It’s time, it took me a while but I finally beat all of Baldur’s Gate 3. Between board games and life I knew it would because the game is massive. And now I’ve already started another playthrough with my wife. The streaming issues, hopefully fixed for Friday’s stream, at least once I get the cable run for the ethernet connection. But let’s talk about the game. And read up on my initial thoughts here.

What’s Changed from Early On To End?

Firstly, I don’t think that a ton has changed. I think there are a few elements where I commend what they did also I wish they were a bit better. And I still love the D&D nature of the game. When I sit down, I play Dungeons and Dragons because that’s what Baldur’s Gate 3 is, and they kept it very true to that.

So really, generally, this is my favorite video game that I’ve played. I love some other games that I’ve played, like Borderlands and Dragon Age. Neither of those games, however, give you that big branching feeling in the story that Baldur’s Gate 3 does. I get to sit down, explore where I want to explore, make choices, and feel like there are real things that change in the game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Act III Issues

Now, that isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with the game. And I think most of them crop up towards the end of the game. Not kind of the end of the game hurrah, but the final faceoff against the bad guy, or leading into that. Mainly that some elements of the game aren’t as smooth as they should be. But more so, the story isn’t as smooth as it should be.

By that I don’t mean so much the main plot. I think that there is one element where it really is not that well done. Mainly, it’s a move that doesn’t make that much sense for a character that you’ve interacted with. And I think with the massive branching narrative that they have, there are some choices that get locked in, in ways that you don’t expect, because of a choice made. I’m trying to be vague here, but it’s just enough story, let’s put it that way, that sometimes things happen that don’t make sense.

Does Combat Hold Up?

So this is another little nitpick of the game. Not a major one because I get what they are doing. And I still love the combat in the game. Turn based D&D style combat is what I’m there for. So it’s not really a nitpick with the combat, it’s a nitpick with the level cap. I locked into level 12 pretty quick in the game.

And I get that there is power creep and enemy scaling that would need to be done. But I missed leveling up every now and again. Even if they push it out and slow down the level from 12 to 15 so that you barely can make it to 15 by the end, it’d be fun to hit a level up more often.

I understand that there’d be a need to scale the enemies in different ways. Basically, you need them to put out more damage or have more health depending on where people are at. And the more you are a completionist, the more you need that in place. I am not a 100% player, but I find a lot and I easily was at level 12 before most of the big boss fights in the game. That made some of them fairly easy still. So the game could use enemy scaling and for me a higher level cap.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – The Story

Again, I want to avoid spoilers as much as I can. So this is going to be more general than everything. But I love the story in the game. I think that even with the hiccup of a couple of things either getting locked in or having an extreme result, it’s a great story. And you feel like your character gets to progress throughout everything that they are doing. That is a great element for an open world RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3.

I want more games like this. But I have been watching Neil Newbon’s stream of the game, he voices Astarion and he talks about how long it took to get this game out the door. And that is not without some of the issues that I mentioned. I understand why there aren’t many games like this, it is so much work. But also, I want more like Baldur’s Gate 3 in terms of options for your character, branching narrative, choices mattering.

Let me know what you think of Baldur’s Gate 3. How many playthroughs have you done (my wife is on her fourth)? And what games maybe give some of the same feel as Baldur’s Gate 3?

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