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What is up with Baldur's Gate 3?
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this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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My understanding is that it is a complete game with no microtransactions to shove along with it. After that I believe it is because it is really really good and not a common genre to get the spot light. Mainly the first part.
I think its based on timing with the state of the game industry being fascinated with various versions of P2W and how to squeeze more out of gamers through monetization of both 'nice to have' and 'need to have.' Larian and BG3 are a breath of fresh air when all the others are prioritizing greed over quality.
If we could just overcome our addictions and vote with our wallet, EA, Blizzard, Activision, M$, etc. would eventually learn, but we can't, and this is the true sad part of the story.
It's just a really good game. It's complete, unlike the majority of things being released these days. The lack of monetization is really nice, but ultimately the fact that it's basically an automatic dungeon master for 5e with compatibility for up to four cooperative players makes it the easiest entry point into Dungeons and Dragons in general. You can enjoy it by yourself solo and have a wild campaign that's totally different than the group campaign you play with your friends.
I've always hesitated stepping into the dungeon master role because I've always wanted to help tell a story, but this negates the need for me to lead anything and I can bring friends with little to no experience and we have a blast. I can focus on helping people with the mechanics rather than having to focus on running the campaign.
Do you think the game has appeal for people who aren't into DnD? I keep wanting to try it but every time someone calls it "DnD The Game" I get a bit turned off again. Might just be because I've had awful experiences in RL with DnD though.
What you gotta keep in mind is that this game is effectively "D&D as intended", not "D&D as played by people who only care about number crunching" or "D&D, but really just 5 friends memeing while one dude kills literally everything no questions asked" or whatever else may have happened in groups you played with.
This is a deeply strategic roleplaying game with some difficult conversations and impressively hard combat. The game doesn't put up invisible walls and say "if you tried that you'd die, so instead you can't", it lets you try and fail. Or if by some miracle you win and get some items way above your current power level, you can use them immediately unlike other RPGs that say "you have to be lvl 5 to hold this sword". You wanna jump off a cliff? Game says "Okay... you died. Wanna reload?"
D&D 5e rules are there, but they're operating sort of like the laws of physics. The heart of this game is its phenomenal writing and the sheer openness of the world it sets up for you to explore. You could argue this game is a full-blown immersive sim just because of how it sort of hands you a pile of problems and you build tools and skills along the way to overcome them.
Yeah, it holds overall mass appeal. It's a good roleplaying game that happens to be in an established universe with known mechanics. If you play by yourself you have more than an entire party's worth of companions to learn the stories of, and you don't have to worry about playing with degenerates or weirdos. Unless you consider the NPC a degen or weirdo, but thems the brakes.
See I've been seeing this take in the headlines, but this doesn't seem like enough to me. Folks have been sick of microtransaction-heavy games in the same way for at least 2 years now, and most studios (outside of the ones you listed) have been releasing games that are light on microtransactions. The System Shock Remake is a good comparison point - it was a modern release in a traditionally niche PC genre, it reviewed very well, and to my knowledge it has no DLC. I guess it didn't release on console yet, so maybe that's a key difference?
To be fair, System Shock remake is of incredibly niche interest. (I speak from personal experience being someone who was waiting a long time for it, heh.)
The style of this game hems closer to Dragon Age or Mass Effect in presentation, and those are much more popular game series, by far. So naturally it appeals to fans of those series, of which there are quite large fanbases.
I think that's what I'm gathering - it's that the increased production value has signaled to the mainstream gamer audience that "this is a Mass Effect", and that is a powerful marketing message. The last game of that type was...Dragon Age Inquisition? So yeah, people have been starving for another one of these.
Well damn, I think we solved it. Larian basically reverse-engineered Bioware's origin story, and this release is them fully stepping into old Bioware's shoes.
Quite fitting considering BioWare made Baldurs Gate and Baldurs Gate II before they were acquired by EA and made into a shell of their former glory.
Aside from it just being a very good game (a new game in the all-time top 10 over at Metacritic is going to be news regardless), if you're hanging out in gaming enthusiast discussion a lot, there are a few other things going on that explain why it's generating so much buzz.
It came out at a lull in the release calendar. August isn't typically a hot month for gaming unless you're an NFL fan. It also ended up being a de facto console exclusive, so once the game started blowing up, the usual console war chatter spun up with it.
The other dimension--and one that surprised me--is it fed the "developers vs. gamers" spat to the point where it's been making headlines again. As you've said, one price for admission games have been coming out more, but I think there are some sour grapes around over Larian's successful graduation from AA by way of passion projects. I invite these developers to join in celebrating this release, as the success of games like these are bound to get more of the kind of game they'd rather work on greenlit.
The difference is that System Shock Remake is as the name implies: a remake, of a very old game no less. Baldur's Gate 3 is a full on modern AAA game, with all the bells and whistles. It doesn't need to hide behind nostalgia, it can stand head to head with all the other big games out there. And it comes as the successor to the Divinity games which themselves already were massively popular.
Demon Souls might be better comparison here, started out as a rather niche PS3 title, build a fan base over the years, had numerous sequels and follow ups that all matched or exceed the quality, and Elden Ring is a gigantic hit now.
I guess doing quality games for a decade or more just accumulates a lot of fans and positive word of mouth, so much that even people that aren't hardcore into the genre get sucked in.
Vote with your wallet anyway. McDonalds sells a lot of burgers but few would say they are the best.
As someone who has never liked Elvis, it's quite like the old "50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong!"
Actually, pretty sure they can be. Also he co-opted his music style from the black community, so fuck him anyway.
Should Elvis really be vilified for liking blues and rock music and playing it himself? How does that hurt anyone?
Like should we be pissed at Django Reihnhardt? Or R.A The Rugged Man? What about Japanese bagpipe players?
There's also the reaction from other developers claiming that the game "sets an unrealistic standard for what to expect out of a game" despite it being exactly what people want from a triple A studio. Just a complete, well made, functional game with no microtransactions