'The Game Just Fundamentally Undermines Itself': Game Designer Breaks Down 'Baldur's Gate 3's Most Fatal Flaws
'The Game Just Fundamentally Undermines Itself': Game Designer Breaks Down 'Baldur's Gate 3's Most Fatal Flaws
‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ can be a fantastic experience and a bad game at the same time.
‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ can be a fantastic experience and a bad game at the same time.
You're viewing a single thread.
I've played through all 3 acts. Obviously in no way have done everything, but I never ran into a situation where your character would get killed for a bad dialogue choice. The "Volo's eye" event referenced is for sure an example of the telegraphed outcome being the opposite of what actually goes down, but I really can't think of another time that happens. Even that choice did not end in death. Some options end in tough fights, and maybe fights above your level, but I was never surprised by them.
Bringing up save scumming is an odd criticism for a CRPG. That has been a long running discussion, but you can choose not to do it if you don't like it. It doesn't mean it is bad game design to include saving whenever you want.
I've absolutely died as a result of bad dialogue choices but that's just role playing; sometimes something you might choose to do can only logically result in your death and I, for one, am happy to be given that choice. I've straight up deleted a character profile with lots of progress because there was no in-character way not to do the thing that would kill me in dialogue. That game over is just that character's canonical ending as far as I'm concerned. He couldn't not shit-talk that god, that god couldn't not erase him from existence out of spite. If the game had not provided me with an option to shit-talk the god, I would have been annoyed that none of the dialogue options were true to my character.
Shit-talking the god was worth the price of admission, too.
Yeah, I saw it coming and did not regret that death. I earned it, but it was completely worth it.
lol, that sounds awesome. I did not encounter that particular dialogue option that I am aware of.
That's so serious, jesus
I feel like in some ways that's a limitation of the game not the RP though. Like the game is clearly stating you will not have a character that shit-talks gods. A good DM would see your RP choice and play into it rather than stomping you cold for a simple character personality. It's equal to saying "you will never play a dumb comic relief". Where in a lot of good RPGs the dumb comic relief is the best option. In the same way I've seen a lot of people want to play god-worshiping characters that lose faith in their god and switch.
a situation where your character would get killed for a bad dialogue choice.
I think this is a ridiculous thing to criticize too. Dialogue is important in a game like this and it has (sometimes lethal) consequences.
Imagine if this argument were applied to combat. It turns out that it is impossible to beat some encounters by role-playing a loner wizard who refuses to cast spells. Nobody in their right mind would actually believe that is a valid criticism.
I absolutely agree. It'd be like if in RDR2 the "rob dialogue" was criticized for enacting combat. That said I haven't played BG3 so I can't know exactly what they were talking about or how it feels unfair.
There's one point where you can deliberately make out with a brain-eating monster.
There's another where a strict and cruel god-like being demands you hand over something very important to them.
These situations honestly should lead to death if you push it.
Yeah, ultimately this article reads as if it is questioning the quality of a work on the basis of how the audience engages (or doesn't engage) with it. Ultimately there is one case where the character dies due to a bad dialogue choice, and that response is very clearly a joke one for if you're not roleplaying.
I dunno, it just seems as if the article is clickbait, and if this game dev would prefer playing a game 90% ludonarrative dissonance and 10% no meaningful player choice.
I think the problem with player choice is that you are often not presented with the choice that you or your character would normally want, or that the game intentionally hides the information from you that you would need to make an informed decision. Also this is subjective, but I don't like being pranked by the dungeon master, I quit tabletop rpgs due to this reason as a kid.
And the case about the game being interactive fiction instead of a "game" game is not entirely unfounded either. Not that I would consider that a bad thing necessarily.
(edit: I wrote this 1h into Act 3. Since then I finished the game & I found Act3 the best part of the game & rather amazing on the whole..)
But ist that not part of it? Being put in situations where you don't have all the information, where you don't know the potential outcomes and where you can permanently fuck things up? For me at least, that was a big part of the pull in playing TRPGs and CRPGs. It is, after all, not a strategy game.
In a good rpg, having a couple of these is fine, but in my opinion in Baldur's Gate 3 these intentionally undecipherable decisions are overabundant. I'm not saying BG3 is bad, in fact many and perhaps most things are absolutely incredible. I just feel that that presented choice options & some parts of the big plot could have been done better.
the case about the game being interactive fiction instead of a “game” game
Way to shit all of the visual novel games not being games ins a single sentence.
I have died twice due to dialog choices. Once Lae'zel killed me in camp & once I turned into a mind flayer under the Absolute, thus ending my journey.
Exactly. I literally don't understand why people even care about save scumming (and the name is ridiculous to me too lol). It's like my favorite part of the game. I love being able to relax and know I can mess around without completely fucking my game over. I get to explore everything to the fullest. If someone wants to be a hard ass about it, they can just...not reload?
Precisely. It is an old and tired sentiment that has never made sense. Gatekeeping at it's finest.
I know of three instant game end dialogue options. One with Astarion, one with Volo, and one in the House of Hope. I think there might be a few more as well.
There's also one with Mystra I think.
There's also one in the githyanki creche. If you aren't nice to >!Vlaakith, she casts wish on you and kills your entire party instantly!<
There's also one at the end of act 2, if you have Gale with you.
Oh yeah, I've heard of that one as well!
Good to know. I did not encounter any, unless Volo's can turn badly, and then I chose wisely
If you’re counting the one with astarion that I’m thinking of, then I think the one at the very beginning after truly starting act 1 with the mind flayer could count
Can that one instakill you? I suppose I've not seen that one!
EXTREMELY EARLY ACT 1 SPOILER
spoiler
it's when the ship crashes and you find the dying mind flayer in the wreckage. he will attempt to control your parasite and make you give yourself unto him and if you fail the checks to stop it, he'll eat your brain and if you don't have any other party members then it'll game over
That makes sense. I guess I've just never failed that encounter
After that combat encounter I just shoot him from a distance. Free exp!
There's one dialogue in the Githyanki creche where your entire party is instantly killed if you choose the "wrong" option. There's nothing to indicate that the choice will lead to that outcome. I'm not aware of any other dialogues like that, however.
I mean, it’s pretty obvious from context, given who you were talking to, that sassing them was not gonna go well for you.
It was totally worth that TPK, tho.
She's ultra authoritarian, for you to reach that dialogue option she knows you have something she desires, and she is a literal god while you are not even lvl 15, god killing is lvl 20 stuff, not 12 which is the cap, of course that she will kill you and grab what's theirs instead of letting you go, wtf?
There's nothing to indicate that the choice will lead to that outcome.
Who would've thought that saying fuck off to a literal god had consequences? Why do you think the game triggers an auto save when you enter the room? It's safe for the game to be able to do that when it just auto saves for you right before, meaning you lose no progress. You're ignoring a lot of context here, and it absolutely indicates this outcome lol