged or if Im overthinking it". But even with that said, I personally was pleasantly surprised by Act 3. I was preparing for the worst, hearing this and that. The increasing demands on my already old system, the talk about loose narrative ends and cut content etc. I readied myself to just soldier through it, but in reality I enjoyed the hell out of all the quests the city introduced, and the whole area just didn't seem to end. I'm about to confront the brain, about 110 hours in and I'm almost perfectly content, and awaiting my next playtrough - altho I don't think anything can top the first experience of the Dark Urge story.
The magic disappeared in act 3 for me as well. Definitely feels the narrative needs another draft or two to tighten things up. Companions, who are so marvellously realized, became distractingly quiet for me. Fingers crossed Larian sticks with it. This game can be an industry crown jewel if properly finished.
Companions are marvellously realized!?? Companions and relationships are IMO the weakest point of the game by They're all characters straight from a 2023 US agenda. Let me not get started on the ultra horny saved demigod whose only line is begone I wish to adore her😂😂
Thanks for the honest and complete review. Ive purchased the deluxe edition and can't wait to see what Larian ends up delivering from now to Definitive Edition. They already released a giant patch and fixed a ton of these issues.
I'm a few hours into Act 3 and 100% agree. It was also a similar story when I played the first Divinity Original Sin; it was absolutely phenomenal and offered freedom of what to do right until you needed a set number of resources to proceed. I had to go over the entire map trying to figure out what I needed to get through. I hear that was also revamped in a definitive edition, but haven't gone back. I have been playing games since the early 80s, and this is one of my favourite games of all time.
I agree 100%, amazing game, Act 1 is the perfect Act, I loved Act 2 a lot, there was maybe 1 thing that I didn't like, not sure what that was and I cant put my finger on it but there was something that was off for me , maybe it was the pacing, I'm not sure. However Act 3, something felt different immediately,. To preface this, I have finished the game once on story, twice on balanced, and twice on tactician. Every new campaign that I start, I love playing through Act 1/2 and don't get burnt out at all while playing them, but once I remember that I need to play through Act 3 i feel tired. Act 3 has nowhere near as much polish as act 1, or even 2. The quests in act 3 seem very quick to the point and not much thought put into it ( in comparison to the previous acts, not saying that there was no love put into act 3) without going into spoilers at all, the bosses are just way too easy, the ending is super rushed, it doesn't even feel like I'm playing the same game at all, as compared to the previous acts. As I'm writing this the more I'm coming to realize that I think I just have a huge problem with the pacing of the act 3. Overall I still believe that the game isa masterpiece and is huge for the industry, but I firmly believe that the game itself was not ready to release.
Well said and I couldn't agree with you more. I am well into act 3 and subconsciously noticed the same things you noticed but like you said 70%+ is still quality so I never really noticed the bad stuff too much.
Great video and I agree with the thoughts. I'm in act 3 now and am feeling what you are talking about. I am going to push through and finish it - then revisit the game again in a year or two after all of the patches, additional content, etc. are released!
Yeah, very much agree. The pacing going through Act 1 and Act 2 is phenomenal, and then you hit Act 3, and it seems to be all over the place. Some of it has to do with levels, as Act 1 spans 1-5/6 and Act 2 up to lv10, but as soon as you hit Act 3, its just 11 and 12, and the power difference from 11 to 12 is not that large. It makes the entire act feel very open and everything is available after a very short time. Makes it very overwhelming on top of things not necessarily working as intended
Your honest review of the game just got you another subscriber. Absolutely respect you for not trying to cover up the issues that the game has. First time player of CRPG. I've spent 48 hours in act one, just figuring out what I can and can't do. It's been a wonderful experience. Who knows, by the time I get to act 3, it might be rock solid 😂
Probably not, but then again, I don't know how long it will take you to get there! Reckon they will get it all ironed out within a year or so. Most of these people are gonna be on a well deserved vacation for the next few weeks AT LEAST!
In act 3 now and haven’t run into any issues. I am probably 5-10 hours into act 3 so I have a ways to go. I expect that any issues the game does have in act 3 will be fixed and the ending cleaned up. Trust Larian 100%. Game is amazing and I am so happy to have been along for the ride all these years. Thank you Larian for this experience.
You know, it feels great to have a streamer put my thoughts into words. Cohh is smart though, so he's the man to do it. I don't think I could have summarized my feelings towards the game in a better light. It's a truly amazing experience that just needs a bit more fleshing out.
I strongly relate. Act 3 has damaged my desire to finish. I was logging in every single day and playing for hours on end.. that stopped when I hit act 3. Constantly worried about quests working properly. Terrified to long rest. Worried about the order in which I do things and bugging out quests because I did them out of order etc. Really really looking forward to the definitive edition.
Well said Cohh, I hope that your voice reaches the developers and they can and will address the issues. I have complete faith though, I just hope they can fix the issues before I get there myself. Currently in Act 2 myself. about 120 hours in so far.
I entered Act 3 a few days ago. Gotta say I agree so far on what you said about Act 3. It seems Act 3 doesn't have much of what the previous Acts had. Only just entered the lower part of the city area but something just feels off to me in this Act so far. Act 1 is by far the best one as it has you really exploring, more party interactions, but as you go on the party interactions slow down a bit. Think they could do more on adding some more romance interactions, more party involvement in conversations, and so forth. Though something I do have to say is that I most definitely need to go back as there seems to be quite a bit I have missed here and there due to me not finding them or something. As I've noticed that my level at times is a level below where it should be at the moment. As I believe when you enter the lower city in Act 3, you should be like Level 9 but I'm out here on Level 8. So I believe I missed a lot. Anyhow, I've been playing a Human Warlock + Sorcerer, which is something new to me. Never played any type of magic class always been a tank type of guy when it goes to picking classes. Though I think I'm going to go with Paladin and perhaps multi-class with Fighter, just so I have that action surge as it's MVP in combat.
They released a huge patch today, and from a quick read of the patch notes it looks like they fixed a lot of the dialogue and reactivity issues we had with act 3.
I’m currently right at the entrance to the lower city. With patch 1 dropping today and patch 2 being right around the corner according to Larian, I may just wait for that before proceeding. So far it’s been a breathtaking experience. It might be the only game with branching story paths where I could play through it again while making the same choices and still enjoy it just as much.
HARD AGREE. Poured 200+ hours already and i feel the exact same way. Best game i've ever played until act 3, act 3 feels really unfinished in a hundred ways, really excited to see the patches they deploy in the future.
Currently on a bg3 break coming here to get the motivation to jump back in. 200+ hours accross multiple play throughs from early access and after release (ive only beaten 1 of the big 3)
I felt like act 2 was slightly better then act 1 for me personally. It was because the story popped off more there and you saw what you were up against. I'm still doing act 3 and so far so no real big issues. I just hit lvl 11.
Act 2 was amazing but I thought it was very short compaired to act 1. I was level 7 by the time I was done with act 1. Act 2 I finished at level 9. I'm pretty sure I did everything even the secret rat quest in the shar temple. Saved all the tieflings etc. I spend about 30-40 hours in act 1 then about 20 in act 2. Maybe I got better at the game but I still explored and spoke to everyone.
I stopped playing (started re-playing) at the beginning of act 2. Act one was flawless for me on my local machine and GeForce NOW. Act 2... I started hitting every bug that was missing from act 1. Poor performance, missing items, NPC, cutscene, camera issues. You name it. I'm with Cohh. FANTASTIC game that needs a bit more time in the oven. That said, I'm enjoying a completely different playthrough from my first in act 1 right now.
The lack of reactivity in act 3 is a killer, like companions who have been with me since the start could straight up die or leave the party permanently and nobody comments on it. I just wish they gave it an additional year of development.
I also finished the game a couple days ago and yeah it is a fking amazing game, definitely one of the best game I've played and I did not play a lot of CRPG. However, just like Cohh said Act 3 thou has some of the best sequence like House of Hope, Astarion side quest, the old crew, etc... my FPS really took a dip during act 3 compare to act 2 & 1, and there are quite a few bugs I encountered along the way, 1 of them was game breaking that I need to search on subreddit for answer ( the Auntie Ethel health bar bug ). Now about the ending, I saw a lot comments on Cohh chat during the finale talk about this and lots of them I would say were disappointed with how the ending went. Personally, I think the ending is fine, there is enough closure in the end, but definitely the Raphael sequence took the cake and surprisingly for an optional quest it was so well made with exceeding amount of efforts that the ending fight could use some of them. Anyways, it's been a long time that I have such a blast with a game , especially a CRPG, If you a casual to CRPG then some of Cohh's criticism about act 3 might go through your head during the playthrough like how your companion might not have additional comments on your choice. GLHF.
you have to believe that Sven's decision to make the city "completely connected" hit the third act's overall QA time as it was clear from the interviews that was a massive change to the game's design.
Currently playing through DoS 2 with a friend and taking it slow, I love the game so much and can't wait to play BG3. In order to be on a high for 200+ hours, there's no problem in waiting for them to complete it somewhat fully!
When you said that the Act 3 takes you out of the immersion and makes you go "Yeah this is just a game", that's exactly what I felt and I couldn't have said it better. It just feels.. Hole-y. Like a lot of the things are just missing something. Even the ending is just, "yep that's it thanks for playing bye" even though I was expecting at least some conclusion to me and my companions
Agree 100% about your act 'scores'. The game as a whole is easily in my top 10 ever, up there with stuff like Witcher 3 and RDR2, but you can see that the polish and attention was frontloaded in the first 30 hours. When Act 3 is fleshed out fully, man, this will probably be the best RPG ever.
Actually the same argument holds true for The WIthcer 3 as well. Lol. Later part of W3 is just a rush, but you're so overpowered by that point, that you don't feel any thrill to play further.
I get what you said about act 3. Companions don't react as much to your decisions, less cut scenes regarding those decisions. It feels like you get to a point where character development stops, relationships stop to progress too early. And I felt a little bit dissapointed at the end, like.. it just stops. You did it, each character tells you what he or she is going to do now, but a lot of them didn't even take part on that "farewell" moment. My love interest didn't even speak at the end. That being said, It's one of the best games I've ever played. ~140hs to finish my first run, and I want to start over already.
I just finished the game as well, so I can finally watch your play through! And I know the secret to how a developer can curb your save scumming addiction: make reloading your save tied to a consumable item! I’d love to see which side of your personality won that fight!
After all the patches and the additional epilogue, Act 3 is amazing imo. My only complaint about Act 3 is that I wish characters had more reactions and conversations in the camp, otherwise, it's fantastic, my second favorite act after Act 1. Overall, it's my new favorite videogame of all time, something I thought was impossible to happen, especially from a CRPG.
I'm glad you made this video, my first playthrough was evil and I intentionally skipped through parts of act 3 as that was what "my character wanted" as it fit his personallity. So I did still experience a less of an enjoyment out of act 3 as opposed to act 2 and act 1. I also felt like my character had an abundance of trust from randoms even though I had betrayed everyone I could for power throughout the campaign. Some small fixes and the game will be game of the decade.
My dude, their quests are supposed to be the final acts of the game. In fact, i ran with shadowheart, gale and astarion and shadowheart and astarion their final quests were the last two things i did before closing the game out and gale his quest takes you all the way to the last few lines in the game. What more do you want from the companions?
@@sloesty I mean it's hard to not feel bit disappointed after Larian set the bar so high in the first 2 chapters though... And honestly Shadowheart's personal quest is literally the first quest I finished as I was wandering in Baldur's Gate, this comment does make sense to me as I was hoping for more interaction.
@@tianzhou9861 The selunite temple is on the other side of town. You'd have to willingly rush towards it to beat it + it's much harder than most of the content in there. The endgame quests for companions are all among the hardest battles in the game. Also, what more do you want from shadowheart? She has an insane character arc and changes a lot, and it concludes with a pretty massive decision that closes off that chapter of her life. There's literally nothing more to be said? If you want more character related stuff after finishing their story, just swap them out for somebody else lol. I'm not defending everything that's wrong with act three. It has its hick-ups, but complaining about the characters not developing more after finishing their entire story is wild.
@@sloesty wait I’m not complaining about character development though. I love shadowheart’s arc. It’s just that now you have a well developed character, it’s just upsetting to not having more interaction with that character. Also the fight is hard, took me a few times to beat lol.
I'm a bit more critical. I would still immediately state this game is an 8/10 at a minimum, but I also see a hypocrisy in how this game was released with a media storm of it "setting a new standard" and people were talking about how this is the game that AAA studios don't want you playing because it's so great, but now we're seeing a lot of the very same flaws, rushed releases and unfinished quality from AAA studios in BG3, but BG3 gets a pass...? The most frustrating thing about these bugs is how covert and immediately damning they are. You can play for *hours* not realizing you've been affected by a bug, only to look things up when the game starts feeling awkward or like you've missed something and realized how screwed you are. In addition to not feeling finished in terms of bugs and polished in Act 3, it *ALSO* does not feel finished in the sense the choices are an illusion. 99% of the time, a quest has a "correct" resolution that provides the most rewards. All other choices do not offer alternative outcomes with any meaningful changes, but rather simply offer less rewards than the correct path would. In addition, the evil route routinely offers less content, less rewards, and less everything. Sure, you *can* choose to do the evil route, so technically it's a choice!...but it's also the most unfulfilling, featureless choice you could make, and it ultimately just leaves you wishing for a game like Fallout: New Vegas, where you can choose from A, B, C, or D and all of those will have both unique story outcomes and practical rewards. (aka gear) Here though, in any given quest, you're choosing either exactly what the game wants to hear from you and being rewarded for it, or picking anything else and being punished for it. Still a great game, still a lot of fun, but no, absolutely not does this game deserve GOTY, and it should be held accountable for all it's flaws, exactly the same way we'd react to a game from any other studio.
The problem with Act 3 for me is that - without any spoilers - the setting is the best of all the acts and we have the conclusion of all (or all the unresolved) events we have set in motion. And so we need even more interaction than in Act1, and because the interaction is lower, it is that much more evident. That being said, Act 3 world and story interaction EASLY puts every other RPG to shame, and it's not even close.
They gotta work on their UI too, and party members pathing into damage. Ghost them out from potential damage when not controlled would be a nice option though
Yeah, some of the pathing isn't clever. Just a few occasions, though. I'd like to see some QOL improvements in inventory/item management, too, like being able to select several/all items to add to wars/move to camp/send to character etc.
Strangely enough there's a "delay" when trying to loot things in rapid succession too, which ISN'T present when shapeshifted. My character can be in a different form and quickly pick up plants or items on the ground with rapid clicking, but in his normal form there's this ~2 second delay you have to wait before clicking something otherwise nothing happens. Not sure what causes it but it's obvious that the shapeshifted "timing" is the correct one.
at this point i have 402hours of playtime and i fully agree with what you said. Incredible game with even more potential and a great review/final thoughts. Keep up the good work!
I just made it to Act 3, about 110-ish hours later. I'm excited to see it for myself, but one big (at least, depending on what you put in it) bug I've experienced so far is that the Chest of the Mundane no longer converts your items back to their original forms once removed from it. I looked online, and it seems like moving to act 3 is the trigger, although at least all that cutlery retains the original value of the items you put in! And for stuff like thief's tools and trap disarming kits (probably consumables in general) they all still function as they should. I haven't tested gear, but if you see this, make sure to remove gear that you'd like to use before finishing Act 2, or else that legendary sword might stay a spoon forever. Still an amazing game, though, like damn. The first real "role playing" experience I've had in too long.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I used Gale to blow up the nether brain in act 3 and he was the very first character to talk to me in the cutscenes afterward to discuss what just happened...ummmm yeah definitely needs some more time to cook lol. But just as you said, they did it phenomenally well with DOS2, I have full faith they will iron it out.
It's not just game of the year. It's game of the decade. I am notoriously stubborn with games and have a very short attention span. Few games can capture my attention for long, particularly in the past fifteen years or so as they've just steadily gone downhill. Baldurs Gate 3 left me in tears at least six times. It caused me to question myself as I genuinely fell in love with the characters (Shadowheart is bae forever) when I finished it I got that longing feeling you get when you fall in love in a dream and wake up, and just wish you could go back to sleep to see your love again. It is that good.
I'm almost tempted to pause my current playthrough, I'm partway through Act 3, and start doing other playthroughs for now until the next patch drops (which sounds like it will be soon?) just to see if I can get a slightly more buttoned-up experience at the end. I'm in love with this game, and I'm happy to move along with some of these issues because the sheer passion and depth that this game has is extraordinary. I'm amazed that it's actually in the state that it's in. I can't wait to play it again. And again. And again.
Literally words out of my mouth. It's my game of the decade, and once it's totally done, probably my favourite game ever. I also trust Larian will tweak it as needed and in probably far less than a year, it'll be the *absolute* best it can be (pun intended) ❤
I'm with Cohh here. Act 3 is missing something, not the obvious part like a "slideshow ending" that explains what happens to your party/world, more party interaction, the 2 fanservice party members not meaning much or the missing party quest/dialogue (Karlach and Minthara come to mind), but something more intangible. No spoilers. At some point I stopped trying to explore the city and did the final boss fights back to back, don't know if it's due to reaching lvl 12 and having my party all decked out in the gear I considered optimal, or that exploring a city kinda got samey (and yes, I did A LOT of the content, like the "side adventure" outside of the city or the "proving myself" dungeon), or that I got fatigued of being unable to tell who was a random npc and who was a character with quests. Maybe it's because I had like 100k gold and had nothing to buy with it alongside having like 12 special resource and not needing to use them for any of my party build. That's not to say that act 3 is BAD. Some of my favorite quests and content is there. The musical, when you get separated and have to find the exit, Lae'zel rooftop scene, breaking into the newspaper with stealth instead of violence, making the perfect escape from that timed sequence, etc... It just has something missing, maybe the game worked against itself? We went to all these cool places, and what's supposed to be the climactic ending is just a city 95% of the time. Still a great game though, one of the best in recent times and it's great to the point that I hope it pushes the industry into making more games like it and are released the same way (mostly bug free, no microtransaction and a 98% complete story). Would recommend as Cohh said after some more time to cook, specially if you don't play these type of game, and specially since Larion DO have a history of polishing up their games after release.
Finished it yesterday and cannot agree more definitely going to wait for a few more patches/ a definitive version a la DOS2 for my next playthrough. The fantastic news is that about 90% of my Act 3 experience was bug free, and I can definitely see Larian being able to make it as brilliant as Act 1 and Act 2 were
Feels important to note that they cut a major part of Karlachs, story, along with 2 other companions story, and one specific potential Boss/Ally. Because in the last weeks they cut basically the entire Upper City in BG3. And that was where u had to be in their stories atleast once. Hopefully gets put back in because 2 of those things can change the entire last part of the game.
I was wondering when I'd be able to go the Upper City. Shame that got cut. I just finished Karlach's companion quest. I only have Lae'zel and Gale's to wrap up.
Another thing to add: Not just the writing but the voice acting in this game is just out of this world, too. And not just from the established VA crowd but the lesser known ones, too. There were many moments where I thought, 'who is this VA?' and looked them up only to find they'd only done minor roles before. The voice director did an oustanding job getting the best out of everyone. Another highlight were the characters voiced by well-known actors from film and TV like Jason Isaacs and J.K. Simmons. Just superb casting.
This is the first CRPG I have ever finished. I played about an hour of DOS 1, about an hour of Pillars of Eternity, and about an hour of Baldurs Gate 2 before bouncing off. DOS 2 hooked me for a bit, but I still bounced off after about 20 hours. This game was absolutely amazing and 100% won me over. 120 hours for a first playthrough and can't wait to play again. I think the cinematic dialogues and cutscenes were the secret sauce that won me over.
I am still in act one as I and a friend of mine play the game like a dnd campaign and from your review I think that was a good decision. All I have seen so far was great, but as with every dnd game taking your time makes it all the sweeter. But even comparing the freedom in this game with a dnd campaign, is already singing it the highest praises I can give as I am a longtime dnd player. Hope the most important patches happen before we reach act 3.
Even if act 3 isnt finished and buggy, is it as good as act 1 in terms of writting ? Because right now i just finished act 1 and so far its one of the best games ive ever played i havent had an expérience like this with a game since like 8 years with Tw3, but i worry that the game wont keep this level of quality all the way to the end ? Or does it actually manages to stay this good until the end in terms of writting, characters etc ?
Playing BG3 with my buddies, were having a blast, just finished act1 and we been playing a couple of hours a night for 3 weeks. We play D&D on Fantasy Grounds every week as well and its great that BG3 has allowed our Dungeon Master to come on the adventure with us instead of trying to kill his players eh hee, though he does keep looting red chests so technically he is still trying to end us...great vid chief
The amount of cut content that reddit users have datamined, that is pretty much done yet still cut, has completely destroyed act 3. There is enough material, character & companion development as well as locations cut for an entire 4th act. I hope Larian Studios cleans up their act and finishes what they have build. I love the game but act 3 and especially the ending left a bad aftertaste.
I agree almost completely. A lot of cracks begin to show in act 3. It began to feel more and more rushed as you close in on the finale. With that said, it was still one of the best gaming experiences that I went through in.. I don't even know how long
I really do believe part of why they full shipped the game with act 3 like it is, aside from rushing to get ahead of Starfield, was that they weren't expecting players to play it this much. 150 hours in 3 weeks, maybe a bit more, is 7 hours, per day, every day. They may very well have been hoping that the lion's share of players were still bumbling in act 2 at this point and they'd have time to polish the hell out of act 3 before many saw it.
Nah they’re as passionate gamers as their players, they’re not that naive (plus the patching up will take months). It’s just you have to push out a product at some point.
All right I ll take your advice. Just got to act3. Haven’t been disappointed yet and I don’t want to be so I will stop. Other big games are coming that I want to play. Armored core 6, star field, cyberpunk phantom liberty so I won’t get bored in the meantime. I honestly hate replaying games for the intended experience, even if the game is a masterpiece, the first run is the most magical so I don’t want to ruin that for me in bg3.
The game was perfect, and watching you play it with chat made my summer. But the lack of closure after the end gave me a bittersweet taste, I really loved how Pathfinder games ended, explaining what you did and what consequences your actions had, and here it seems so... generic, vague, rushed... I hope we get a better Act 3 in the future, let's hope for it!
Well, we know the fully voices epilogues exist, but I suspect they were all cut due to issues with Wyll and Karlach's endings. Though that is just my working theory.
They should have just included all acts in early access cause act 1 was soo damn good so the extra feedback must have helped a lot. But then again, having all acts included would kinda spoil the experience which isn't the best for this type of game.
Agree on BG3 ... and disagree on Pathfinder WoTR, generic sliders were such a disappointing experience, the whole ending tbf was meh, but the game was outstanding.
@@TheMarcHicks My theory is that with the bugged triggers in this game, such as Minthara's romance, that the fully voiced epilogue was broken upon release for some reason or another. The CEO of Larian himself said that he completed his Dark Urge Druid run and he was given a 15 minute epilogue or something like that. I find it bizarre that he would lie like that so I give him the benefit of the doubt. I have a feeling with a game this big that is possible
Act 3 for me was a disappointment (still decent on it's own, but compared to Act 1 and 2 its a major step down). I felt like something was wrong in Act 2 but couldn't place my finger on it. For the most part Act 2 was amazing, especially the story. Then in Act 3, everything feels aimless, no urgency, the story kinda just vanishes. And for me the bugs, the story inconsistencies, quest/companions that feel cut short or stop reacting. Really soured my experience of BG3. And the ending... That was unforgiveable imo. When you go to a restaurant, the most IMPORTANT dish is the desert. That is what leaves a lasting impression on the customer, it's the last thing on their mind as they leave. And for me, Act 3 kinda spoiled the meal. The two words I can use to describe Act 3 and the ending is disappointed and unsatisfied. That being said, I do have faith Larian will add in missing content and fix problems. I just wish they hadn't left it till after the game was released..
You are spot on with your comments. Act's 1-2 are amazing and some of the most fun I've had in gaming ever. Then I got to act 3 and while it has some really amazing parts (LOVED the house of hope) it also has some utterly frustrating parts and the reactivity that is present in act 1 and 2 is gone. I'm at the point in act 3 where I can't bring myself to finish it. When I hit the Iron Throne quest I lost all desire I had to continue my play through. It is so railroady and really takes the quest design of the whole game, ie multiple pathways to the end and throws it in the dirt. On top of that I despise timed quests, I personally play games to relax and have a good time not get stressed out due to overly strict and unavoidable timers. On the bright side at least, I started playing Dark Urge and am enjoying act 1 again so much. I'm hoping by the time I return to act 3 some of the issues are ironed out and maybe they address the iron throne quest.
Thanks for sharing this play-through! I did a 20 minute lecture based on your play-through to my grad school lit class Powerful Females: Goddesses, Saints, and Witches. It was based on the characteristics that Ethel shows that align with the medieval witch-hunting text Malleus Malificarum, and the characteristics that Orin shared with the ancient goddess Anat of Ugaritic myth. I got great feedback and made 100%, and my professor was very interested! I hope to incorporate some gaming study into future PhD study. Thanks for showing not only how fun this game is, but also that it’s worthy of scholarly study too.
Not finished, needs a lot of fixes, but good enough. I’m having a blast in a genre I normally don’t play. Still going to continue to play and learn about this game as it continues to updates. I’ll take the rough and tough love approach, has that type of charm.
I'm glad people, especially high profile people, are speaking up about the last act and the ending (or lack of). Any other studio would be torn to shreds for releasing an unfinished product and although much less, I'm glad people are holding Larian accountable. It's still unacceptable how it shipped without an ending for the story or companions. I actually feel punished for supporting the game on day 1 instead of waiting for Larian to, once again, fix their unfinished game. I'm tired of people defending Larian saying they'll fix it when it shouldn't have happened to begin with. Larian does what other studios do and get a pat on the back while other studios are held up as examples of how game dev is going wrong. Larian has the same issues, the quality of the game prior to A3 doesn't take away from that.
Im in act 3. Probably could have completed it before Cohh released this. I love the entire game, ive been raving about my experiences to friends and family but theres something about Act 3 thats different and i got to the point where i couldnt bring myself to play the remainder instead ive began a new character and playing that instead LOL.
"incomplete" i think it's a very severe word for a game that personally, surpassed my expectations MULTIPLE times by act 2 alone, (btw i liked act 2 more than act 1) however i do agree that you can sometime SEE the cut content and not so well thought encounters and bugs in act 3, especially depending on which characters you are focusing on, gale in act 3 for examples barely has any content, compared to the amount of things astarion and shadowheart have. Therefore i do believe that as coh said act 3, in SOME aspects doesn't meet the bar that itself set in act 1 and 2. However personally the game already proved itself to be, for ME, the best rpg ever made before i even got to act 3, so i could never bring myself to call the game itself incomplete. And i could never for the life of me tell someone not to play and just wait for the definitive edition. It would be equal to saying that the games of thrones books aren't worth reading because the last book hasn't been written, or that berserk is not worth reading for the same reason. The game is by any means a complete MASTERPIECE as it is even now, and i know larian will improve even more but goddamn guys if anyone is just waiting for the definitive edition thinking this is some kind of buggy EA missing loads of content just NO. That's my 2 cents about it.
Beat it the other day, about 115 hours. It was great, if I had to score it would be a 9.3/10. My only real issues are the camera and UI. Love everything else
jaheira says "protected by your artifact you can ..." problem is i didnt show her the artifact, i never mentioned it or told her about it. yet she acts like i did? this is the type of stuff i cant wait to be patched bc it really pulls the immersion right out of the game. or when you find the boar on the road and find out what astarian is hiding... only to be "surprised by it later at camp when you sleep and he does something" these to me are the most important patches necessary for the game to be 10/10
you know a game is THAT good when there are plenty of discussions from those in the industry about expectations of games moving forward. Kinda crazy to think about
There aren't. There was literally one instance and the rest is just echoes from the same Twitter thread. The game is truly great, but there is nothing truly groundbreaking in it - most of the stuff in the game is stuff that we've seen before, done good - and that's okay. But let's not pretend that the game is what it isn't and let's not ignore its many flaws. Almost half of the game has been cut, there are unfinished storylines, characters, missing areas, millions of bugs, etc. The game needs a lot of work. But this is a bitter pill to swallow for fanboy teenagers because there can be zero nuance and something is either perfect or trash I guess.
I'm really tired of these takes. If they can't release a finished game they shouldn't be held as an industry standard by anybody. I don't care how amazing the first twenty hours are if the last twenty hours are going to be me sitting here wondering what happened to the game.
@@Stank1048 I have no clue in what world you think an unfinished game with a lot of quests that go nowhere due to cuts, especially companion quests that automatically get a fail state ending (Karlach) That leave a real sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the fact that companions throw themselves at you right away, the way affinity works is not balanced as well as having a lot of events be bugged out. 10/10 means perfect in every regard, raise your standards. It's still a good game, but it has it's issues.
Couldn't agree more. The game as a whole is amazing. In Act 1 every time you go for a long rest, there are conversations to be had, it draws you in, makes you interested in some companions and dislike others. Random events also come with immersive reactions from those you travel with, e.g the random conversations characters have while roaming the woods. Act 3 is extremely detailed, so detailed in fact, that to a point I felt like I am always missing something, there are so many buildings you can enter, but the companions no longer are "there", they just follow where you click. Also, at that point no other new items, armour or weapons make you go "holy sh*t!" At this point the game is simply a game, do this, do that, because why not, it does not bring the characters' story forward or backward, besides the companions quests ofc, e.g Astarion's revenge on Cazador, or all the random encounters during Act 1 who reappear in the city in Act 3, remembering you. You can really feel the game struggling in the end with the companions and decisions led up to Act 3, conversations get buggy, you can only repeat conversations with them, etc. I finished the game, it was beautiful, loved every moment of it, but you can imagine my face when I romanced Shadowheart throughout and in the end we didn't even have closure/conversation, nor a romance peak scene. Game wise it is 9.9/10, the 0.1 being the camera that sometimes glitches out of focus, ruining the immersive conversations and fights.
The best I can describe it is at the end of Act One I was already planning my next play through and the fun builds I could try. By the end of Act Three I was still thinking of those fun builds... But will wait a minute before playing them. I want to play the game more. Just not right now.
Such a great way to put how I was feeling too.
pretty much spot on
Definitely, I find multiplayer still incredibly fun but I don't have the drive to run through solo runs. Excited to see where the game goes and am more than happy with the time I've sank just gonna have to wait a bit fore another playthrough.
you can reroll all classes at any point of the game.
@@critical-thinker666 you can, but I like to make a character like I would for tabletop. I come up with a little backstory for them, and changing their class would feel wierd to me.
It has been a decade since I enjoyed a game this much. The feeling of Waking up at 10 AM, fire up the PC while I drink some coffee, man... This is what gaming is all about!!!
This game is disgustingly good but did people forget the god tier elden ring?!?!
@@Maknorr-v8wI think this is better than Elden Ring. But both are genre defying
@@Maknorr-v8w Imagine thinking anyone forgot about Elden Ring. No, child, no one forgot about the game and you will forever have validation from internet strangers for thinking Elden Ring is a good game.
@@99mage99 because I’m responding a guy that said it has been a decade since he enjoyed a game. I was trying to recommend Elden Ring because it’s objectively a good game and gameplay is awesome. So no need to be butthurt for trying to help other gamers to play good features complete games. Go enjoy your shitty unfinished gotcha games you probably spend 1000 dollars on.
Yesss
great game, really hope they can tiny up the last act and the ending in a definitive edition.
they said they are releasing "major" patches. Hopefully they will clean it faster than a DE
Yea the best analogy I can come up with is... Act 3 is like a beautiful Vase, it's magnificent, but there's a few cracks it, there's some pieces missing and it looks like someone tried to glue some pieces back together but they don't fit correctly.
Honestly that's not the only problem with the game either though. Minthara is a buggy mess if you ever try to do an Evil Playthrough. A lot of her content was cut or is buggy.
They won't do a "definitive edition", this is pretty much a repeat of Divinity Original Sin 2, and they just kept patching it until it was great, which is what they're doing with BG3.
@@afranheartnet2462you do realize the game you’re talking about literally had a large patch and then it was called ‘definitive edition’. 🫢
@@afranheartnet2462 I am pretty sure they released a "definitive edition" with DOS:2
I have just arrived in act 3 last night, and I felt this same thing going in but I attributed it to having actually learned from the world of acts 1 and 2 - the feeling of awestruck wonderment fueled exploration wasn’t there as I walked into the outer city because I had lived in this world. The faults and unfinished nature you mentioned are absolutely present, but even with that the immersive feeling of finally making it out of the forest, through the under dark/mountain pass, past dangers and deaths and fights and everything, the character was me and I was the character. I know you can get that with any rpg with the right mindset but this game has a whole other level to the world around you and I found myself continuing to explore every alleyway and corner I could. I can’t wait for it to be fully finished with a couple patches.
Guessing you finished act 3 by now, how was it?
@@JaronPalone The patches really fixed every issues. I can now say it my favorit act. The quest are insanely good.
@@GabKaulem Not really. Still a load of bugs in act 3. Almost none of the doors have opening animation. They open like Minecraft. Fights starting at random. A huge number of NPCs are just "villager". Flying not working properly.
Just rolled credits myself today cohh and i gotta say im with you, one of the most absolutely immersive experiences and best games ive ever played, it just needs a few patches to restore some stuff at the end and expand a few things and it will be perfect
Absolutely agree. But I don't think it's going to be a few patches. I think it's going to take quite some time. It could be a good year or more before it's where they want it to be. Spectacular game either way though.
Spoiler: You're not getting anything restored by patch.
@@Ikit1Claw I mean larian added content to divinity original sin 2 by patch so don't see why the same couldn't happen here, especially for the definitive edition
You were not around much in the 90's eh ? It was the standard back then to release complete games with all its features.
@@sergiolandz6056 I was around actually and not one game in the 90s was as cinematic or as large as this game in the crpg genre, the original baldurs gate games were not 150 to 300 hour long cinematic RPGs, they were 30 to 40 hour RPGs with little to no voiced dialogue, they were absolutely fantastic games that I've replayed over and over the past 20 years but I can safely say I've not played a game that did this much so well before. I can overlook a few wonky storylines and some bugs in the last act when the first 2 acts were 80 to 100 hours of incredibly solid narrative and mechanics rich gameplay where your choices have long reaching and defined consequences
I feel the same way. It needs some patches, but even then it still is very good as is and you can tell they have learned a lot from their previous games
Not only from their previous games, but it also feels like they learned something from prime bioware. The writing feels so much better in this game than Dos. The characters are also much more interesting to me.
@@coolboy9979 If only they took a page from the Bioware of old and actually leaned how to finish a story in a satisfying way.
@@kojk2545 you mean the ending of mass effect 💀 I love ME as much as the next guy but that ending was in so much controversy among the fans and even to this day if you check the subreddit
Kotor on the other hand is perfection
Edit: grammar
@@amadeux5471 He was saying "bioware of old" which is like pre dragon age 2, cause besides mass effect 3 (which was overall a good game with a horrible ending) they werent the same at all after dragon age 2.
Baldurs gate 1 2, dragon age origins, mass effect 1 2, never winter, jade and ofc kotor were all master pieces.
@@kojk2545 Can you tell me what was wrong with the ending without spoilers? You can also do refrences to other games for comparison.
I only just started Act 2, i guess ill take my time before reaching Act 3. been loving it so far
Taking your time can be good. They had one of the first major patches early today actually!.
I have beaten the game twice with two very different playthroughs. (Good then evil). But don't fear getting into act 3 tho! While it is a little bit less than act 1, it's also a very, verrrrrry different feel in a good way.
Besides, you can always get another playthrough going when you are done.
@@vama3704 Yeah, act 3 is actually far better than act 1 and 2 in many ways with more challenging, more varied encounters, and better and more satisfying loot, along with finally having a fully fleshed out character build. Gameplay wise it's when I really got invested, I spent more time in act 3 than I did in act 1 and 2 combined. Cohh put it perfectly though, it's really when you start to feel like you're playing a video game, I think the lack of updates from your companions (besides the very poor FPS and crashes and sometimes gamebreaking bugs like oathbreaker paladins not being able to restore their oaths) really sort of take you out of it.
@@rose_qwq Exactly that yeah. Act 3 is not bad at all but with it's size has a lot more bugs than anywhere else. (Crashed many times on a certain big fight in a certain origin character's story conclusion) but pushed through to fix it because of how good everything was.
Looking forward to their patch fixes for sure though!
Don't need to wait too long, the game will be completely different in a year, Patch 1 is out, my final chapter save from a week ago can finally have a Shadowheart ending, it feels much better
@@trendqiang3921 Yeah I literally finished my first playthrough and immediately started another and though I ran into a LOT of problems (before the patch) that I didnt the first time through, after the patch Im actually noticing a lot of dialogue I never heard before even though Im essentially playing the same character except durge. I think it's likely some of that dialogue wasn't working because it was broken, and overall it has been much more cohesive. Unfortunately it seems like act 3 has some new bugs but that's game dev
I had the same feeling on Act 3. I actually stopped the 1st run and started up a couple others with a custom party via multiplayer to try out different things and try some of the mods in hopes they fix some of the bugs soon.
The point about it setting standards for itself is the best way I’ve seen it put, acts 1&2 are so good that with them as the bar act 3 falls short despite it still being pretty incredible for the most part, can’t wait to see what it looks like with some tidying up
I don't think that is fair though. Sure, there are some bugs and slowdown in Act 3, but it will all get resolved. The scope of the game is just so immense. Trying to cover literally all the bases, and allow almost all possibilities (except for, you know, letting Shadowheart's parents live AND for her to stay Selunite).
@@023achilles except it's not just the "bugs", but all the cut/missing content and rushed ending.
2:20 this is true, I am already on Act 3, some questline there seems to be broken and incomplete especially the doors in the bank but still it is not hinders your gameplay experience nor stuck you finishing the quest.
I felt the same way. I was riding high in acts 1 & 2 and then act 3 kinda soured me some. A lot of stuff felt unfinished or missing. Don't even get me started on the endings
So exactly the same problem they had in divinity 1 and 2
97 rated game then? Or
What kind of endings did you expect from a generic fantasy adventure like this? They were suitable.
@@nightfears3005 bad bait detected.
@@sebastiandalessandro4221 Act 1- 100%
Act 2- 95%
Act 3- 65%
But it's a story based game. The buildup matters, but at the end of the day stories should be judged by their ending. Only people giving this game a 97 are people still in the first act.
The difference is that Act 1 was in early access and Act 3 was only tested internally. you just can’t replace 10000+ eyeballs for finding bugs
I noticed that you can talk to nearly every corpse in act 1 and many in act 2 but in act 3 even 'special' enemies did not say anything
What are you talking about? There are so much more dead people you can talk to in act 3. Murder quest, vault quest, sewers several quests and so on. The other thing though that in all acts it's not the most useful thing to do overall and even the very first person you kill in act 1 (if you kill, gang near Withers temple) refuses to talk to it's killer. But that's fine.
There's more corpses to talk to in Act 3 than Act 1 and 2 combined, there's just also more useless corpses but that's fine - they literally glow if they can be spoken to
Honestly felt like act 2 dropped the ball with corpse dialogue, there’s a whole group of them that I would have expected to be able to talk to and couldn’t.
Corpse talking suck anyway
@@danpol715If you disguise yourself. They will talk to you.
I completely agree with your take on the state of the game (act 3 specifically). Combat in act 3 felt so sloppy. While working on killing Gortash, his guards would get in combat with me from different areas and floors of the castle (including the guard on the roof making his way all the way to main floor lmao). Pathing problems with NPCs in act 3 would stretch turn time way too much. I've had a fantastic experience overall, but Larian needs some time to cook this one to perfection.
It’s worth mentioning that act 2 has a LOT of the same problems that act 3 does. If you don’t do the tiefling party the game assumes Halsin hasn’t been saved from the goblin camp and nothing involving him can be done beyond that point. You can brick a playthrough by ignoring something you are completely allowed to ignore. It also removes 90% of the tieflings from act 2 but the game still assumes they haven’t died so if they are involved in a cutscene they will be in it, but as soon as you leave they are gone. That’s not the only issue it’s just the biggest that I’ve found.
Happened to me. Halsin was at my camp with nothing left to say, and my quest told me he was in Emerald Grove.
Cheers - I'm taking it slow out of Act 2 as we speak. Having alot of fun and enjoying it. I expected the latter parts of the game to have issues so was in no hurry. Waiting for 1 or 2 major patches and will then finish the game. Will do second run with modz that are coming out thick and fast now.
I think the problem is that they could polish act 1 because it was in early acces, so they could interact with the feedback of the community.
It's not a problem, it's a glimpse of what Act 3 will look like ~ 18 months from now, re: polish.
To me the scope of the game caught up with them and they ran out of time. Game isn't broken persay. But you really see just how much wasn't added in act three. And normally I'd be mad. But they cramed so much shit into this game and such a high level that I get it.
I thank you with all my heart for this fenomenal experience. As a hugh fan och RPG table tops for the last 40+ years, and an almost as big fan of RPG computer games, this was one of the total highlights of what I have seen and experince. To be able to follow you in my own rythm on YT instead of live makes it much easier for me and that way I have been able so see all of it as well. Ones again. Big thanks to you Cohh, and an equeal big thanks to all your mods that helps you get everything up and running.
Awesome video Cohh and thanks for not covering up issues, I think talking about them is important it helps Larian a lot with fixing them!
I couldn't agree more. A phenomenal experience. The storytelling and writing not only keep up but surpass many plots in film and TV.
What I especially like is that many situations allow different approaches, depending on the skills you use.
The other thing is that there are very few random combat encounters (no "wandering monsters"), the huge majority of fights have a purpose. The same goes for dungeons/areas. They are all story related, there are very few that are just there to grind XP and pick up loot.
I'm about to go into the finale and will wait for my second playthrough until the major patches have happened.
I've not had any characters talking about stuff that hadn't happened etc. and I'm just about to go into the finale.
Two minor things: If there's a character in camp you've not talked to in a while, you can't talk to them about current events, you have to go through the previous ones and possibly click on them several times to do that.
And some questions/tell character about x lines keep appearing despite you having talked about it already.
Only one side quest broke for me: Dribbles the Clown and according to forums and reddit, that's an issue across the board.
What happens is that apparently if you don't do things in the "correct" order and one thing in a specific way and despite having all the items required in your inventory, your quest giver won't talk to you. However, it's a minor one and you're just missing out on the item reward. It is, however, also a rather tedious one as you need to search all Act 3 locations for the items without any quest markers to help.
Also, I truly appreciate HOW you talk about a game. I am usually less interested in what people are saying about games, but way more interested in what the games they play and what they say about them say about them as human beings/characters ;-). So, you have my curiosity and I appreciate how much you express the love for this specific art form!
Yeah, I've had some big issues on my first playthrough. Examples would be me failing the persuasion check in Act 1 when Shadowheart and Lae'zel where fighting, and so by all accounts, Shadowheart had killed Lae'zel... but after the cutscene, Lae'zel was in camp as if nothing had happened. Other companions were acting like she was gone, but then I started bringing her with me and it was like nothing had never happened, I brought her to the Crèche, kept her happy through the end of the game, etc.
The other example was how, after I saved Nightsong, Shadowheart was supposed to get a big reveal... but it never came... I tried to spend several nights in camp hoping it would happen... and then out of nowhere, later in Act 3, Shadowheart surprised me with some noticeable cosmetic change, at first I thought it was a texture glitch. I picked up quickly on what I missed, but I was a little miffed.
Overall, still the best game I've played in a while, but yeah, it had some issues.
Act 1 and Act 2 were fantastic. It's a shame that Act 3 is in a rough state. I'm loving the game and Act 3 does have some really awesome moments so far but I can't help but feel like it's a shell of what it's supposed to be. It feels rushed compared to the previous acts and I hope Larian restores some of the alleged cut content and bugs (like not being able to get SH's romance ending scene) in Act 3.. I also hope they fix Minthara's romance soon as it's been confirmed by Larian that it's bugged out and not cut content. It being bugged is the main reason why I'm not doing an evil playthrough anytime soon.
Yea sadly Minthara's story is pretty much completely broken atm and the complete fix will most likely require an entirely new save file. It's pretty sad because I did 2 playthroughs, my romance choices was Karlach for good and Minthara for Evil... both of which are a buggy mess. (Karlach's ending is locked into failstates due to the cut content: Avernus and Uppercity were cut last minute meanwhile Minthara feels more like a Hireling than a Companion)
yeah no reactions mostly, consequences are almost irrelevant, ending is really disappointing, I don't want all cut content added but I'd like the ending be more meaningful and companion interaction more substantial
Where did they confirm that Minthara is bugged?
I was lucky . . . I got SH's romance ending scene . . . it was really nice and finished off my story perfectly. But Act 3 does have quite a few continuity errors
Wow. So that’s why there was no mention of marrying SH at the end? A bug? That is the only thing that struck me as weird at the end.
So far I've mostly enjoyed playing BG3 with only a few issues (besides needing to reset every few hours from memory leak).
I would LOVE to have the option to setup ambushes like you could with other D&D games, I know its not a pause style game but it would be nice to have an ambush option because that actually kinda makes sense for combat and gives a few more options for playstyle. It was really fun moving characters around into positions, trying to coordinate planned attacks to take down groups/individuals as a team, almost like you were making a plan and signals to do it. As it is now you can't have all of your party attacking at the same time and if they are in view after an attack they have to roll for initiative ruining any type of ambush or setting up some kind of trap within the rules of D&D. BG1, BG2, Neverwinter Nights, etc. all allowed you to do this in a way and I loved that aspect personally.
The camera movement does also need some work as its very easy to get into a fight where you basically can't target an enemy because of verticality and not being able to pan the camera up & down or getting it stuck behind some other map element.
And a bit less gameplay thing, it would be nice if Larian replaced the sex deprived furry from their writing staff. If you MUST have "romance" options in your mostly fighting game, flesh it out some and make the "relationships" feel far more real and purposeful. As it is it feels as though they just wanted to make it so you can bang other characters, there is no relationship just how quick you can have sex with them when resting, it doesn't really effect your game and serves very little purpose. And thats not even delving into the disturbing parts to it that cross every reasonable bounds even in the D&D universe.
really interesting thoughts on different acts. I will definitely wait and I am glad I watched this before jumping in. thanks Cohh!
I mean if this type of game is something you enjoy, don't wait. it is still amazing. But if this is a far stretch for you, waiting might be a good idea.
@@CMAC.1483 why not wait if you enjoy this type of game? not like they gonna pull it of the market again or it's somehow worse in the future? If you have no trouble waiting why not give yourself the best experience the game can offer
wait then, my comment was simply to say it is not a bad game now by any stretch of the imagination lol.@@franchstar1
Go for it and play. First two acts are 10/10.
Same. Was on the fence, had heard from friend and forums that Act 3 was.. rough, but still good. But now that I saw Cohs thoughts about Act 3, then I am more than happy to wait a few months or for the inevitable "Definitive Edition with all the cut content and brand new content" that Larian literally always make and for cheaper too.
"by Act 3 I was constantly looking behind my back for things that were missing" This is THE perfect way to put it. When the immersion starts to break even a little bit, your gameplay gets poisoned very quickly. Where previously everything seemed so in place, even too good to be true, now you start discovering some faults, and you even start imagining things. "Wait, is this really how this was supposed to happen?" or "Hmm, I think this was the perfect opportunity for this character to speak up, I wonder if its bugged or if Im overthinking it". But even with that said, I personally was pleasantly surprised by Act 3. I was preparing for the worst, hearing this and that. The increasing demands on my already old system, the talk about loose narrative ends and cut content etc. I readied myself to just soldier through it, but in reality I enjoyed the hell out of all the quests the city introduced, and the whole area just didn't seem to end. I'm about to confront the brain, about 110 hours in and I'm almost perfectly content, and awaiting my next playtrough - altho I don't think anything can top the first experience of the Dark Urge story.
The magic disappeared in act 3 for me as well. Definitely feels the narrative needs another draft or two to tighten things up. Companions, who are so marvellously realized, became distractingly quiet for me.
Fingers crossed Larian sticks with it. This game can be an industry crown jewel if properly finished.
I mean, it already is an industry crown jewel, even with Act 3 problems.
I enjoyed act 3 a lot tbh. I beat the game in tactician and now I'm running a regular playthough and I am loving not having to save scum!
Huh? It wasn't a finished game after all!
Companions are marvellously realized!?? Companions and relationships are IMO the weakest point of the game by They're all characters straight from a 2023 US agenda. Let me not get started on the ultra horny saved demigod whose only line is begone I wish to adore her😂😂
and when Astarion whose a jackass is the best character something is dreadfully wrong
Thanks for the honest and complete review. Ive purchased the deluxe edition and can't wait to see what Larian ends up delivering from now to Definitive Edition. They already released a giant patch and fixed a ton of these issues.
I'm a few hours into Act 3 and 100% agree. It was also a similar story when I played the first Divinity Original Sin; it was absolutely phenomenal and offered freedom of what to do right until you needed a set number of resources to proceed. I had to go over the entire map trying to figure out what I needed to get through. I hear that was also revamped in a definitive edition, but haven't gone back.
I have been playing games since the early 80s, and this is one of my favourite games of all time.
I agree 100%, amazing game, Act 1 is the perfect Act, I loved Act 2 a lot, there was maybe 1 thing that I didn't like, not sure what that was and I cant put my finger on it but there was something that was off for me , maybe it was the pacing, I'm not sure. However Act 3, something felt different immediately,. To preface this, I have finished the game once on story, twice on balanced, and twice on tactician. Every new campaign that I start, I love playing through Act 1/2 and don't get burnt out at all while playing them, but once I remember that I need to play through Act 3 i feel tired. Act 3 has nowhere near as much polish as act 1, or even 2. The quests in act 3 seem very quick to the point and not much thought put into it ( in comparison to the previous acts, not saying that there was no love put into act 3) without going into spoilers at all, the bosses are just way too easy, the ending is super rushed, it doesn't even feel like I'm playing the same game at all, as compared to the previous acts. As I'm writing this the more I'm coming to realize that I think I just have a huge problem with the pacing of the act 3. Overall I still believe that the game isa masterpiece and is huge for the industry, but I firmly believe that the game itself was not ready to release.
Well said and I couldn't agree with you more. I am well into act 3 and subconsciously noticed the same things you noticed but like you said 70%+ is still quality so I never really noticed the bad stuff too much.
Great video and I agree with the thoughts.
I'm in act 3 now and am feeling what you are talking about. I am going to push through and finish it - then revisit the game again in a year or two after all of the patches, additional content, etc. are released!
Yeah, very much agree. The pacing going through Act 1 and Act 2 is phenomenal, and then you hit Act 3, and it seems to be all over the place. Some of it has to do with levels, as Act 1 spans 1-5/6 and Act 2 up to lv10, but as soon as you hit Act 3, its just 11 and 12, and the power difference from 11 to 12 is not that large. It makes the entire act feel very open and everything is available after a very short time. Makes it very overwhelming on top of things not necessarily working as intended
Your honest review of the game just got you another subscriber. Absolutely respect you for not trying to cover up the issues that the game has. First time player of CRPG. I've spent 48 hours in act one, just figuring out what I can and can't do. It's been a wonderful experience. Who knows, by the time I get to act 3, it might be rock solid 😂
Probably not, but then again, I don't know how long it will take you to get there! Reckon they will get it all ironed out within a year or so. Most of these people are gonna be on a well deserved vacation for the next few weeks AT LEAST!
In act 3 now and haven’t run into any issues. I am probably 5-10 hours into act 3 so I have a ways to go.
I expect that any issues the game does have in act 3 will be fixed and the ending cleaned up. Trust Larian 100%.
Game is amazing and I am so happy to have been along for the ride all these years. Thank you Larian for this experience.
You know, it feels great to have a streamer put my thoughts into words. Cohh is smart though, so he's the man to do it. I don't think I could have summarized my feelings towards the game in a better light. It's a truly amazing experience that just needs a bit more fleshing out.
I strongly relate. Act 3 has damaged my desire to finish. I was logging in every single day and playing for hours on end.. that stopped when I hit act 3. Constantly worried about quests working properly. Terrified to long rest. Worried about the order in which I do things and bugging out quests because I did them out of order etc.
Really really looking forward to the definitive edition.
Well said Cohh, I hope that your voice reaches the developers and they can and will address the issues. I have complete faith though, I just hope they can fix the issues before I get there myself.
Currently in Act 2 myself. about 120 hours in so far.
I entered Act 3 a few days ago. Gotta say I agree so far on what you said about Act 3. It seems Act 3 doesn't have much of what the previous Acts had. Only just entered the lower part of the city area but something just feels off to me in this Act so far. Act 1 is by far the best one as it has you really exploring, more party interactions, but as you go on the party interactions slow down a bit. Think they could do more on adding some more romance interactions, more party involvement in conversations, and so forth. Though something I do have to say is that I most definitely need to go back as there seems to be quite a bit I have missed here and there due to me not finding them or something. As I've noticed that my level at times is a level below where it should be at the moment. As I believe when you enter the lower city in Act 3, you should be like Level 9 but I'm out here on Level 8. So I believe I missed a lot.
Anyhow, I've been playing a Human Warlock + Sorcerer, which is something new to me. Never played any type of magic class always been a tank type of guy when it goes to picking classes. Though I think I'm going to go with Paladin and perhaps multi-class with Fighter, just so I have that action surge as it's MVP in combat.
They released a huge patch today, and from a quick read of the patch notes it looks like they fixed a lot of the dialogue and reactivity issues we had with act 3.
I’m currently right at the entrance to the lower city. With patch 1 dropping today and patch 2 being right around the corner according to Larian, I may just wait for that before proceeding. So far it’s been a breathtaking experience. It might be the only game with branching story paths where I could play through it again while making the same choices and still enjoy it just as much.
HARD AGREE. Poured 200+ hours already and i feel the exact same way. Best game i've ever played until act 3, act 3 feels really unfinished in a hundred ways, really excited to see the patches they deploy in the future.
Currently on a bg3 break coming here to get the motivation to jump back in. 200+ hours accross multiple play throughs from early access and after release (ive only beaten 1 of the big 3)
I felt like act 2 was slightly better then act 1 for me personally. It was because the story popped off more there and you saw what you were up against. I'm still doing act 3 and so far so no real big issues. I just hit lvl 11.
Optimization and bug apart, act 3 is great. Most memorable moments were in act 3 for me
I also really loved act 2, just the whole dark atmosphere and gory bits were just amazing ^^ Some nice dark fantasy vibes that I really enjoy.
@teeman7137 Yep. Act 3 had some of the best moments of the game especially House of Hope, which I found to be the best content in the game.
Act 2 was amazing but I thought it was very short compaired to act 1. I was level 7 by the time I was done with act 1. Act 2 I finished at level 9. I'm pretty sure I did everything even the secret rat quest in the shar temple. Saved all the tieflings etc. I spend about 30-40 hours in act 1 then about 20 in act 2. Maybe I got better at the game but I still explored and spoke to everyone.
I stopped playing (started re-playing) at the beginning of act 2.
Act one was flawless for me on my local machine and GeForce NOW.
Act 2... I started hitting every bug that was missing from act 1. Poor performance, missing items, NPC, cutscene, camera issues. You name it.
I'm with Cohh. FANTASTIC game that needs a bit more time in the oven.
That said, I'm enjoying a completely different playthrough from my first in act 1 right now.
I enjoyed act 3 more on my second run as dark urge and letting my companions also fulfill their evil desires
The lack of reactivity in act 3 is a killer, like companions who have been with me since the start could straight up die or leave the party permanently and nobody comments on it. I just wish they gave it an additional year of development.
I also finished the game a couple days ago and yeah it is a fking amazing game, definitely one of the best game I've played and I did not play a lot of CRPG. However, just like Cohh said Act 3 thou has some of the best sequence like House of Hope, Astarion side quest, the old crew, etc... my FPS really took a dip during act 3 compare to act 2 & 1, and there are quite a few bugs I encountered along the way, 1 of them was game breaking that I need to search on subreddit for answer ( the Auntie Ethel health bar bug ). Now about the ending, I saw a lot comments on Cohh chat during the finale talk about this and lots of them I would say were disappointed with how the ending went. Personally, I think the ending is fine, there is enough closure in the end, but definitely the Raphael sequence took the cake and surprisingly for an optional quest it was so well made with exceeding amount of efforts that the ending fight could use some of them. Anyways, it's been a long time that I have such a blast with a game , especially a CRPG, If you a casual to CRPG then some of Cohh's criticism about act 3 might go through your head during the playthrough like how your companion might not have additional comments on your choice. GLHF.
@@dontatmetillyouvebeenoutside Still it is in Act 3 so I give them benefits of the doubts.
Permutation related issue are tough with the current approach. Maybe AI assisted dialogue can help some of that. Hoping they stick the landing
you have to believe that Sven's decision to make the city "completely connected" hit the third act's overall QA time as it was clear from the interviews that was a massive change to the game's design.
Not just that but they needed to beat Starfield to market, so things that would have been worked out within a month had to be rushed.
Currently playing through DoS 2 with a friend and taking it slow, I love the game so much and can't wait to play BG3. In order to be on a high for 200+ hours, there's no problem in waiting for them to complete it somewhat fully!
When you said that the Act 3 takes you out of the immersion and makes you go "Yeah this is just a game", that's exactly what I felt and I couldn't have said it better.
It just feels.. Hole-y. Like a lot of the things are just missing something. Even the ending is just, "yep that's it thanks for playing bye" even though I was expecting at least some conclusion to me and my companions
i had the same where lae'zel was still alive after being killed by shadowheart. just chilling in camp no biggie
Agree 100% about your act 'scores'. The game as a whole is easily in my top 10 ever, up there with stuff like Witcher 3 and RDR2, but you can see that the polish and attention was frontloaded in the first 30 hours. When Act 3 is fleshed out fully, man, this will probably be the best RPG ever.
many such cases. which makes all the "setting new standards" nonsense even more laughable.
Actually the same argument holds true for The WIthcer 3 as well. Lol. Later part of W3 is just a rush, but you're so overpowered by that point, that you don't feel any thrill to play further.
I think it probably already is.
I get what you said about act 3. Companions don't react as much to your decisions, less cut scenes regarding those decisions. It feels like you get to a point where character development stops, relationships stop to progress too early. And I felt a little bit dissapointed at the end, like.. it just stops. You did it, each character tells you what he or she is going to do now, but a lot of them didn't even take part on that "farewell" moment. My love interest didn't even speak at the end. That being said, It's one of the best games I've ever played. ~140hs to finish my first run, and I want to start over already.
I just finished the game as well, so I can finally watch your play through!
And I know the secret to how a developer can curb your save scumming addiction: make reloading your save tied to a consumable item! I’d love to see which side of your personality won that fight!
After all the patches and the additional epilogue, Act 3 is amazing imo.
My only complaint about Act 3 is that I wish characters had more reactions and conversations in the camp, otherwise, it's fantastic, my second favorite act after Act 1.
Overall, it's my new favorite videogame of all time, something I thought was impossible to happen, especially from a CRPG.
Upper City was cut and all the ties that came with it were either cut or squished.
I'm glad you made this video, my first playthrough was evil and I intentionally skipped through parts of act 3 as that was what "my character wanted" as it fit his personallity. So I did still experience a less of an enjoyment out of act 3 as opposed to act 2 and act 1. I also felt like my character had an abundance of trust from randoms even though I had betrayed everyone I could for power throughout the campaign. Some small fixes and the game will be game of the decade.
I was disappointed that the companions kinda just stopped existing in act 3 after you finished their companion quests.
My dude, their quests are supposed to be the final acts of the game. In fact, i ran with shadowheart, gale and astarion and shadowheart and astarion their final quests were the last two things i did before closing the game out and gale his quest takes you all the way to the last few lines in the game.
What more do you want from the companions?
@@sloesty I mean it's hard to not feel bit disappointed after Larian set the bar so high in the first 2 chapters though... And honestly Shadowheart's personal quest is literally the first quest I finished as I was wandering in Baldur's Gate, this comment does make sense to me as I was hoping for more interaction.
@@tianzhou9861 The selunite temple is on the other side of town. You'd have to willingly rush towards it to beat it + it's much harder than most of the content in there. The endgame quests for companions are all among the hardest battles in the game.
Also, what more do you want from shadowheart? She has an insane character arc and changes a lot, and it concludes with a pretty massive decision that closes off that chapter of her life. There's literally nothing more to be said?
If you want more character related stuff after finishing their story, just swap them out for somebody else lol.
I'm not defending everything that's wrong with act three. It has its hick-ups, but complaining about the characters not developing more after finishing their entire story is wild.
@@sloesty wait I’m not complaining about character development though. I love shadowheart’s arc. It’s just that now you have a well developed character, it’s just upsetting to not having more interaction with that character. Also the fight is hard, took me a few times to beat lol.
@@tianzhou9861 Stories and games have to end at some point my friend.
I'm a bit more critical. I would still immediately state this game is an 8/10 at a minimum, but I also see a hypocrisy in how this game was released with a media storm of it "setting a new standard" and people were talking about how this is the game that AAA studios don't want you playing because it's so great, but now we're seeing a lot of the very same flaws, rushed releases and unfinished quality from AAA studios in BG3, but BG3 gets a pass...?
The most frustrating thing about these bugs is how covert and immediately damning they are. You can play for *hours* not realizing you've been affected by a bug, only to look things up when the game starts feeling awkward or like you've missed something and realized how screwed you are.
In addition to not feeling finished in terms of bugs and polished in Act 3, it *ALSO* does not feel finished in the sense the choices are an illusion. 99% of the time, a quest has a "correct" resolution that provides the most rewards. All other choices do not offer alternative outcomes with any meaningful changes, but rather simply offer less rewards than the correct path would. In addition, the evil route routinely offers less content, less rewards, and less everything. Sure, you *can* choose to do the evil route, so technically it's a choice!...but it's also the most unfulfilling, featureless choice you could make, and it ultimately just leaves you wishing for a game like Fallout: New Vegas, where you can choose from A, B, C, or D and all of those will have both unique story outcomes and practical rewards. (aka gear) Here though, in any given quest, you're choosing either exactly what the game wants to hear from you and being rewarded for it, or picking anything else and being punished for it.
Still a great game, still a lot of fun, but no, absolutely not does this game deserve GOTY, and it should be held accountable for all it's flaws, exactly the same way we'd react to a game from any other studio.
I'm in complete agreement that act 3 needs a lot more polish, I was pretty disappointed to find out karlach's companion quest isn't really finished.
The problem with Act 3 for me is that - without any spoilers - the setting is the best of all the acts and we have the conclusion of all (or all the unresolved) events we have set in motion. And so we need even more interaction than in Act1, and because the interaction is lower, it is that much more evident. That being said, Act 3 world and story interaction EASLY puts every other RPG to shame, and it's not even close.
They gotta work on their UI too, and party members pathing into damage. Ghost them out from potential damage when not controlled would be a nice option though
Yeah, some of the pathing isn't clever. Just a few occasions, though.
I'd like to see some QOL improvements in inventory/item management, too, like being able to select several/all items to add to wars/move to camp/send to character etc.
@karohemd2426 you can. Just hold shift or ctrl, like you would when selecting multiple files ect, it works the same way :-)
hold shift or ctrl@@karohemd2426
@@karohemd2426 Everytime combat ends and my party regroups, sprinting through my own cloud of dagger.
Strangely enough there's a "delay" when trying to loot things in rapid succession too, which ISN'T present when shapeshifted.
My character can be in a different form and quickly pick up plants or items on the ground with rapid clicking, but in his normal form there's this ~2 second delay you have to wait before clicking something otherwise nothing happens.
Not sure what causes it but it's obvious that the shapeshifted "timing" is the correct one.
I agree with your thoughts. Act 3 really got me thinking how I missed the other acts and now I'm doing another run and its a blast
at this point i have 402hours of playtime and i fully agree with what you said. Incredible game with even more potential and a great review/final thoughts. Keep up the good work!
I just made it to Act 3, about 110-ish hours later. I'm excited to see it for myself, but one big (at least, depending on what you put in it) bug I've experienced so far is that the Chest of the Mundane no longer converts your items back to their original forms once removed from it. I looked online, and it seems like moving to act 3 is the trigger, although at least all that cutlery retains the original value of the items you put in! And for stuff like thief's tools and trap disarming kits (probably consumables in general) they all still function as they should. I haven't tested gear, but if you see this, make sure to remove gear that you'd like to use before finishing Act 2, or else that legendary sword might stay a spoon forever.
Still an amazing game, though, like damn. The first real "role playing" experience I've had in too long.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I used Gale to blow up the nether brain in act 3 and he was the very first character to talk to me in the cutscenes afterward to discuss what just happened...ummmm yeah definitely needs some more time to cook lol. But just as you said, they did it phenomenally well with DOS2, I have full faith they will iron it out.
It's not just game of the year. It's game of the decade. I am notoriously stubborn with games and have a very short attention span. Few games can capture my attention for long, particularly in the past fifteen years or so as they've just steadily gone downhill. Baldurs Gate 3 left me in tears at least six times. It caused me to question myself as I genuinely fell in love with the characters (Shadowheart is bae forever) when I finished it I got that longing feeling you get when you fall in love in a dream and wake up, and just wish you could go back to sleep to see your love again. It is that good.
I'm almost tempted to pause my current playthrough, I'm partway through Act 3, and start doing other playthroughs for now until the next patch drops (which sounds like it will be soon?) just to see if I can get a slightly more buttoned-up experience at the end.
I'm in love with this game, and I'm happy to move along with some of these issues because the sheer passion and depth that this game has is extraordinary. I'm amazed that it's actually in the state that it's in.
I can't wait to play it again. And again. And again.
Literally words out of my mouth. It's my game of the decade, and once it's totally done, probably my favourite game ever. I also trust Larian will tweak it as needed and in probably far less than a year, it'll be the *absolute* best it can be (pun intended) ❤
Oh, well played 😆.
What was the game before this? That was your favourite of the decade
Better than Witcher 3 and Red Dead 2? It's going to be hard to surpass those, for me.
@@Tcrror Those games are in the previous decade. Although speaking on the previous decade, for me Skyrim did more for its time than Witcher 3.
I'm with Cohh here. Act 3 is missing something, not the obvious part like a "slideshow ending" that explains what happens to your party/world, more party interaction, the 2 fanservice party members not meaning much or the missing party quest/dialogue (Karlach and Minthara come to mind), but something more intangible.
No spoilers.
At some point I stopped trying to explore the city and did the final boss fights back to back, don't know if it's due to reaching lvl 12 and having my party all decked out in the gear I considered optimal, or that exploring a city kinda got samey (and yes, I did A LOT of the content, like the "side adventure" outside of the city or the "proving myself" dungeon), or that I got fatigued of being unable to tell who was a random npc and who was a character with quests. Maybe it's because I had like 100k gold and had nothing to buy with it alongside having like 12 special resource and not needing to use them for any of my party build.
That's not to say that act 3 is BAD. Some of my favorite quests and content is there. The musical, when you get separated and have to find the exit, Lae'zel rooftop scene, breaking into the newspaper with stealth instead of violence, making the perfect escape from that timed sequence, etc... It just has something missing, maybe the game worked against itself? We went to all these cool places, and what's supposed to be the climactic ending is just a city 95% of the time.
Still a great game though, one of the best in recent times and it's great to the point that I hope it pushes the industry into making more games like it and are released the same way (mostly bug free, no microtransaction and a 98% complete story). Would recommend as Cohh said after some more time to cook, specially if you don't play these type of game, and specially since Larion DO have a history of polishing up their games after release.
Wonderful thoughts-vid as always, thank you! Sums it all up perfectly how I felt as well 🌟
Finished it yesterday and cannot agree more definitely going to wait for a few more patches/ a definitive version a la DOS2 for my next playthrough. The fantastic news is that about 90% of my Act 3 experience was bug free, and I can definitely see Larian being able to make it as brilliant as Act 1 and Act 2 were
Feels important to note that they cut a major part of Karlachs, story, along with 2 other companions story, and one specific potential Boss/Ally. Because in the last weeks they cut basically the entire Upper City in BG3. And that was where u had to be in their stories atleast once. Hopefully gets put back in because 2 of those things can change the entire last part of the game.
I was wondering when I'd be able to go the Upper City. Shame that got cut. I just finished Karlach's companion quest. I only have Lae'zel and Gale's to wrap up.
Another thing to add:
Not just the writing but the voice acting in this game is just out of this world, too. And not just from the established VA crowd but the lesser known ones, too. There were many moments where I thought, 'who is this VA?' and looked them up only to find they'd only done minor roles before. The voice director did an oustanding job getting the best out of everyone.
Another highlight were the characters voiced by well-known actors from film and TV like Jason Isaacs and J.K. Simmons. Just superb casting.
Absolutely spot on. Even unfinished, the game was an incredible experience that I put 200hrs into.
This is the first CRPG I have ever finished. I played about an hour of DOS 1, about an hour of Pillars of Eternity, and about an hour of Baldurs Gate 2 before bouncing off. DOS 2 hooked me for a bit, but I still bounced off after about 20 hours.
This game was absolutely amazing and 100% won me over. 120 hours for a first playthrough and can't wait to play again. I think the cinematic dialogues and cutscenes were the secret sauce that won me over.
Ive never played a CRPG before in my life. However, ive been playing this for the last few days, and im thoroughly addicted. Its amazing.
I am still in act one as I and a friend of mine play the game like a dnd campaign and from your review I think that was a good decision.
All I have seen so far was great, but as with every dnd game taking your time makes it all the sweeter. But even comparing the freedom in this game with a dnd campaign, is already singing it the highest praises I can give as I am a longtime dnd player.
Hope the most important patches happen before we reach act 3.
This game will be goated for DECADES, mark my words. Truly has the potential to be an evergreen marvel of the industry.
Even if act 3 isnt finished and buggy, is it as good as act 1 in terms of writting ? Because right now i just finished act 1 and so far its one of the best games ive ever played i havent had an expérience like this with a game since like 8 years with Tw3, but i worry that the game wont keep this level of quality all the way to the end ? Or does it actually manages to stay this good until the end in terms of writting, characters etc ?
Playing BG3 with my buddies, were having a blast, just finished act1 and we been playing a couple of hours a night for 3 weeks. We play D&D on Fantasy Grounds every week as well and its great that BG3 has allowed our Dungeon Master to come on the adventure with us instead of trying to kill his players eh hee, though he does keep looting red chests so technically he is still trying to end us...great vid chief
The amount of cut content that reddit users have datamined, that is pretty much done yet still cut, has completely destroyed act 3. There is enough material, character & companion development as well as locations cut for an entire 4th act. I hope Larian Studios cleans up their act and finishes what they have build. I love the game but act 3 and especially the ending left a bad aftertaste.
It's mass effect 3 all over again
I agree almost completely. A lot of cracks begin to show in act 3. It began to feel more and more rushed as you close in on the finale.
With that said, it was still one of the best gaming experiences that I went through in.. I don't even know how long
I really do believe part of why they full shipped the game with act 3 like it is, aside from rushing to get ahead of Starfield, was that they weren't expecting players to play it this much. 150 hours in 3 weeks, maybe a bit more, is 7 hours, per day, every day. They may very well have been hoping that the lion's share of players were still bumbling in act 2 at this point and they'd have time to polish the hell out of act 3 before many saw it.
Nah they’re as passionate gamers as their players, they’re not that naive (plus the patching up will take months). It’s just you have to push out a product at some point.
150 hours is a crazy completionist playthrough though, it's possible to finish the game much faster than that.
i mean the majority of people ARE still bumbling in act 2. less than 3% have actually finished the game on steam so far.
All right I ll take your advice. Just got to act3. Haven’t been disappointed yet and I don’t want to be so I will stop. Other big games are coming that I want to play. Armored core 6, star field, cyberpunk phantom liberty so I won’t get bored in the meantime.
I honestly hate replaying games for the intended experience, even if the game is a masterpiece, the first run is the most magical so I don’t want to ruin that for me in bg3.
The game was perfect, and watching you play it with chat made my summer. But the lack of closure after the end gave me a bittersweet taste, I really loved how Pathfinder games ended, explaining what you did and what consequences your actions had, and here it seems so... generic, vague, rushed... I hope we get a better Act 3 in the future, let's hope for it!
Well, we know the fully voices epilogues exist, but I suspect they were all cut due to issues with Wyll and Karlach's endings. Though that is just my working theory.
They should have just included all acts in early access cause act 1 was soo damn good so the extra feedback must have helped a lot. But then again, having all acts included would kinda spoil the experience which isn't the best for this type of game.
Agree on BG3 ... and disagree on Pathfinder WoTR, generic sliders were such a disappointing experience, the whole ending tbf was meh, but the game was outstanding.
To be fair, the current state of act 3 and Endings also ruins thr experience.
@@TheMarcHicks My theory is that with the bugged triggers in this game, such as Minthara's romance, that the fully voiced epilogue was broken upon release for some reason or another. The CEO of Larian himself said that he completed his Dark Urge Druid run and he was given a 15 minute epilogue or something like that. I find it bizarre that he would lie like that so I give him the benefit of the doubt. I have a feeling with a game this big that is possible
waited to play this after the hype and after the patches gonna get It now by the time writing its november 2024. Can´t wait to jump in
Act 3 for me was a disappointment (still decent on it's own, but compared to Act 1 and 2 its a major step down). I felt like something was wrong in Act 2 but couldn't place my finger on it. For the most part Act 2 was amazing, especially the story. Then in Act 3, everything feels aimless, no urgency, the story kinda just vanishes. And for me the bugs, the story inconsistencies, quest/companions that feel cut short or stop reacting. Really soured my experience of BG3. And the ending... That was unforgiveable imo. When you go to a restaurant, the most IMPORTANT dish is the desert. That is what leaves a lasting impression on the customer, it's the last thing on their mind as they leave. And for me, Act 3 kinda spoiled the meal. The two words I can use to describe Act 3 and the ending is disappointed and unsatisfied. That being said, I do have faith Larian will add in missing content and fix problems. I just wish they hadn't left it till after the game was released..
You are spot on with your comments. Act's 1-2 are amazing and some of the most fun I've had in gaming ever. Then I got to act 3 and while it has some really amazing parts (LOVED the house of hope) it also has some utterly frustrating parts and the reactivity that is present in act 1 and 2 is gone.
I'm at the point in act 3 where I can't bring myself to finish it. When I hit the Iron Throne quest I lost all desire I had to continue my play through. It is so railroady and really takes the quest design of the whole game, ie multiple pathways to the end and throws it in the dirt. On top of that I despise timed quests, I personally play games to relax and have a good time not get stressed out due to overly strict and unavoidable timers.
On the bright side at least, I started playing Dark Urge and am enjoying act 1 again so much. I'm hoping by the time I return to act 3 some of the issues are ironed out and maybe they address the iron throne quest.
Agree 100% by far the best game I have played! ❤
Thanks for sharing this play-through! I did a 20 minute lecture based on your play-through to my grad school lit class Powerful Females: Goddesses, Saints, and Witches. It was based on the characteristics that Ethel shows that align with the medieval witch-hunting text Malleus Malificarum, and the characteristics that Orin shared with the ancient goddess Anat of Ugaritic myth. I got great feedback and made 100%, and my professor was very interested! I hope to incorporate some gaming study into future PhD study. Thanks for showing not only how fun this game is, but also that it’s worthy of scholarly study too.
Not finished, needs a lot of fixes, but good enough. I’m having a blast in a genre I normally don’t play. Still going to continue to play and learn about this game as it continues to updates. I’ll take the rough and tough love approach, has that type of charm.
I'm glad people, especially high profile people, are speaking up about the last act and the ending (or lack of). Any other studio would be torn to shreds for releasing an unfinished product and although much less, I'm glad people are holding Larian accountable. It's still unacceptable how it shipped without an ending for the story or companions. I actually feel punished for supporting the game on day 1 instead of waiting for Larian to, once again, fix their unfinished game. I'm tired of people defending Larian saying they'll fix it when it shouldn't have happened to begin with. Larian does what other studios do and get a pat on the back while other studios are held up as examples of how game dev is going wrong. Larian has the same issues, the quality of the game prior to A3 doesn't take away from that.
Im in act 3. Probably could have completed it before Cohh released this. I love the entire game, ive been raving about my experiences to friends and family but theres something about Act 3 thats different and i got to the point where i couldnt bring myself to play the remainder instead ive began a new character and playing that instead LOL.
"incomplete" i think it's a very severe word for a game that personally, surpassed my expectations MULTIPLE times by act 2 alone, (btw i liked act 2 more than act 1) however i do agree that you can sometime SEE the cut content and not so well thought encounters and bugs in act 3, especially depending on which characters you are focusing on, gale in act 3 for examples barely has any content, compared to the amount of things astarion and shadowheart have.
Therefore i do believe that as coh said act 3, in SOME aspects doesn't meet the bar that itself set in act 1 and 2.
However personally the game already proved itself to be, for ME, the best rpg ever made before i even got to act 3, so i could never bring myself to call the game itself incomplete.
And i could never for the life of me tell someone not to play and just wait for the definitive edition.
It would be equal to saying that the games of thrones books aren't worth reading because the last book hasn't been written, or that berserk is not worth reading for the same reason.
The game is by any means a complete MASTERPIECE as it is even now, and i know larian will improve even more but goddamn guys if anyone is just waiting for the definitive edition thinking this is some kind of buggy EA missing loads of content just NO.
That's my 2 cents about it.
Beat it the other day, about 115 hours. It was great, if I had to score it would be a 9.3/10. My only real issues are the camera and UI. Love everything else
jaheira says "protected by your artifact you can ..."
problem is i didnt show her the artifact, i never mentioned it or told her about it. yet she acts like i did?
this is the type of stuff i cant wait to be patched bc it really pulls the immersion right out of the game.
or when you find the boar on the road and find out what astarian is hiding... only to be "surprised by it later at camp when you sleep and he does something"
these to me are the most important patches necessary for the game to be 10/10
you know a game is THAT good when there are plenty of discussions from those in the industry about expectations of games moving forward. Kinda crazy to think about
There aren't. There was literally one instance and the rest is just echoes from the same Twitter thread.
The game is truly great, but there is nothing truly groundbreaking in it - most of the stuff in the game is stuff that we've seen before, done good - and that's okay. But let's not pretend that the game is what it isn't and let's not ignore its many flaws.
Almost half of the game has been cut, there are unfinished storylines, characters, missing areas, millions of bugs, etc.
The game needs a lot of work. But this is a bitter pill to swallow for fanboy teenagers because there can be zero nuance and something is either perfect or trash I guess.
@@theobell2002except this is an EASY 10/10 even with it's issues. Go be edgy elsewhere Mr edgelord
I'm really tired of these takes. If they can't release a finished game they shouldn't be held as an industry standard by anybody. I don't care how amazing the first twenty hours are if the last twenty hours are going to be me sitting here wondering what happened to the game.
you are misinterpreting what I said, Sad.@@theobell2002
@@Stank1048 I have no clue in what world you think an unfinished game with a lot of quests that go nowhere due to cuts, especially companion quests that automatically get a fail state ending (Karlach) That leave a real sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the fact that companions throw themselves at you right away, the way affinity works is not balanced as well as having a lot of events be bugged out. 10/10 means perfect in every regard, raise your standards. It's still a good game, but it has it's issues.
Couldn't agree more.
The game as a whole is amazing. In Act 1 every time you go for a long rest, there are conversations to be had, it draws you in,
makes you interested in some companions and dislike others. Random events also come with immersive reactions from those
you travel with, e.g the random conversations characters have while roaming the woods.
Act 3 is extremely detailed, so detailed in fact, that to a point I felt like I am always missing something, there are so many
buildings you can enter, but the companions no longer are "there", they just follow where you click. Also, at that point no
other new items, armour or weapons make you go "holy sh*t!" At this point the game is simply a game, do this, do that, because
why not, it does not bring the characters' story forward or backward, besides the companions quests ofc, e.g Astarion's revenge
on Cazador, or all the random encounters during Act 1 who reappear in the city in Act 3, remembering you.
You can really feel the game struggling in the end with the companions and decisions led up to Act 3, conversations get buggy,
you can only repeat conversations with them, etc.
I finished the game, it was beautiful, loved every moment of it, but you can imagine my face when I romanced Shadowheart
throughout and in the end we didn't even have closure/conversation, nor a romance peak scene.
Game wise it is 9.9/10, the 0.1 being the camera that sometimes glitches out of focus, ruining the immersive conversations and
fights.