Well, it doesn't get much better than that.
This is probably one of the most powerful RPGs I've ever played. One of the best games I have played, for sure.
And, to be honest, I don't even enjoy Larian games. I didn't like Divinity 1 and the 2nd one was so boring that I just dropped it. I was worried they'd ruin Baldur's Gate. The second game is a favorite of mine. But they didn't. They knocked it outta the park!
The level of freedom in BG3 is insane. Not only freedom in combat and exploration, but narrative freedom. The ways you can tackle the story, respond to conversations, branching paths, different interactions and events you can stumble upon or create it yourself is just... it's absurd! It all goes farther than it needs and excels at it. Even romance scenes!
This wide range of possibilites transforms this already astonishing story into one of the best fantasy tales I've ever experienced. The writing is incredible, the music is beautiful, the characters absorb you into their backstories and things just keep escalating to major proportions. Hell, even the siquests are enthralling. I can't go into too many details due to spoilers, but trust me, it'll be hard for an RPG to top the storylines and cast you'll encounter here.
In addition to impeccable writing, the other reason why the main plot and its side plots are so captivating has to be the voice acting. There is simply no bad acting here. Hardly any bad characters at all, honestly! And it's not only the main cast. The witty vampire Astarion, the complicated Shadowheart or old companions like Jaheira and Minsc. It's the fucking creepy talking ox you meet in act 1, the weird cultists you meet in act 2's tower or even the annoying villains in act 3. It compels you to investigate, understand and finish everything. It's just that convincing and immersive.
If that wasn't enough, BG3 throws one of the best strategy combats at you. A brutal one, due to all the intricate D&D rules, in my opinion, but a fun and rewarding ride. You can tackle each encounter however you like as long as you know what you're doing. It took me a while to get into it, but grasping its possibilites opened up a plethora of opportunities for my party. I completely obliterated, trivialized or even avoided certain fights with the amount of autonomy given to me. But I've made a few battles way harder than they should be, as well. I failed quite a lot, but I learned from trying different things.
There are some amazing encounters and boss fights in this game. There's also an immense amount of bullshit objectives and gimmicks in others. But you'll fight through it in your own way.
Difficulty was one of the things that I found quite annoying at times. It never felt unbalanced since the game gives you myriad ways to complete an objective or defeat an enemy. But some of the conditions imposed, depending on the blind choices of build and paths you choose throughout the game's 3 acts can turn some very fun set pieces into very cruel moments. One thing I disliked is the amount of mobs you have to fight. My favorite combats were bosses/enemies with three or four strong goons aiding it, not 10 characters coming at you nonstop at the same time.
Being overwhelming might be BG3's biggest triumph, but it can also turn into its biggest flaw. It asks much of you. The good thing, though, is that it always rewards and surprises accordingly.
The main story, although fantasitc, can have its downsides as well. Small ones, and I might be nitpicking here, but act 3 was, by far, the weakest one. Some major decisions and consequences around the final moments of the game felt too sudden. There's a type of "ultimatum" given to you around the ending that felt sort of off character and the final scenes after the final boss were a bit shallow. It wasn't bad, just not as well put together as act 1 and 2, I think. I also missed more interaction with the party. While some huge things were happening, all my characters had to say about it were "well met" or "speak".
And last, but definitely not least: this is the buggiest game I've played in a long time.
I've encountered MANY different bugs and experienced a few crashes. It can even break some quests or saves, if you don't save often. And BG3's auto-save feature doesn't show up a lot. I even considered lowering the score due to how many bugs I've seen, but I couldn't. I guess it's a "good outweights the bad" situation. For me, at least.
Baldur's Gate 3 is impressive from the moment you boot it up. From character creation, to the thrilling prologue, clean challenging battle system and the friends and enemies you encounter on your journey. Even the main menu is beautiful, they didn't need to go at it that hard.
But they did. And in doing so, they designed the best game I have played in 2023.
This is probably one of the most powerful RPGs I've ever played. One of the best games I have played, for sure.
And, to be honest, I don't even enjoy Larian games. I didn't like Divinity 1 and the 2nd one was so boring that I just dropped it. I was worried they'd ruin Baldur's Gate. The second game is a favorite of mine. But they didn't. They knocked it outta the park!
The level of freedom in BG3 is insane. Not only freedom in combat and exploration, but narrative freedom. The ways you can tackle the story, respond to conversations, branching paths, different interactions and events you can stumble upon or create it yourself is just... it's absurd! It all goes farther than it needs and excels at it. Even romance scenes!
This wide range of possibilites transforms this already astonishing story into one of the best fantasy tales I've ever experienced. The writing is incredible, the music is beautiful, the characters absorb you into their backstories and things just keep escalating to major proportions. Hell, even the siquests are enthralling. I can't go into too many details due to spoilers, but trust me, it'll be hard for an RPG to top the storylines and cast you'll encounter here.
In addition to impeccable writing, the other reason why the main plot and its side plots are so captivating has to be the voice acting. There is simply no bad acting here. Hardly any bad characters at all, honestly! And it's not only the main cast. The witty vampire Astarion, the complicated Shadowheart or old companions like Jaheira and Minsc. It's the fucking creepy talking ox you meet in act 1, the weird cultists you meet in act 2's tower or even the annoying villains in act 3. It compels you to investigate, understand and finish everything. It's just that convincing and immersive.
If that wasn't enough, BG3 throws one of the best strategy combats at you. A brutal one, due to all the intricate D&D rules, in my opinion, but a fun and rewarding ride. You can tackle each encounter however you like as long as you know what you're doing. It took me a while to get into it, but grasping its possibilites opened up a plethora of opportunities for my party. I completely obliterated, trivialized or even avoided certain fights with the amount of autonomy given to me. But I've made a few battles way harder than they should be, as well. I failed quite a lot, but I learned from trying different things.
There are some amazing encounters and boss fights in this game. There's also an immense amount of bullshit objectives and gimmicks in others. But you'll fight through it in your own way.
Difficulty was one of the things that I found quite annoying at times. It never felt unbalanced since the game gives you myriad ways to complete an objective or defeat an enemy. But some of the conditions imposed, depending on the blind choices of build and paths you choose throughout the game's 3 acts can turn some very fun set pieces into very cruel moments. One thing I disliked is the amount of mobs you have to fight. My favorite combats were bosses/enemies with three or four strong goons aiding it, not 10 characters coming at you nonstop at the same time.
Being overwhelming might be BG3's biggest triumph, but it can also turn into its biggest flaw. It asks much of you. The good thing, though, is that it always rewards and surprises accordingly.
The main story, although fantasitc, can have its downsides as well. Small ones, and I might be nitpicking here, but act 3 was, by far, the weakest one. Some major decisions and consequences around the final moments of the game felt too sudden. There's a type of "ultimatum" given to you around the ending that felt sort of off character and the final scenes after the final boss were a bit shallow. It wasn't bad, just not as well put together as act 1 and 2, I think. I also missed more interaction with the party. While some huge things were happening, all my characters had to say about it were "well met" or "speak".
And last, but definitely not least: this is the buggiest game I've played in a long time.
I've encountered MANY different bugs and experienced a few crashes. It can even break some quests or saves, if you don't save often. And BG3's auto-save feature doesn't show up a lot. I even considered lowering the score due to how many bugs I've seen, but I couldn't. I guess it's a "good outweights the bad" situation. For me, at least.
Baldur's Gate 3 is impressive from the moment you boot it up. From character creation, to the thrilling prologue, clean challenging battle system and the friends and enemies you encounter on your journey. Even the main menu is beautiful, they didn't need to go at it that hard.
But they did. And in doing so, they designed the best game I have played in 2023.