I don’t really understand your criticisms but, if you’re not having fun, then you obviously shouldn’t be playing it. Just a video game after all.
I do agree that it’s not truly “open world” (given that it’s divided into discrete Acts on separate maps) so if that’s what you want than this isn’t the game to find it in.
Exactly. It’s trying to feel like a tabletop game and in many ways it does. Just as in a tabletop game, the Dungeon Master has a prewritten story with designed encounters and NPCs and quests and such, this game has paths you are restricted to. But a good DM has some flexibility and allows choice from the players, and doesn’t force you into one thing every time. (That’s usually called railroading in the tabletop world.) This game is similar.
A DM will set a scenario, then ask what you do, and then reacts to that. They don’t sit at the table and just say, “Okay, the whole world is open, where do you want to go?”
It is possible to defeat the Goblin leaders without having to kill all the other goblins.
That’s the thing about BG3. It really is not on the rails you might think it is.
Theres a continuum in roleplaying games that looks like this:
Story <----------------> Freedom
Sliding in either direction is like approaching the speed of light: the closer you get to true freedom, the more difficult it is to craft a story. The more intent you are on telling a specific story, the less agency you can give your players. Ultimately, “do whatever you want however you want” is mutually exclusive with “stay a while and listen.”
Open world games hailed as having lots of player freedom are generally set up in a way that you’re not really interacting with the story - you’re more like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern acting at the periphery and watching it unfold around you.
BG3 does a truly, truly impressive job at creating choice while also telling a story, but at the end of the day it still has a story to tell. It’s not a sandbox, and approaching it with that expectation will lead to disappointment.
With the way PCs work, even an “open world” game is tightly scripted set pieces sperated by procedurally generated cookie cut locations. There isn’t enough resources to make a fully scripted truly open world both on the creative side and on the processing side.
And that’s not to say they are bad. They can be fun games too but if you don’t want lots of semi random cookie cut quest areas you have to accept a smaller world to explore.
Yep, absolutely. Which is fine! Scripts are how you get stories.
I’ve actually almost posted a thread about that freedom/story thing a dozen times over the years. Maybe I’ll stop the ol hijack and get on it elsewhere.
Ah, sorry to hear it didn’t work for you. It always sucks to spend money (premium price at that) on a game then have it fail to live up to expectations. Lord knows it has happened to me a time or three. For example the unplayable out of the gate (for me and my pc at the time) The Temple of Elemental Evil. I 
quit from all the bugs and never looked back, though I heard it was later patched decently.
Good luck - by all accounts it sounds like it may be more your thing 
. I’m thinking I might give it a pass, just for setting. I strongly prefer fantasy or pretty soft SF-style crpgs (i.e. Fallout-style games), over more straight games like what Starfield sounds like it might be like. Much as I like Skyrim et al., exploring space, mining and battling pirates isn’t pushing many buttons for me.
So I dunno, might give it a try some day when it discounts. For now BG3 and then I’m thinking of revisiting Tyranny.
I don’t want to give any spoilers, but it gets a bit fantasy-ish here and there. Just a tad. Sort of like The Expanse, I guess, if you’re familiar with it. Though it’s still not as much hard and realistic Sci-Fi as The Expanse either (for example, you’re star-hopping with something like warp technology). Let’s say there was one point where I thought, “Okay, this is starting to feel a lot more like Skyrim than I expected.”
I’m amused that, just like in Skyrim, 90+% of my power use is to increase my average run speed. Whirlwind Sprint in Skyrim, and Personal Atmosphere in Starfield.
Same here. I used to think that I didn’t like “Sci-Fi” but the reality is that I just don’t take to Space Opera. Fallout is fine, The Division with its techno-gadgets and bio-apocalypse plot, Hardspace Shipbreaker’s future union issues, Deep Space Derelict’s barely disguised dungeon crawling, etc. All good with me. But zooming around the galaxies, having pew-pew battles and trying to bed green-skinned aliens? No thanks. No judgement at all; ain’t nothing more upstanding about Dragon Age versus Mass Effect but it just falls flat for me.
See now I love full-on 4x Master of Orion-style empire-builders. And fantastical space opera like Star Wars. I am a big fan of the Knights of the Old Republic crpgs (especially II).
It’s the attempt at the semi-realistic that leaves me cold 
.
I tried to play the game the way my character wanted to play it. My character wanted to explore options for getting rid of the parasite, and didn’t give a damn about the Druid’s or Tieflings. And so I never completed the quest with the Old Lady in the swamp or the Priestess Gut quest till a little late. And I definitely got the feeling that I didn’t do it the “way I was supposed to” and that kinda pissed me off. I know I ended up killing the Druid Leader being held by the goblins, I was trying to communicate with him and he broke out and attacked everyone. Haslin or something was his name. I know before I knew it the Spiney Border of whatever was up and the tieflings were dead. But, I did get an Owlbear Cub which is pretty cool.
One thing that really shaded my first play was that my character was a Drow Druid. And that really makes a difference in how the Goblins and Druid’s treat you. The Goblins considered me an ally. Right up until they turned on me and I had to kill them.
There’s really no best way to play the game. Especially in Act 1 where they have a bazillion different ways events can happen, depending on the player’s actions. It’s impossible to see all the content on one playthrough because your choices change the world. That’s why some of us went through Act 1 multiple times before settling on who we wanted to play as.
The game is not a sandbox, but it’s not on rails either. More like bumper cars.
Interesting:
From that article:
A Baldur’s Gate 3 actor says there’s still about “two hours of content” that no one’s uncovered yet, and it’s apparently nearly impossible to find.
I finally went to Act 2 with my new character. Even after spending three or four times more in Act 1 than in my first play through, I still feel like I missed a lot that I could have done. Equally, I’m also seeing a lot I missed in my first play through. The Inn of the Last Light has a lot more NPCs this time around! So many that I’m pretty sure I did miss a lot of big things but kept moving forward.
I’m really torn on the story. In my first play through, I felt rushed to get healed. Go to this. Can they heal me? Rinse and repeat a lot. I rushed to Act 2 and did the same. Finding no cure there, rush to the next act but by this point, I was “if I can’t beat 'em, might as well join 'em” since I saw no cure in sight. I don’t like it when a game indicates there is a timing issue when there really isn’t. I could take years of camp time, if there are enough supplies, and it doesn’t seem to matter.
As I said before, I also had a LOT of NPCs show up suddenly in my camp that I never saw or interacted with. I even tried not to get a few cough Volo cough but he still found my camp. Also, why is he marked as a shop when he has nothing? Or is that another thing I have missed?
I suppose I’m saying this. Even if you miss some things, the game will bring some of them forward as it needs.
Having said that, I also saw a lot of glitches with NPCs I didn’t have. I never actually saved Halsim in my first game but he appeared in the camp. Jaheira died but NPCs in Act 3 kept asking for her. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t finish several quests because I needed to talk to NPCs I didn’t have but I could start them. I don’t think I had many tieflings in Baldur’s Gate proper due to my focus on the cure.
I also found out that even if the NPCs aren’t marked to speak to me, talking to them might reveal or open up more. After a certain point, that got old. It’s like, if you have something to tell me, come tell me! Don’t make me feel like you are a petulant jerk that requires attention to share.
Not really, imo. I found it to be unplayable. Pool of Radiance : Ruins of Myth Drannor was another one that was not fun. Both of them had so much potential but the UI/UX was terrible.
Having griped about all of that, I really enjoy BG3. I would say that my second game is slowing because I’m into things I have seen, even if it plays very differently with my current group. I want to see the endings with my group and choices and get different endings for several characters.
Thanks for the discussion!
I played the hell out of the temple of elemental evil. But it was also the first tabletop campaign I ever ran, when I was in junior high, so it had a special place in my heart. It was dumb, but it was dumb fun.
Halsin can sometimes escape without help from the player. Still shows up uninvited. Eventually, there was a swimming “accident” and I asked Withers to hold their soul for me.
I found that more natural than the game almost forcing you to talk to them.
In Act I he’ll act as a merchant up until you agree to let him try to extract the parasite and he scoots afterward. Barcus is the same, he has one act in the game where he’s available as a merchant so he always shows the bag icon in camp even when he’s not actually available in that regard.
I still haven’t figured out how to properly equip pantaloons as a helmet. I suspect that will be the secret.
I did too. In the end it’s part of the trade-off that @Johnny_Bravo described – between story and freedom, world and video game. You can’t get it right for everyone.
I’m not sure you can get it right for anyone. In Act 1 I was happy to walk around and talk to everyone. In Act 3 I’m dragging my feet. “I’ve got to solve a crime, and kill some rats in a basement, and get some letters, and look in some creepy guys’ basement, and …?”