Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@Th3solution Congrats on completing this epic game. I imagine you need a break for a while but I do recommend a Dark Urge playthrough if you can ever find the time in the future. It really has some meaningful changes to the main story.

@Bundersvessel Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever spent 300 hours on a single game, and BG3 stays surprisingly fresh the whole time. A combination of constant evolving side narrative, new character development and interactions, true cause-and-effect from your decisions, and a very deep combat system with so many options and approaches — it all leads to a really fun and enjoyable time, whether you be at hour #10 or hour #250.

I had some brief and mild struggling around the 200 hour mark because of the sheer volume of the quest log which felt to be never-endingly growing with each play session rather than shrinking. Part of the genius of the game is in its interconnected narrative thread and how simple small NPC interactions carry over for the full game. You choose to save seemingly minor characters in Act 1 and they show up as a major players in Act 3 with entire multi-hour quests related to their story. I played the game so obsessively regarding exploration and trying to save everyone in a heroic “good guy” run, that I think the sheer volume of content in Act 3 was much larger than most people have in a single run. I could be wrong though. But hearing people talk about their playthroughs and how they may choose to kill a major camp member in the opening hours and then they have a enormous whole thread that is just not there for the rest of the game. It boggles the mind how distinctive each person’s playthrough will be.

But even though my resolve wavered ever so slightly midway through Act 3, once I got over a certain hump, I started to notice quests being checked off without new ones popping up and I knew it was all downhill from there. Sure, a 70-80 hour downhill run, but there was at least a light at the end of the tunnel. 😅

And this is why I know I’ll never get into games-as-a-service. Constant drip feed of content is great, only when you know it will eventually end in a satisfying resolution. With BG3 I knew that eventually there would be an end to the quests and major plot pieces so I never truly gave any thought into abandoning the game.

Which brings me to our discussion, @MaulTsir — I can relate to how you felt when you drifted away from the game in Act 2. The FOMO of missing something or making a poor decision which locks you out of something is real. I’ll admit that I did resort to save-scumming from time to time, with an occasional Google search when I was torn on what to decide. It didn’t ruin the experience for me but for most people I think they would rather not have potential spoilers or ruin the integrity of the game. Really it can be played both ways though. The game allows you to make a save in the middle of a conversation before you choose a dialogue option, and also in the middle of combat, so clearly the developers were okay with players reloading and trying a different approach. If you take the mindset of living with your decisions and with the roll of the dice, there’s still plenty to do and see and much satisfaction to be had. Perhaps even more satisfaction in knowing you were true to your decisions and live with the consequences, and the story goes on regardless. Short of dying yourself, nothing you do will ruin the game and you’ll still proceed to a finale and an outcome.

And like I mentioned above, having a few NPCs die, or a few narrative threads end prematurely may actually make Act 3 more digestible and less overwhelming, to be honest.

At the end game, I had access to such a huge party and so many pieces of equipment, so many potions and scrolls, so much gold… I could never use it all. I hit the level cap early in Act 3. Some of the late game encounters were easier than they were probably intended because I was a bit OP.

As far as story, yes — that’s where you might miss some elements if you don’t have good luck with an NPC conversation early on, or unknowingly let someone die who is actually a key player later. It’s the double-edged sword of having a game that actually respects your choices and holds the player accountable. But like I say, with playing it as thoroughly as I did, it really felt like 3 separate games in one. So having some of the content trimmed off will not affect the overall enjoyment you’d have.

And even with my 300 hours, I know I still have only seen a fraction of the game. Taking an evil route undoubtedly has tons of unique content, and I probably will try another playthrough one day.

@BearsEatBeets Thanks, mate. I had simul-posted with you and was mentioning that I think I do want to do that. Another playthrough where I do the Dark Urge and experiment with roles and character classes that I didn’t use the first time. I feel like a Dark Urge run will be shorter also.

@Th3solution Just read it and my first playthrough was very similar to yours, very thorough wanting to do absolutely everything. I also wasn't averse to the occasional google of repercussions to choices or a sneaky reload if something went vastly against how I wanted it to play out.
Suffice to say my third 'evil' run did result in a much quicker run time due to having a much smaller party of companions (no worries about who take along though) so whole questlines disappear. I haven't quite finished that run as I put it on the back burner to play something else but will get back to it at some point.
I've got 800 hours in the game now 😬

@BearsEatBeets Good to know.

Yeah, some of the early game interactions that came to mind as I was typing that response to Maul was when you meet Barcus Wroot, I think is name is or something similar, the little Gnome guy attached to windmill. The first time I came across the situation I said or did something that tossed him off the windmill to his certain death. I reloaded simply because I didn’t like that outcome and unknowingly opened up his entire storyline which spans all 3 acts and resulted (in my case) of him taking over as leader of the Ironhand Gnome group and becoming an end game ally. It’s crazy how such and early simple interaction on the windmill could completely lock out that storyline. Another thing I did early was make some poor dialogue options and ended up in a full-scale war in the Grove fighting off all the druids and getting all the Tieflings killed. I reloaded from there mainly because the combat scenario was really difficult that early in the game and I felt bad for the Tieflings and decided I didn’t want things to go that route. So I reloaded and made sure to take the peaceful path, got the Tieflings out, cleared the Goblin camp instead, etc. And knowing if I wouldn’t have done that then I would have lost access to many characters, such as Dammon, and I’m not sure how that would have affected things with Karlach and her heart engine being unable to be temporarily fixed. She ended up being my romance partner so it’s mind-boggling that things could have taken an large turn in the opening hours and made me go a separate way. There’s a similar watershed event (I think in Act 2) where Shadowheart and Lae’ Zel fight at camp and SH killed LZ and was like “oh no… I can’t have this happen” so I reloaded.

The game is just full of so many tethered threads and I am still in awe of what Larian accomplished here.