How Larian Ruined Baldur's Gate 3

BG3 for me doesn't feel like I'm playing D&D. Well... it feels like I'm playing D&D, but with a DM that hates me and is trying their hardest to make me want to rage quit and walk away from the table. it sometimes feels like you're playing with a DM who's fudging their dice rolls, or deliberately changing the DC on skill checks to force the adventure the direction they want it to go rather than letting it natually progress through random chance. Also, I don't think it's playing by proper 5e rules... Some things just feel a bit off to me.

For me, D&D works best when the DM and players work together to make an adventure engaging, entertaining and fun. But BG3 just feels like your DMs got a bad attitude and is trying to make it as unpleasant for the players as possible. An example would be a conversation with some Githyanki that always seems to result in a fight that I can't win. No matter how many times I've replayed the coversation (it's up over 20 now) I always fail the DC checks with any charatcer I use, even one with high charisma, and it always ends in a fight that I lose. The law of averages says I should have at least rolled the correct DC by now, but it's always too low. It's like the DM is going "Oh, he rolled the DC... I'll add 2 to it, because I really want the party to be forced into this fight!"

It's just kinda sucky and not how I play real D&D.

People keep saying this game is how it should be done and are pointing the finger and other dev teams, specifically Bethesda, and saying that they need to do better... So far I've seen just as many bugs in BG3 as there are in Bethesda games. A couple of examples would be enemies and party members getting stuck on the scenery in combat, an NPC kneeling with their head under water in a cutscene yet still being able to speak, a door that wouldn't open even though I'd successfully unlocked it twice... it definitely doesn't deserve GOTY.

It's a 20 dollar game sold as a major blockbuster. What a f..... Dissapointment. Wish I had bought Diablo 4 for the money. I really regret the money for this crap game.

The ending fell short and disappointing. I didn't like how they handled Orpheus and the Emperor and how the Emperor switched sides without hesitation

This game is a glorified mobile app with the woke agenda being shoved in everyones faces, it takes more effort to reject all the sexual advances then to intiate them. The game is barely a d&d, theres only 12 levels, no prestige classes, barely any spells, no morality or alignment... mobile games have more depth lol

I think BG3 is definitely worth GOTY but I share the same criticisms that imo hold it back from making me prefer it over the originals.

I’ll give an example, for me Laezel is the closest companion that I can see being in the originals in that everything is consistent with her character and her design. BUT the fact that there’s no charisma skill check when she finds out you were romancing her and Shadowheart together or just the fact there’s no skill check having both of them around to begin with, really makes me feel I’m just in a carnival ride rather than a lived-in immersive experience with real characters. In the originals, there are certain characters that cannot be together in your party unless you’re the coolest mfer in Faerun. That’s just one example but little things like that remind me I’m not playing a Baldur’s Gate game.

After a bit of playing I got it refuded, saying that I've accidently bought DoS 3...
It's like Larian broke into a royal tomb where a legend rests, stole the remains and grafted it into a new body. The result is awkward Frankenstein's monster pretending to be the discovery of the decade. Every time Larian toxic fanboys talk about BG3 they mention DOS2. By that they're indirectly confess it's basically the same game.

Of all video games that I have ever played, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 have been among the top 4 best games, along with The Wheel of Time and American McGee’s Alice.

Baldur’s Gate 3 was somewhat disappointing, sure, but more in the “storytelling” arena somewhat, more in the sense that characters just “feel” different with BG3…. In BG1 and 2, characters that can join your party tend to be easy to understand how to use them, how they think, what they are like, etc. Further, they are not bisexual weirdos, etc. (You don’t have to believe that a character is gay or whatever if you don’t want to. But it seems as though Larian is more suggestive of npc’s being heterosexual, gay, bisexual, whatever the player wants them to be. It’s just a different kind of experience altogether. I honestly don’t want to even pursue romances in BG3, maybe Shadowheart, I dunno. Romance is freaking WEIRD in this game…. Not at ALL like with romancing Jaheira, Aerie, etc.

Larian games are just HARD…. Everything takes so LONG, the turn based battles, etc. And each faction in the game…. So many factions, independent entities, etc. seem very morally neutral, as though it really wouldn’t make much difference if you sided with this or that group, etc. The hag is evil, yes. There are a few other characters I can think of that are CLEARLY evil in the game. But who is CLEARLY good? Gale? Eh, kinda…. Halsin, eh…. 🤷‍♂️. Not really…. I mean, Elminster makes an appearance, and of course there’s Minsc and Boo, Minsc is clearly good. How about the mushrooms? Little bit hard to see how they could be COMPLETELY good…. Jaheira is a neutral character, yes, and the Harper’s are neutral, but I tend to see them all as good characters…

I mean, you’re trying to get some tadpoles out of your head. Some unwanted visitors. That is what drives the whole game forward. I mean, it “works”, but it’s kinda…. Hmmm…. Much more of a dark and grim kinda deal than anything more dashing and gallant, epic and exciting, inviting and ennobling, etc. Weird and macabre, yes…

【Shades Finnish Pirates】I actually love to hear these negative reviews of BD 3, i have been suspicious of the hype train on this game and it's not a game type i actaully like as i do not like over head party fantasy games but that's just my opinion. I think people are making this game to be more than it is, refreshing to hear the other side and i do actually believe the negative side more than th happy-go-lucky side.

i dunno. BG3 is...strange. there's a lot off with that game and i cannot point exactly what it is, but i stopped playing the game, got pissed off with the storytelling, with the very slow progression because the battles take a lifetime and bought pathfinder WOTR, also reinstalled pillars of eternity to see if i can figure why i like that game so much(even though it's not D&D)but i cannot REALLY enjoy BG3.
After i get finished with Pathfinder i'm already planning on reinstalling Neverwinter Nights, but unfortunately i spent a lot of money on BG3 and the game will stay put.

I played the first game and hated it, I heard the 3rd was coming out and didn't care because DND is gay, but it is way more shallow than the original games. As much as I hate CRPG games, the first BG games were consistent. This new game is just a talking simulator with beastiality. The people who like this game probably cry when characters die. It's a game for degenerates - and I don't use that term hyperbolically.

BG3 is one of best i games i played.

I really like Dos3. But yeah kinda agree it isnt as good as bg1&2.

HOnestly DOS1 was a much better game than BG3. BG3 gutted the decently working combat system of Larian games and put a system on it that was meant for social groups and turned it into a single player game. It's boring, it's not fun and it doesn't have half the fun complexity that DOS1 and 2 had. It's literally the worst of both worlds.'

And I agree on the storytelling. It's horrible. It's all about throwing you into the next combat, which isn't fun, because you have to long rest bascially after every heavy combat. In a normal D&D session you do a ton of roleplaying outside of combat and combat is rare, so the long rest mechanic to get your stuff back isn't a big deal at all. But combat is basically most of what you do in this game and most of the dialog is just boring as hell. The companions are unlikable horndogs that push sex on you out of nowhere and by hour 35 I was asking myself why I even have them with me since I barely like any of them, nor do I have a clue why they like me.

If I compare that to a game like Mass Effect where you really developed deep friendships, where Garrus and others were just best friends that would die for you, and that you would die for.... this game is just horrible in that regard.

DOS1 certainly wasn't great in terms of storytelling, but I liked my companions a heck of a lot more, got their motivations more and felt way less cringe around them. Not to mention enjoying combat with them.

And I also agree with you on the start.. seeing a Mindflayer as the first interaction is just insane for a D&D campaign.

I made it off thenship and saved a few companions and it was so bland and boirng none of them are impactfull...feels bad and not to mention 5e how concentration works with slow boring world no interaction i was bored 30min after the ship and cant find it in me to play all im thinking about is bg2 and iwd2 how awesome it was...if inhad to desricbe bg3 in a few short words slow boring and woke...bg2 epic fucking adventure wirh tears of joy and sadness and a sense of accomplishment and closure..where ur just fuckn sittn there in shock prosessing the journey u just made the friends u made and lost the battles the laughs..and u look at ur party with allndecked out shit on and pile all the shit u can on ur main to export him to thell of hero's

This video sure didn't age well lol

We need PVP🔥⚔️

Baldur's Gate 3 was the first DnD related thing I ever played. I am mostly a shooter and first-person rpg player and I was always off put by turn-based gameplay, I now have over 500 hours on Bb3 and think is an absolute master piece. Funny enough the points you clearly disliked are actually the points I thoroughly enjoyed lmao. I loved the storytelling and I am especially happy with the companions lol. I feel you're just trying to be a contrarian lmao

i had no fun playing it, exploring felt so tiring and characters like shadowheart, were hardcoded with zero hit rate, doesn't tell me anything. she missed everything

I’m crazy then

The best way to describe BG3 vs 1&2 is one us obviously based on older of editions and one is based on 5th. They fit their eras of ttrpg.

Loved BG1 and 2 and love BG3. Couldn’t be much happier with it. Sorry some aren’t.

Yep, BG so called 3 doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the classics. I'm quite happy that Larian are done destroying a classic franchise, never to return. Unfortunately the fact they were ever allowed near it will forever be a stain.

I really dislike this game but it is hard to find good critiques of it. A lot of them are from bigots who hate it because women and queers are in it. And I'm both (a woman and queer). This game sucks for reasons unrelated to the diversity. I wish shitty games weren't able to hide behind being inclusive.

I wish it was DOS3. This game was ruined by D&D 5e, not writing. DOS2 was almost a perfect game. This could have been it, if not for boring and limited 5e combat mechanics.

BG 3 is the first BG I played. I only played Fallouts/Wastelands as RPGs before. I have 500 hours of BG3 . Game of the year easy. Maybe top 3 game of the decade.

As a divinity fan i completely understand you. I was excited for B3 because i knew it would basically be divinity sin 3🤷🏿‍♂️. And it is, so i understand the frustration of fans of the bulders gate games.

I enjoyed the Divinity games as a modded sandbox with a tiny bit of story. But it was immediately obvious with BG3 that they had taken DND as an excuse to have the story be even more milktoast, and the characters all be "the same as the target audience", ie a mixture of your average San Fransisco university student who watches Critical Role and furries who play dating sims.

If we compare the emotional vitriol and downvoting vs any fair critique of this game to the genuine reviews, the issue is obvious. Gaming (especially that which can considered peak "nerd culture") has an infestation of the dreaded "vocal minority". Who jump from popular culture to popular culture and seek to change it to fit their own elitist identity while pushing other people out, before moving onto the next thing after it ceases to be popular.

The same people ready to do mortal kombat to defend BG3 and insult those who dislike it... are the same people who borderline started threatening the Critical Role creators when their favorite character ended early instead of being like the TV show they wanted it to be.

Late to the party and I realize this is about EA, so I won't start yapping about ''yeah but in the full game bla bla bla". But I simply can't agree with any of this. Whether a story, D&D game or its characters are good or not is completely subjective and you have a right to your own opinions. But I can't agree with anyone who says there's a good and bad way to play D&D (and thus a good and bad way to make a BG game and characters) like it's a fact, and that the devs don't understand the franchise if they don't conform to your personal idea of what makes a good BG/D&D game. Plus the game only allowing you to be a murder hobo in every scenario is simply not true, not even during EA. There were plenty of scenarios where you could choose to not k*ll anyone/take a side. You could even outright ignore certain NPCs and their quests (both before and after having interacted with them), and see how that turned out. Now of course if you look at the game in the broadest sense, then yes it's still primarily an action game and will require you to in one way or another enter combat (aka k*ll people and take sides) in order to progress, but that doesn't make it any different than BG1 and 2.

Also that whole section about how EA doesn't work for narrative based games makes no sense. Again just because it doesn't work for you, doesn't mean it doesn't work for others. If you don't like what EA is and how it plays, then why play the game while it's still in EA? What's the thinking? Besides with it being in EA and thus an incomplete product, isn't it obvious that there'd be a great amount of narrative incoherence? So why then complain about it and include it as an argument for why this is bad for a BG game/CRPGs in general or why it's a bad business practice (which it objectively isn't since providing EA clearly works in many companies' favor, it even worked out for Larian before with Divinity)? Sorry, I don't see the sense in that.

Finally this isn't a Bioware game, it's a Larian game. Of course it's going to play like a Larian game. On top of that BG3 was released 2 decades after the previous ones, so some changes are to be expected really. I generally also don't agree with people who believe a franchise should always stick to doing the exact same thing over and over again, which is why I have a hard time agreeing with anyone who says something along the lines of "it's a bad [insert franchise name] game". The lack of innovation and new creative ideas is exactly what I consider to be a major turn-off for a franchise of any kind. It almost always causes the franchise to grow frustratingly repetitive and boring over time. Now of course it works for some people, like COD and FIFA fans, and that's great for them. But once again the point is that there's no right or wrong here (sorry for sounding like a broken record). If you don't like it, you don't like it. Doesn't make it a bad (BG) game.

So not just me than..?
Loved BG1 & BG2.

Wish these companies who stick a Franchise sticker over it and saying its a success. They lack good writing and the divinity games clearly showed this.

THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

The fucking writing. The writing is so childish and dogshit. I cannot tolerate the squee horseshit juxtaposed against supposed brutality and millennial, marvel-esque quippy dialogue. All Larian had to do was hire real writers. Abject embarrassment. Yet because it doesn't crash every thirty minutes, it got game of the year. Our standards have dropped horrifically.

Ya divinty 3 is pretty good

I felt this way about BG2 and how much of a letdown it was after BG1. It felt like a homebrew campaign of random dungeons all crammed together. Black Isle's BG1 was a grounded, very narrative driven story about conspiracy and intrigue in a contained setting. BG2 started grabbing things from everywhere across Forgotten Realms, threw in random romances (only Viconia's makes sense) and had little to do with Amn or Baldur's Gate. Weird, because BG1 was setting up a much larger, higher stakes conflict. Bioware just didn't have the talent to fully realize it as evidenced by all their other RPGs so they ended up with big tree and bad guy mage with tons of plot armor. I don't think they're bad, but they're cookie cutter and pale in comparison to BG1 (The original, not the edited Enhanced Edition). Larian is even worse. Typical British fantasy humor like Fable. I'm sure it appeals to its own crowd and its wide acclaim just shows how it was written for the dumbed down masses.

BG3 lets you have much more freedom than BG1 and 2. BG1 and 2 is basically fighting to solve all. The main problem of BG3 is it's wokeness

It's all watered down and dumbed down, on rails and themeparky these days with sense of choice and consequence being only illusory at best. The real depth in video games is gone because the real depth is all but gone from people in general and as the result so is the ability to enjoy it. People's brains have atrophied and it shows in every piece of media or entertainment currently being created.

Yeah here I am… watching the video and you say nothing about larian using the game to break into triple a 😂

Also the kill kagha quest you’re talking about… I mean, the game is out now man, ppl have played it XD we know the quest isn’t actually a ‘go and kill this person’ and that’s it 😂 there’s literally like 4 different ways you can finish it, or even completely ignore it.

It’s really easy for ppl to fact check the things you say in your videos you know? It’s even easier to see you omitting half the plot of this game because we’ve played it.

I do feel bad for you man. You will never get another game in the same engine. Ngl though, you don’t deserve it either…

BG3 rating is one of the most potent example of blind bandwagoning to this day. I think 99% of the people defending it have never played the bioware originals. The game is mediocre at best, with few good things in it. Woke propaganda poisons the entire writing, leading to cringe and ridiculous characters. Combat is boring and super easy to min max, also due to the bad 5th edition ruleset. Choice is just an illusion, and gimmicks like speak to the dead or to animals are fun for 2 times then completely forgettable. It is full of bugs and unpolished. Companions are way too invasive and annoying, with some of them really written in a bad way just to tick the esg boxes. A very long shot from the originals.

This probably the dumbest take I’ve ever heard.

You have shitass taste and takes, its ok
Go play marbles its more for you

The only way to play this trash game is to remove all the DEI characters with your sword until the game crashes.

Unsubtle political messaging that leans a certain way. There is an interaction with a nobleman complaining about refugees living in his house; your only real options are to side with the squatters. In another instance, a citizen is complaining about refugees crowding his city; your only options are to side against him or leave. No joke. In those instances, there are no options (dialogue or otherwise) for evil characters, jerks or those Good-Aligned characters with a different sort of morality/different approach to these problems. In the original Baldur's Gate games, you could play a selfish/self-interested sort; BioWare wasn't trying to moralize to customers. Did I mention that Tieflings are treated as though they are a stand-in for real-life minorities (i.e., humans in funny suits)?

The whole game has this weird twenty-first century Western nation feel. You can be broadly evil (that is to say, engage in murder against sentient beings for bloodlust or the acquisition of power), but you cannot be anti-refugee. You cannot be anti-Tiefling. You can't even be biased against other races (and when I say races, I mean actual fantasy races such as the notoriously expansionist Githyanki or the unambiguously wicked Drow). You cannot be anti-h sexuality or b sexuality (you cannot even comment on what would be a bizarre sexuality to a medieval individual). You cannot be anti-gender disorder (and, again, you cannot even comment on these oddities).

In essence, BG3 is a fantasy theme park chock full of people pulled from contemporary coffee shops and Renaissance fairs.

Um... A years later after, this game became one of the most renowned games of the century LMAO 😂

larian games: we made a map, theres npcs on it, some will be hostile
player: so if i just kill everyone is that ok?
larian: yeah who cares theres not really any consequences for what you do

i mean before moving from one act to another its in your best interest to, complete every side quest known to man for xp, steal everything u can from npcs, murder them for more xp, and anyone else who is on the map, kill them, then move on to next act
at least in div2 this seems to have no consequence tho in bg3 i guess it could turn things differently but no matter what you do your final fight is always with the same final boss so kinda limp writing imo. they say you can choose evil and become tyrant but you cant, even if you could the game just rolls credits after you make that choice so whats it matter

the replayability of bg3:
oh wouldnt it be kooky to cut off this one companions head at the start of the game instead of helping them and romancing them?
kooky! also this time im playing as a noble paladin, thats so kooky! obviously cutting off my companions head is the morally right choice! ;D

i agree about the early access thing. so here i am waited a year or so after release to play the game, thinking enough people are saying good things ok ill try it
first issue, its stilllll 60 bucks, why is it so expensive after a year
then i realize they are STILL patching the game, i think the next patch is scheduled pretty near the time of this post, patch 8 i think?
so heres what its like for me, i play game, get lost, look up guide, find way to solve problem, doesnt work
look it up, oh guess what, thats been PATCHED OUT
so half the info you look for the game is now WRONG
so like ive never been in a position where im looking up a guide andthe guide is also wrong, but it used to be right, and with the thousands and thousands of videos about how to play bg3 u dont know which of them are accurate!!! its like the biggest mess ever! imo if you made your game, and someone finds out how to do infinite gold glitch, you just leave that in, discourage people from abusing the game because guess what only the players who WANT to cheat are going to cheat. which being mostly single player game anyway, who cares! besides, they might just install a mod to let them cheat so what are you fixing larien?? fix the LAG in act 3 if you want to patch something jfc

what i want to do in the game: set up a party who works strategically to take down enemies, and then play test different battles and see what i like the best, and then potentially get lost in the combat and creation of new strategies.

the game instead: 6 hours of drama leading to one fight, which now i have leveld up so much and found so much different gear i have no idea how my party is going to function. then 6 more hours of drama leading to one fight where now i have lvd again a few times and found lots of gear and... when do i get to battle? oh i have to be a murder hobo if i just want to battle? and there is a limited amount of npcs to fight... and some most are innocent people that make you feel bad inside if you just attack them for no reason?

man i never thought it needed to be said but BRING BACK RANDOM BATTLES jfc not every thing needs exposition xD

the veilguard is the natural result to positive opinions on bg3 imo fans went too hard supporting bg3 ignored the bad parts which led to the creation of veilguard, its clear what direction games are going in , starfield>bg3>veilguard>whats next? its not gonna be good. they said bg3 would revolutionize rpgs and they were right but for the wrong reasons, game devs just took what happened with the success of bg3 as a pass to put out whatever toxic pulling a barv, excuse me im nonbinary, crap they can think up

As a 25+ years old person, I can say the one thing - this "game" received a very positive reviews only because the main target audience (zoomers, Divinity fans, Critical Role fans) haven't played the true CRPG games like Neverwinter Nights 2, Planescape: Torment and old Fallout games made by Black Isle, or even haven't played the Pathfinder games from Owlcat, which I consider the true Baldur's Gate' successor. They are obsessed with romances, good graphics and they don't care about good plot, good lore and bg3 fans are very hostile to the everyone who dare to say anything bad about "goty 2023", even if you provide evindences for your words.
P.S. Support Vince D. Weller and buy Iron Tower Studio' games, The Age of Decadence and Colony Ship. Because this game developer on the vedge of bankruptcy.