Itās been one week since you looked at me Baldurās Gate was released. How are you enjoying the game? What are your general thoughts, impressions, and complaints? Has the game lived up to the hype for you?
The plot, the characters, the set pieces and all that: Top tier. Absolutely amazing.
The technical aspects: The only games I know of with similar levels of bugs and issues are Bethesdaās RPGs. I canāt take 5 steps without encountering some small, but annoying issue.
I was cautious about the game because while it was in EA I heard absolutely no good things about it, and they seem to have been legitimate critiques. The story, writing and all that is great, but the technical issues are far from ignorable. It really could use more polish.
But I mean, Iām still playing it, same as a Bethesda RPG. And actually liking it more because itās way better written and the characters are fun to hang out with.
This is really surprising to me. I am 30 hours in, and I donāt really think Iāve encountered a single bug. Definitely nothing game-breaking. The weirdest thing Iāve seen is the camera go inside some characters or a wall during a cutscene, and that only once or twice for a second. What sorts of problems have you had?
What sorts of problems have you had?
- Bonus Actions being consumed out of thin air
- Laeāzel constantly bugs out forcing a reload of the game to fix it
- Buffs sometimes are not properly applied, including plot related story buffs literally needed to progress
- Reloading a save sometimes doesnāt revert states that happened before reloading.
- Camera feeling like itās getting āsnaggedā on things.
- Interactions changing the moment I click to do something. Like I click Loot on a body and instead it starts a conversation with a companion
- the Light spell doesnāt always get applied and must be recast multiple times before it actually makes the light effect.
- sometimes the wrong cutscenes will trigger such as meeting a neutral character for the first time resulting in it going straight to combat as if you selected an option or tried to attack them mid sentence.
- Completing a quest before you actually receive it will sometimes not actually complete the quest (leaving it marked incomplete in your journal) and not give you your reward.
Same boat here. 50 hours in and I canāt go 30 seconds without the camera bugging out, using a skill that doesnāt match the tooltip, a quest breaking, etc. Its still really cool and I believe that Larian will get it there, especially with the pace at which they are releasing fixes, but I thought that the full release would be a bit more polished. I think 6 more months in the oven wouldāve been helpful, but with how long they were in EA I understand releasing it now.
Kinda true about the bugs, unfortunately though no longer reserved for Bethesda games. Played d4 a few days after launch and damn we encountered bugs left and right.
At least no forced online so restarting and or reloading is pretty easy. Iām kinda fine with annoying but not game breaking bugs on such a solid base.
Running a single player campaign and playing a multi-player campaign with friends. Enjoying the shit out of this game. The 1st act I was going into every nook and cranny to find everything I could. After I started the multi-player campaign I realized this is a game Iām going to want to play multiple times (canāt wait for an evil run), so if I miss something, Iāll probably catch it on the next playthrough. Iāve done a big chunk of act 2 I feel though and still havenāt made it to the city which kinda sucks. The inventory system is a little clunky. Those are my only two complaints though. Fucking hell of a game.
Iām really enjoying it, though my sleep schedule is not. The story thus far seems pretty good (Iām still super early in the game), and Iām enjoying the chess-like nature of the battles and the ways you can interact with the environment. All in all Iām happy I bought it, and there is tons of replay potential.
Canāt stop thinking about it every waking moment. I have put off many household chores just to eke a few more minutes of gameplay out. Itās a massive accomplishment of a game with a few bugs, but still an incredible and well deserved achievement for Larian.
I am a little worried because it felt like I had to poke into everything in Act 1 to get enough XP to get to Act 2. Hopefully the outcomes are different enough to make replaying interesting, because I know I want to do several playthroughs.
The second part there is by far my biggest issue with the game. I donāt find the outcomes THAT different.
Iāve about finished Act 1, so I started a coop playthrough with a friend. Although weāve both been intentionally picking different options the whole time, itās still by and large the same process. Go to the same locations, talk to the same people but have them react to you somewhat differently. Thereās a large number of ways in which the game implies much more can happen than is really possible, and lots of ways you end up getting railroaded back to the same place no matter how much you try to change it up.
The XP is my worry too. These long CRPGs burn me out because they require almost 100% completion to get to level parity. Iām still loving BG3, but if the later acts are like Act 1 Iām not sure Iāll make it. The content is all superb, but it seems like I need to do it ALL in order to progress.
For myself, I will say that I have had an absolute blast so far. Itās been so long since Iāve been this obsessed with a game; I canāt remember the last time Iāve sacrificed this much sleep just to squeeze in some more game time. The combat and the different ways you can approach a fight, the different ways you can solve/skip a quest, and the different ways you can respond to companions and NPCs ā all of it has lived up to my high expectations so far.
That said, I do think the game needs a bit more polish. My biggest complaint would be the current system for switching out party members. It is extremely tedious, and the fact that you have to do this just to access a personās inventory exacerbates the issue. My second biggest complaint would be the inventory management; filter tabs and the ability to rename pouches/backpacks would go a long way in fixing this issue. In terms of bugs though, I have encountered very minimal bugs (although I am still only in Act 1).
But none of the flaws so far have dampened my love for this game. Thereās been a hole in my heart since Dragon Age: Origins, and I was a bit skeptical when I saw some people saying that this game is the spiritual successor. But itās true, and this game has indeed filled the hole that DA:O left behind. If Acts 2 and 3 maintain the quality of Act 1 (unfortunately Larian doesnāt have the best track record for this), then this will probably be one of my all time favorite games.
