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[TheDraconian]

Cruising through this game for months and I gotta say my time with it's been a completely refreshing experience.

There's a multitude of creative gameplay loops. Immersive worldbuilding. Rich lore. Quality writing. Non-linear storytelling. Awesome characters. Meaningful choices. Deep role-playing options. Unique content all round in a 100hrs+ adventure!

Launching feature-complete. Out-the-gate Community Support. AAA-level dev standards.

No predatory MTX infestation. No frustrating grinding mechanics. No unnecessary filler. No recycled shit. No forced unnatural characters. Zero handholding.

This is a miracle boys. Pure undiluted freedom. A standard for RPGs and quality games. A middle finger to bland, boring, recycled overworlds. A statement to the Industry that nothing beats pure Talent. One of the best games ever.

You rock Larian. Well deserved success.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I like it too but i'd argue there are plenty of other examples for that.

 

[TheDraconian]

One of the best games ever.
It's The Witcher 3 all over again.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Amen

 

[acm2000]

and 6 whole years of development

 

[Mister Wolf]

Too bad we won't see other turn based isometric rpgs get this kind of budget and development time.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

The game mops the floor with most AAA RPG's and is a measuring stick for how you ship and ultimately maintain/enhance the game. It's not at the user expense as well. It doesn't have a battle or season pass. It's not riddled with Madden esque transactions or gate keeping "pay to win" mechanics. It let's me play the game at my pace the old fashioned way, with trainers!

CRPG or not, this is a good reference point for publishers to take note of. I think it's going to get worse for the industry if they continue to nickel and dime.

 

[RoboFu]

Good game but overrated overall. I couldn’t finish it. It’s too slow and monotonous for me. Too much talking.

 

[TheDraconian]

Good game but overrated overall. I couldn’t finish it. It’s too slow and monotonous for me. Too much talking.

 

[kikkis]

I haven't played it a ton, but I kind of wish it had skip combat button.

 

[Stuart360]

And i'll never play it because of turn based combat. If this was real time combat like Diablo or something, i'd be all over it.

 

[ADiTAR]

I think that's true for most great games.

 

[Sentenza]

Still doing insane numbers on Steam incidentally.
I was checking the top sellers yesterday and the game is still second in the sales chart five months after its release, with 250K+ concurrent users.
Far from common for what's mostly a single player story-driven experience.

Or to summarize it in other words: Larian is doing an obscene amount of money out of this.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Too bad we won't see other turn based isometric rpgs get this kind of budget and development time.

This level of resources will still be a rare occurrence, sure, but at least developers making a pitch will be able to use this game as a data point to counter the vibe-based closemindedness of publishers. And I've loved seeing this game's success thrown in the faces of message board posters who used to insist turn-based RPGs were "archaic" or unable to appeal to a "broad audience". I'm also happy that BG3 has a lot of reactivity and immersive sim elements; it makes the business case for pushing those stronger.

From now on, anyone looking to finance a big RPG is going to have to reckon with the success of the turn-based BG3.

 

[KarlStevens]

Talent keeps winning.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

The same would be with Japan Studio.... They give a lot of originality, passion and make wonderful games, like my pretty blonde.

 

[Madflavor]

It’s a once in a generation type of game. People will be playing it for many years to come.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Unlimited development time nowadays more so than ever seems to be the golden ticket. Nintendo basically gives their teams as long as they want now, and they still have so many games they are like a year or two ahead of running out. Back in the early 2000s a typical cycle was 18 months, that was it. Make the best game you can in that time. Now it’s like, 4 or 5 years.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

One of the best games ever.
It's The Witcher 3 all over again.

Yep.

Every generation has one of these. PS4/Xbone era was Witcher 3. Switch era was BotW. PS5/Series X era is Elden Ring/Baldur’s Gate 3. Sometimes there’s two I guess

 

[The Cockatrice]

Divinity Original Sin games were the actual prime examples. BG3 is just following in their footsteps. There are also a ton of other quality games made with passion. Did you guys never play games before? Clearly not.

 

[Generic]

One of the best games ever.
It's The Witcher 3 all over again.

It's indeed The Witcher 3 all over again, but not for this reason.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Divinity Original Sin games were the actual prime examples. BG3 is just following in their footsteps. There are also a ton of other quality games made with passion. Did you guys never play games before? Clearly not.

The success of Divinity OS2 and the reputation they gained from such a great game led to them having the ability to be granted the permission to make a BG game, and be able to afford to take as many years as they needed to make it. But BG3 is their breakout game for sure. Most people had never heard of them prior to this one.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The success of Divinity OS2 and the reputation they gained from such a great game led to them having the ability to be granted the permission to make a BG game, and be able to afford to take as many years as they needed to make it. But BG3 is their breakout game for sure. Most people had never heard of them prior to this one.

It was the name and the cinematic camera angles that carried BG3 to popularity. If this was called Divinity Original Sin 3, it wouldnt have blown out to the non rpg masses. I'd even go as far to say that DOS2 is a far superior game in terms of gameplay compared to BG3,m but thats another discussion.

 

[IAmRei]

For me, it is not,

I know lot of games that made with passion, but doesnt have any luxury of media darling, and their hard worked games are lost in oversaturated market

 

[HL3.exe]

Don't forget luck. Game development is a time and a place thing as well. And they accidentally timed perfectly. (Just like something like TES:Oblivion in 2006)

The disdain for AAA, monetization practices, disappointed hyped up games. They found the right people with the right skillsets. Etc. All these factors and more helped. Who would've thought a classic CRPG would resonate to this degrees.

Divinity 1 and 2 where great, yes, but still niche. And I played the Early Access versions over the years, but no one would have thought it would become such a mainstream success years later.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I finally put a good chunk of hours into BG3 this weekend, and it's kind of boring.
This is an example of hype out of control IMHO. I bought it based on hype and don't know if I'm going to even finish it.

Good game but overrated overall. I couldn’t finish it. It’s too slow and monotonous for me. Too much talking.

This reminds me of my playthrough of Pillars of Eternity. Except I had to read and read and read all that dialog. That walls and walls of text dialog.
At least with BG3 They have voice actors.

 

[Dacvak]

I’ll never stop singing BG3’s praises. I famously hate RPGs and most story-based games, yet BG3 was easily in my top five of last year. On paper, there is no part of that game I would think I’d like, but those sons-of-Bs really made something incredible and unique.

The only real downside to the game is the amount of save-scumming that’s essentially required. It’s almost like playing D&D with the world’s pettiest DM. Like, I remember one part where this shop owner was talking about a little book or paper on the counter, implying that I should have a look at it. So I go to pick it up, and suddenly the ENTIRE FUCKING TOWN is aggro’d on me, and my choices were either to die, to kill everybody, or to reload.

There were soooo many instances where I’d just casually walk into an aggro area, or have an accidental misclick, and suddenly it was a full-on fight to the death, with no option to be like “hey, bro, my bad… I’ll put your booklet back, no worries.”

But other than that honestly minor gripe, the game is absolutely fantastic. It might be the first RPG that I actually play through twice.

 

[existensmaximum]

Imagine the times when we weren't surprised by this..

 

[mckmas8808]

I like it too but i'd argue there are plenty of other examples for that.

YEP! And every single game on this level should be praised for doing so.

 

[Filben]

What I like most about the game how dynamic the world reacts and how you create your own "minor" stories. E.g. after taking a holy artefact I triggered a defense mechanism, went through a portal with one of my character and left the other ones to destory said mechanism. After that the portal closed and left that one hero seperated, who then started her way back alone to the temple's entrance while the other three party members had to sneak out the same way we came in.

Oh, and all that happened after we promised a God to kill someone, went there, decided to not kill that person, pissed off everyone and fought with very low supplies and somehow managed to survive the assault.

Even when I fail skill checks, mostly in dialogues, it doesn't feel like the game cheated me, because it just keeps telling a different story, with a different outcome. It's reactive and just keeps telling and telling. It feels unique and like a very good game master that keeps changing the story towards your decisions.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

or good leadership and production design.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Don't forget luck. Game development is a time and a place thing as well. And they accidentally timed perfectly. (Just like something like TES:Oblivion in 2006)

The disdain for AAA, monetization practices, disappointed hyped up games. They found the right people with the right skillsets. Etc. All these factors and more helped. Who would've thought a classic CRPG would resonate to this degrees.

Divinity 1 and 2 where great, yes, but still niche. And I played the Early Access versions over the years, but no one would have thought it would become such a mainstream success years later.

In to echo this. It's also unfortunately all about timing in this industry, as it is everywhere else. And sometimes extremely high-quality games come out and no one cares, and the studio closes.

 

[LakeOf9]

It’s a great game, but how is it any more an example of this than, say, Elden Ring or Tears of the Kingdom or Alan Wake 2 or God of War?

 

[JayK47]

I am currently playing it. It is good old gaming crack. Very hard to put down. Always an amazing surprise around every corner. Great story and characters. Combat is amazing. I have very little complaints, mainly inventory management sucks up too much of my time and the male characters are all wimps compared to the female characters.

I am definitely looking forward to their next game.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

It's amazing game, astonishing in some places, but I don't agree with some of the praise.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[THE DUCK]

I feel the same way about Bang-on Balls: chronicles. Seriously, you need to try it.

 

[pasterpl]

And $100m budget

 

[Larxia]

And i'll never play it because of turn based combat. If this was real time combat like Diablo or something, i'd be all over it.

Quick question and I'm not judging you at all because I usually really dislike turn based too, but do you actually know how it works in Baldur's Gate 3, what type of turn based it is?
If you compare it to something like JRPG turn based, which I absolutely hate (it's insanely repetitive, there's no depth, no strategy, it's the same thing over and over), it's completely different here and I actually really enjoyed it.

One big difference is that each combat is actually unique. Ennemies never respawn, if a character dies, he's dead forever. You don't have this feeling of grind of repetitivity that you have in most turn based games, here you have less combats, but each of them feel important.

Another big difference is that your gameplay during combats is actually the same as in exploration. You have a LOT of different ways to interact with the world, from various spells to item usage, elemental reactions, all kind of stuff, and if you can do something in exploration, you can do that during combat too. For example you have a throw action available, can be used to throw an ennemy or any time of item in the world, but at some point you realise that if you throw a potion on a character, it will heal that character, even if there's officially no way to use a potion on another character. And if you put all your characters close to each other and throw that potion, they will all be healed if they are touched by the splash, or if you throw an invisibility potion, they will all become invisible, and it's like this with all type of objects, from potions to explosive to posions to even kitchen ustensils lol really everything.

It's one of the most "systemic" game I have ever played, if something can be done at some point, it can be done all the time, every system of the game react with all the others, and you can always experiment and do various things. There are also lot of ways to avoid combats, either by talking your way out of it, or being invisible and sneaking past a combat, or you can even tweak combats to your advantage by seperating your group, like making only some characters go into combats, and keep some members of your party hidden, so they will still be able to move freely because they are not noticed by the ennemy yet, and you can for example use a spell to reduce the size of the ennemies, and with your invisible character use a push / wind spell at the right moment that will push away all the ennemies from a cliff and kill them instantly.

It's random ideas / situations I'm saying, but you can really do ton of things, and all of that made it completely different than any turn based games I've played before. I'll continue to dislike jrpg / standard turn based, but anything like Baldur's Gate 3 I will welcome, and I'm someone who usually loves action.

 

[gtabro]

If pissy middle-aged reviewers that often shit on AAA/big games like Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) and WorthABuy put it on the top of their 2024 list, then you know it's a proper masterpiece.

Also they delivered on Cyberpunk 2077's promise - remember that 40-minute demo that ended with the narrator telling you how that was just one chain of choices and there are many more that will shape the story and in the final game that was one of the very few missions with any consequence (not even all branches, siding with Madeline or w/e the name was just gave you a hotel scene and a dildo and that story never affected anything ever, yeah great depth CDPR)? Well that game was a disappointing RPG with the shallowest outcomes, I mean it's closer to being a "GTA with extra steps" rather than a modern New Vegas. Thankfully Larian came to deliver on something another company has promised

and just I imagined it

it is glorious.

 

[samoilaaa]

Divinity Original Sin games were the actual prime examples. BG3 is just following in their footsteps. There are also a ton of other quality games made with passion. Did you guys never play games before? Clearly not.

i agree , people that talk about BG3 like it has never been done before clearly didnt play divinity original sin 2 , because of the success of that game we have BG3 today , the only advantage BG3 has is the cutscenes

 

[Hudo]

This is great, lmao.

 

[pasterpl]

And i'll never play it because of turn based combat. If this was real time combat like Diablo or something, i'd be all over it.

This.

 

[Kamina]

 

[geary]

And $100m budget

Heard the budget was around 120mil

 

[Guilty_AI]

And $100m budget

Heard the budget was around 120mil

Its not really certain, but yeah, thats more or less the guesstimate.

 

[Shut0wen]

What you said about larian is true but they have been making turn based games for over 10 years now, and the first 2 divinity games are good old eurojank, id say they are talented if they can make an rpg that isnt eurojank, nothing againest eurojank but lets be honest, eurojank is never ever intentional, they have also made a shitty divinity strategy game as well

 

[Esppiral]

Baldurs gate 3 is the prime example of a cheap developer/ publisher that releases a high profile heavy focused story driven game only with English dub, I won't play this game to be constantly reading, they can go fuck themselves.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Baldurs gate 3 is the prime example of a cheap developer/ publisher that releases a high profile heavy focused story driven game only with English dub, I won't play this game to be constantly reading, they can go fuck themselves.

Weird thing to be mad about.

 

[Nikodemos]

What you said about larian is true but they have been making turn based games for over 10 years now

This is an important point. The foundations for BG3 were laid circa 2011-2012, when they started development on the first Original Sin game. They continued refining the engine and the toolset throughout the decade.
I think it's fair to say that BG3's combined development took about 11 years.