The title says it all....
I had a choice, Squadrons, or BG3.... I choose BG3 because of my massive love of the franchise....
And after 11 hours of ripping out my hair, screaming at the monitor, and reciting EVERY curse I know in a dozen languages, I AM FUCKING DONE!
This is NOT an 'Early access' game. This is 'Test our broken, unbalanced, nonworking reskin if D:oS"
So many broken mechanics....
So many broken decisions.....
First attempt. Dead in 10 minutes against the VERY FIRST encounter.... a 95% hit chance means "you critically miss". EVERY TIME (I reloaded the save right before the battle 8 times, to the EXACT SAME RESULT. 3 critical misses in a row for him @ 95% hit chance, 3 critical hits for the imps. In EACH if the reloads.)
So.... THAT run ended poorly, even after save scumming 8 fucking times!!!
New character time! Get past the imps, easy peazy.... and get NUKED for 48 points of damage by a trap I CAN'T detect (not a class skill), and that's AFTER saving. I am lvl 1 and have 9 hp. 20 minutes total play time.
New character (AGAIN). Get past the imps, avoid the trap (which, I STILL can't detect!). Get to the shore, get into the FIRST crypt..... BOOOM!!! Standing in a fucking LAKE of Fire. 4 damage a turn if I stand, 4 damage a square if I move..... need to clear 4 squares to escape.... I have 12 HP.....
This is not a game.... this is DnD as run by an 8year old.....
or Duncan Fisher...
Mechaincs:
So... There is this thing called a "perception test".... (I'm sure you know of what I am talking about)... BG3 is not the first game to incluse a perception test mechainc of late. Pathfinder: King maker had one too. But, unlike the WORKING implementation of a perception test like Owlcat did.... Larian has decided it would be "cute" to include one too... in real time! So it doesn't fucking work!
For those that don't know, BG3 is a click and move system on a 3/4 perspective... you click a spot on the map and your character walk there.... (same as Kingmaker)... But unlike Kingmaker where the Perception check as automatic and PAUSED the game when you found something, BG3 does a little winky "eye" thing for 5 fucking seconds while you are STILL FUCKING MOVING!!! So you blunder right into the trap, setting it off, and then 2 seconds later, "I spotted something!!!"
Well, lets see.... I am smoldering corpse on the ground after that fire trap, so yep, I spotted something all right... WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO KNOW BEFORE IT BLEW MY FACE OFF!
I will say the game is very pretty... And has lots of shit on the screen at all times. Too bad that you can't tell what you can interact with, what you can examine, and what is valuable... There is a "highlight" key... but it works so fantastically well that you can be staring at the chest right in front of you, and it won't highlight it. And forget about things on desks... or even containers as they won't be highlighted AT ALL. Only dead bodies (and, IF you are lucky, maybe a container.)
BUT you do get to see all 398 EMPTY book shelves in the crypt with the Highlight key! (they are ALL empty- But it only tells you this after you "open" the book shelf.)
Character models. I have seen these characters before... In Dragon Age. It is the EXACT same character models used... Just with a better paint job. No real customization other then "choose which of our 8 faces you like" and what one of our 12 hairstyles do you want? Can't change body type. height, weight. BUT, you do have 256 colors for your hair!
6 basic classes.. no real customization of stats, skills, or even equipment. (you WILL use this crappy pregen equipment AND LIKE IT MISTER!)...
The trading system is... well... fucked. I have never played a game that the DEFAULT is you just "give away" items to vendors... For free....
*After you are finished SINGLE clicking out every single item you want to sell into the barter window, you then have to go into the Vendor's inventory and remove the EXACT about of gold for your trade... if you don't, NO MONEY FOR YOUS!!! Yep..you just gave that vendor everything for free.... And there is NO tool tip or tutorial to tell you this! I had to find out the HARD way after I lost 1200 GP worth of items... Items and money that at lvl 2 (yes TWO) I really needed!!!
The Autosave system is borked to all hell... Can't count the number of times I would get a nice pop up that says "Autosave complete".. then have some random mechanic cause a bomb to go off killing me.. And the earliest "Autosave" on file is from an hour ago... even though 2 fucking minutes earlier it said "Autosave complete"... (My fucking ass!!!)
Apparently, at level two, according to the devs, it is perfectly fine for a party of 4 characters to run into 8 goblins (all lvl 2 and with more HP then a max CON Dwarf Fighter!!!), all armed with FIRE BOMBS that coat an 8 hex area in flames for 3 turns... And they ALL throw them on turn 1 with an 80% accuracy! (So there is NOT a turn 2...)
Oh, Did I mention that this is a "single player or Co-op play" game.. that DOES NOT have a pause function? Anywhere! After about 7 hours of pulling out my hair, it was Miller Time. I press ESC, open the main menu, go into the save game screen, and then take a walk up stairs for a beer and a smoke... come back to a dead party!!! NO idea how or why.. but there they were dead. Not since combat is "Supposed" to be turn based.... so the only thing I can think of is.. the characters continued to walk while I was in the save game screen, hit a trap and died... Which gives me SOOOO much faith in the save system!!! I can just see it now... Forever locked into an exploding reload as the save system saves the game the instant to step on the trap as your characters have been moving when you were trying to save...
11 Hours in... I have seen the first 80 minutes of the game ONLY....
maybe give this one a go AFTER its out of early access... Next year. (because from what I am seeing, they have at least 8 months of hardcore work to make this passable)
(and for those that don't get the Duncan Fisher reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9MIosS9JsE&t=53s )