I’d be more worried about Bioware in this case, this looks more akin to their fantasy niche. Actually, for a tiiiny tiny moment there I though I was seeing screencaps of Dragon Age 4, for some reason
Projecting my hopes for DA4 perhaps? Those are some lovely screenshots by the way
In less than an hour we should know how’s the gameplay like. I’m eager to see the art direction as well.
As I said already, I didn't care about Baldur's Gate games too much when I played them many years ago and I kinda realised recently that I don't care very much about medieval fantasy style RPG's in general, with exception of The Witcher series and the first Gothic game, so my reaction to BG3 is kinda "meh", but at least fans seem happy. I might try it at some point, but I would be lying if I said that it's on my "most wanted" list.
Baldur's Gate 3. Move over CDPR, you have some competition.
Wow. Looks amazing so far. Gotta see the combat, but I love the roleplay stuff. I've taken a bunch of notes I'll publish when this is done.
Interesting note first: all dialogue is flavored by the origin character you pick, if you decide to pick an origin character.
Interesting note first: all dialogue is flavored by the origin character you pick, if you decide to pick an origin character.
Liking the role-playing I'm seeing. Liking the environments. It does sort of feel like a Divinity: OS "spin-off" more than it feels like Baldur's Gate to me. Less about extremely unique environments with set-piece encounters and battles, and more about cleverly manipulating the environments.
Not that such is a bad thing, necessarily! While BG 1 and especially 2 were friggin' mind-blowing for their time, the "explore map --> random encounter --> discover loot --> move to next map" cycle did tend to drone on after a while. By contrast, I never got tired of combat encounters in D:OS. Can't speak to the character work and dialogue, but if it's on par with the storylines and situational things that BG1&2 used, that could fill in what feels like a missing link to the BG mojo.
What I really hope they change (based on what this demo was focusing on) is the "glitter". For example...dashing. Rather than having my character stretch out their arms, start glowing blue, then holler aggressively while flashing with an ethereal effect...
...I'd rather they just hunch over a bit. Like they're about to run at full speed. Sprinting animation might be nice.
Just to end on a good note: I love the "Forced Turn-Based Mode". Oh, yes. THANK YOU. That option means the world to me. The world, I tell you. (Wipes a tear. Forgot he was eating spicy finger-food a moment before. Howls.)
I'm watching the live stream. The game is bugged and I LOVE IT! True gameplay, no edited shit, no useless CGI. True and honest showcase. Big applause from the audience when the game needs to be rebooted. I love it!
The game itself seems a huge step forward from D:OS which I abandoned due to a very basic narrative. Let's see if this delivers, but I'm in love with this type of reveal.
The game itself seems a huge step forward from D:OS which I abandoned due to a very basic narrative. Let's see if this delivers, but I'm in love with this type of reveal.
The original game was real time with pause I thought. Turn based means no buy for me. Damn.
OK, I’ve finished watching the live demo. Disclaimer: I haven’t fully beaten any of the classic Black Isle games so far, only Icewind Dale II (I’m aiming to beat at least BG1 and 2 before playing 3, of course) and I haven’t played any of the Divinity: Original Sin games yet. Now, some observations:
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Overall, despite being shown so little of it, BG3 looks very promising. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this demo as much as I did, considering it wasn’t exactly the most excitingly presented one I’ve ever seen (I can imagine a lot of people dropping the livestream ~10 minutes in) It’s not the game I’m most hyped for but I’m looking forward for it very much
- The most obvious one: even with YouTube’s compression, graphics look awesome! It reminded me of Dragon Age: Inquisition in that regard. Visuals in general and audio seemed of very high quality for this kind of game, although UI definitely needs more work (nothing surprising for a pre-alpha demo.)
- It felt weird having only some of the PC’s dialogs fully voiced, especially if they do have voice acting in other type of scenes. But that’s hardly a dealbreaker for me.
- Gameplay and difficulty looked well done, even in its notably pre-alpha state. They need to iron out some wrinkles, of course, but their gameplay approach seems to be the right one.
- Exploration and stealth look great. I like their approach to stealth, having it work as a turn-based encounter is going to be helpful for many people without taking away the challenge.
- Despite many hilarious bugs and stumbles, Swen Vincke did his best to make the presentation as enjoyable as possible. I would’ve lowered the difficulty if I were Larian, though, but I appreciate they made the effort to show non-scripted gameplay (at the risk of boring and/or frustrating moments.)
I agree. That particular thing reminded me of the overly-done combat animations for the mages in (yet again) Dragon Age: Inquisition
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Overall, despite being shown so little of it, BG3 looks very promising. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this demo as much as I did, considering it wasn’t exactly the most excitingly presented one I’ve ever seen (I can imagine a lot of people dropping the livestream ~10 minutes in
) It’s not the game I’m most hyped for but I’m looking forward for it very much 
It may be met with resistance but to me it looks like a refresh of the original games with updated graphics, an updated rule
set, additional features and a different narrative. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's not exactly awe inspiring either.
Fully turn based combat appears to have sound reasoning behind it. I played most of the old isometric RPG's turn based in combat anyway. Just because it made it feel more tactical and strategic instead of reactive. Forcing it because it's easier to translate the underlying core rules to the game play is a reasonable concession, IMO.
The bad news is I wasn't impressed with the dialogue or narrative. Hopefully it's not the final draft because the reveal looked to me more like the Icewind Dale series of games. They had all the things the other isometric RPG's had back in the day but didn't quite deliver like the few stand-outs (Torment and BG2, IMO) following the same formula, in any capacity.
set, additional features and a different narrative. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's not exactly awe inspiring either.
Fully turn based combat appears to have sound reasoning behind it. I played most of the old isometric RPG's turn based in combat anyway. Just because it made it feel more tactical and strategic instead of reactive. Forcing it because it's easier to translate the underlying core rules to the game play is a reasonable concession, IMO.
The bad news is I wasn't impressed with the dialogue or narrative. Hopefully it's not the final draft because the reveal looked to me more like the Icewind Dale series of games. They had all the things the other isometric RPG's had back in the day but didn't quite deliver like the few stand-outs (Torment and BG2, IMO) following the same formula, in any capacity.
Boy, oh boy. I've got lots of thoughts on this. I published some of them in an article, but I'm not going to link it here.
All in all, I'm feeling good about it. The graphics and animations are beautiful. Like @Mybrokenenglish I'm very happy that Swen played live, and encountered bugs and had to restart the game. The audience loved that and it added some levity to the situation.
Sadly, those problems meant we didn't get to see the big epic finale he wanted to show us (ran out of time), but no matter. I'm sure we'll see it later.
Gameplay-wise... Definitely very Divinity-inspired. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I can't say right now. Like @SigilFey I don't like the over-the-top "spell channel" effects, that was a very bad carry-over from Divinity. This is Baldur's Gate, not a funny lighthearted fantasy game. It's darker. Grittier. More serious. That must be represented in the animations.
The interface is basically copy-pasted from DOS2. That's not acceptable in the long run, there are even many icons that are LITERALLY copy-pasted. But it's in early alpha right now so I'm willing to let it slide. But they'd better fix that before launch. No excuse for the UI, of all things, not to feel like Baldur's Gate on some level.
I like the cinematic dialogue system. I like how many dialogue options there are, I like that Origin Characters are making a return here (you can, of course, create your own race/class combo as expected).
For now, the available races are Tieflings, Drow, Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Half-Drow, Halflings, and Githyanki. Your class options will include Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, and Warlock, but more will arrive later.
I love how much DND 5E influence there is. Death saving throws, loads of dice rolls, damage represented in the classic 1dX style, etc...
BTW, only PC and Stadia confirmed so far -- he refused to talk about a console release. Doesn't mean there won't be one, but it's odd that he wouldn't confirm it. It'd be a mistake, IMO, to forfeit all those sales. Perhaps because it's starting in Early Access, and that'd be a bit wonky on console? That's my guess. Probably gonna hit consoles on its actual release day.
Yeah, so, the more I think about it, the more I realize my only "real" complaint is BG3's lack of identity. They need to completely overhaul the interface and combat animations, the item and inventory layout and icons. It really does make the game look a DOS2 mod, which isn't fair to the game, because it's clearly so much more than that on a mechanical level.
All in all, I'm feeling good about it. The graphics and animations are beautiful. Like @Mybrokenenglish I'm very happy that Swen played live, and encountered bugs and had to restart the game. The audience loved that and it added some levity to the situation.
Sadly, those problems meant we didn't get to see the big epic finale he wanted to show us (ran out of time), but no matter. I'm sure we'll see it later.
Gameplay-wise... Definitely very Divinity-inspired. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I can't say right now. Like @SigilFey I don't like the over-the-top "spell channel" effects, that was a very bad carry-over from Divinity. This is Baldur's Gate, not a funny lighthearted fantasy game. It's darker. Grittier. More serious. That must be represented in the animations.
The interface is basically copy-pasted from DOS2. That's not acceptable in the long run, there are even many icons that are LITERALLY copy-pasted. But it's in early alpha right now so I'm willing to let it slide. But they'd better fix that before launch. No excuse for the UI, of all things, not to feel like Baldur's Gate on some level.
I like the cinematic dialogue system. I like how many dialogue options there are, I like that Origin Characters are making a return here (you can, of course, create your own race/class combo as expected).
For now, the available races are Tieflings, Drow, Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Half-Drow, Halflings, and Githyanki. Your class options will include Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, and Warlock, but more will arrive later.
I love how much DND 5E influence there is. Death saving throws, loads of dice rolls, damage represented in the classic 1dX style, etc...
BTW, only PC and Stadia confirmed so far -- he refused to talk about a console release. Doesn't mean there won't be one, but it's odd that he wouldn't confirm it. It'd be a mistake, IMO, to forfeit all those sales. Perhaps because it's starting in Early Access, and that'd be a bit wonky on console? That's my guess. Probably gonna hit consoles on its actual release day.
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Yeah, so, the more I think about it, the more I realize my only "real" complaint is BG3's lack of identity. They need to completely overhaul the interface and combat animations, the item and inventory layout and icons. It really does make the game look a DOS2 mod, which isn't fair to the game, because it's clearly so much more than that on a mechanical level.
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I'm on the 'wait and see' . Cose it feel more Divinity , hence the ''see more'' .
I found the dialogues kinda weird. What's with the ''I pick the lock'' Stuff? Immersion? and why the camera zoom back to the other character for ?
So our character isn't voiced either. More 'Origins' . And feel more Divinity.
I did like DOS 1 and 2. But I wouldn't compare them to BG1&2. I would compare Pillar of Eternity to BG2 more.
But this ? and Ghityanki...urgh. I never liked them. Not in NWN2, not in Planescape torment. Boooring.
I found the dialogues kinda weird. What's with the ''I pick the lock'' Stuff? Immersion? and why the camera zoom back to the other character for ?
So our character isn't voiced either. More 'Origins' . And feel more Divinity.
I did like DOS 1 and 2. But I wouldn't compare them to BG1&2. I would compare Pillar of Eternity to BG2 more.
But this ? and Ghityanki...urgh. I never liked them. Not in NWN2, not in Planescape torment. Boooring.
Did they import the algorithm that determines hits and misses from XCOM? 90% and still miss?
I know it's pre-alpha but it just gives off too much Divinity: Original Sin vibes. I've played both, and I really enjoyed them. I guess with BG3 I was expecting a successor to BG and BG2. Watching the demo I felt it was a reskinned D:OS game, not a return to the D&D universe.
I'm a bit disappointed tbh. Wait and see for me I guess.
I know it's pre-alpha but it just gives off too much Divinity: Original Sin vibes. I've played both, and I really enjoyed them. I guess with BG3 I was expecting a successor to BG and BG2. Watching the demo I felt it was a reskinned D:OS game, not a return to the D&D universe.
I'm a bit disappointed tbh. Wait and see for me I guess.
I'm game for it.
Problem (as always) is time zones and work/sleep schedules.
LOTS of similarities for sure.
But the underlaying game system is D&Dv5 (( I'm not a real fan of v5 but what can ya do )) so while it will play somewhat similar to Div3 it will also have significant differences due to core game mechanics.
I haven't seen any meaningful differences yet, but plenty of "D" mechanics. You can basically see that this is a Divinity engine, with some strap-ons and mascara to make it look like DnD. If I didn't knew that his is a BG3 I would swear that this is new "Divinity" game.
I like voice-acting very much. Graphics are nice too. But short encounter in BG2, which would take a minute or two, here will take 10-15 minutes, due to turn-based combat. And this terrible "rainbow and unicorn" spell effects...
I will still buy it.
EDIT:
Watching the gameplay second time, I have to say that BG3 indeed has plenty of DnD in it. So I was wrong in my opinion.
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Pretty much.
I was also a bit surprised by the similarities between D:OS2 and BG3, in particular the UI and general look but I suppose it was to be expected to some degree. My hope is that they will also work towards making the game visually distinct from their flagship Divinity series. I think it's very important.
I agree that the "fluff" was a tad too much regarding rather banal actions like dash.
Not sure what to think about the "origins" characters. I know a lot of people really dig that kind of stuff, but i'm more of a make my characters from scratch kind of player and, usually, these predetermined characters enjoy much more interactivity throughout a story as was the case with D:OS 1 and 2.
Balancing. It needs balancing. Getting oneshot during what is basically an intro mission is no fun, ESPECIALLY when there's RNG involved. Of course, Sven was clear that they've not yet done proper balancing, but it's worth mentioning.
I think that's about all the criticism i had.. Now for some of the good stuff:
I found the vampire spawn an interesting character, in particular with the potential interactions with party members. He's definitely someone i'd either play or have along. I like that he's, by his nature, an "evil" character but due to his now extraordinary circumstances, he can conquer and overcome his "evil" side or embrace it to new, real and devastating effect.
The verticality of the gameplay and environments suits the adventure-exploration aspect very well (stacking boxes to use as a staircase?! Finally!) as well as the combat-sneak one.
OH! That intro cinematic! Frickin awesome! It sets a kick-ass tone that i can't wait to see and follow up
It kinda sucks that we didn't get to see everything they had planned to show us, but i got a few good laughs out of it on top of everything else so i'm pretty satisfied
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In general, I want to see more of the characters and the story. I get the gist that there may be a lot of placeholder stuff involved for the moment. And it would make sense for them to use their existing engine and build on it, rather than try to rebuild everything from the ground up, so there might be direct carry-over from the Divinity: OS games until they fully work it into the BG style. (I hope so, at least.)
I wouldn't call your opinion invalid at all. I still feel as if it's leaning more toward D:OS than BG -- especially the tone it's setting. I was chatting with people last night and made the comparison of Baldur's Gate always feeling more like Game of Thrones. I do think that the presentation of the game is still very whimsical for a BG game. (That stuff is great for a tongue-in-cheek approach, like D:OS, but it does a heavy, gritty world like BG a disservice.)
Not a counter point, but just to clarify: you can still make a custom character, just like DOS2. The origin characters are just if you want to experience a more personalized story. I'm not sure which I'll go with, honestly. I want to make my current D&D 5e character from a tabletop campaign I play with friends (a white Dragonborn Warlock), so I'll probably do that, but we'll see what the other origin characters look and feel like.
I like the existence of the Origin characters if for no other reason than they can join you as companions if you don't play as them personally. And there are more to come, so your pool of potential party members should be quite large, hopefully on par with the older BG games (or at least as close as you can get with full mocap and voice acting for each).
I disagree with you here. It wasn't balancing that got him killed, it was bad luck. He lost multiple 90% and 75% rolls on his first try, and even critically missed one of the 90%s. If he'd landed all or most of those, the fight would have been ridiculously easy. He also misclicked a couple times and didn't move his party members to a safe location when he should have. Basic D&D 101, and even basic Divinity OS 101.
Also, I'm totally against removing RNG. Dice rolls are core to the experience of DND for me, and games of this nature.
Also important to understand that, in DND 5E, both you AND your enemies have very little health early on. You can get KO'd (not necessarily killed, it's pretty easy to avoid dying in 5E) in a few hits because you only have 10-15 HP (which is about what the PCs had in this demo). However, the enemies also only have around that much HP. One of the brain creatures died from a single 15 damage hit, and that was probably overkill and not exact damage.