Baldur's Gate 3 - Gameplay and Impressions
 

Swen played Baldur's Gate 3 at PAX East. Some impressions from various outlets.

More information.

That was laborious.

Looks promising, but it looks very much like Divinity Original Sin. I hope they manage to differentiate it even more from DOS. There's also quite a big jump from Baldur's Gate 1/2 to 3. They're saying it will launch into early access in a short while. So I'm a bit worried that it will probably not suffer major changes graphically, either in art style or rendering techniques.

Am I the only one who feels this is almost just a reskinned D:OS 2?

It doesn't look bad or anything, but it's not distinct enough imo. They even copied the origin stories approach.

Baldur's Hate 3: Divinity Original Junk, a failed system.

not impressive, and that dialogue type is RETARDED

Re-using the DivintyOS engine was probably part of their pitch to get the gig by keeping development costs lower.

Given its pre-alpha and you are going to want to iterate on content sooner rather than later then yeah its going to be re-using some Divinity stuff for now. Things will be amended and changed during development for sure as systems get refined.

Having said that I am hyped for Baldur's Gate 3 again. Loved what they are doing with stealth with its Commandos inspiration and that they are using a camp system. Spells and abilities are in and useful. Full party wipes are a thing which is all good. Seems like real DND to me.

Swen really sold it for me when he killed someone by throwing his boot.

Those who think they want Baldur's Gate III should play Pathfinder Kingmaker. Those who want Divinity 3 can play this.

This. I want that game.

I'll play both :)

Good videos, and the game looks pretty good overall.

I only somewhat enjoyed DOS2 and stopped playing after 40-or-so hours, which is a lot but unfortunately I got bored with it. I'm not much of a fan of turn-based combat so seeing that BG3 is not real-time-with-pause is unfortunate, but not damning.

I like the D&D combat system so hopefully I will enjoy this more than DOS2, and I like seeing the dice rolls here during conversations. I like the slow progression mentioned, as leveling up a billion times during a game significantly reduces the emotional impact of that for me. Stealth seems interesting here.

Much of my enjoyment will depend upon the engagement I have in the story, characters, and environment, so I'll just have to wait for reviews on that.

They can't beat BG2 even if they invest 20 years in the making of this game. Larian simply miss fundamental things.

I dont think that using engine from DOS is bad thing. Its rather logical step. Im glad its isometric, party based, tb game. For me the critical part will be encounter design, story and atmosphere.

Anyone with solid taste should want both, and play both.

Yes, me too. But in the Worldwide Reveal Video I didn't like when a given enemy (a halfling?) wasted his full round doing nothing useful besides getting up and down a ladder (you can watch it from 59min10sec to 59min35sec). Okay, the game is still being developed and things gonna change but they shouldn't forget to improve the enemy AI behavior.

Not everyone loved BG2 to that extent. I played the whole series plus expansions and I thought the relative lack of exploration (vs. BG1) was a let down. BG2, to me is a great game but it felt a bit too much like a series of intense combat trials vs. an adventure. I don't see any reason that Larian can't build a great game here.

Well, as expected for now it looks like Divinity 3, but somehow I liked what I saw and they told that it will improve more away from Divinity looks with time, so lets hope for the best. I liked characters for as few as we saw, im worry only about long dragging tb battles, which could become repetitive and boring with time and I will lose the will to continue to play, as it happens with many games of late.

Stealth mechanics looked great and all that verticality thing also (I still haven't played D:OS 2), lets hope they could avoid their usual "jokes" (though throwing boots was already there) and make great game with great story for once!
Will it be Baldurs Gate? Im still not sure…

That's a matter of taste entirely. I am personally not a fan of Larian's game design style whatsoever and turning BG into (artistically) D:OS 3 certainly doesn't help allay fears with their direction. It's certainly not a game I'll be buying anywhere close to day one, preferring to wait and see long after the original launch takes place for real, non-hyped reviews.

I backed both orginal sins and a big lure of those games was ultima type experience. Turn based combat was fun and all, but I didn't back those games because of it. For me Baldur's gates' combat being turn based is a definitely a letdown, but I can live with it if rest of the game delivers and since it is d&d, the system should transform quite well to turn based system. The feel of combat is just so different compared to orginal games combat system…

Well I try to keep an open mind :)

This looks like a very promising RPG.
But BG3? Not sure if I see the connection to BG1&2, there, though - it feels more like a D:OS3.
Pretty sure they should avoid character close-ups, given the art assets they seem to have.

i love the character portraits, origin stories, opening trailer. It feels more like Dragon Age:Origins which I'm all for. Yeah for turned based!

The graphics and interface look like Divinity Sin 2. I don't care. Give me a great story and interaction between characters and memorable characters.

Looks good to me.

What do you (and others) mean when you say this? Surely you didn't think a game in 2020 would have sprite art on prerendered backgrounds. What would make it "feel" like Baldur's Gate?

One thing I've always missed from CRPGs… smaller spaces. I played D&D back in the early 80s and in my head, a dungeon was often a tight, cramped environment. CRPGs came out and even taverns are these huge, cavernous spaces. I don't know how they could handle this in a video game. But fighting in close quarters is almost always ignored. Yeah, it restricts things. But too many video game fights and exploration happens in these enormous, open spaces.

Just an observation.

It looks like Dragon Age meets D:OS!! I'm in love!!!! The story/dialogue style of Dragon Age with the combat of D:OS is a dream pairing for me.

As someone who enjoyed Baldur's Gate but finds RTwP combat kind of tedious, the fact that this is turn-based makes this a full price purchase for me. Maybe even an early access purchase. I'm officially excited for this

Cant say for others, but for me it was atmosphere of both Baldurs Gate games, which made them special, the feeling of adventure and wast magical world all around - people, who made these games knew how to make it. Did Larian can make it too, Im not sure, I dont feel atmosphere of their games, they are more like tb combat simulators with some okish story added to it.
And that's why Im afraid their game will be BG only in its name, but in reality it will be Divinity OS 3 DnD version :-/

And to be honest it even didn't looked like DnD combat that much - throwing boots at enemies, sure, it is so Larian! Seems like it will be burning barrels all over again.

lol "Divinity Sin 3 - D&D version" that's pretty good. :biggrin:

I agree that this looks much more like Divinity Sin (the Dark edition) married with Dragon Age Origins, than bears much resemblance to Baldur's Gate. But I'm cool with that. Since I thought both of those games were great, that sounds good to me! Heck, I always figured BG 3 is just a marketing gimmick, and this is typical on how they sell movie sequels these days, and games that are well known and famous.

Anyway, I think it looks intriguing, but a bit rough, and I'm glad they said they will be working on it, and hopefully they will polish it and fine tune it to the point where it has a more distinct feel to it than it does presently.

The D&D movie-like trailer was awesome though, and that must have cost a pretty penny.

I think Baldur's Sin 3 looks great, but I enjoyed D:OS 2, so… Really missed the D&D system as well. *thumbs-up, Larian*

Literally what I wrote. Granted, I wouldn't expect a 2020 title to necessarily keep to the technical limitations of 1999 - though maybe dare to look back, recognise what made BG special, art-wise, and inject it into a 2020 game?
However, apart from sharing a name a broad (barely recognisable) fantasy setting, as well as borrowing from the same tradition of p&p rules, I don't see what connects this part 3 to its supposed predecessors. What do you feel connects it?

So I was right. The dragon scene is from the game and it is a super production. From the looks of it, this game is going to be awesome. Yeah, it looks like more of a Neverwinter Night 3 (or a mix of Dragon Age, XCOM, DOS, and D&D games) than BG3, but who cares?

Also: I'm hoping for more small battles. D:OS2 ended up being one giant, 30+ minute fight after another. Not every encounter needs to be so sprawling and epic.

I'd also like to see more resource management with regard to powers. Casting high level spells in every fight from morning to night gets boring. I'd like to go back to the D&D concept of limited spells and abilities, and part of the game is to know when to use them, and when to save them for later. Pillars of Eternity 2 was disappointing this way, too. Every fight used every spell. Takes the planning and again—resource management—out of the equation. Which to me is ESSENTIAL to the D&D experience. Risk and reward.

Looks completely awesome….I'm in.

We'll know we're in a BG game once those immortal words are uttered: "You must gather your party together before venturing forth"!! :)

Hah yes….that always annoyed me….when you catch yourself mimicking hehhe

In case someone wishes to see the full presentation, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c…ture=emb_title

Sniff. I might cry. That, that is all I really want.

Yes, this has components and mechanics from D:OS. Is anybody surprised? I'm just thankful to get a (most likely) good D&D game with turn-based combat. What more do you want?

When they first talked about the game everybody was fearing a 3D-first person-ARPG. I like what I have seen much more than that.

The setting and the rules, which is all that needs to connect it. How was Pillars of Eternity 2 connected to Pillars of Eternity? How was Oblivion or Skyrim connected to the game before it? Putting in Minsc or references to the Bhaalspawn is just fan service shit.

The graphics of Baldur's Gate 2 were great. It had very good art direction. But the means by which those graphics were created didn't make that game special. Other games used similar graphics technology and weren't special in the slightest (Lionheart, for example). it's a ridiculous expectation. Wishing/hoping that BG3 has good art direction, character design, effects and so on, those are reasonable expectations.