Baldur's Gate 3

VincentHanna · 24 Sep 2023 at 11:11

Finally completed it.

Doesn't help that I am a completionist and wanted to finish every quest, but it did become a massive slog.

I hit max level about 40 hours before the end of the game.

Hit another bug in this fight. Halsin was taken by Orin. I passed a check to stop her killing him, then used lockpick on the table to free him during the fight. Managed to beat Orin, but didn't get a cutscene and Halsin just stayed as a pet/follower to my 'Tav' character and I couldn't talk to him, change anything in his inventory etc even after a long rest. My journal said Halsin left but he was there all the way until the end battle where he was killed for good (couldn't resurrect him)

Loved Act 1 and 2, and even liked the start of Act 3 but as soon as I had

killed Raphael in hell

I think the game took a steep dive and I still hadn't even

confronted Gortash or Orin

Can't imagine I will play it again.

Rezident · 25 Sep 2023 at 08:57

This is getting sensational reviews, seriously tempted but never played any of these before.

Is there much of a learning curve if you've never played D&D stuff before?

StarShock · 25 Sep 2023 at 10:13

Rezident said:
This is getting sensational reviews, seriously tempted but never played any of these before.

Is there much of a learning curve if you've never played D&D stuff before?

Yes. Its certainly one of the trickier things about the game is how dense the controls are. Literally 100s of spells and abilities many of which are not terribly well defined. But the nice thing is there's no time pressure so you can take your time working out what does what. And most of it has interesting effects so you can just try stuff and see what works for you, even if you don't really know what it means.

Its fun to learn new stuff

Gelly54 · 25 Sep 2023 at 10:20

Been having blast on this. I upgraded from a 1070ti to 7900xt and runs really smooth now. However, I couldnt find any middle ground between TAA and SMAA. TAA was really blurry and SMAA was too shimmery and it really put me off playing. FSR 1.0 is really disappointing too and I was hoping they would release FSR 2.0 in the latest patch but no luck. So, I decided to download a mod to enable FSR 2.0 and this enabled the DLAA option which it now looks fantastic, didnt even need the upscaling option!

Cern · 25 Sep 2023 at 14:03

Rezident said:
This is getting sensational reviews, seriously tempted but never played any of these before.

Is there much of a learning curve if you've never played D&D stuff before?

The thing about D&D is it's probably more familiar than you realise. Many of the concepts used in thousands of other fantasy games, like hit points for example, trace back to D&D.

The main thing where there's a learning curve is the spell system. D&D handles spell casting in a rather specific way with spell slots which are consumed on use and refresh after a rest. Melee and ranged combat is pretty straightforward stuff.

Otherwise it's not much different to any other turn based game, although dice rolls take centre stage. You move and explore freely via click to move until there's combat or conversation, when it switches to turn based.

Cantankerous · 25 Sep 2023 at 15:00

I've reached The city itself now in my coop game. And everyone ran off in different directions and started things at the same time

I'm undecided about the new eves drop, auto join dialogue option. It's very useful and very annoying at the same time.

Part 2:

Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla #ad

All 6 Origin Characters from Baldur's Gate 3 join High Rollers to play a game of D&D for the first time EVER! The team venture into Athkatla with a few frien...

www.youtube.com

CGrieves · 26 Sep 2023 at 13:17

Cantankerous said:
I've reached The city itself now in my coop game. And everyone ran off in different directions and started things at the same time

I'm undecided about the new eves drop, auto join dialogue option. It's very useful and very annoying at the same time.

Part 2:

Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla #ad

All 6 Origin Characters from Baldur's Gate 3 join High Rollers to play a game of D&D for the first time EVER! The team venture into Athkatla with a few frien...

www.youtube.com

Oh man, that video does two things:

1. Makes me start to like the characters I didn't get on with before, which is annoying *
2. Makes me want to play D&D with an decent DM again.

* Anyone tried a long/full playthrough with 6 character mod?

spudbynight · 27 Sep 2023 at 08:51

CGrieves said:
Oh man, that video does two things:

1. Makes me start to like the characters I didn't get on with before, which is annoying *
2. Makes me want to play D&D with an decent DM again.

* Anyone tried a long/full playthrough with 6 character mod?

I've not tried that yet. I've played through twice already and I really want to do a third run with more companions to check out any dialogue I missed previously.

CliffyG · 27 Sep 2023 at 13:00

I'm currently doing the Gauntlet of Shar, done all the trials and got the 4th umbral gem from near the Orthon. The initial pedestal let me insert 2 gems which appears to be a bug as the alter below requires 3 to progress. I have no gems left and can't remove the one from the pedestal. Not impressed! I've cleared the whole place, would lose me around 3 hours to play from a save where i hadn't inserted the gems yet, not sure i can be bothered.

Edit
Appears it just fell on the floor after the self same trial and although it looked like i stuck 2 in the pedestal only 1 left my inventory.

CliffyG · 27 Sep 2023 at 22:23

Looks like going to the creche in the middle of act 2 wiped out my pixie buff and the bell has disappeared so I can't get it back. It's possible I sold it but I can't see it on the vendors in Last Light and it won't let me travel to the woman outside the creche at the moment as its forcing me towards moonlight tower. Stuff like this is so irritating!

Mobius 1 · 29 Sep 2023 at 14:06

Currently traipsing around the sewers below BG city. I’m supposed to go and find gortash, but totally get sidetracked in what feels like a largish city (so far from what I’ve seen anyways)

Edit. Also Shadowheart…

now has silver hair. Damnnn

Edit again - and hours later I’m skulking around the graveyard robbing tombs and advising on how to raise the dead. The graveyard keeper absolutely hates me lol

Cantankerous · 29 Sep 2023 at 20:10

Had to disable the auto enter dialogue, eavesdrop option. It interrupts anything your doing, such as levelling up, tends to get you stuck if your lock picking (fix is to switch characters with someone else and back again) and is generally far too unrefined for when it pulls you in.

Still loving the coop run, only need everyone to be more available to play.

Matmulder · 30 Sep 2023 at 15:45

Finished it after ~125 hours. Act3 is a bit overwhelming so feels less enjoyable, but it's minor the whole game is incredible. Until the ending....it's poor. Massive spoilers:

What a massive letdown the ending is. All the effort they've put into the rest of the game, the variations in conversations, characters, quests, and so forth....just feels like it comes crashing down.

Astarion is just "Oh no, I can't stay. Bye" as he didn't ascend.
Shadowheart (romance) says nothing if you head off with Karlach
Even if I stay, you get a very short scene.
Jahiera/Minsc/Wyll are just "We won, great!" liners.

I guess I just expected more, it just fell really flat, like they'd had to quickly throw something together.

Non spoilery - Samatha Beart does an incredible job as Karlach. Her scene after a big fight in Act3 is brilliant.

ljt · 30 Sep 2023 at 15:48

Matmulder said:
Finished it after ~125 hours. Act3 is a bit overwhelming so feels less enjoyable, but it's minor the whole game is incredible. Until the ending....it's poor. Massive spoilers:

What a massive letdown the ending is. All the effort they've put into the rest of the game, the variations in conversations, characters, quests, and so forth....just feels like it comes crashing down.

Astarion is just "Oh no, I can't stay. Bye" as he didn't ascend.

Shadowheart (romance) says nothing if you head off with Karlach

Even if I stay, you get a very short scene.

Jahiera/Minsc/Wyll are just "We won, great!" liners.

I guess I just expected more, it just fell really flat, like they'd had to quickly throw something together.

Non spoilery - Samatha Beart does an incredible job as Karlach. Her scene after a big fight in Act3 is brilliant.

Totally agree about the ending. Needs major work to make the journey feel worth it.

Cern · 30 Sep 2023 at 16:02

Matmulder said:
Finished it after ~125 hours. Act3 is a bit overwhelming so feels less enjoyable, but it's minor the whole game is incredible. Until the ending....it's poor. Massive spoilers:

Yep, for me the poor ending knocked the game down from a very clear 9/10 to nearer 7/10 because a shoddy ending like that really sticks in the mind.

Some will say the ending was "hurried for release" but this is being too kind. It's far worse than that because it is fundamentally flawed. It just isn't well written or properly thought out. The writing (what little there is of it) and plot decisions are uncharacteristically incoherent and lazy compared to the rest of the game. It's as if they didn't have a clue how to actually end it. Which is sad.

The epilogue needs to be given a full rewrite to give the game the conclusion it deserves. Until then they'd be better off just putting up a "to be continued" screen after the final boss fight.

Reppyboyo · 1 Oct 2023 at 20:24

Im really struggling to get through Act 3.

Act 1 & 2 were fantastic but Act 3 feels like such a slog to get through.

Hook · 1 Oct 2023 at 21:51

Reppyboyo said:
Im really struggling to get through Act 3.

Act 1 & 2 were fantastic but Act 3 feels like such a slog to get through.

Keep in mind you don't have to do every quest.

CliffyG · 1 Oct 2023 at 22:51

CliffyG said:
Looks like going to the creche in the middle of act 2 wiped out my pixie buff and the bell has disappeared so I can't get it back. It's possible I sold it but I can't see it on the vendors in Last Light and it won't let me travel to the woman outside the creche at the moment as its forcing me towards moonlight tower. Stuff like this is so irritating!

Anyone got any suggestions. Not sure I can progress it now without going back hours which I'm not going to do.

Cern · 1 Oct 2023 at 23:19

CliffyG said:
Anyone got any suggestions. Not sure I can progress it now without going back hours which I'm not going to do.

It's tricky because whilst there are several broken Moon Lanterns in the game from various sources that you can repair, I think you need to get to Moonrise Towers and Balthazar's chambers in order to do so. Other magical light sources might be able to get you there. If the game is pushing you in that direction anyway give it a try.

Also, are you 100% sure the pixie bell item isn't on a vendor somewhere, or misplaced in a bag? Everything in this game is persistent. Vendors hold onto items you sell them indefinitely.

King4aDay · 2 Oct 2023 at 08:18

Finally finished this last night. Great overall, but I'd echo other comments about the ending and bugs spoiling Act 3.

In particular -

I didn't get a final cutscene/dialogue for the fight with Gortash due to a bugged spear in the room below which was showing as an enemy so the game wouldn't let me leave combat to trigger the cutscene. So no confrontation for Karlach which was a shame.

The fact that having not used any tadpoles didn't have any impact at all on the end. The game heavily hints that using them will have repercussions, but whatever they were was obviously cut.

Very brief epilogue. I sat back prepared for half an hour of party member story resolutions and got about 1 minute of 'Well done, bye'.

Just generally way too easy towards the end - I hit the level cap with probably 25% of the game to go, didn't use any tadpoles, didn't use any allies in the final battle because I kept waiting for the hard bit to start and still breezed through it without any losses. Prior to that, Orin and Gortash fights were both trivially easy.

Really hope we get a bunch of updates or a directors cut or something, probably won't be playing through again until then.