Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Baldur's Gate 3?

If they would release it as a physical disc I could tell ya (otherwise I’m going to wait a year or so for it to go on sale - and be finished).

Not played it yet. Tell you what, send me a copy and I'll let you know. Deal?

Edit: ha, never mind, just seen @thefourfoldroot1 's comment. Foiled again

10/10

I am not even a fan of CRPGs for the most part, primarily due to the dated and cumbersome UI, and controls.

However, this is not only the best RPG I have ever played and i play a lot of them. It is easily one of the greatest games I have ever played. Everything feels so handcrafted, rather than filler. Every area, every encounter, the dialogue. all of it is is simply a triumph.

In such a bland landscape of iterative walking simulators, remake/remaster cash grabs, overhyped (by the dev) unfinished and under delivering projects, and corporate profit siphoning schemes disguised as games; this game is such a breath of fresh air. Its refreshing also to hear the head over at Larian speak of his passion for gaming and an understanding of value that is in stark contrast from schills like Kotek, Ryan, EA, Rockstar, etc.

Quite possibly one of the greatest games ever made. period

Its definitely a 10.larian studio also made 2 incredible divinity original sin enhanced games.word up son

The path finding is a bit shonky if there’s a jump involve, but damn it’s a good game. 47 hours in and I haven’t completed act 1!

8/10. Was not as innovative as I was expecting based on the reviews. The story can push you in an unchangable direction you may not want to go which takes away some roleplaying choice. The overall peformance on PS5 isn't amazing and gets very poor in act 3 even on 30fps. I would advise those who want that locked 60fps to wait a couple of months for the devs to optimise the PS5 stability.

The turn based style gameplay and dialogue options were the real strong points of this game. The characters you meet are also interesting and I like the you can play a close up 3rd person style or change to a higher up/topdown style on the fly.

Your choices really do matter (Mostly) with some game changing outcomes.

You may feel under-levelled for the first main big mission so farming xp is a must at all difficulty levels. This is where 70% of your playtime will be - grinding and exploring.

The controller wheels can be a little clunky and tutorials could be improved for new players to D&D (which i can imagine is about 60-80% of the BG3 player base.

I played about 130 hours and completed the story since early access on the 2nd.

I am of course benchmarking against a much bigger developer like R* who provide truly industry defining game engine optimsations, stories, new game mechanics and design language. Lairian have done exceptionally well given thier resources and I am sure thier next game will be even better.

A very good game but not quite an exceptional one. I very much had an enjoyable time with it.

Ps. 100% recommed only doing a full review once you have seen the credits roll because my views went up and down as the game unfolded.

A 10 even with the bugs, the irony being that THIS game offers, 'unparalled freedom' 😅

It’s great to finally play something where my choices actually matter.

It became one of my favourite games of all time. I had already sunk close to 90h on early access, I'm already finishing my second playthrough and will probably start a third one after.

I only intended to ever play this game with my beautiful wife, couch co-op style. It’s completely broken. Freezing and zero fps during many actions, specifically changing party members, summoning, etc.

No acknowledgement from Larian yet but this forum explains it all. Very bummed especially because I’ve wasted $80 and 100GB.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=898262&#Post898262

For me personally it is a 10. Simply perfection. This is 1 of only a few games i will permanently keep on my ps5. The others are MK1, GTAV, AC6 and Spider-man 2 when it is released.

Very close to a 10 for sure. I am between a 9 and 10 at the moment just because the story has not totally wowed me, and I feel the created character suffers from not having much of a personality. I still have a long way to go though so I may be strongly one way or another by the time I finish. Edit: definitely some weird bugs for me too but that will not have much baring on my score, they are not enough to detract much from the experience

I don‘t find the time for such long games in front of my TV, and I am no „RPG guy“. But from what I read and hear and see everywhere, this game must be a phenomenon. Result of a world-class studio, working on RPGs for decades, and now peaking their technological and creative potential.
I‘m looking forward to play this on Switch 2!

An absolute noob with zero gaming experience with this type of game but also have massive fomo too given all the high praise and positivity its been deservedly getting. Thought it was just PC where these games were huge with the console side being far more niche. Hoping many other development teams take note

I definitely want to play it but am busy with Starfield right now and I haven’t the time to play both. I’m hoping for a physical release then I can get it for Christmas 😉

9/10 with the potential for 10 out of 10 in the future with fixes. I have two main problems with the game:

1. As you get further and further into the game, it goes Bethesda and starts struggling. Pop-in gets really bad when switching to cutscenes, the frame rate starts chugging, and god help you if you're a summoner because the game will literally freeze at times because I'm summoning a new asset into the game. I hold my breath everytime I do it now because past games have taught me that a crash is a-comin'. Luckily that hasn't been the case.

2. The game's shorter than I expected? Maybe what I heard was misinformation, but people said that just like in Divinity 2, Act 2 is the longest part of the game. But I flew through Act 2 while doing all side quests, interactions and etc per the heroic playthrough I'm currently doing. Maybe it's longer depending on what choices you make, i don't know. But the devs said that just doing the main story alone is like, 200 hours. This is usually a detriment to me but there are certain games that I don't mind taking an entire life like the Witcher and this one, and having arrived at Act 3 at level 10, 50 hours in, it feels like it's coming to a close too quickly. Maybe I'm wrong and Act 3 is the longest.

It's probably too early to really say, but I'm still gonna say it. 10. The end... 😁😁😁

(And now the second beginning) 😁

The great: The quest design (having to seek things out for yourself to even start half of the quests) the writing, the delivery by the voice artists, the character models, the world design (open and free to explore and stuffed full of charm and wonder, and people to talk to and fiends to battle, but also logical and ordered in a way that if you do want to move the story forward, you have to pass through certain areas and get to experience at least some of that finely crafted goodness) the beauty of the world, and every little detail; from small things like item descriptions and minute verbal inflections, to the actual overall environment and how everything fits together, and even the combat, which, as someone with basically zero turn based experience is a huge compliment. At first it took a lot getting used to, yes, but I've passed that eureka moment, and now I understand enough of the complexities to do fairly well on the normal hardish setting. There may not be all that much hand holding, but there doesn't need to be, the game is so fun to play and experience that you push through those moments where you are a total novice, and get rewarded for doing so, not only by the fact you are playing a great, great game, but by learning and getting your own moment where it all starts to makes sense to you, which is just a nice feeling. Trial and error, and stick with it seems so easy when the rest of the game is so well crafted too 😁

And the characters function like real living people too. I know there are some who hate shadowheart (probably because they kept asking her personal questions even though they had just met, as if they are owed every detail of someones life on first meeting because its just a game, chuh) but when you treat everyone in the game as a person, and listen, you will get a lot more from it, like in life itself. And if there are still those you don't like, then guess what, that's realistic too 😁

Time to go and play some Baldur's Gate 3, I think, everyone 😁

This game has overtaken elden ring for my fave ps5 game, and I adored elden ring. I'm not even finished with act 2, either! My big gripes, of course, would be that I think the game gets considerably buggier as you hit the part that didn't benefit from early access play testing. In addition, as well written as it is, there's one part I won't spoil that can see you suddenly thrown into a combat encounter that - if it doesn't go well and you meet the failure condition - automatically fails a variety of side quests, including at least one companion quest. This is definitely meant to be a surprise event in terms of the story, and it does make for a thrilling twist in the tale. From a gameplay perspective though I kinda wish they gave more warning. It's far from a point of no return but I ended up having to re-load a save and losing about 45 minutes of progress when I realised the implications.

Might be my GOTY and i'm still only in Act 1. This year is incredible to be honest.

@somnambulance I think the split screen issues were largely ignored because of how great the game is overall, including single player/online performance.

And if any couch co-op split screen reviewing was done, I would guess it wasn’t for more than a few hours. Our issues didn’t really start until we were presented with the choice to take the two paths to proceed to the next area- underdark or mountain…idk I just gave up at that point because of how bad it was. Probably 15-20 hours in at that point (we play slowly).

I just finished Act 2, and I give it a 7 so far. There are good things to be found, but the UI is a huge pain to deal with, and there are technical issues relating to actually being able to see what's going on any time the characters are away from sunlight. There are LARGE sections where even doing everything possible with the settings on the game, the PS5 and my TV, I'm still not able to see much of what's happening unless my character is actively holding a torch instead of a weapon, and then I only see what's right next to them, and its still blurry. Its made it a much bigger chore than most other games.

I got bored very quickly I guess the game is just not for me. Fell for hype again.

I was about 20hrs in and decided to restart from scratch this morning because I felt like I wasn’t engaged (kids and wife interrupting during tons of dialog moments and what not) and I have the place to myself. I’m so glad I did. I have a better grasp on the mechanics, characters, and I’m finding even more secrets than I did the first go around. It’s definitely a 10/10 game so far.

@somnambulance it’s disappointing that split screen co-op was included as a feature on the PS5 with the state that it’s in.

I would have been completely happy to wait months after launch to get this feature. But that would mean Larian would need to be honest and forthcoming about the product they’re selling.

9.3 for me

At about 105hrs in tail end of act 2

I’ve ran into a couple game breaking bugs one with a main questline that forced a reload a few hours prior

The good thing is… it’s the type of game you’ll likely find stuff you missed if that happens

Overall, gameplay, graphics, story = high 9
Inventory management is a little hefty
And just the few bugs that have forced a reload are my only gripes so far.

A top 5 RPG of all time for me though. It’s fantastic

@somnambulance dang… sounds like you got a really bad roll of the dice. Buddy if mine only does co-op and has had zero issues. That sounds annoying

@Brydontk I found a book under a random rock that I decided to pick up and throw in act 1 by the blighted city.

Hence now I loot and sell literally everything , break everything, and spend time throwing rocks and boxes too. The devs probably counted that in their playtime comments haha

@somnambulance I think you got some bad luck but aren’t the only one. Though I wouldn’t give it a 10 because I’ve become a little pickier I’m still having it at a solid 9+.

I did run into a couple significant bugs that forced a reload but ended up discovering all sorts of stuff going back through things anyway.

Hope it works out for you two if you give it another go

@activedutygamer @somnambulance Sucks you guys have had these split screen problems. How far in playing couch co op did you notice problems. The first day i purchased the game my partner and I played a Coupole hours couch co op and didn't notice any issues.

I haven't tried it again since only because its just to messy a UI for it to be viable in a fun way unless you are sitting right next to your tv or have one over 65 inches.

It's THE best RPG that I've played in YEARS.

@KundaliniRising333 15-20 hours in. Seemed to be a similar consensus on the forum I linked to above as well.

I’d say those hours played coincided with the two-choice option to progress to the next area and that’s when we experienced the freezing.

We were having a great time before and just getting into the groove of it but this totally takes us out of the immersion and general flow of play.

@Unlucky13 yeah, I'd guess that's because it's dark and your character can't see in the dark 😅 What you need is dark vision, a torch, and spells that emit light. The game tells you how far each will let you see.

@Ravix He's supposed to be able to see 40 feet, but I don't know if that's happening. I've never played anything from this studio before and its a big adjustment. But I'm hungry for AAA party based RPGs, and pickings are ultra slim these days.

@Unlucky13 hmm. I did see someone mention something about their HDR. Maybe there is an issue you are getting :/ I think they said something about turning HDR setting in PS down and up again, or just have a general fiddle with hdr settings? It might be worth a try.

I have mid range dark vision, but other than it being kind of dark, I can still see, and torches and spells of light work if it's a really dark area, or I want to see more detail.

@Marquez that made me laugh, not only because we've probably put about the same amount of time in to BG3, and are probably at a similar point (I assume you are talking to a lot of NPC's and going on tangents down wells and chatting with oxen and suchlike) but also because our game of the year votes are going to be 1. BG3 2. TotK 3. PGA Tour 👀

Smash the system, let's get a golf game into the game of the year running 😂

Also, failed skill checks, despite my vast charm and cunning as a Bard, have led to some of the best moments 😅 it forces you to react to the situation and try and get through it another way. I mean, I didn't want to have to kill everything at the goblin guard post, but one slight failed delivery of a lie, and I was left with no choice but to throw sh*t in their faces and leg it 😁 lucky I'd left old Asterion in a great position up high, as a precaution, and Gale was waiting on the bridge, because he's Gale.

@Marquez Ha Ha. What I took from that though is... He has a ball? 😱 I picked up a Teddy bear (gods knows where from) and I'm still keeping it in the hope their is a use for that 😆 if not, doggo can have it.

Hmm, I had Karlach throw the goblin priestess at Dror, hoping for some unique dialogue 😅 there was not. Similar results of aggro though. But I will keep pushing this game to find some secret triggers, damnit!

Same @Fill3rup_! I’ve lost a few hours like that. Such a great game, but it’s not messing about. Have a good one

@Ravix, just spotted a bear called Clive next to Karlach in the camp. I have seen another one though

@DrVenture69 Clive?

That's an interesting...

(long pause)

...name

Imagine being one of the people that gave it a 1. I'm so glad I'm not them.