Baldur's Gate 3
Initial Thoughts on Baldur’s Gate 3
With Baldur’s Gate 3, the player’s task is clear: your mission is to play this game in the most fun way possible. Maybe you kill everyone. Maybe you try to kill no one. Maybe you reload after every failed dice roll. Maybe you take your failure lumps. The world of Faerûn is your oyster.
This post is an overview and not particularly spoilery.
I picked this game up at launch and put about 20 hours into act 1 with a rogue before I decided to reroll and play as a bard, in part because it seems I accidentally mucked up a few of the romance options, but also because I read that bard has some of the best one-liners and flexibility in conversations. My tiefling bard is virtually identical to my tiefling rogue Tav, except they are named Tavi and they go even harder.
The intro sequence goes a lot faster when you actually know how to play the game. It’s a nice intro to the world, and I found the game is good about providing the books and letters I need to understand situations without a D&D refresher. For instance, at one part of the game you encounter gnolls and hyenas. Thanks to a book I found in that area, I immediately understood what I was getting into. (Also: ew.) Speaking of that, the game doesn’t hold back on gore but it never feels particularly gratuitous.
The game offers multiple difficulty levels, including an explorer mode with easier combat. I don’t play much CRPG but I adapted to the overhead view quickly. One thing that helps is there are dialogue cut scenes. I get to see my character interacting with others close-up. I don’t mind having a voiceless protagonist, I think it works best this way for immersion. The player character has 8 incidental voices to choose from (comments uttered when unlocking chests and so forth), and that’s plenty to add flavor.
What this game really has going for it is the characters. The companions are very enjoyable. Each has a nice spin on their class/characterization. I genuinely like them all and the VAs and writing really mesh.
So far, the game has been remarkably straightforward in terms of moral complexity and decisions. There are good guys and bad guys and you really don’t have to scratch your head too much to figure out which is which, and this is probably best for a game that emphasizes player autonomy for roleplaying. There is a lot of bog-standard fantasy racism and the game lets you handle that however you like.
The beef some people have is the dice rolling. A lot of actions cut to an actual dice roll, and you can critical fail on some significant choices (my second playthrough, I rolled a 1 on a check of I think 2 when I attempted to recruit Shadowheart). Generally speaking, I don’t save-scum, but I reloaded for that one (with mixed feelings, since I’m genuinely curious what would have happened if I’d stayed the course–few players will be in the position of trying to help Shadowheart but critically failing). The game provides options for rerolling, or you can simply load a previous save, but I usually try to accept failures in the spirit intended and embrace the unpredictability of the dice. Typically, in a situation like this the developers would weight the dice in the player’s favor (if you don’t weight probability toward the player, they will feel the game is unfair, to see this in practice read the comments left on Solitaire card game apps), and set up a mechanism to avoid too many failures in a row, but I’ve definitely had a few situations where I failed at every turn so IDK. Maybe it’s “true” random.
My main issue right now is inventory management. At a minimum, books and letters should be stored in a codex, because there’s a lot of literature to pick up and individually looking through the letters clogging up your inventory is cumbersome. There’s a lot of STUFF to be looted that, as far as I can tell, has no real utility outside sale, so this time around I’m being more selective about my loot.
There are some cool mods out already, including dice skins, but nothing that improves the inventory. There is a mod to remove encumbrance, but I decided I was better off managing on the front end (and maybe being a little less of a hoarder, RIGHT?) than paging through tons of looted items whenever I needed to get something.
Baldur’s Gate 3: The Bardic Way
“Hey Ren have you played any weird retro games lately?” I sure have but I ain’t telling you shit here’s a post about Baldur’s Gate instead.
My second playthrough bard finally passed my first playthrough rogue and finished the party sequence that marks the end of Act 1. I’m closing in on 50 hours and still really enjoying the game, but some of the issues are starting to show. The game is a little buggy with regards to romances, it seems, and my outfit display options keep togging or untoggling (though the most recent patch may fix this, the notes are like 20k so I didn’t bother to check).
Collapse( stupid post with stupid spoilers ) My first PT, Shadowheart and Lae’zel had a contfrontation/makeup exchange very early in, which made their rivalry seem anticlimactic. This time, that scene didn’t trigger until much later, after they’d had several heated exchanges, and the resolution felt a lot more natural.
Being a bard allows me a Jack of All Trades bonus, and between this and my stupidly high charisma/deception modifiers I get away with quite a lot in conversations. I kind of miss the rogue’s sneak attack, which I used to great effect before, but I’m trying to get smarter about using the bard to control the battlefield.
I thought I was reasonably thorough my first playthrough, but this time around I stumbled across a few extra things, such as the alchemist’s secret basement with the weird necronomicon book (creepy AND cool), making Ethel go Full Hag, and… oh yeah, the Entire Underdark lmao. While spelunking I ended up unexpectedly getting locked into Nere’s timed rescue quest, which I did not like because my party was sorely unrested, but I was able to team up with a few of the dwarves and tag team him so it turned out okay. (Meaning, I lived and he died.)
This time I actually pursued the Nightsong, or tried to, and had some pretty awesome encounters as a result. Researching whether or not I can attempt the Creche I may have minorly spoiled myself and have the impression the Nightsong will actually be more important to the plot than it initially seems, so I’m glad I’d already independently decided to investigate it before that happened.
One thing I found a little confusing is the game gives you a Are You Ready to Go Ahead? dialogue when you attempt to pursue Lae’zel’s Creche questline, which recommends you tie up any outstanding questlines and subtly implies this is a point of no return. Evidently, this is NOT a point of no return, and you can still access your fast travel portals. I think they did this to subtly discourage players from venturing onto the next region too early.
While I’m still firmly Team Lae’zel I have flirted a lot with the other companions. Gale and Astarion appear amenable (last time, Astarion blew me off spectacularly, which I loved). I was locked out of Karlach again, and since I completed her quests properly this time I’m assuming it has to do with my active relationship with Lae’zel. Shadowheart seemed to be leaning that way prior to the party (she gets a little soft in the dialogues if you have high approval), but I didn’t get the option of having a drink later this time. It seems the game allows you to have up to two “courtship” scenarios going and locks out the others, presumably to make sure there only needs to be one “you have to choose between us” scene. The poly romance modder appears to be having some difficulty with the flags so I think holding off on flirting until you’re reasonably sure who you want to romance is a good idea if you’re concerned about getting locked out of any given relationship.
The flirting in this game is a pretty good blend of fun and cringe. Flirting with Halsin when he arrives is pretty funny, because he’s like, welp, it’s a bit early for this but if you wanna get nasty, sure, fine, whatever. If you flirt prematurely with Gale, he sort of looks around and then points to himself like, “You’re talking to me?” but then immediately plays the, “I’m so flattered” card, which had the unintended effect of making me want to sink into the earth even though he clearly means it. Well done Larian. Astarion’s mocking disdain is brutal and I love it, but Karlach’s friendly brush off (aw, don’t be like that, we have a good thing going, followed by a hearty punch on the shoulder) flayed my soul alive both times, it was the most savage of unintentional burns. Shadowheart keeps it close to the chest, in keeping with the theme. And I have no idea what Lae’zel’s rejection looks like because the second she started bossing me around I was here for it and promptly lay on the ground so she could step on me, as is right and proper.
Baldur’s Gate 3: The Bardic Way II
Good news bad news edition.
Good news:
I figured Lae’zel’s personal arc would go a certain direction based on her GMC and writerly black magic spidey sense and I was right.
It was actually intensely satisfying to charge into the creche like an idiot in love, kill the Inquisitor, and straight up beam my ass to the astral plane, all for my secret girlfriend who has no idea we’re getting married but trust me we’re totally getting married. The reveal that V’laakith is actually a Lich Queen of death eating the Gith is pretty cool, and being able to walk up to the Guardian and say, yo, answers? was also satisfying, even if I didn’t get many answers. Voss showing up wanting to truce was icing on the cake. Many would be shell shocked and crushed to find they lived so devoted to a lie, but Lae’zel is all, “I didn’t fail, she did,” and I think that’s really wonderful.
Bad news:
Between Farm Together and BG3 fandom I was forcibly hurled from the BG3 wagon and haven’t touched this game in a bit. The fandom thing was stupid. I dipped a toe in, expecting to see lots of fun fanart and fun memes and just fun stuff, and immediately got smacked in the face with biphobic wank and it seriously messed with my levels. So I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to… IDK navigate my desire to see cute fanart and funny memes of Gale vs. having toxic people aggressively shit in my mouth. I don’t feel like I should have to accept toxic bullshit as the cost of doing business here. I think if Tumblr let us block tags AND a certain post type, like text posts, it would help a lot.
Baldur’s Gate 3: The Bardic Way III
I returned to BG3 just in time to formally end Act I and trigger the second phases of companion sidequests and they’re all nice and juicy. Lae’zel continues to be amazing, and Karlach continues to be the most relatable, but I cannot stress how much I’ve come to like Gale and Astarion. Also Halsan has been giving me the sexy eye, and I don’t mind that at all.
We ventured into the shadowy realms, which was pretty creepy, and managed to trigger Gale’s flirt where he asks, in a scholarly way, if I’m as scared and horny as he is, and I was beside myself. I also triggered Mystra’s ultamatum, which had me reeling. (Meanwhile, Gale, bless his heart, is just like, “Well, maybe she has a point.” Yeah, no, she totally doesn’t, my man.)
Early in Act 2 there’s an unexpected battle at the Last Light End that seems a bit different than usual. I just happened to duckduck this battle after losing, and I’m glad I did because I learned the outcome of this battle has a significant impact on many of the open questlines from Act 1 and I absolutely need to win it. I ended up doubling back to work on a few more quests and move Halsin’s personal questline forward, putting him at the Inn so he can assist.
I also unexpectedly triggered Lae’zel’s relationship confirmation scene. Normally I try to put off formalizing relationships as long as possible, but there doesn’t seem to be any way around this short of not sleeping and Lae’zel is monogamous so my dating adventures in BG3 are now over.
60 hours in, I still enjoy this game, but I have to be in a particular headspace to play and I’m not overly concerned about actually finishing it. I’ve begun to take a gander at mods because small issues like the carry weight limit are frankly driving me crazy, and I learned you can’t get achievements with a modded game. I was mainly interested in No Romance Limit because I doubt I’ll be able to do multiple playthroughs to see the different romances, but I’m wary of conflicts and issues. I went ahead and grabbed the BG3ModManager and have a shortlist of things to consider:
Also of note: Steam Background Replacements