kisui is Reviewing Baldur's Gate 3
Heya, it's been a while. I've been busy with real life! But with games too! I have finished several games in the recent months. So there will be some rapid fire reviews! Fortunately, no rants! Most of the games have been good! But let's start with one of the famous ones!
Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the most famous games in recent year. Winning several awards, even Game of the Year. I believe it deserves all the awards its receive. It's well polished, has great delivery, long lasting gameplay, and heroic story line. It deserves all the love you can give, but at the same time, the flaw can be apparent after spending some time playing the game.
The game is based on Dungeons & Dragons 5e, a popular TTRPG (Tabletop Role Playing Games) that has gained massive popularity in recent years (it has a movie that did not flop!). I, myself, have been a player of the system since its early days and even its predecessor (D&D 4e and 3.5e). So I came to the game as veteran of the system even though it is my first time playing Baldur's Gate 3.
While the game is one of the more mainstream one, games based on TTRPG are not rare. It's predecessor Baldur's Gate I and II were also based on TTRPG and in recent years, other TTRPG based games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker (based on a TTRPG campaign set with the same name) and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous have preceded the game.
Games based on TTRPG are renown for it's entry barrier. Because the base of the system is... math and rules. Unlike most games likes JRPG which hides their rules from you. TTRPG games expect you to have a handy knowledge of them to master the system. One who masters the rules can create a fully overpowered team that is able to "one shot" even the most difficult bosses. Meanwhile, people who are struggling with the rules would have difficulty even in normal combat. For Baldur's Gate, they really try to ease new players with simplification of many things. I would say Baldur's Gate 3 is much easier for new player than Pathfinder games series (also due to the base system), but Baldur's Gate also offer less satisfying gameplay for veteran player. I will talk about this later in detailed review.
While each TTRPG system has their own uniqueness, if you played TTRPG, you would understand its basic concept, easily. For those who are new with the system or new to TTRPG, I would suggest starting at story difficulty. If you have played several TTRPG extensively, I would suggest starting at Tactician difficulty. Even at that, I would still think the game is not that hard (might be because I played D&D 5e extensively so I know almost everything about it).
Overall, the game is great! I would recommend it to everyone. For non TTRPG players, the starting point could be rough but it will snowball to a great time. For veteran players, it could scratch that itch but also leaving you hanging at the same time. The game has great bang for bucks especially on a discount and offer 60-200 hours of gameplay of engrossing fun.
Heavier Gameplay and Story Spoiler Below
Welcome back to the full review. The game won story rich award, so let's start with the story and worldbuilding. The game is based on Dungeons & Dragons. It carries the lore and worldbuilding from that world. You would find a lot of references to history and lore from D&D. Characters from campaign books and even past games. You would feel the world that used to be only in the books, drawings and imagination came alive inside a 3d animated world. I played D&D 5e campaign: Descent into Avernus. And this games follows its aftermath. While not centering into the campaign, you could find tons of reference. You could feel your heroic story of the past has find its way to new generations. Characters from the books that you have met before, made their appearance in the game! While new player won't appreciate this as much, old players would find the experience amazing!
For the main story, you follow a party of adventurers who was kidnapped by evil monstrous being (mindflayers) who inserted a parasite into their brain that will eventually turned them into one of the monsters. At the prologue, the party are planning to escape their captivity then followed by a string of events, making their goals to cure them of their parasite. Larger plot would eventually follow and survival story became something else. The game is really great at delivering this story and worldbuilding. It doesn't just say that mindflayers are evil, it delivers them in actions, impacts, and experience. On why they are evil, how they are evil, and what makes them evil. And it is not only mindflayers but almost every enemy in the game. The game has tons of "books" that you can read and give them insight of the world, your friends, your enemies, and even passersby. One of the sample is a corpse you find on a random place, you find something belonging to them. Not until a few hours later, you would find why they are there and what happened to them. Even without additional reward, all you get is a story. But that is exactly what makes this game alive, even corpses that you can't do nothing about have stories.
For your main character, you are given a set of preset character (called origin characters) or you can make your own custom character (and one with special story, Dark Urge background). The preset characters will be your recruitable party members if you don't choose them as your main character. Each character have their own character's questline which give you deep insight on their personality. The Dark Urge background is also integrated richly into the story making you feel like the main character of the game. Unfortunately, if you choose the custom character without Dark Urge background your experience won't be as rich. The Dark Urge story itself is around 20% of the main plot. Not choosing it replaces 20% with something bland and generic. That said, the Dark Urge plotline is really interesting for me and one of the highlight of the game. But, another sad part is your companions/party members are flat.... They have personality and characters' quest, but I didn't see any character growth except "I finally achieve my dream that was given from the start" or "I found a new dream which is not as evil as the start". You have tons of opportunity to converse with them but most of it ended up with the same tone, rehashing what has been known, not a single new facets of a complex character. I think Shadowheart is an exception as she has the most interesting story and a major role in the "main quest" but even that is just a good 8, not an awesome 9. Other companions range from 5-7. For other companions, I believe the most interesting questline is Jaheira, not because it has development but since she is part of the previous Baldur's Gate game, she enriches the world more with deeper lore and references to the world heroic events. The game also has some... romance options, but I found most of them are flat. It is just a few extra scene and minor change in lines, which I found decent but still not a lot of development compared to the bulk. Like they want to put romance to get players more invested but afraid to put something more steamy. They put the options to customize genitals (and also hides them if you don't prefer), but barely have the use for it, which makes the thing... pointless. The romance line and the barely there sex scenes are more of PG-13 romance rather than Mature rated ones. This are not necessarily bad but I don't think this is something to be acclaimed for.
Back to the main story, the game delivers the main story well enough. And you have choices of being morally good or morally evil, each with their own benefit. Unfortunately, the benefit of being good is tons while the benefit of being evil are.... not that present. You could be in the middle trying to taste both world but all you get is that being good pays well. This makes the game feels like a good Heroic story but at the same time it never goes beyond a well delivered story about good guys. Outside Dark Urge background, the game really falls flat. They did try some moral dilemma but the overall storyline is a simple Heroic Storyline. A really well delivered story, but nothing surprising. For a game with Mature rating, I expected storyline that are more raw and gritty, but it is still a decent story and it does feel Heroic in a nice way. I believe this is a decision so they can reach more diverse gamers but at the same time, it could taste flat for people who are used to heavy story (especially as the game is a winner of Story Rich Award).
Gameplay-wise, the game is extensive! Personally I am they type who explored every nook and cranny. I finished the game in 200 hours while my friend who just go through the main plot and some side quest finished in 60 hours. It gives you a promise of long lasting fun, but at the same time the pace is... questionable. There are lots of fun side quest but also a lot of no reward fillers. I found at the start the game was extensively long without good reason, until I learn that unless you explore the right place, you are wasting your time, some of them do have reward but of them are fillers that you will eventually get bored with. But at the same time, if you don't explore, you COULD definitely miss some of the good stuff. It's like spending 70% of your time finding nothing but pebbles 29% finding silver and 1% of finding gold. Is that good for a game? For me, I am ambivalent about it with leaning to no. This is especially highlighted in Chapter 3, where there are tons of sidequests. Each of them is nice but nothing cohesive, you could run straight into the Finale and there's nothing lost story-wise. You would miss a lot of story though, but this just disrupt the urgency of the finale. More-over the areas are really large with more fillers. In fact that are more than 30 houses each of them has basements and I could not remember if there is even 1 basement that rewards you for exploring. So that's that. I would have more fun, opening a guide then exploring only rewarding things, rather than finding 70% filler. This gets worse by its bug, I only found 1 major game breaking bug (but quickly recovered with a reload and around 5 minute rollback), but there are lots of major annoyance. One of the most disappointing thing for me is the achievements. I finished the game but did not get the achievement that I should get. After playing the game, it sure feels nice to get "Thank you for Playing" achievement, but I didn't get it, due to some bugs!
Moving on to the core gameplay, the gameplay is modified D&D 5e, it carries 80% of the system and replacing 20% of it with QOS. They also did a lot of rebalancing. I think the implementation of the system is fun. You could use environment, take a great use of tactical positioning and items. What I don't favor is the rebalance, especially the feats (special attribute that you can choose for your character). They tried so much to rebalance the game it ended up with nerfing a lot of things and giving them... flat flavor. Like removing the carbonation out of soda then take out the flavoring and sugar too, which leaves you with... water... The game also have lots of magic items, some are uniques, but most are just carbon copy with tiny difference. As veteran player, I can see which are good and most are trash immediately. It feels like it will overwhelm new players but leaving old players with bland taste. On the same coin, some items are utterly broken gameplay wise. Have a correct set of item, and even the final boss are easy as pie. This bring us to another issue. What I found are... the boss battles are mostly flat. They tried to put some tactical objective combat, but at chapter 3, you could read their tricks already. As my party is already well equipped, I can trample most bosses without issues. Even the final battle feels easy except for they make it unfair on purpose. I repeated the final battle 2 times, not because the enemy is hard, but because they bring surprise mechanic without any warning that can cause you to auto-lose. Overall, I believe if you go through final battle in 60 hours, the game would still feel good, but after 200 hours, I already have mastery of the game and most quest feels repetitive with different skins.
Personally, the music and voice acting are nice. I love all the music and the voice acting is quite strong. They deliver the perfect music on the perfect scene, and great voice acting at the right time. But again after 200 hours of the game, you would find them pretty repetitive. As the characters do not develop, their voice actings stay the same. Delivering different lines but same personality. Again, some companions are better than others but their lines could be very surface level.
Art direction wise, It was great at first then starts to get boring as all you find is natural wilderness with a few ruins. Although the game is named after "Baldur's Gate", which is one of the biggest city name in the setting, the game makes you spend 2 out of 3 chapters in wilderness and ruins. It was beautiful at first but as you explore, you would find it feels empty. My favorite act is chapter 3 where you could finally explore the city, but at that point you would be weary of the game already. Characters wise, the companion are well designed and unique, some NPC are interesting and beautifully made. But most of the NPCs are rehash of the same clothes with different colors. Again, the game is expansive and alive but at the end of the game, you would feel... used to them.
Generally the game is really good, there are a lot of masterpieces in its design, but there are also lots of lower quality stuffs. So the main fault of the game it its consistencies. For a game that is almost 200 hours long, it is not able be a great game at all points in gametime, and the not so great time does degrade the experience. Like finding an icy cold nugget in one of your 12 perfectly crisp warm chicken nuggets. I think the game could do well by cutting 50% of filler area and 10% of the lesser popular content.
After 200 hours of playing the game, I feel really cathartic with the ending, almost bringing me to tears of joy. It delivered a heroic ending (and I'm a sucker for Heroic stories). It is perfectly delivered. After a beautifully heroic journey with an explosive ending narrative, you would feel a strong sense of satisfaction of closure, but at the same time you would also feel relief that could finally close the game and not deal with its weaknesses anymore.
In summary, the game is great! It has beautiful writing, great delivery, great gameplay, great story and good characters which is complemented with perfect music and voice acting. The price point is also lower than AAA game. With the pricing around $35 (and I got in on 25% discount), this game has an awesome bang for bucks, especially for 200 full hours! But I feel the main fault of the game is using the corporate winning formula. There's nothing unique about this game, everything is made to cater to as many as crowd as possible which is not bad but can make your experience fall flat, especially because of the pacing that can cause you to play more than 200 hours and the quality is inconsistent. That said, it is a truly well made game in all aspect. As much as the fault it has, the winning part overwhelmingly triumphs over the less desirable part. For every TTRPG fan, I recommend this game. For newer player, I also recommend this game. Does it deserve the Game of the Year award? Yes! One of the best game ever made? Yes! But it is the perfect game? I don't believe so.