It is really good, but it's also over hyped. It is exemplary for its genre and for its price-value proposition. It's definitely GOTY, but really that says more about the competition than it does about BG3. It's filled with lots of intricate little details and is clearly a product filled with passion of its creators.
Its let down a bit by the lop-sided focus of development on the early acts, and poor combat design. It's a faithful implementation of D&D 5e and even does a good job of addressing the flaws with the system. But it's still a shallow system that ends up with far less interesting things to engage with than their previous titles in my opinion.
Some of its best content can only be experienced solo, but requires managing the combat of 4 mechanically complex, but tactically shallow units.
If you like RPGs and in particular D&D 5e it'd recommend it. If you're new to the genre or just curious I'd recommend other titles for your first entry.
mechanically complex, but tactically shallow
I haven't seen anyone else put my issues with the game this succinctly. The last time I played I was on normal difficulty, Act 1, and trying to do all the side content I can before heading to the goblin camp. My wife seemed to get stuck at the camp for a long time, so I'd like to try and be prepared. I think I'm somewhere between 16 and 26 hours in. I've played a decent amount of 5e and Pathfinder, but was never one for min-maxing.
In BG3, it feels like it doesn't take a major screw up to fail a combat, maybe two misplays, but it takes forever to find out if those minor mistakes are going to actually result in a full party wipe or not. Feels too easy to fail for how long it takes to fail.
So much comes down to how many attacks each party can hit with in a turn, and it feels like little else matters, which is absurd given how many options you have mechanically at any given moment.
You don't even need to really misplay, the dice can just screw you. At a table with a GM you can get inventive and try some crazy stuff ( and the GM there doesn't really want a TPK) , but as a game those things are less apparent and less fun. The game is incredibly cheesable.
Take all the talents you want, spend all the time you like planning your build, it'll never be better than tossing an explosive barrel down and just shooting it (for instance). And yet that's not fun for me, it feels like I'm cheating and not engaging with the game genuinely. But what else is there? The goblin camp is a slow slog and every time I see if done without cheesing it comes down to hiding away in a corner, building up your defenses and just slowly whittling them down and hoping they don't out roll you. (don't forget there's nothing bad about going down in 5e, since there's no lasting effects, just get back up, chug a potion and carry on.)
I love the game for the effort that was put in, but the characters don't call to me the way they call to others, and the game's combat seems hell bent on wasting my time and being unsatisfactory.
It's absolutely a great game, but I'd rather play with the Divinity: Original Sin 2 combat system.
It is really good, but it's also over hyped. It is exemplary for its genre and for its price-value proposition. It's definitely GOTY, but really that says more about the competition than it does about BG3. It's filled with lots of intricate little details and is clearly a product filled with passion of its creators.
Its let down a bit by the lop-sided focus of development on the early acts, and poor combat design. It's a faithful implementation of D&D 5e and even does a good job of addressing the flaws with the system. But it's still a shallow system that ends up with far less interesting things to engage with than their previous titles in my opinion.
Some of its best content can only be experienced solo, but requires managing the combat of 4 mechanically complex, but tactically shallow units.
If you like RPGs and in particular D&D 5e it'd recommend it. If you're new to the genre or just curious I'd recommend other titles for your first entry.
I haven't seen anyone else put my issues with the game this succinctly. The last time I played I was on normal difficulty, Act 1, and trying to do all the side content I can before heading to the goblin camp. My wife seemed to get stuck at the camp for a long time, so I'd like to try and be prepared. I think I'm somewhere between 16 and 26 hours in. I've played a decent amount of 5e and Pathfinder, but was never one for min-maxing.
In BG3, it feels like it doesn't take a major screw up to fail a combat, maybe two misplays, but it takes forever to find out if those minor mistakes are going to actually result in a full party wipe or not. Feels too easy to fail for how long it takes to fail.
So much comes down to how many attacks each party can hit with in a turn, and it feels like little else matters, which is absurd given how many options you have mechanically at any given moment.
You don't even need to really misplay, the dice can just screw you. At a table with a GM you can get inventive and try some crazy stuff ( and the GM there doesn't really want a TPK) , but as a game those things are less apparent and less fun. The game is incredibly cheesable.
Take all the talents you want, spend all the time you like planning your build, it'll never be better than tossing an explosive barrel down and just shooting it (for instance). And yet that's not fun for me, it feels like I'm cheating and not engaging with the game genuinely. But what else is there? The goblin camp is a slow slog and every time I see if done without cheesing it comes down to hiding away in a corner, building up your defenses and just slowly whittling them down and hoping they don't out roll you. (don't forget there's nothing bad about going down in 5e, since there's no lasting effects, just get back up, chug a potion and carry on.)
I love the game for the effort that was put in, but the characters don't call to me the way they call to others, and the game's combat seems hell bent on wasting my time and being unsatisfactory.
It's absolutely a great game, but I'd rather play with the Divinity: Original Sin 2 combat system.