This is early access priced at $60. Take that as you will
Welp, here we go! One of my most anticipated releases aside from cyberpunk for this year. Ever since it's announcement last year, I have been following all the news related to BG3. A sequel to an old series that I love, made by the same guys who made Divinity games? Yes please! Now that I got to try out a few hours with the game, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the early access
Story & characters
You, the player character, is a survivor of a airship that was controlled by mind flayers, the Cthulu-looking race looking to abduct and turn you into one of their thralls. There's this parasite in your brain that is slowing turning you into a thrall. After the crash you wake up on a beach, looking for ways to remove the parasite.
I must say, the backstory alone has immersed me. Given this game is based on Dnd, I guess it doesn't surprise me. I always found backstories and the plot of dnd sessions to be well-written, and bg3 is no exception. They don't like to hide how the transformation is excruciating, and i think I felt that.
The characters you meet are your standard quirky party members, all with different personalities and motivations. These character archtypes are found everywhere in gaming nowdays, but because how well they are voice-acted, it makes them unique to characters from other games that are a lot like them
Gameplay
And this is the point where I feel it will divide a lot of you; The gameplay is quite similiar to that of DOS series, except this time with more Dnd element. The combat is turn-based, and the chance for your action to be successful depends on a dice system, and the environmental factors. The spells and skills will also reflect a lot from dnd 5e, but some spells are kinda weak compare to its source material. It might be slow, but I personally prefer this type of combat instead of real time, so I can tell what's actually going on. When you are outside of combat, you can choose to either take an instant short rest or a long rest at the camp. As the names suggest, short rest will recover partial hp and spell slots while long rest will recover everything and remove negative effects.
On dialog, you get to roll virtual d20 to see if you are successful. I am seeing a lot of complaints about how bad this is, and how it dice breaks immersion, but I'd argue it adds immersion. It makes you feel like you are playing an actual dnd session, and it is as if you are rolling your dice for your chance of success. Besides, the dialog minigame with certain chance of success has been around RPGs for god know how long, so I don't know why this has suddenly become a problem.
Graphics
I want to say this is one of the most beautiful-looking games of 2020, but there are texture bugs everywhere. Some environmental texture takes a few second before it loads, and you are stuck with looking at blurry and jaggy textures. The character models look great, and the facial expressions are amazing as well, but the blurry texture in the fact background kinda ruins those moments.
So much glitches and bugs.
And here comes the second reason why you might wanna hold off until its full release; the game can be a buggy mess. Aside from texture not loading, there were times when my party members were stuck on t-pose, cutscene not loading in properly, the sound and cutscene not in sync, characters' mouths not moving during dialog, crashes to desktop here and there, and the list goes on.
This Reddit thread is a compilation of the reports on all the bugs I've mentioned, and more. I can totally see why a lot of you will be hesitant before dropping $60. The early access only let's you play Act 1, but according to Larian it's suppose to take 25 hours on average. You can create a new character with new class, and make different dialog choices. If you do 4 runs with 4 different builds, that's already around 100 hours of gameplay! Yes, you are repeating the same Act 1, and you might argue it's the same thing, but if you are paying $60 for a EA, would you rather play an unstable multiplayer with novelty only lasting for few hours, or a singleplayer with an impressive looking world and actually have an replay value?
Overall....
I'd say we're in pretty good hands. The game has so much potential, and I am dying to know what happens in the later acts. Fixing all of the technical problems will definitely improve the early access problems. I just hope the devs don't pull Ark: Survival Evolved here, where they leave the game in EA and not doing the official release, while releasing paid dlcs.
TL;DR
If you are fan of turn-based RPGs, DnD, or really liked Divinity games, then early access is worth $60. Otherwise, wait until the full release
Welp, here we go! One of my most anticipated releases aside from cyberpunk for this year. Ever since it's announcement last year, I have been following all the news related to BG3. A sequel to an old series that I love, made by the same guys who made Divinity games? Yes please! Now that I got to try out a few hours with the game, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the early access
Story & characters
You, the player character, is a survivor of a airship that was controlled by mind flayers, the Cthulu-looking race looking to abduct and turn you into one of their thralls. There's this parasite in your brain that is slowing turning you into a thrall. After the crash you wake up on a beach, looking for ways to remove the parasite.
I must say, the backstory alone has immersed me. Given this game is based on Dnd, I guess it doesn't surprise me. I always found backstories and the plot of dnd sessions to be well-written, and bg3 is no exception. They don't like to hide how the transformation is excruciating, and i think I felt that.
The characters you meet are your standard quirky party members, all with different personalities and motivations. These character archtypes are found everywhere in gaming nowdays, but because how well they are voice-acted, it makes them unique to characters from other games that are a lot like them
Gameplay
And this is the point where I feel it will divide a lot of you; The gameplay is quite similiar to that of DOS series, except this time with more Dnd element. The combat is turn-based, and the chance for your action to be successful depends on a dice system, and the environmental factors. The spells and skills will also reflect a lot from dnd 5e, but some spells are kinda weak compare to its source material. It might be slow, but I personally prefer this type of combat instead of real time, so I can tell what's actually going on. When you are outside of combat, you can choose to either take an instant short rest or a long rest at the camp. As the names suggest, short rest will recover partial hp and spell slots while long rest will recover everything and remove negative effects.
On dialog, you get to roll virtual d20 to see if you are successful. I am seeing a lot of complaints about how bad this is, and how it dice breaks immersion, but I'd argue it adds immersion. It makes you feel like you are playing an actual dnd session, and it is as if you are rolling your dice for your chance of success. Besides, the dialog minigame with certain chance of success has been around RPGs for god know how long, so I don't know why this has suddenly become a problem.
Graphics
I want to say this is one of the most beautiful-looking games of 2020, but there are texture bugs everywhere. Some environmental texture takes a few second before it loads, and you are stuck with looking at blurry and jaggy textures. The character models look great, and the facial expressions are amazing as well, but the blurry texture in the fact background kinda ruins those moments.
So much glitches and bugs.
And here comes the second reason why you might wanna hold off until its full release; the game can be a buggy mess. Aside from texture not loading, there were times when my party members were stuck on t-pose, cutscene not loading in properly, the sound and cutscene not in sync, characters' mouths not moving during dialog, crashes to desktop here and there, and the list goes on.
This Reddit thread is a compilation of the reports on all the bugs I've mentioned, and more. I can totally see why a lot of you will be hesitant before dropping $60. The early access only let's you play Act 1, but according to Larian it's suppose to take 25 hours on average. You can create a new character with new class, and make different dialog choices. If you do 4 runs with 4 different builds, that's already around 100 hours of gameplay! Yes, you are repeating the same Act 1, and you might argue it's the same thing, but if you are paying $60 for a EA, would you rather play an unstable multiplayer with novelty only lasting for few hours, or a singleplayer with an impressive looking world and actually have an replay value?
Overall....
I'd say we're in pretty good hands. The game has so much potential, and I am dying to know what happens in the later acts. Fixing all of the technical problems will definitely improve the early access problems. I just hope the devs don't pull Ark: Survival Evolved here, where they leave the game in EA and not doing the official release, while releasing paid dlcs.
TL;DR
If you are fan of turn-based RPGs, DnD, or really liked Divinity games, then early access is worth $60. Otherwise, wait until the full release
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