Do whatever you need to do! Looking forward to the different content style, but take breaks whenever you need to take care of real-life stuff and mental health. We’re happy to wait 😁
@@thefckgd Your voice is great. It’s a shame you won’t be doing game dev content as much but you do you! Don’t worry about views and make what you love, that’s what it’s all about
Well, I do agree that there are pacing problems in Act 3, but I think you completely failed to identify them in the moment you claimed the issue is all about the raising stakes. It's more a matter of structure. You are thrown in a single large area that contains (almost) everything that's left to do in the game, which kills the sense of variety and discovery. Not to mention you are constantly left second-guessing what's on a hidden timer and what's not, which leads to occasional decision paralysis. Well there's also the fact that the resolution of some questlines ends up being a lot more clumsy and unsatisfying that one could have expected from the build up, which isn't ideal either. One example above all could be the Hag chainquest. In act 1 you are led to believe that once you've dealt with Auntie you'll find her "sisters" running a secret society in Baldur's Gate. Then once you get there all you get is a "Surprise! Here's a recycled Auntie Ethel". And don't get me started about Cazador.
iirc larian was forced to cut the entire upper city from the game, act 3 in baldur's gate was supposed to be much bigger. that's probably why it feels kind of off, we can feel the giant hole in the story.
Nope, it was just rumors based on a line of PR that said something like "we are eager to see you explore the Baldur town lower and upper side". Both things that we indeed do in the course of the game.
@@snowolf494 check again darling. PC gamer specifically named the upper city as explorable, and even one of the early access updates teased the upper city. i get that shit happens in development and content needs to be scrapped for time and money reasons. it just sucks when we can feel it. that's all i'm saying.
But I *did* finish Act 3. Three times, about to finish my fourth for my Gold dice. My wife finished it with me the first two times as well, having never played D&D or this style of CRPG.
Larian did the same mistake in DOS2. Putting the big sprawling city at the end of the game. Frustrating. You put the big sprawling city at the beginning of the game. That way you can return there later as you grow to access areas you’ve been teased from the beginning. If it’s at the end you only care about the end. There’s no point exploring the big city when you are ready to kill the big bad.
I stopped at Act 3 because not only did I hit level 12 befoe that, I also did not care for how buggy and blurry it was, both in appearance and in content.
Imho, Act3 fails to motivate the player : - You are probably max level or about to hit the cap (and everything gives so much xp on act3 that you will quickly get there no matter how you enter it). So no motivation to get XP. - You are already wearing good enough loot, there are good weapons in that act but you can get endgame loot in the previous acts. So no motivation to find loot. - Exploration is not up to the standards of Act1, because of the first two points, there is almost no reward to exploration in Act3 other than "story" which is the game's weakest point. In Act1 you looked at every item you found with interest "Can i use this?!", in Act3 you just send pretty much everything to camp and forget about it. I robbed a freaking high security bank, ransacked the personal vaults of every important noble in the city and didn't feel like i got anything out of it. So no motivation to explore. - No growth in combat. By Act3 you a already have your endgame build, you might make it a bit deadlier with some act3 items but you already have a "party and strategy that works" and you apply it to every encounter, in exactly the same way. There is little to discover and the few attempts of Act3 to switch things around are more annoying than game changing. Its more of a weakness of D&D ed5 than BG3 tbh. Also, you probably discovered one of the hundred of "op builds that break the game" such as "just having a monk, or better, having multiple monks, with a giant elixir in their bellies" so there is little challenge left. So no motivation to do combat. - Disappointing companions, companions side quests are kind of lame and incomplete. If you pursue Gale's you will be appalled at uncanny valley goddess, If you pursue Shart's youll be bored to tears, If you pursue Astarion you will be wondering if that is all there is to a high ranking vampire lair, Wyll's side quests was just cut and turned into a regular sidequest, he doesn't even need to be there, and those are the ones with proper quests, the rest get a barely an area or a few lines from an NPC. It just nowhere near up to the standards of Act1 that reacted to everything you did. Also, you are probably already grown bored of them by Act3, annoyed by their lack of change, weirded out by their sexual aggressiveness or just plain "i already have the party i want, dont want to bother rethinking my build to fit in a companion i barely used". So no motivation to do Companion quests or explore other Companions. - The story fails to develop characters into something compelling, tbh the only villain i got invested in was Keteric because of his intro and the second time you meet him you are already killing him (you might get one more talk with him if you side with the tower but that is it). NPCs are pretty lackluster, no hot women, no heroic men, no friend i'd like to help (all same sex relationships are ruined by the insistence to make everyone aggressively all-sexual, imho. Look at Days Gone for example, when i started i thought Boomer looked goofy as shit, by the time the game was ending i was l like "Boomer is my bro, don't you dare kill him", he grew on me, he was the only character i liked and pretty much the only reason i pushed forward to the ending, adding any "homo" to that would have ruined it.). So no motivation to meet new characters or resolve character stories. - And the story itself, as i said before, its the game's weakest point. The more you know about the absolute the less interested you are to keep pushing forward, the ending encounter and closing cutscenes are entirely unsatisfying. As you said in the video, the story hits its highest point with Keteric's defeat and it fails to keep any sort of tension going. I can easily imagine ppl getting lost in the dozens of mediocre sidequests until they just get bored and never finish the game. So no motivation finishing the story.
Act 1 I LOVED, Act 2 I really liked... and I have mixed feelings about Act 3. The story is still great, the characters are still great, the environment is fantastic and it has some very memorable moments. Yet relative to the rest of the game, it feels unpolished, even unfinished. Perhaps my biggest issue, though, was lack of character progression. I've done 3 full playthroughs and each time I hit the level cap near the beginning of Act 3, shortly after entering the city proper. Of course, you want to have some time to use and enjoy your high-level abilities... but this was just way too long. Doing 70-80% of the city's content at level 12, plus the whole concluding sequence, felt wrong. Yes, there was still the story and the characters, which I cared about, as well as finding better gear. But in general, I was going through the motions. The city is supposed to be the most impactful part of the game, but because of how they paced level progression, it felt like the least. I think the solution is really simple: make a shorter game! What made BG3 special was its depth, not its length. For their next big project, I'd say cut 20-30 hours off average playtime and re-direct those development hours to creating even more depth, more options, more reactivity. A game the length of Acts 1 and 2 combined plus the sequence from the morphic pool to the end: that would be more than acceptable.
I finished act 3 with no delay in my first playthrough. With later playthorughs it did drag on a bit, to the point where I had to force myself a bit to finish it. As for the quest with the hag: if you explain to Mayrina that the hag killed her brothers and what she wanted to do with the child (speak with dead with the hag to find out), it all becomes a lot less grey. The ambiguity can be cleared up by provinding missing information.
Nice to find a good criticism of Act 3, and I agree with the points you made. I'll say that I think Act 3 had potential, but there are a lot of key elements missing that make it fall flat. I completely agree about the absurdity of taking a love test at a circus while an elder brain is on the way to kick off the Grand Design. I think some of this tonal-clash weirdness could have been fixed if they had completely deleted that whole "OUR FORCES GATHER" mini-scene at the end of Act 2 where the brain's just floating off to the city with hoards of minions of all types. Like... just no, keep that shit quiet for now. If instead, we had a quieter scene where Gortash and Orin come back to the colony (perhaps *ready* to deploy the forces) just after the fight, and see Ketheric was destroyed, they could have had an interesting conversation that would have set up Gotash and Orin's conflict MUCH better. Gortash would've immediately seen the need to postpone the invasion while reassessing the threat Team Durge/Tav poses, but Orin, just wanting mass slaughter, would be furious at that. *Then* the two could have teleported to the city, while more discreetly moving the brain to the brine pools under it. With that setup, Ketheric's climactic fight and death could have been a great midpoint climax still, but we would be presented more with this going into Act 3:... "there's two more Chosen, and they've gone quiet... how do we find them and stop their plans?" Without all that "brainquake" "the brain's breaking free!" shit that happens *RIGHT WHEN WE START ACT 3.* Take a beat, let the tension drop for awhile, and let the suspense build anew. I'd rethink the Netherstones' functionality in that Gortash and Orin can still maintain a consistent hold on the brain with just the 2 stones, but they struggle to give it orders. That would allow for some breathing room to, y'know, enjoy circus love tests, and experience the city with our companions. But that brings me to my next biggest issue with Act 3: companion reactivity. When we first arrive at The Grove in Act 1, you can turn to Shadowheart/Astarion/Gale/Lae'zel and talk to them, and *all* of them have a unique reaction to the location. Same is true of the goblin camp, with Wyll and Karlach also having impressions if they're along. But... in Act 3... arrive at the Temple of f'ing BHAAL...? Astarion: "Hello my dear." Gale: "What's on your mind?" (what's on YOUR mind dingus?! look where we are!) and etc. No reactivity. There's very little banter. I found one of Karlach's old pals near Sorcerous Sundries, and that was at least *something*... but Wyll? The guy would know the upper and lower city like the back of his hand, despite leaving at 17, but... he barely says a thing the entire act. Unpopular opinion probably, but I wish they'd scrapped doing the origin characters as options for playthroughs in favor of funneling all of that dev time and VA work into making Act 3 better. Unfortunate, still love the game, but yeah. Act 3 deserved better.
It's a fairly common thing in such games, but it also feels a bit stupid to be equally matched with random bandits after you've defeated the immortal avatar of the god of death. Anyway, cool video. What's the background music?
Act 3 was my favorite. Maybe because I love DnD and just love how they made Baldur's Gate come to life. I only played through the game once when it came out, but I am currently in the beggining of act 2 on my second playthrough and I can't wait to reach Baldur's Gate again!
I can definitely see where you're coming from. Killing Ketheric felt climactic, but then there's another, even bigger act right around the corner. It felt a bit like finally finishing a marathon only to be told that you have to run another lap. It does mitigate this a lot though. The game makes it clear that an even bigger threat than Ketheric lurks in BG, and many side quests and companion quests make it clear that they will be resolved in the city. What really knocked me out though, is the simple fact that I reached the level cap midway through. Different strokes for different folks, but I personally get a lot of entertainment out of simply developing the builds of my characters. Yes, there were still weapons and items to collect that were great, but taking on a group of steel watchers and knowing that it means nothing in terms of character progression proved to be something that I just could not get over. I'm planning another run with mods that will let me keep leveling, but for now I have other games to play.
As someone who has made videos about BG3 combat, gameplay I also had issues with Act 3 haha. I agree like others that it's too overwhelming. And it's also very weird that there is a circus going on, bunch of meaningless tasks/quests while this huge Elder Brain is outside and hardly any one talks about it. I heard a suggestion about splitting Act 3 into 2 Acts. Maybe that would have made it better. Way too much stuff to do and new information which also makes it bad for multiplayer BTW.
Like most people a problem I have with act 3 is the pacing and how overwhelming it is but there’s a bigger problem I have with it and granted it is a purely subjective issue. I just don’t find cities to be interesting areas to explore in games. I’d much rather be out in the wider world exploring away from the confines of a city. There’s always interesting sights to see in the wilderness but cities are always just buildings upon buildings that all blend together. So naturally I had more fun exploring act 1 and 2 at my own pace. It’s not just BG3 that I felt this way even in The Witcher 3 and RDR2 the cities of Novigrad and Saint Denis are the most boring areas in the game to me.
Yeah, nah, I don't agree at all. Act 3 is a reset point but then it immediately ruins it by jamming the two bosses in your face at the same time as you are finding your feet in this new zone with incidental quests. The game makes you choose between world ending threats and fun incidental quests at the same time. The correct choice is to ignore the world ending threats and take your time smelling the roses because the end of the world absolutely will wait. But the game is very insistent that you save the world immediately; it floods the player with decision paralysis as well as mixed signals.
100% agree. I will add that even though the correct choice is "smelling the roses and ignore the main threats", that choice always rubs me the wrong way a bit. And I say always, because this seems to happen a lot in games. For a player immersed in a story, this choice means having to make excuses for smelling the roses so putting the world-on-fire storyline on the back burner makes some kind of sense. Like I said, I've done it a lot in other games, but I feel like we shouldn't have to.
@@mattdixoncarter9383 This is always the weirdest complaint to me. Nobody is forcing you to do side quests. If you really want to rush the story, you can. Stop acting like more choice is somehow worse.
You're missing the point and misrepresenting what is being pointed out. Nobody is saying more choice is worse. People want to be able to play the side quests without breaking the story immersion and the roleplaying. It is counter intuitive to say "Here are some main-story events and we've set them up in such a way that anyone playing the role of a character invested in them... because we made a role playing game... would make them priority, but feel free to dick around with other stuff because we aren't actually serious about the urgency that we created." We had 5 days to rescue Councilor Floric. So that gives you time to do other stuff. Why couldn't Gortash's Coronation gotten similar treatment? (or something else that allows players to run around with side quests while not breaking the sense of urgency created by the story.
@@korakys yes that is also true. It’s a combonation of many things. Normally you raise the stakes at the end of the game and that’s what they did. You are presented with the final gauntlet and that’s where storytellers normally narrow things down for the perpous of the story. Larian tends to open up in these situations instead. There’s nothing wrong with the city itself of course. When it comes to rpg’s you want to feel the personal growth of your characters. To start out weak and be presented with this big dangerous world to one day conquer. To conquer the gameworld is a sort of secondary story that needs to go hand in hand with the games narrative. When you get to Baldurs Gate your growth is almost done. You know there’s only two levels left. Two of the main baddies are pushing you to hunt them down as you pointed out and there’s a general urgency of time running out. The final confrontation is around the corner. The narrative is narrowing and the world opens up. The big open city could also be in Act 2 when you are still investigating who or what. We know what needs to be done when we get to BG. It is natural to explore when you are still investigating the main plot. Not when you need to just follow the questmarkers till you get to the final boss.
@6:00 I didn't do that in the game. I went around the fire, I took the other path and cleared the rest of the map. I figured I would explore before the obvious fight they had left for me. Then again, I played the original BG when it first came out as a kid on a PC I had built. For those asking, its 25% w0ke. The first game (playing it again) was about 10%. It doesn't get in the way and you can play anti-w0ke if you like which I have been doing. This involved helping the refugees push up daisies; every last one of them (it was satisfying... esp mol). Letting one of your followers end another one while they sleep (no more ugly yellow skinned ornery woman being annoying) is another great example of game play that helps some w0ke go away. When official mod support comes out in a few months, there will be plenty of non-w0ke custom content. I held off getting BG3 until it was on sale because they added more w0ke, and I'm happy I waited. BG3 isn't bad, but it's just obviously made by left|sts. I will NOT be buying the new Dragon Age, as that's gone full blown w0ke. I played all the others and they progressively got more insufferable. By the time I finished the last one, I was done with the series. I'm almost glad they well full blown w0ke, it saves me from even putting it on my "wait for a sale" list. Now I get to watch the game crash and burn; free laughs. Edit: And for the record I played act 1 & 2 binge in about 3 days of non stop playing with little sleep. It was over a holiday weekend. I put 55 hours in the game in those 3 days. Didn't use a guide but looked over act 1/2 on some guides AFTER I finished Act 2 to see what I missed. Estimated I did 90% of the content. The only thing I missed out on was ugly yellow skinned evil woman's quests. I visited the location and then promptly left without talking to anyone but the vendor. No loss. Once I got to act 3 I stopped playing and haven't opened the game in over a week. No real desire either. The truth is the companions are awful. I am using two NPC's I "ordered" from the undead guy instead of the companions. The only one I'm using is shadowheart, and I had her not go evil, even respec'd her full healing. I got so sick of the awful left leaning politics with the companions that I had to stop using all but one of the main character companions. Even her I don't really like but will keep around for the story arc. I stopped playing because the story is ok at best; still better than Torment, which I hated and still can't get past the first 3 hours. I'll finish BG3 at some point, but need to finish the ff7 remake before the second part comes out on PC. They didn't add w0ke to the FF7 remake thankfully.
brah... Lae'zel is _the_ anti-woke character of the game. She's very abrasive at first but can be influenced to become much calmer over the course of the game.
@korakys Not anymore in my game, now she is fertilizer. You are right though however, as I said I'm trying not to use any of the origin characters. Ya she probably would have approved of my solution to the refugees too, but it is what is and I tired of listening to her. It's not even she was aggressive, I just didn't like her period. I don't like any of them really, even shadowheart. Every game that's programmed by left leaning developers has the same plots. They always seem to bring their politics and daddy issues into everything they do.
I’d say 1 would be good for the plot, although 4 would be funny. It may be nice to have some company in the apocalypse, especially if the girl has some insight into what’s going on. I choose 1. It’s an interesting story so far!
i have 1.2k hours and an honour mode play through in act 3, still havent finished the game. the boring nature of questing in act 3 paired with orin taking one of my companions makes me quit everytime. in my honour mode she took gale and killed him in 1 rest. i couldnt even cheese kill gortash to save him, so if i cant keep everyone alive i stop playing
Wait, she is not supposed to kill the companion in 1 rest. She may only kill him if you come to fight her before killing gortash and fail some skillchecks to save Gale. Is it somehow changed in honour mode?
@@dgomezzzzz i beleive so, im not even resting before i get a message that his personal quest failed. ive even tried doing it without resting.i wonder if its because i triggered the abduction thru the sewer instead of the camp ambush
@@PlasticLid-wq6md that definitely sounds like some stupid and embarrassing bug. It should happen the way I have described in the first message (because it has happened this way 3 times for me) My condolences that you had to encounter it.
In my opponent act3 not have adventure vibe anymore. It change to politic and negotiation, interested idea but when became real it boring. I watched BG1&2 before, the scale is bigger more than this. From BG we can go to many realm but it stuck because D&D lore. Upper city can't go, it just for last boss. In the frist plan they have but cutoff , so pity. All about Wizard of the coast that they deal with. Two thing I annoy so much are I can"t see what the land heal from war and ending is so short, just read what happen. It like they throw player away from the house and say "go away man~" however ending credit is so great. That mummy guy is MVP. however, I love this game a lot, not much AAA game can play with Mac OS. Thk to Larian that they code for every platform.
Saw an interesting video on how they could've and should've put Act 3 before Act 2. But at least there's Gale's early retirement option that Mystra recommends, so you can finish at the end of Act 2 with a sense of closure.
The kamikaze gale ending kinda sucks and the game makes it clear it's not a good ending or the supposed one, so unfortunately there isn't really any sense of closure there...
I have an ocd approach when coming to act 3. Or any of the acts tbh. 11 play throughs, i still find things i never seen before, but majority of side quests and main quests i can just bounce from on to the other ... i honestly wished they had put more in act 3.
