Baldur's Gate 3: developed by Larian Studios

[Sly Boots]

I'll post some thoughts on act 1, since a few people seem to be coming to the end of it. I'll not reference the Grymforge or the mountain pass yet.

Spoiler

I can't think of a better (or larger) opening act to an RPG, to the extent that it could easily have been sold as a full-priced game in its own right.

I played as a good-natured, legally-flexible bard, and most of my choices involved smooth-talking my way into (or out of) things wherever possible. I talked Khaga down from child murder, I tricked my way into the goblin camp and I convinced the camp bosses that I was working for them, right up until the point where I killed them all. The only trouble was seeing all the options for an evil / jerk playthrough, because that looks like a lot of fun. My only truly dastardly deed in act 1 was killing the owlbear in the cave and then putting the cub out of its misery because I somehow missed the opportunity to adopt it (as I've since discovered is possible). I also apparently missed that the drow boss Minthara can join the party, though I expect that requires attacking the grove. I instead rescued Halsin, restored balance to the grove and helped the tiefling refugees wherever I could.

The highlight for me was undoubtedly Auntie Ethel. The atmosphere of pure malice and peril beyond what my party could probably handle was intense, but Ethel's spirited performance sells the whole thing perfectly. I ended up killing her in a very difficult fight and saving Mayrina, but I failed to convince her to leave her dead husband alone. Instead, I raised his corpse as a zombie to try and prove to her that he was nothing but a husk, which resulted in her trotting off to Baldur's Gate with her shambling husband in tow. Whoops.

Out of my party members, I mostly stuck with Shadowheart (my romance), Karlach and Gale. Karlach was by far the MVP, able to turn around even the most desperate of fights with some determined rage-smashing. The character arcs are all superb, though as mentioned previously, I wish the conversation options had a more overt 'this is meant to be flirting' warnings. Everyone - EVERYONE - had a moment where I'd been asked what I thought was a reasonable and platonic question which then led to them being snippy with me for having apparently led them on. I swear one of them was Gale asking if I wanted to go somewhere quiet to talk in the middle of a rowdy party with the tieflings, which in no way suggested to me that I'd be dragged immediately into a romantic starlit picnic where he wanted to feel me up.

Ironically, despite Lae'zel being generally a piece of work to talk to, she was the most accepting of the bunch when rebuffed, with the conversation amounting to "Wanna rut?" "Nah." "Fair enough."

Owlbear:

Spoiler

It's not actually that cub that you adopt (at least in my playthrough, where I spared the mother), for me it was the one the goblins are keeping captive at their camp. I spoke to it with the speak with animals spell (true to Larian a near-essential skill lol) and offered it a place in my camp. It said it was too scared to leave with the goblins there, but after wiping them out it didn't appear in my camp for a few more long rests. After an aborted attempt (scripted I think), it settled in there full-time.

[Wrathbone]

I must have missed that, or accidentally obliterated it with a stray fireball.

[Sly Boots]

Finally made it to Act 2!

[Wrathbone]

I wasn't as sure about act 2 at first, but in retrospect I think it might be my favourite section of the game. Some truly outstanding moments. Hurry up, I want to talk about them!

[Sly Boots]

I'm a little restricted by filming for my channel, it's hard to only play an hour a day! Although tbf most days I film a couple and have already pre-recorded episodes into next month

[Raid]

I just haven't found the time to play all that much. I'm off for the next couple of weeks after this one though, so I'm planning on catching up a bit!

[Sly Boots]

I'm seriously considering starting a second playthrough to run alongside to scratch the itch of playing when not filming - maybe a Dark Urge evil run

[Raid]

I already have my second playthrough party decided and I haven't even finished act 1 with my first.

[Wrathbone]

I'm seriously considering starting a second playthrough to run alongside to scratch the itch of playing when not filming - maybe a Dark Urge evil run

I'm definintely going evil in my second run (after Starfield and Cyberpunk), but from what I've seen of the Dark Urge it's the full on murder-spree psycho type of evil. I was thinking of a more devious, spiteful jerk brand of evil. Like Blackadder, but more stabby.

[Sly Boots]

I'm seriously considering starting a second playthrough to run alongside to scratch the itch of playing when not filming - maybe a Dark Urge evil run

I'm definintely going evil in my second run (after Starfield and Cyberpunk), but from what I've seen of the Dark Urge it's the full on murder-spree psycho type of evil. I was thinking of a more devious, spiteful jerk brand of evil. Like Blackadder, but more stabby.

I'm looking forward to the jarring dissonance of disgusting every party member with my horrific actions, before they subsequently continually throw themselves at me whenever we camp

[Hatredsheart]

Anybody else picturing Tim Curry every time they hear Astarion's voice?

[Hatredsheart]

https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/baldu ... ow-issues/

[Sly Boots]

Loving the game, but

Early Act 2 spoilers:

Spoiler

That fight at the Last Light Inn is a bit unfair, you aren't really given any indication that a) the fight would end when the particularly non-tanky NPC was knocked out or b) the consequences of that happening would be so dire. What makes it worse is that ALL the enemies prioritise attacking her. Fortunately my class (gloom stalker) tends to roll high initiative so could act first, and the only way I could win the fight was to immediately use the scroll of banishment I'd found on Marcus (65% chance to succeed, managed it on my third attempt), which gave the rest of my allies a chance to engage and thin out the rest of the enemies a bit. Using Shadowheart to then put a sanctuary spell on Isobel also helped, as enemies would then attack other targets.

So it is doable if you know what you're doing and what to expect, but I would estimate that 99% of players lose that fight first time round, which in turn means failing a bunch of quests, killing friendly NPCs you'd built relationships with in Act 1 and losing two high-tier merchants with really good gear for sale.

Last complaint on this, the game didn't autosave before the fight (generally the autosaves when you're entering areas with combat are pretty regular), so I had to redo everything I'd done in the inn up to that point. When you speak to Isobel there's no reason to expect a fight at all, let alone one with the above difficulty and punishing results for failure, so again I'd guess most people didn't think to save prior to that encounter.

[Wrathbone]

Regarding that fight:

Spoiler

I got my arse handed to me on the first attempt, but on the second attempt I got super lucky. My entire party got really high initiatives, so I hasted Karlach and with a couple of crits she practically took down Marcus by herself on round 1. Then Sanctuary protected Isobel and I mopped up the remaining enemies.

Thematically I loved it and found it an incredibly tense fight, but I didn’t realise that losing Isobel had such dire consequences. I assumed there would be some way of rescuing her.

[Alan]

I was just about to bitch about the Larian launcher (I mean, whyyy?) but there’s a command to skip the launcher so I’ll let them off.


But still, whyyyyyy?



Anyway. Excited to get started!