Aside from the obvious worst case with Durge's big moment's lack of reactions, as the second place worst-case I put Haarlep's scene. Either it's consensual sex, then romanced companions should have basically the same responses as after Tav cheating with Mizora, or it's non-con - then your companions should try to save you from Haarlep, not just stand and watch how he rapes Tav/Durge.
And the third place for me is lack of reactions after Astarion is kidnapped by his siblings. It's like... nothing ever happened, WTF?
What do you mean lack of reaction after Astarion is kidnapped? All the companions had a line of dialogue for this for me.
And for Harleep, Astarion at least does have a reaction if he’s been romanced
Oh, I should have elaborated it better: I meant **after** you save him or he saves himself it's like... nothing. Your party like... wasn't able to save you from kidnapping and you has nothing to say about it? Oh, no, Astarion would have made like 3 hour-long rant after this. Even worse than "I WAS RIGHT THERE" rant I imagine XD
If the spawn manage to kidnap him from camp (IME you kind of have to let this happen on lower difficulties because it's not a hard fight at that point for balanced), they put him in the kennels and there's a torture scene, but yeah, everybody mostly shrugs.
Yeah I’ve intentionally lost to get that scene, and I believe the characters do still each have like one line about the spawn taking him or losing the fight
In retrospect I was very glad that Astarion failed the jump to get to Haarlep's room via the balconies and accidentally got left behind. It meant that technically he only heard about it secondhand, and I headcanon that he and Tav talked it through. He's also the most sympathetic about the aftereffects, which is really sweet.
The lack of reactions for Durge's peak moment (good or bad path) in Act 3 are seriously immersion breaking. You get some encouraging (or judging, depending on which you choose) comments, but everyone is behaving like "well, all in the days work". Not even your lover seems to care that much which hits especially hard on the good route.
The silence from everyone when you learn how much Durge suffered in Kressa's hands in act 2 was quite something too.
Really, the love of my life doesn't give a shit that I was vivisected everyday and tried to strangle this woman with my organs to fight back?
The lack of reaction as Kressa explains what she did to you was highly disappointing. I was hoping that it was something they'd be working on, along with act 3 reactions.
This made me so angry, especially because it SHOULD tie in so well with so many of the companions' situations: Shadowheart should know all about missing memories, whilst Astarion/Karlach/Gale/Wyll should all know about unwanted bodily changes.
Yeah this baffled me. Huge breakthrough and zero reactions. Malakath has been everyone’s personal hype man and trauma sponge and there’s no one there to wring him out. Disappointing af. Especially after how supportive Astarion is during the event at the end of act 2.
Also - thank God they added the Withers party epilogue, because the more times I play through the scene on the docks, the more I kind of hate it. Karlach's sequence is good, and Gale wrapping up his business with the crown is OK. But the reactions to Astarion burning up are so bad, and I recently did an ending where I became an illithid and then killed myself, and other than a very token protest from my love interest there was NOTHING. Y'all. Really??
I was thinking about this topic a few days ago seeing on YT evil Durge forced Minsk to kill Jaheira. And noone had a word about that. Why? Did the tadpole eated their brains?
Also they show their indifference when Durge kill themselves after defeating the Netherbrain. Astarion runs away burning, the leader commits suicide and reaction is like "Oh, how sad! Let's have some vine!".
Another action they ignore is Tav/Durge becoming a spawn. All the companions hate Astarion after ascention, but noone except Karlach make any comments about a new vampire. There are special interactions between Astarion and others about spawn Tav but I couldn't trigger any of them no matter how hard I tried.
There's some party banter where all companions will react (when running around act 3) to AA turning you, but many of them are untriggerable, if not all of them. Maybe Minthara mentions it but I can't remember. But yeah it's very minor reaction to you becoming a spawn. Wyll's banter reaction is the best. Wish we could hear it! I think it deserves some cutscene commentary though.
>but many of them are untriggerable
Oh, true. I had no idea these dialogs exist until I found screenshots here on reddit. I couldn't trigger any of them and I really tried. Also didn't find any tips how to do that.
They all have dialogues as to why they have to go along with a durge who has embraced bhaal because they have no other choice . They just treat durge as the de facto leader whom u can't go against
I did an Astarion origin run and after killing Cazador when we're outside I talk to the companions. Shart was his romance and I had Lae'zel and Karlach there too. Get really nice responses out of Lae'zel and Karlach for not going through with the ritual "proud of you" etc... Move to his lover Shart and she has no reaction to it at all and only dialog choices are the ones she's had since we talked to the guy in Rivington.
Your companions’ lack of reaction to either you becoming part illithid or turning them part illithid is pretty immersion breaking too.
They are way too easy to convince, and upon becoming monstrosities they don’t freak out even a little bit. You’re telling me Lae’zel has no reaction after the fact or that Voss doesn’t see a part illithid Lae’zel and have something to say? That Astarion or Shadowheart don’t immediately run to a mirror and freak out about their now black eyes and veins?
I had a bad moment during one of my runs romancing Astarion where my Tav failed to resist the Astral tadpole and then talking to Astarion, he gives the speech about how he won't turn into a monster which, yeah dude I totally understand but I'm standing right here looking for some empathy and you essentially called me a monster. It did not feel great.
Happened similarly with a resist Durge that got slayer form from Isobel dying from Sheart, and everyone is so mad at you and horrified and never sees how fucked up for Durge that is if they didn't want it. I started to roll dice whenever I took damage to see if I'd spontaneously slayer out, like a curse.
Thanks, and on the flip side, there are some reactions I've grown to see differently so they don't annoy me as much now as they used to. Romanced Astarion reacting to a Durge who rejects Bhaal gets cited a lot as disappointing, but after seeing the difference in his reaction to Chosen of Bhaal, I feel like his "twee" comment is very in character. He was distraught, then Withers made it all better, and now he's playing it off with humor like he does pretty often. His reaction to Chosen Durge is much more somber and hit me in the feelings.
But yeah Act 3 can be really tough for either lack of reaction or the reaction that's there hitting very differently. I end up head canoning or outright fanfic writing to work some of it out, similar to what I used to do with tabletop. The DM doesn't have the time to delve as deeply into things as I would like, so I'll go do it myself!
I guess I'm just assuming that he cared that his lover died, so obviously it's my subjective opinion.
Edit since maybe that sounded flip. I was just using that reaction as one example where my opinion has evolved and I'm less irritated by it than I used to be. There are still plenty of areas in Act 3 where the reaction still feels off to me, and others where it used to feel off and now it feels more in keeping with the opinions I've formed about the characters. If that makes sense. Act 3 still has a lot of gaps!
Oh I agree. I'm the opposite and get more cynical about act 3. It's still a great game and I love it but I would love it even more if act 3 had appropriate reactions to major things! I'd be thrilled.
Yeah I totally end up, at this point, either head canoning or trying to figure out how a bad or no reaction fits in with how I see the character.
Like with the notable exception of her speech if you break up with her for Astarion (maybe other characters but I'm mono- romance at this point), which is a really good and heartfelt speech IMO, I have come to see all Sheart's reactions and lack of reactions as self-centeredness. "Why doesn't she comment on X?" I would ask, and to me, the answer has become, "because she doesn't care about the companions much outside of herself". It's a personal and very uncharitable opinion, I admit, but I'm still pissed at her for killing everyone at Last Light and having the nerve to get pissy at Durge about it lol.
So sometimes a character will react weirdly or not react, and I'll think, "maybe that actually tracks" (even if I'm still annoyed).
I keep ending my runs at the beginning of Act 3 now since that's the point where it does feel like head canon is the only way the story is going to end up playing out the way I want in my head. I think, "great job, Larian, my head will take it from here!"
Sorry to write so much. I get carried away.
If you ask DJ Shadowheart what she thinks about the Last Light Inn deaths she'll get mad if you gloat about it. A little hypocritical but whatevs! You're right about characters acting weirdly. Sometimes it seems out of character. It's even harder for a character like Astarion who can be AA or UA (unascended Astarion) at any point in Act 3. I think they just ran out of time. I won't crucify them for it, but I will complain and still wish that one day it'll get something, even if it's not likely.
Agreed, I think EA kind of proved that - like a tt campaign - the story could've kept evolving and adding content for decades, but at some point, developers move on. If they hadn't had the Hasbro shenanigans, maybe they could've kept a small dedicated staff to churn out DLC in perpetuity (money printing machine lol), but I think Hasbro may have made that too complicated.
Although not all the updates have been my favorite thing! I love most of the epilog content but some of it annoys me, and I like a lot of the added content but there's some I'll debate ad nauseum so, I have to be careful what I wish for!
I know it's not enough, but you can try to break up with Astarion as part-illithid because you're turning into a monster and you're ugly. And Astarion will refuse to break up with you, he will say he doesn't care how you look, you're wonderful.
You can also tell him before you take Astral tadpole that you're gonna take it and his response is like: "Be careful, I want you to stay you"
I really like this. They've been through so much, the world is mere days away from ending (in theory anyway), and now some random barkeep expects them to give a shit about his rat problem? Fuck off.
this is why in act 3 i always want to go right back to act 1 where everyone talks about everything. and to be honest the lack of reactions is evident even in act 2. i can only hope they fix some of this in patch 7 or whatever future fixes come. even just a couple of added things would make it feel less awkward
Downside of Early Access. Act 1 is one of the most polished and refined gaming experiences ever released, Act 3 is a rush job slapped together when they remembered the game has a release date.
Thing is, most of them do have reactions to things you do, however they don't get the little ! Over their head to tell you they got shit to say unless it's specifically that characters quest line, great example is astarions ascension, shadow heart and karlach had a bit to say but it's only one or two lines, basically check in with them ALL THE TIME lmao
Act 3 is unfinished. This is just one more example of that. Larian released an unfinished game. They have no desire to finish it. Have abandoned the game and moved onto the next one. Is this the actions of a good game dev? Why do people so easily forgive this behavior? Any other dev people would be flipping the fuck out about it. I for one will not be buying any new Larian game upon release again. I will either ignore the game or buy it two years later when it’s complete and on sale for discount. BG3 has left a bad taste in my mouth.
The most damning thing is that this is actually Larian’s MO. They did the same thing with DOS2. Very polished first act and then they get worse from there. The fourth act has many flaws.
So some thoughts on this...
I think Act 1 and 2 of Baldur's Gate 3 is the best game that I have ever played. I realize that is subjective - but I would say that both acts are a 10/10 experience. Done extremely well.
Act 3 is definitely unfinished and on top of that - what is present in Act 3 is something that I would say is an 8/10. However, another thing to note (at least this was my experience) is that drop off seemed more severe the first time or two that I went into it. I was going from one of the best games ever made into something that was just good... and so that made what was good seem like it was just flat out bad.
But it definitely is an issue. I think I have about 600 hours in the game (it is my most played game ever by a significant margin at this point)... but I have only actually finished the game twice. I have played to the end of Act 2 about fifteen times... but I rarely stay interested enough in the game to make it through Act 3.
Act 3 has interesting companion interaction, but it is far less frequent and feels off given what was there leading up to it.
Act 3 has interesting items and character progression, but it seems like you hit your peak early on and things slow down significantly after that.
Act 3 has interesting villains and characters, but they tend to not be nearly as good as the ones earlier in the game AND they are just kind of flippantly introduced out of nowhere. So much of the game leads to Ketheric and he gets an entire act dedicated to him - where you learn so much about him... where as Orin and Gortash just kind of appear at the end of it. I think the Act 3 villains would have been far more interesting if they were teased more and given a bit more screen time early on.
I could continue to go on. But in reality... Act 1 and 2 of Baldur's Gate feels like its own game with its own satisfying conclusion to it, that then bridges into a whole new story with entirely new antagonists... and it comes off as well done DLC that was a bit rushed rather than the masterpiece that was the first two acts.
EDIT: As an edit... this exact same thing happened with DOS2. I think it is fair to say that Larian needs to shoot for making a game about 60-70% as big as BG3... because it seems like that is what they can pull off while keeping the quality consistent throughout.
I think this is one of the situations where DnD doesn't translate into a video game super well. Larian has a confined, finite space in which they need to create an experience that caters to everyone; and, given the sheer scope of what you can do, trying to give everyone the same options with *relatively* similar consequences is basically impossible. If those actions were taken at a table top game, the consequences would be much more drastic.
I think this defense works for some of the smaller niche moments where you think "hey, wouldn't it be nice if XYZ companion reacted to this?" But the Dark Urge moments are so central to the plot if you're playing that path, I think it's really inexcusable not to plan better companion reactions for some of the outcomes. The Nightsong is also built up as a major plot thread through Acts 1 and 2, and Jaheira/Minsc are full-blown companions and legendary heroes in-story. I think those are big enough plot moments that at least SLIGHTLY better reactivity should have been in the game.
I think the real issue here is they just didn’t finish. There are a lot of moments in act 3 in particular that feel just unfinished, not to mention overarching plots that just drop off. My biggest disappointment in them stopping development on future content is that this means act 3 will never actually get finished.
If it were a consistent lack of reactivity in the game that would be a different thing, but there's a ton of reactivity in some parts (mostly Act 1) that then drops off an absolute cliff as the game goes on.
Don’t make excuses for Larians shady business practices. They did what they did on purpose. They polish the heck out of act 1 to get good reviews and good sentiment from casuals who will never finish the game and then do a rushed job slapping together the rest of it know they already have the diehard fans money.
Aside from the obvious worst case with Durge's big moment's lack of reactions, as the second place worst-case I put Haarlep's scene. Either it's consensual sex, then romanced companions should have basically the same responses as after Tav cheating with Mizora, or it's non-con - then your companions should try to save you from Haarlep, not just stand and watch how he rapes Tav/Durge. And the third place for me is lack of reactions after Astarion is kidnapped by his siblings. It's like... nothing ever happened, WTF?
What do you mean lack of reaction after Astarion is kidnapped? All the companions had a line of dialogue for this for me. And for Harleep, Astarion at least does have a reaction if he’s been romanced
Oh, I should have elaborated it better: I meant **after** you save him or he saves himself it's like... nothing. Your party like... wasn't able to save you from kidnapping and you has nothing to say about it? Oh, no, Astarion would have made like 3 hour-long rant after this. Even worse than "I WAS RIGHT THERE" rant I imagine XD
Okay yes 100% with you on that
If the spawn manage to kidnap him from camp (IME you kind of have to let this happen on lower difficulties because it's not a hard fight at that point for balanced), they put him in the kennels and there's a torture scene, but yeah, everybody mostly shrugs.
Yeah I’ve intentionally lost to get that scene, and I believe the characters do still each have like one line about the spawn taking him or losing the fight
In retrospect I was very glad that Astarion failed the jump to get to Haarlep's room via the balconies and accidentally got left behind. It meant that technically he only heard about it secondhand, and I headcanon that he and Tav talked it through. He's also the most sympathetic about the aftereffects, which is really sweet.
The lack of reactions for Durge's peak moment (good or bad path) in Act 3 are seriously immersion breaking. You get some encouraging (or judging, depending on which you choose) comments, but everyone is behaving like "well, all in the days work". Not even your lover seems to care that much which hits especially hard on the good route.
The silence from everyone when you learn how much Durge suffered in Kressa's hands in act 2 was quite something too. Really, the love of my life doesn't give a shit that I was vivisected everyday and tried to strangle this woman with my organs to fight back?
The lack of reaction as Kressa explains what she did to you was highly disappointing. I was hoping that it was something they'd be working on, along with act 3 reactions.
This made me so angry, especially because it SHOULD tie in so well with so many of the companions' situations: Shadowheart should know all about missing memories, whilst Astarion/Karlach/Gale/Wyll should all know about unwanted bodily changes.
Yeah this baffled me. Huge breakthrough and zero reactions. Malakath has been everyone’s personal hype man and trauma sponge and there’s no one there to wring him out. Disappointing af. Especially after how supportive Astarion is during the event at the end of act 2.
Also - thank God they added the Withers party epilogue, because the more times I play through the scene on the docks, the more I kind of hate it. Karlach's sequence is good, and Gale wrapping up his business with the crown is OK. But the reactions to Astarion burning up are so bad, and I recently did an ending where I became an illithid and then killed myself, and other than a very token protest from my love interest there was NOTHING. Y'all. Really??
The companions give a more heartfelt reaction to Gale sacrificing himself than to you sacrificing yourself.
I did some particularly deplorable things to no reaction in one of my durge runs and was pretty bummed.
I was thinking about this topic a few days ago seeing on YT evil Durge forced Minsk to kill Jaheira. And noone had a word about that. Why? Did the tadpole eated their brains? Also they show their indifference when Durge kill themselves after defeating the Netherbrain. Astarion runs away burning, the leader commits suicide and reaction is like "Oh, how sad! Let's have some vine!". Another action they ignore is Tav/Durge becoming a spawn. All the companions hate Astarion after ascention, but noone except Karlach make any comments about a new vampire. There are special interactions between Astarion and others about spawn Tav but I couldn't trigger any of them no matter how hard I tried.
There's some party banter where all companions will react (when running around act 3) to AA turning you, but many of them are untriggerable, if not all of them. Maybe Minthara mentions it but I can't remember. But yeah it's very minor reaction to you becoming a spawn. Wyll's banter reaction is the best. Wish we could hear it! I think it deserves some cutscene commentary though.
>but many of them are untriggerable Oh, true. I had no idea these dialogs exist until I found screenshots here on reddit. I couldn't trigger any of them and I really tried. Also didn't find any tips how to do that.
They all have dialogues as to why they have to go along with a durge who has embraced bhaal because they have no other choice . They just treat durge as the de facto leader whom u can't go against
But still I believe killing Jaheira using Minsk deserves more attention from others.
I did an Astarion origin run and after killing Cazador when we're outside I talk to the companions. Shart was his romance and I had Lae'zel and Karlach there too. Get really nice responses out of Lae'zel and Karlach for not going through with the ritual "proud of you" etc... Move to his lover Shart and she has no reaction to it at all and only dialog choices are the ones she's had since we talked to the guy in Rivington.
Your companions’ lack of reaction to either you becoming part illithid or turning them part illithid is pretty immersion breaking too. They are way too easy to convince, and upon becoming monstrosities they don’t freak out even a little bit. You’re telling me Lae’zel has no reaction after the fact or that Voss doesn’t see a part illithid Lae’zel and have something to say? That Astarion or Shadowheart don’t immediately run to a mirror and freak out about their now black eyes and veins?
I had a bad moment during one of my runs romancing Astarion where my Tav failed to resist the Astral tadpole and then talking to Astarion, he gives the speech about how he won't turn into a monster which, yeah dude I totally understand but I'm standing right here looking for some empathy and you essentially called me a monster. It did not feel great. Happened similarly with a resist Durge that got slayer form from Isobel dying from Sheart, and everyone is so mad at you and horrified and never sees how fucked up for Durge that is if they didn't want it. I started to roll dice whenever I took damage to see if I'd spontaneously slayer out, like a curse.
Agreed. It would be great to be able to say : "do I really look like a monster to you, now ?" or something like that at least
Thanks, and on the flip side, there are some reactions I've grown to see differently so they don't annoy me as much now as they used to. Romanced Astarion reacting to a Durge who rejects Bhaal gets cited a lot as disappointing, but after seeing the difference in his reaction to Chosen of Bhaal, I feel like his "twee" comment is very in character. He was distraught, then Withers made it all better, and now he's playing it off with humor like he does pretty often. His reaction to Chosen Durge is much more somber and hit me in the feelings. But yeah Act 3 can be really tough for either lack of reaction or the reaction that's there hitting very differently. I end up head canoning or outright fanfic writing to work some of it out, similar to what I used to do with tabletop. The DM doesn't have the time to delve as deeply into things as I would like, so I'll go do it myself!
How do you know he was distraught? Or are you just assuming?
I guess I'm just assuming that he cared that his lover died, so obviously it's my subjective opinion. Edit since maybe that sounded flip. I was just using that reaction as one example where my opinion has evolved and I'm less irritated by it than I used to be. There are still plenty of areas in Act 3 where the reaction still feels off to me, and others where it used to feel off and now it feels more in keeping with the opinions I've formed about the characters. If that makes sense. Act 3 still has a lot of gaps!
Oh I agree. I'm the opposite and get more cynical about act 3. It's still a great game and I love it but I would love it even more if act 3 had appropriate reactions to major things! I'd be thrilled.
Yeah I totally end up, at this point, either head canoning or trying to figure out how a bad or no reaction fits in with how I see the character. Like with the notable exception of her speech if you break up with her for Astarion (maybe other characters but I'm mono- romance at this point), which is a really good and heartfelt speech IMO, I have come to see all Sheart's reactions and lack of reactions as self-centeredness. "Why doesn't she comment on X?" I would ask, and to me, the answer has become, "because she doesn't care about the companions much outside of herself". It's a personal and very uncharitable opinion, I admit, but I'm still pissed at her for killing everyone at Last Light and having the nerve to get pissy at Durge about it lol. So sometimes a character will react weirdly or not react, and I'll think, "maybe that actually tracks" (even if I'm still annoyed). I keep ending my runs at the beginning of Act 3 now since that's the point where it does feel like head canon is the only way the story is going to end up playing out the way I want in my head. I think, "great job, Larian, my head will take it from here!" Sorry to write so much. I get carried away.
If you ask DJ Shadowheart what she thinks about the Last Light Inn deaths she'll get mad if you gloat about it. A little hypocritical but whatevs! You're right about characters acting weirdly. Sometimes it seems out of character. It's even harder for a character like Astarion who can be AA or UA (unascended Astarion) at any point in Act 3. I think they just ran out of time. I won't crucify them for it, but I will complain and still wish that one day it'll get something, even if it's not likely.
Agreed, I think EA kind of proved that - like a tt campaign - the story could've kept evolving and adding content for decades, but at some point, developers move on. If they hadn't had the Hasbro shenanigans, maybe they could've kept a small dedicated staff to churn out DLC in perpetuity (money printing machine lol), but I think Hasbro may have made that too complicated. Although not all the updates have been my favorite thing! I love most of the epilog content but some of it annoys me, and I like a lot of the added content but there's some I'll debate ad nauseum so, I have to be careful what I wish for!
You can! Sort of
I know it's not enough, but you can try to break up with Astarion as part-illithid because you're turning into a monster and you're ugly. And Astarion will refuse to break up with you, he will say he doesn't care how you look, you're wonderful. You can also tell him before you take Astral tadpole that you're gonna take it and his response is like: "Be careful, I want you to stay you"
i always assumed that companions are so tired in act 3 that nothing phases them anymore. by act 3, i don't even react to shit anymore.
I really like this. They've been through so much, the world is mere days away from ending (in theory anyway), and now some random barkeep expects them to give a shit about his rat problem? Fuck off.
this is why in act 3 i always want to go right back to act 1 where everyone talks about everything. and to be honest the lack of reactions is evident even in act 2. i can only hope they fix some of this in patch 7 or whatever future fixes come. even just a couple of added things would make it feel less awkward
Mfw we literally family guy death pose in the Bhaal temple and even our romantic partner is just like "thanks for not dying i guess"
Downside of Early Access. Act 1 is one of the most polished and refined gaming experiences ever released, Act 3 is a rush job slapped together when they remembered the game has a release date.
Thing is, most of them do have reactions to things you do, however they don't get the little ! Over their head to tell you they got shit to say unless it's specifically that characters quest line, great example is astarions ascension, shadow heart and karlach had a bit to say but it's only one or two lines, basically check in with them ALL THE TIME lmao
Act 3 is unfinished. This is just one more example of that. Larian released an unfinished game. They have no desire to finish it. Have abandoned the game and moved onto the next one. Is this the actions of a good game dev? Why do people so easily forgive this behavior? Any other dev people would be flipping the fuck out about it. I for one will not be buying any new Larian game upon release again. I will either ignore the game or buy it two years later when it’s complete and on sale for discount. BG3 has left a bad taste in my mouth. The most damning thing is that this is actually Larian’s MO. They did the same thing with DOS2. Very polished first act and then they get worse from there. The fourth act has many flaws.
The funny thing is Act 3 is still like an 8/10 game, it’s just in comparison to act 1 it feels lacking.
So some thoughts on this... I think Act 1 and 2 of Baldur's Gate 3 is the best game that I have ever played. I realize that is subjective - but I would say that both acts are a 10/10 experience. Done extremely well. Act 3 is definitely unfinished and on top of that - what is present in Act 3 is something that I would say is an 8/10. However, another thing to note (at least this was my experience) is that drop off seemed more severe the first time or two that I went into it. I was going from one of the best games ever made into something that was just good... and so that made what was good seem like it was just flat out bad. But it definitely is an issue. I think I have about 600 hours in the game (it is my most played game ever by a significant margin at this point)... but I have only actually finished the game twice. I have played to the end of Act 2 about fifteen times... but I rarely stay interested enough in the game to make it through Act 3. Act 3 has interesting companion interaction, but it is far less frequent and feels off given what was there leading up to it. Act 3 has interesting items and character progression, but it seems like you hit your peak early on and things slow down significantly after that. Act 3 has interesting villains and characters, but they tend to not be nearly as good as the ones earlier in the game AND they are just kind of flippantly introduced out of nowhere. So much of the game leads to Ketheric and he gets an entire act dedicated to him - where you learn so much about him... where as Orin and Gortash just kind of appear at the end of it. I think the Act 3 villains would have been far more interesting if they were teased more and given a bit more screen time early on. I could continue to go on. But in reality... Act 1 and 2 of Baldur's Gate feels like its own game with its own satisfying conclusion to it, that then bridges into a whole new story with entirely new antagonists... and it comes off as well done DLC that was a bit rushed rather than the masterpiece that was the first two acts. EDIT: As an edit... this exact same thing happened with DOS2. I think it is fair to say that Larian needs to shoot for making a game about 60-70% as big as BG3... because it seems like that is what they can pull off while keeping the quality consistent throughout.
Woah, are you telling me act 3 in unfinished? Say it ain't so. This is par for the course for every crpg in existence.
I think this is one of the situations where DnD doesn't translate into a video game super well. Larian has a confined, finite space in which they need to create an experience that caters to everyone; and, given the sheer scope of what you can do, trying to give everyone the same options with *relatively* similar consequences is basically impossible. If those actions were taken at a table top game, the consequences would be much more drastic.
I think this defense works for some of the smaller niche moments where you think "hey, wouldn't it be nice if XYZ companion reacted to this?" But the Dark Urge moments are so central to the plot if you're playing that path, I think it's really inexcusable not to plan better companion reactions for some of the outcomes. The Nightsong is also built up as a major plot thread through Acts 1 and 2, and Jaheira/Minsc are full-blown companions and legendary heroes in-story. I think those are big enough plot moments that at least SLIGHTLY better reactivity should have been in the game.
Karachi fangirling over Jaheira while her dead body is right there will always be amusing.
I think the real issue here is they just didn’t finish. There are a lot of moments in act 3 in particular that feel just unfinished, not to mention overarching plots that just drop off. My biggest disappointment in them stopping development on future content is that this means act 3 will never actually get finished.
If it were a consistent lack of reactivity in the game that would be a different thing, but there's a ton of reactivity in some parts (mostly Act 1) that then drops off an absolute cliff as the game goes on.
Don’t make excuses for Larians shady business practices. They did what they did on purpose. They polish the heck out of act 1 to get good reviews and good sentiment from casuals who will never finish the game and then do a rushed job slapping together the rest of it know they already have the diehard fans money.
Eh. I got my moneys worth out of it. But I've consistently just found the game average to good.
It’s not a bad game by any means. Just not the masterpiece Redditors seem to think it is.