Review

Act 1

Thus far I'm finding BG3 to be exceedingly okay. It has not wowed me, and it frequently frustrates me immensely. Does not align with the critical response. There have been dozens and dozens of times where something entirely undesired happens through no real fault of either Tyler or myself. And I want to be clear, my complaint is not against "your actions have consequences". That ain't the kind of thing I ever complain about. I like when games keep track of my decisions and those decisions do in fact have effects. That's not what I'm talking about here. What I mean largely falls into two categories. The first being non-obvious dialogue interpretations. The other being a lack of clarity in what sort of actions cause combat.

I find that it's relatively common that I will pick a dialogue option and it is NOT at all how I was interpreting it. There is very often dialogue options that I would interpret as being purposefully terse. The character leaving details out. Going along with something an NPC says, but not really meaning it. But no, you just go up to a villain and say "I have the thing you want! :)". It makes me roll my eyes. I wouldn't be against some sort of meta explanation of what the dialogue is doing if you hovered over it. I would rather the dialogue just speak for itself than have that. Maybe I'm alone here, I dunno. But I just find that that's something that happens to me with relative frequency.

Something else that I'm finding fairly frustrating that's semi-related is the times that combat will start and I don't really get why. A recent example as of me writing this. We were at some temple thing and at the top was some big eagles in a nest. Tyler talked to them and passed the "I'm cool" check. I had also just taken a talk to animals potion, so I also talked to mama bird afterward. I had an option to Attack or Leave. I chose leave of course, I don't wanna punch a bird. I then clicked to make myself go over and look at some whatchamacallit that the birds were next to. Combat starts. Genuinely no idea as to why. Didn't attack anybody. I assume some sort of proximity thing, getting too close to baby bird? But we had already passed the "I'm Cool" check so like why? I think there are many similar situations where frankly I would appreciate more of an artificial warning that a thing is about to happen. I'm aware you could constantly be saving and do a reload if something unintentional like that happens. But that ain't fun and it's not an excuse. I'm not looking for things to get completely gated off, I just want a speed bump. I like that options are always there in how to approach situations. I want it to be available. But I would greatly appreciate some small "Are you sure?". There is just so many small times where something stupid happens that is clearly not intended.

On the party front, I cannot explain how desperate I am for people to stop being so ready to rut. I can't stand it. I don't understand why things have to be this way. Does literally anyone like this? It frankly feels embarrassing to me. There are characters I talked to less than half a dozen times who were trying to jump my bones. I found it comedic, and not in a good way. It feels like such standard gamer power fantasy trash, that I struggle reconciling it with the wide critical acclaim I was aware the game enjoyed. Why is it there? It is not good writing. It feels like a dating VN or some raunchy fanfic. "Wow player, you are so fucking hot and cool. You peenor is so goddamn girthy, I dunno if I can even take it. But I want to..." Please aspire to write better. Additionally, I feel we're a little low on good characters. Gith lady with the nonsense name was immediately off-putting. Goth chick wasn't far behind her. Could not stand her "what am I thinking" shtick. William has this weird aura of being an already established character who has deigned to hang out with us little kids on the playground. Don't like it. Not sure why he is here. Gale really isn't bad, but I had little to no interest in playing yet another mage in this game, so he doesn't get to come along. So we're getting really low on people I actually give a shit about. I am sure that if you get to know these people... blah blah blah. But I think a slightly stronger lead is due. There's too many people hanging around that I super don't care what happens to them. Tyler said it well, but first impressions do matter. Ashley and Kaidan are both interesting multi-faceted characters, but 90% of players don't know that because their first impression of both is being standard human companions who are in the way of the fun and interesting aliens. So players swap them out at first opportunity and they get the honor of warming the bench the rest of the game.

On the other end, Astarion I actually like. He's a flavor of villain that I enjoy. Which is: "Bored of everything and thus willing to be good. In case, like fashion, perhaps it's come back in style". Karlach I also like generally. My character hasn't really been able to talk to her any, because I guess our characters are intensely possessive of our bofriend/girlfriend? I have no idea what that is. Where because Tyler is grouped with Karlach, I can't talk to her ever? And the same for him not talking to Astarion. That really feels like some weird game issue that the devs are hoping and praying you just don't notice. But anyway, Karlach comes across as more charismatic than most of our other shitheads from what I have seen of her so she may live.

Combat-wise, I have a general disdain for DnD combat. At least here it's getting massively sped up which is my primary complaint against the tabletop. I still don't generally find it to be all that fun. The thing that I like about role-playing games is the whole playing of the role and combat so rarely integrates with that in any meaningful way. If I could close my eyes when combat starts and then when I opened them it was over, I would be immensely happier. To give a specific complaint, one thing I've always hated in DnD combat is missing attacks. It feels like utter shit sitting on your hands, waiting for your turn to do a thing. Then you get up to the bat, whiff it, and immediately have to go back in line. It's shit, man. I've long wished for some sort of chip damage system. At least allow me to get some points onto the board. When multiple misses happen in a row, that sucks all of the stars from the sky. I do not care if such a system benefited the enemies as well. I would be super ok with that. Additionally, getting real sick and tired of the pathfinding. The number of times it's fucked both myself and Tyler...Something that would be quite nice is if there was a warning on your little cursor where you're clicking to go that you're gonna take X damage from whatever environmental nonsense is going on. Because your character decided that the lava was a much better path to take than literally anything else. They do that for the jumping, why not with other stuff?

Overall, I think one of the things I haven't fucked with in Act 1 is it feels like the game assumes more of a familiarity with this world than I have. There are a lot of names that are thrown out with extreme regularity. And I have no idea if these are DnD names or if they're specific to this game. I feel a bit lost a not insignificant portion of the time. And the constant barrage of vocab terms kind of just puts me into a malaise where I stop taking in new information. Not sure who these people are, why I should care. The game doesn't require that knowledge per se, but given that the roleplaying of a roleplaying game is my favorite aspect, being reduced to "Uh, I dunno, I'm a Greek guy I guess" can be a bit frustrating.

Act 2

Act 2 feels generally more interesting than Act 1. There's more little weirdos running around. And there's some more interesting things to see in the underdark and such. The one big negative I feel is that it's so dour and grim for such a long period. I would imagine that's somewhat the point. Whenever you finish, you get the big sunlight and everything, but this fucking game goes on so long that it's just a bit depressing after a while. And I would agree with my earlier assessment that the game is largely okay. It ain't blowing me away like the critical response would suggest it should.

And I have to say, this game is too fucking long. Even if you were not doing any side shit and just steamrolling the main quest, it goddamn goes on and on. Why can't campaigns end? It's the only thing that I want in this world. But it seems wholly impossible. Can't happen in real life, doesn't happen here. I dunno, I'm just tired of DnD. It makes me feel spent. Our intention, because this game refuses to end or be anywhere near done after having played it for hours and hours is to take a break and come back later.

Act 3

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