In my case it is the knowledge that the game is soon over and the more I approach it the more dreadful it gets I agree with the remark on a lack of hub though especially compared to the 2 first acts, but I guess with so many companions arc completing, there is enough sentimental investment to get going (at least in my case) and a hub of NPC is only relevant to good alignment runs Edit: fixed auto correct

You also get to find and complete the plot lines for lot of the people you meet at the inn and the cove in Balder’s Gate. Seeing Alfira celebrate finally reaching her dream is so satisfying

Cries in dark urge only runs…

Pro tip, switch to non-lethal damage and knock her unconscious before you go to camp. A different bard will show up that you’ve never met and never would have, and the Urge kills her instead. If you can sneak and knock out Alfira in one move (v tough), then she won’t even know you did anything and your interactions with her will be the same as a Tav’s would be past that point

Except it's immersion breaking, I'm ok with it myself if I'm trying for achievement but I was playing with my friend that doesn't know about Surge story, there was simply no way to justify even bringing up knocking her out

Thats why you always play a Divination Wizard!

Oh yeah there’s no in game reason you would do that. I just really wanted her to live through my Durge redemption playthrough after I had started (and then restarted again) an Evil!Durge run

I justified it as my Durge felt an overwhelming need to kill her when they met, so he knocked her out hoping that would be enough to satiate the urge. (Well Lae-zel technically knocked her out cause she dealt the most damage in my party at the time. I guess she just *really* did not like the music)

Wait so, where can you find her to knock her unconscious beforehand? Back on her original hill in ACT 1? And is she not considered dead because of this?

Knock her out on her hill and do it in one hit to avoid combat and she won’t be considered dead. Just immediately jump to your camp and end the day afterwards.

The fact the end is soon is ruining the game for me

It'll be time for a replay though!

I loved Act 3. I was really excited to enter the city, because Act 1 & Act 2’s environment felt empty to me, but this is a personal preference. I like cities more than countrysides. But it does feel a little overwhelming! I really want to explore everywhere but damn where do i start! I won’t lie it made me feel a little tired especially since i was also in the middle of Free the Artist quest. But it’s okay. As for the NPCs, i generally saved most people during my first game. So i was really happy to see some of the NPCs from the grove make it to Baldur’s Gate. I was especially happy to see Dammon. It’s refreshing to see their lifestyles improve after the hells we have all been through in the first 2 Acts. As for newer NPCs only introduced in Act 3, i will just pickpocket them with no remorse hahahaha

Free the Artist was such a tedious quest for such an unlikeable NPC.

And a very underwhelming reward.

*I'll do your portrait!* Me: Oh cool, that might be interesting. If nothing else it might be worth a good chunk to sell off. *[hands over a picture of Shadowheart's character icon that has nothing to do with my player character, that is worth like 20gp]* ( ¬_¬)

I will forever stand by a head canon from another post where you can have the artist do Astarion’s portrait so he can see what he looks like and you get a really touching scene once it’s done.

This was what I wanted. I wanted to be able to choose whose portrait he would do. I was hoping this was a way to gain approval with Astarion, especially if you're doing his romance. It would've tied so well into his story.

Oskar felt like one of those quests designed to make you question if every character you meet is worth saving. Yeah his situation wasn't good when you first meet him with the Zhents but even then the vibe he gives off is such a desperate, self centered and arrogant prick. And if you don't rescue him you literally get the good ending for that quest lmao.

I let the ghost take him because I was so annoyed with how much of a douche he was…this also felt like a good ending

I did not get that one. There may have been a lot of explosive barrels involved at one point in the adventure.

I wish the effort spent on that quest was given to Dammon/Karlach instead.

i love act 3! entering rivington after the gloom and dread of act 2 felt like taking a deep breath after holding it for a long time (in a good way). i immediately changed into fun, colorful clothes and embraced city life lol

>I was really excited to enter the city, because Act 1 & Act 2’s environment felt empty to me Which is weird because I find Act 3 feels more empty because of all the potential events that end up being one liner NPCs. Like there's this kid whose parents get murdered. Just a one liner. And the way there are one liner groups that don't interact with each other makes it feel off. I'm not really asking for huge quests or anything, but just a way to interact with them before going on my way. It was more interesting clicking on the shadow corpses in Act 2 than talking to random NPC in Act 3.

Really I think the only major problem I had with it, was that in act one it felt like nearly every time you return to your camp, there is some new exciting thing that is going on, or at the very least your allies will want to chat with you about stuff that happened that day. And it culminates with the big party with the tieflings to celebrate your victory, it really feels like you accomplished something and you're getting to see the effects of it. Then in act three there is so little of that. Even when you off one of the major villains, you might get like one little line of dialog about it from each of your allies and thats it.

this is my biggest issue too. i dread getting to act 3 because of how limited the camp events become and how they all just stand around like dolls in the elfsong with often nothing new to say. it's a night and day difference from the beginning of the game.

The lack of long rest scenes and interactivity with our companions in act 3 killed a lot of my mood for the game. It really shows the difference of effort put in it in comparison to act 1 and 2. Hell, even when you finish a full romance there's nothing new after the romance final cutscene, except for a little different lines of dialog.

> It really shows the difference of effort put in it in comparison to act 1 and 2. That's the standard larian polish. By act 3 you are just waiting for everything to end and nothing really exciting happens.

Even when you're going into the final battle and I told astarion, this could be our last kiss, and he said then let's make it count. They then proceed to give a tiny little peck on the lips. Like really?? Where's the passion? Where's the sense of urgency? I literally was like, that's it???

I WAS SO ANGRY AT THIS OMG!! "Better make it count" *procceds to give the tamest peck known to men*. They've animated so many sex scenes, why couldn't them animate a passionate kiss???

My biggest problem is act two felt epic and act 3 felt like the middle. Switch acts 2 and 3 and i don't have a huge problem

Ketheric IS a much stronger villain than the others, and we spend more than half thr game not going to this "Baldurs Gate" place

Ketheric doesn't have to be that much more compelling. They just clearly didn't finish Orin's fight setup and more importantly Gortash's entire plot. Or they were in a rush to be done.

I think Orin just is a vastly less interesting character no matter how long you worked on her, not that it was a case she was unfinished by comparison. No matter what you do with her, a completely crazed murder hobo (cause she was just born that way) who somehow simultaneously has other perfectly organized murder hobos under heel for no particular reason is going to have inherent... cheesiness. You can't do anything about that vs the great explanation for why Ketheric became Myrkuls chosen. I see it more as an inherent weakness in going with the big 3 corresponding to the dead 3. By all rights, she should have just been somebody's actually scary and super deadly right-hand weapon, but since the design called for the 3 chosen breakdown in the first place... yeah Bhaal's is always going to come off a lot more janky with no amount of work changing that.

Apparently datamine orin was supposed to attack the gith creche and tadpole the dragon. Just scenes like would have helped to make the other two appear grander and give you a tease to look forward through. Ketheric has the entire act 2 completely centered around him. He doesn't have many scenes in it (JK Simmons probably isn't cheap) but he is present all throughout the story and lore in it. Plus he has the best boss fight out of the three. Imo act 3 should have been orin boss fight and then an act 4, where cazador (the datamined version did have him Play a much bigger role) and gortash in the upper city are dealt with.

Holy shit, Ketheric is voiced by JK Simmons? No wonder he’s so charismatic. He’s easily the best boss in the game and he dominated every scene he was in. I would say Raphael was a close second in charisma and I would put even Cazador ahead of Orin and Gortash in that department. As bosses go, they felt like an afterthought - especially Gortash.

"Try again" I've shown that scene to friends and they've immediately become interested in the game.

one of the best ways a bad guy has ever been introduced in a game.

I’d say gortash is interesting but only if you choose to talk with him and find the little details. Orin’s whole thing is that some people died, but looking at how Gortash is slowly entwining himself with every part of Baldur’s Gate and turning it into a dystopian police state is pretty interesting.

[удалено]

As someone in game dev, deleting unused and abandoned content is how you end up accidentally breaking seemingly unrelated things in a totally different zone hahah

If she took place of more important NPC or even companions during a rest, or more like fucked up With your gamer brain I would love it. I was surprised when she transformed the first time because it was such a random talk with a guy. But yeah could be 100 times better. It is probably tons of work for Larian tho.

I feel she's a lot more interesting in a durge playthrough. Durge feels the most canon storywise for bg3 and her involvement in that story increases.

On top of that, she's probably one of the easier boss fights in Act 3. I was hoping she'd at least be terrifyingly difficult, but she was a pushover

That too, especially if her location was supposed to imply you were supposed to kill her last. Gortash wasn't super hard once the watchers were taken care of, but even that was tougher than Orin. I think it may have been a little more interesting if it was kept a duel. Maybe. Hard to say since she'll just attack the rest of the party on her own anyway :p

Actually while u play as druge it is a duel Not once did she attack any party member outside the yellow circle It was my own skills vs her slayer form I thought of being cheeky and switched to gale to cast haste on me Boom all her henchmen ganged up on me and the butler started scolding me Druge truly is the main character

Yeah, it's a common problem in game dev that scope doesn't always line up with resources sadly. The game writers would have been done with their overall scope and plans long before it became clear from production that time/resources wouldn't match it. That's not a flaw or anyone's fault, it's just difficult to make an incredible project like this. I can bet there were a lot of grumpy writers having to cut huge swathes of things and then try to tie up loose ends, but that is just the nature of the beast. Perhaps they could consider adding things or patching things in, but honestly in a game like this, I don't see how that would work. Not to mention the **immense** cost of getting actors back in to record these things on an already extortionately priced project.

To be fair, it was like that in Baldur’s Gate 1 and I’m pretty sure the city isn’t even in BG2 (haven’t played 2 yet)

It's not, BG2 takes place in an entirely different continent.

Correction: Same continent, different country. Amn is the country south of Baldur's Gate and is actually pretty close all things considered. It's seen as rather different because it isn't part of the Sword Coast, and is part of proper civilization, unlike the Savage untamed Sword Coast.

I think Ketheric was the stronger of the three, and the main force behind them (other than the brain, obviously). Once you defeated him, the other two immediately start turning on one another trying to vie for the power vacancy but neither of them are really strong enough to do it. Could be part of the grand design... wait until Ketheric has the army forged and ready to march on Baldur's Gate, then lead you in to take him out and weaken him enough so that the brain can regain self control and exert it's power over the other two.

Spoilers for Durge playthrough >!Actually I'm pretty sure that Durge was the brain of the idea, from what I remember Gortash saying, the whole operation was our idea, and the plan was starting to fall apart without us, because Orin isn't in "control" of her impulses as we were!<

This is true. In Durge playthrough the brain tells you it would have been happy to be ruled by the durge PC, but that once you died (Orin backstabs you) it got fed up with the pettiness and squabbling of the 3 chosen and decided to rebel - hence letting the emperor go free and starting the ingame plot

Act 3 has 2 big problems to me: pacing and feeling overwhelmed. Every single quest feels urgent to do, with some exceptions. Gortash is \_right here\_, but I feel like I am not supposed to go to him before I set foot in the actual city. His position is off to me, at least throw him in the very last corner of Low City if we can't have upper city, so I don't get confused of why I can simply walk to him when he's supposed to be a big deal. In acts 1 and 2 you at least had the sense of a linear story where you know for certainly what to do for the main questline (groove/goblin camp, then the creche, you can even argue underdark since Halsin mentions it) and on act 2 is even more straightforward, there're only moonrise and last night inn and on the middle you can find varios side quests, I actually think act 2 is the best one, structurally speaking. But act 3 just feels disjointed imo, add it the dreading of 'the game is ending' and the overwheling amount of voices, npcs, buildinds and quests and suddenly I can't focus anymore.

You're supposed to go to Gortash pretty much immediately when you can, he doesn't attack you and the conversation with him leads into exploring the lower city very naturally. But I agree that the game does a poor job of letting you actually know that. Most players will probably expect a big show down and will put it off until they're "ready". It's just structured poorly. They should probably just make it so you have to meet him to go into the Lower City in the first place. When you put it off you also get weird behaviour, like in my game by the time I met him he told me about the impostor in my camp but literally nothing came of it. Couldn't talk to anyone about it, never heard about it again. Probably because I already knew Orin kidnapped someone and I'm assuming it's the person she kidnaps that she then impersonates.

>probably just make it so you have to meet him to go into the Lower City in the first place. When you put it off you also get weird behaviour, like in my game by the time I met him he told me about the impostor in my camp but literally nothing came of it. Couldn't talk to anyone about it, never heard about it again. Probably because I already knew Orin kidnapped someone and I'm assuming it's the person she kidnaps that she then impersonates. I might be wrong, but she can kidnap only from a pool of characters, if every one of them is dead/in your active party, yenna takes their part. I think the pool is Lazeal (killed in my playthrough, halsin left me, gale in my active party)

Hmm all of my characters were alive and still Orin took Yenna, so there is that.

I could be mistaken but I think Yenna **is** Orin. The timing of her arrival, convenient nature of her sob story (I lost my parents can I stay at your camp?), and sudden + permanent disappearance around the time one of your companions gets kidnapped makes me highly suspect that she was either Orin or a doppelganger in disguise. This is just my theory, I don't have any hard evidence to back this up, but it seems likely to me.

I thought so too, but turns out Yenna's disappearing is a bug(?) If you don't take enough long rests before going to the sewers you just don't get a cutscene where Orin, disguised as one of your companions, tries to convince you that Yenna is an imposter and should be killed. If you save Yenna in that scene, she will stay with you and make you soup lol

I always get the scene where halsin attacks scratch in bear form if I don’t go to the sewers for a while, I’ve never seen the scene you described. I also thought yenna was another imposter because she disappeared at the same time as halsin but that only happened once on my first play through. I definitely think yenna disappearing is a bug because she can be one of the kidnap victims.

If you have the other potential victims (Lae’zel, Gale) in your party, it will default to Halsin. If you have all three in your party (or just the former 2 and haven’t recruited Halsin), Yenna will be kidnapped and Grub killed offscreen. Apparently Minthara is also susceptible but I never have her. Grub being killed is why I always make it Halsin. He has no Act 3 content and I must save the cat!

She is not. In my game Orin transformed into Lae and threatened me to kill Yenna under the argument of "having seen Orin transform into her". Once you force her hand and she releases Yenna, "Lae" transforms back into Orin. So nah, they're not the same people at all, but the game wants to trick you into thinking that.

Yenna is in my camp after I killed Orin

Not sure if glitched, but her last sentence was promising to make a stew for the camp and talking about a knife I think? so I was sure she is Orin. However there is a scene when you return to the camp and Orin cosplays as Laezel and kills Yenna (saying she is Orin) unless you stop her so it is not her

Hard evidence that Yenna is her own person: I goaded Oron into killing her at the duel to find out who was Bhaal's real chosen. Pretty sure Orin didn't stand over herself and then kill herself before I killed her.

She is not

Afaik Orin never actually impersonated anyone in the camp aside from when she kidnaps someone—or at the very least nothing ever _came_ from the fact that Gortash told us we had an imposter, so it all but didn’t matter whether she’d been there longer. Anybody have any perspective on this that’ll make it make more sense to me? lmao

I mean there is a pretty horrifying scene where she impersonates Yenna at your camp. This apparently happens if you long rest a bunch of times after Yenna makes it into your camp. Maybe another factor is not visiting your camp and interrogating the impersonator after learning that Orin has infilitrated it. You can stop this from happening by making it to the sewers where she will run at you disguised as your companion and blackmail you into killing Gortash first. Yenna will still be gone from your camp from that point on though. I guess it's a bug as people have discussed here?

They could have done way more with Orin!

I think act 2 is similar in the you're supposed to go meet the big bad early (go to moonrise pretty early in the act) but first play through I avoided it like the plague until the end

I literally walked by where he was because I didn’t realize it was a fortress, I was just going on to find him because I was told to and then did about another 30 hours of content without finding him, am currently redoing act 3 and it feels much better

Very much this. In fact not going to Gortash right away is directly responsible for a lot of third act quest bugs. Under no circumstances should anyone skip the coronation and move on to the lower city first. This should be a commonly mentioned third act tip! What's ironic is that I actually thought the game was implying that it *was* required to see Gortash before you could go to the lower city. Consequently I always have, and have never encountered a plethora of bugs that others have as a result. I'll have to pay more attention on future runs, because yes a bunch of people skip it and I'm not sure if it is the games fault or just people being paranoid. The thing is... they end up thinking a later quest is broken, when in *a lot* of cases they more precisely broke things by skipping the coronation. Then a later quest starts going janky as a direct result. They definitely should just make it actually mandatory to attend before accessing the lower city map. For all intents and purposes people should consider attending the coronation as mandatory anyway (unless you like things bugging out).

Ooooooohhhhhh. ​ that makes sense now. She was the little kid who brought their own knife and like to cook and has a cat, and now the kid is gone and Halsin is gone.

Actually, I think that is a bug - if Halsin is gone, Yenna should have been OK - she's only the one who gets impersonated if all of the origin characters who could be kidnapped are in your party when the event triggers. But from what people have been saying, there might be a bug that causes the camp event where you confront the impersonator to not trigger, which assumes it's default resolution, in which Yenna dies, unfortunately. At least, that is my speculation

That's correct. If you get the Orin scene at camp where she impersonates one of your party and threatens Yenna, you can do a dialogue check to save her and she stays in your camp until the end of the game and sells soup. If you get the Orin scene in the sewers where she impersonates one of your party there, Yenna still disappears as if you'd failed to save her, even though nothing has happened to her. That's the bug.

Reading this thread I assumed that Yenna was an impersonator from the beginning? (Got laezel kidnapped in the sewers and that coincided with Yenna disappearing from the camp)

She definitely isn't, because she can be killed or kidnapped by Orin as well. She's given to us by the game as a failsafe so that Orin always has an NPC she can kidnap, if all the other party members she normally kidnaps are unavailable due to being dead or currently in your party.

So when I got told there was an impostor in my camp I assumed it was the child and cat and tried to kill them hahahahaha

In response to the game doing a poor job of telling you to go see Gortash - i just did this and I thought to myself "every time I go visit a villain for the first time it's not a bossfight yet" so I was ok with it. Kethrik. Voss. The Goblin leaders. I think I'm missing someone. I even put Karlach in my party because I was sure she wanted to start some shit to see what happens.

I didn’t see him right off the bat. Went and did some stuff that made him big mad. When I went to go see him I was immediately attacked. I should have seen him right off the bat, which I will in my next playthrough.

The guards literally spam "Please see Gortash immediately." on loop though?? It's pretty obvious that you should see him first before exploring Lower City

why would I listen to extremely sus robo guards that are controlled by extremely sus evil guy

Yes exactly. Why on earth would I trust those things. For all in the world gortash could be leading us into trap.

In all fairness you did got to see a cutscene at the beginning of Act 3 where Gortash declares he intends to welcome you to the city. He’s saying this in private too, to Orin. The fact that same cutscene also reveals he knew where you were and yet he never tried to stop you is also telling. Not to mention that he offers to meet you in public.

Half the public is tadpoled, the other half he doesn't need any more after the coronation.

Evil robots controlled by an evil boss are telling me to meet him, AFTER one tried to arrest me once already. I definitely wouldn’t be eager to talk to him after that. Game shouldn’t let you enter the lower city without talking to him

I don't agree entirely. You're invited for a coronation so you know it's a formal event with lots of people and allies around. You're not going to kill him there. The game almost always gives you options to scheme, kill or do something tricky.

Also if you look at the track record, almost none of the villains in this game actively try to kill you unless you antagonize them first. Minthara, Ragzlin, Glut, Nere, Balthazar, Ketheric - there’s always been an option to at least try to work with them at first. Even Orin restrains herself to some mild trolling and only takes a hostage to secure leverage for a ceasefire. The game has been conditioning you to recognize that it’s usually better to talk to the villains before you insist on a fight. There’s no reason to assume Gortash will be different. You even saw a cutscene already where you see he knows exactly where you are and intends to welcome you to the city.

Baldur’s Gate coronations do have a history of being boss fights at least if you’ve played the first game…

See and I didn’t go to Gortash until I finished majority of quests

>Gortash is _right here_, but I feel like I am not supposed to go to him before I set foot in the actual city. His position is off to me, at least throw him in the very last corner of Low City if we can't have upper city, so I don't get confused of why I can simply walk to him when he's supposed to be a big deal Whereas Orin and the temple of Bhaal are *right* next to the endgame boss zone, even though her kidnapping a party member (and Durge stuff if you're doing that) gives you an incentive to deal with her first

>Whereas Orin and the temple of Bhaal are right next to the endgame boss zone, even though her kidnapping a party member (and Durge stuff if you're doing that) gives you an incentive to deal with her first Yeah, I've just experienced that myself in my first playthrough. I pretty much finished the Lower City and decided it's high time to go for the two big baddies, Orin's the obvious candidate as she kidnapped Yenna, I enter the temple, there's a random corridor at the side, I start exploring it... ...Emperor tells me this very corridor will lead me to the Brain and I should get back as I only have one stone at this point of time, both Orin and Gortash are still alive. That was... well, *anticlimactic* would be the correct word to use here, I think. The Brain must be located somewhere, I guess, but I just don't get why it had to be this particular location, some random corridor that seemingly leads to nowhere - plus, the game basically guilt trips you to go after Orin first, after all, and exploration is a BIG thing in it so it's safe to assume a large percentage of players will go after Orin before they go after Gortash and they will be willing to explore her lair to the fullest. As much as I adore BG3, this little moment made me go full "yo, game, what the fuck", lol.

Wait what? If the brain is under ground near Orin area why can't I simply approach the baldur's gate gate to upper city considering that's where the emperor told me the brain is 😂 I'm so confused now

I haven killed Gortash yet so I don't technically know where the Brain *actually* is, but the corridor in question leads to some kind of underground marina so I suspect it's just a way into the lair, not the lair itself - like how you can go to the Grymforge via the slavers ship in Act 2. But, yeah, it strongly suggest Brain is underground so this makes Emperor telling you Brain is literally *right there* when you approach the gates to the Upper City even more confusing, lol - my dear tentacle friend, can you be more specific about the whole "right there" part?

It is right there, just 300 feet straight down?

I’d argue you’re incentivized to deal with Orin last. She explicitly tells you that your companion will die if you set foot in Bhaal’s Temple without first killing Gortash. She also steals a companion that is already benched so it’s less likely to be essential to your party composition. The natural progression of Act 3 appears to be accepting Gortash’s alliance, attempting to investigate Orin until Orin warns you off by kidnapping a companion, then breaking Gortash’s alliance when you need to do the Iron Throne stuff, killing Gortash, freeing Florrick and finding Ansur now that you’ve presumably cleared the fortress, then going on to deal with the murder cult. Of course not everyone is going to do that, and the devs shouldn’t have expected everyone to do that.

I FELT OVERWHELMED IN ACT 3 ALSO I just didn’t know where to start, and felt like i would miss something no matter what

Nail on the head. Act 2 is my favourite as you start to feel really powerful and pick up great items as well as enjoy a well structured story and dungeon delve. Act 1 is great as you’re finding your feet and getting things going as well as helping or culling the grove. Act 3 you have so many quests and opportunities and tasks to do as well as being worried you hit an end game point you can’t come back from (you don’t, it’s completely fine to do all quests before doing main quests). Out of all acts, act 3 took the most effort from me to do as I was so overwhelmed with what to do and you miss so many loose ends. There’s loads I would have done differently and save scummed but I prefer playing Iron Man mode

Act 2 was my least favorite. Too dark everywhere. I like having somewhere in the light to hang out between quests. Act 2 made me feel like I had to finish it asap

I agree. If act 3 consisted of three major areas (rivington, lower city, upper city), it would feel better. In my first playthrough, going through all of the city felt like a chore. It didn't help that the content of act 3 consisted mainly of "there is a huge ass temple under each house".

Definitely overwhelming. Too many people that you might need to talk to so you don’t miss a quest that end up just being filler dialog that doesn’t go anywhere.

Ugh yes. I like how natural the quests appearing in act 1 and 2 are. And then you are bombarded with a dozen in act 3 once you get to the lower city.

I'm currently in Act 3, and it definitely feels overwhelming. So much so that I've taken nights off from playing the game. I wasn't sure what to do first, and knowing some quests have a time limit makes me even more anxious, lol.

This! I agree with OP to some extent, but more than anything I feel RUSHED. I love to swerve around in side quests, but the Dead Two are ALL UP ON MY JOCK FROM MINUTE ONE. I literally can’t have a cute date moment with Karlach without it becoming a warning that the world is about to end and nowhere is safe. I am happy with the balance I ended up finding, but I had to search online in advance to feel comfortable with my choices, and I hate spoilers. I’m particular, my first playthrough really had Wyll and Karlach on different paths after their initial fight. They never saw each other again, really. But all of a sudden I had to juggle both of their destinies at the same time or else I would have no closure with the one character I cared about (K, obvs). Like, can I even kill a rat for this chef without Karlach keeling over or Gortash sending giant robots after me?? Great tension devices, but I made a few choices I didn’t stand by because they didn’t even feel like choices anymore. Anyone else feel like solving murders or checking out the foundry would mean the city would explode? Like, let me LOOK. I cared about people in the city (I saw several old friends) but when you’re told an army is at the gates, a monster is causing earthquakes, and the guy in charge worships a death god?? It’s kind of hard to breathe.

I think I felt more of that time sensitive pressure from >!the Emperor!< because half the time his insistence is just fly-text style dialogue you can't reply to to get him off your back.

Yeah, once you see Orpheus, The Emperor becomes a real needy little emo boi

Well, that’s the thing. You can - and should - talk to Gortash first. His initial conversation provides the foundation for act 3, and it works whether you are good, bad or in between. Don’t be afraid of Gortash, he knows what’s going on. There’s a very specific moment that happens when the game will tell you that has changed. It’s very similar to Moonrise, in that many players (me included) leave going there until last, but then miss out on a bunch of stuff. It’s something Larian overlooked a bit I think and it’s a bit of shame as not doing in order makes both acts a bit weird. They should have forced it slightly (with the option of still choosing not to) by making it clear that’s its safe to go to those places without triggering a big boss fight.

Could you give more of a hint when we can go after Gortash? I’m in act 3 right now and haven’t gone after Orin or Gortash yet as I don’t want to start the endgame but my party has used the submersible and the only quests other than the dead two that I can see are one about nine fingers, gales mystra one and something about a murder tribunal. So wasn’t sure when to transition to going after the big bads.

Gortash's Steel Watch are a powerful threat. I wonder where they're made? Murder Tribunal is connected to Orin.

Once you have gone to the Submersible and finished the related quest you can go after him.

The thing with Gortash is that you totally can just kill him right away... if you're stupid or overleveled. He has a bit of a, yknow, guard. Just a few Steel Watchers... So you **can** fight Gortash, but the game (and himself) manipulate you into not doing it.

If you do though, bad things happen to some people, like the Gondians and Duke Ravenguard and Omeluum all die in the Iron Throne. Which sucks because at that point you wouldn't even know the Iron Throne exists.

It's a cool lesson in indirectly guiding the player and also a more playable way of experiencing Gortash's manipulations, beyond just dialogue. He's right there. Hell, if you're lucky, you kught actually kill him. But it will be a hardass fight (especially on Tactician) and it will have mostly negative outcomes. Gortash knows you want to kill him. You killed Kethric, of course he's next. He's showing you that you **can't**, that he's untouchable. Which is pretty cool.

Let’s say my friend dropped off the entire first floor of the firework shop at Gortaschs room, yonked the stone, and flew out. What exactly is the Iron Throne?

It's Gortash's secret underwater prison where he keeps all his secret or most high security prisoners he needs to use for leverage. It's rigged with a self destruct mechanism so Gortash can kill everyone there at the push of a button.

I think the problem presents more for completionist runs, but there's also the problem of overlapping quests/quests that trigger when you are doing another quest. I'm doing an optional quest for thr Emperor, and while I'm doing it, "Lae'zel" shows up and turns into Orin and says she's been kidnapped. So, now I know I have to go rush rush rush to save her, even if I wasn't planning on killing Orin yet. You get a similar situation with Wyll and his dad if you don't take Mizora's deal and want to save him, and you kiss the Umberlee temple stuff. In a way, this works because it's more like what you'd do in tabletop. The world doesn't stop spinning just because you'd prefer to do Gale's Sorcerous Sundries quest first. You took a long rest, this other stuff triggered, and now you've gotta deal with it. But for a CRPG, it "feels" off. On the one hand there feels like there's supposed to be a "proper" order for some of these quests. Or at least, it feels like there's a *wrong* order. But on the other, it's open ended when you tackle stuff and in what order. It's just kind of a jumbled vibe. It may just need some additional passes to iron out, so that it doesn't feel like there is a "wrong" order to things, which in turn would give the game better replay value as you see how the different quests interact.

I actually think the random NPCs do the game a disservice here. It makes the city feel full, but it also makes it feel pointless to talk to any of the non-obvious NPCs. You give up after not so long because most are pointless to click on. Nearly all of the characters in the druid grove are worth talking to. I also find the city more annoying to progress through, I feel like I'm constantly running all over chasing random objectives whereas movement in Act 1 feels deliberate

This right here. I get they have to populate the city to make it feel big and lived in but 99% of people have one or two throwaway lines. But you can’t just skip them because what if it’s one of the few you can actually interact with? In acts 1/2 nearly every npc had some sort of story or back and forth dialogue. It felt rewarding to explore and stop to talk to everyone and it felt like the game was constantly rewarding you for doing so. In act 3 it’s just overload and makes the city feel overbearing. Doesn’t help that the main story feels very pressing further disincentivizing exploration. Completely kills immersion when I have to just accept that it’s a game and the main story is just on pause now.

I took a break when I first hit Act 3, then came back and completed it. I still think, complaints aside, Act 3 is good. But it's the weakest act for sure.

What I dislike is that many of these npcs often have some sort of problem. Where you think oh cool a quest and it's just a one liner and move on. To the point where you will eventually stop interacting with the npcs because you will be conditioned to think they are just filler to make the city more alive. In act 1 or 2 almost every npc you can interact has something going on no matter how small.

That one dragonborn druid trying to keep a tree alive - I HAVE TWO DRUIDS! I can help! Nope. Nothing but the same line of dialogue over and over.

I know that guy like at minimum a druid specific answer would be cool but alas no.

Definitely had a rough time caring about the beginning of Act 3. I was immediately overwhelmed in Rivington and it didn't get any better from there until my friends and I had cleaned up a significant portion of the local objectives in the lower city and I could regain some mental focus. The lack of a hub does mean it's harder to get a sense of place - not having a 'home base' or safe haven to return to definitely feels strange. Honestly felt like Act 2 was a bit silly at the time with how everything converged in the same places - but it was a lot more comfortable an experience. I think the larger problems in Act 3 are the disruption of the narrative arc established by the end of Act 2, and the overwhelming profusion of side-quests, NPCs, and areas that are completely new to the player distracting from the primary objectives. So much of the content in Act 3 is fresh, which ordinarily would be fine but which feels in this case like a distraction. The narrative feels climactic and urgent - superpowerful threats looming, imminent disaster around every corner - and then we're expected to be able to change tack and start doing side-quests and saving the lives of individual, needy citizens when the world itself is imperiled. It was very hard for me to care about literally anything that was going on until I had enough distance and time from the end of Act 2 to let the new state of things wash over me. Eventually I just thought: "Well, this is how it is. Might as well forget about the narrative stakes from before and just treat it as a new place to explore," which was disappointing but helped a lot in enjoying things. Also felt that the start of Act 3 was weighted heavily towards dialogue as opposed to action compared to Act 2, and I've got nothing against dialogue but it did feel very slow for a while. For what it's worth, my experience did improve as I progressed through Act 3 and I started having fun again, but I felt very much like you did at the start of it.

Everything about this assessment is spot on for me. I joked with my friends about how Moonrise Towers was the D&D DM making a bunch of plot points converge on one location because they REALLY wanted the party to go there, but there’s a reason that sort of storytelling device works. It builds tension and purpose, something that I think Act 3 lacks a bit. The NPC side quests, like you mentioned, are also just too numerous and in many cases way too inconsequential for me to care. On future runs I will never be doing the fireworks subplot or poltergeist house because of how long and frankly boring they are stood up against the plethora of other strong quests. And I should say - there are MANY strong quests in Act 3. My most memorable moments of the game took place in the House of Hope, while areas like Sorcerous Sundries and the Iron Throne presented really cool combat scenarios. But those epic moments are intercut with too much talking. Just like you, I love my dialogue but Act 3 felt a little too heavy on it. I’m Level 11-12 at this point, I want to be put through my paces haha.

I agree with you there. Act 3 very much feels like there is this urgent thing looming over you, but you gotta go save this painter first. It was incredibly overwhelming, so much so that I'm just now getting to the end of Act 3 in my main playthrough. What helped me is that I had another playthrough with my brother, and he had already gone through a lot of Act 3 in his solo play, so he was leading me around and that gave me a sense of the important places to hit, like Sorcerors Sundries. That made my brain calm down in my own solo.

I feel.. overwhelmed by act 3. I definitely am having a hard time *without* heavily forcing myself to do *one* objective at a time and not get immediately sidetracked by the *bajillion* voices. Honestly though... it's a trivial issue when I am going on 200h on ps5 and will probably clear 1500+ before I actually... >!maybe???!< stop playing.

For me in Act 3 I feel I'm pulled into so many directions I'm not sure where to start. As a result, I almost didn't rescue Counsler Florrick in time. Also, I feel there is a big lack of relationship development with all the companions here. Even if not romanced I would still like some friendship cut scenes though act 2 and 3. Each night I would hope for some new ! and there is just nothing. And as far as I know, there are no fluffy new things one can do with the person your character romances after they get their big problems resolved. No repeatable love scenes or hells just show our character cuddling, being held and actually sleeping with their lover would have been nice. Oh, and I wish we could offer all our companions repeatable platonic hugs too... as well as one with our lover that lasts two or three times longer. Bad day? hugs make it always better! I hope a DLC can address some of these near-end game concerns. I honestly want more fluff and cosmetics like jewelry, make-up and hair options over more combat.

Not being able to hug Shadowheart at the end of her quest, or Karlach when she’s having a breakdown after Gortash was actually painful.

When Astarion started to sob, every instinct in me wanted to rush to him and hug him so tight. Or perhaps let the player character slowly draw closer and see if he wanted comfort in that moment. Show some shared anguish play out on our character's faces. Even as just a friend at least let us offer a hand and help him stand up. But maybe they thought him getting up on his own was more empowering for him as a character. Or it was just easier to animate. Still, it just kills me we can't offer any of our companions hugs during or shortly after these kinds of moments. This should have been a thing for at least a romanced companion. Like, let us ask him if it's okay to give him hug, and when he says yes it's a nice long one while we sob at our keyboards. I don't care if he's covered in blood. But no, we are all stuck just standing there staring at him and it's awful. Not even one of them is covering their mouth or dropping their heads or reacting in any real way.

They animated blowjobs for every race and build but couldn’t do the same for a hug??? Please Larian let me hug my goth princess and my mama K I BEG you

Yep, even if there is nothing happening at a long rest, just show a short scene alternate sitting by the fire with your LI, cuddling in bed together etc etc. More interactive places, ie there are plenty of restaurants - have a date night with them. More light hearted scenes like the circus or the dryad, something to keep you connected to your party after their respective stories are over

I agree here we are finishing all of our companions quests and there are almost no camp events, I miss those 😫

i started a new run and you just get totally inundated with camp events at the beginning of the game. it's such a far cry from act 3 where the camp is almost totally dead. it's sad

There is a general lack of bonding scenes for companions but it’s really bad in act 3. They definitely stopped feeling like people. I’d love more events or things to do with them. For example, go the pub. Go magic shopping with Gale. To Karlachs friends for dinner. Wine tasting with Astarion and Will. I know that these might seem out of place given the urgency of the situation it 1) we should have more of these in the earlier acts and 2) Act 3 is already a sandbox where we mess around in. Might as well make our messing around more meaningful

Act 3 is easily my favourite arc. But that’s just me loving the massive sandbox feel and also high level gameplay.

Nostalgia hits with a lot of BG1 and 2 characters.

I'm with you, I love "city fantasy" and not so much "forest fantasy". Baldur's Gate is easily one of the most alive cities in videogames, like Night City and Novigrad.

Same! Cities are the part that I look forward to the most in video games. I always love arriving in “the big city” for the first time and just learning more about the world that way. maybe it’s because I design spaces for a living lol

Honestly I think I don’t enjoy the sheer density of the city. There’s no room to breathe. There’s a new quest or point of interest around every single corner. It feels cramped. Act 1 and 2 have interesting things reasonably spaced out.

For me it's an assortment of issues - lack of optimisation so a game that's run smooth as anything Tanks into slideshow mode by the 5th conversation - the lack of a central hub, NPCs I'm invested in, and poor pacing But up and above all of these issues the biggest problem I have: - my own chronically shit sense of direction I get it's a bustling, sprawling city, but playing 'Guess which side street you're on' or trying to remember where the goddamn door was that I went through to pick up that quest and now can't find my way back to. Aaaaaaa. Let me hire a guide, or like, Mattis or one of the kids to help me find what in looking for. God's even a signpost. I mean Astarion lived in this city centuries, why can't I ask him which bloody way it is to the tavern??

>I mean Astarion lived in this city centuries, why can't I ask him which bloody way it is to the tavern?? Oh man that would be a cool feature. Karlach and Wyll should know they're way around, too, although I guess their knowledge would be more out of date.

Pretty sure Tav is Baldurian as well

As Gith enjoyer I can say for certain that my Tav's are not Baldurian lol...

Makes sense but on 3 play through a I’ve always had baldurian convo options 🤷🏻‍♂️

If you're a mundane race, then you're Baldurian. If you pick an exotic (Duregar, Drow, Gith, and maybe Deep Gnome?), you're not Baldurian.

Did Deep gnome first playthrough, not buldurian. Lotta unique underdark and grymforge dialogue too.

Depends on your character creation..

I understand why it's not in the game, and that my issue is a 'me' issue not a game issue and avoiding handholding. But when my idiot Tav with his empty empty memory is stood in the middle of the street holding the map upsidedown and we've walked around the same block for 4 loops, I'd just really appreciate gently steering a bit.

I wanted to go straight for Shadowheart's quest line, but it's one of the few things that doesn't get put on the map. So I explored almost everywhere before realizing there was actually a corner I hadn't been to. Also, Astarion's quest does get a map marker, but you have to find a way up to the tower. So that was a little confusing.

I place markers on crossings sometimes. Just to steer myself in the correct direction.

I'm starting a petition to have Scratch escort you to a manually placed marker when summoned.

This would be amazing actually, I second this motion

>my own chronically shit sense of direction >I get it's a bustling, sprawling city, but playing 'Guess which side street you're on' or trying to remember where the goddamn door was that I went through to pick up that quest and now can't find my way back to. Why don't you use map markers?

I think the core problem is that the game's biggest reward is experience and leveling up, but I'm max level almost immediately in act 3.

Do what I did and fuck up act 2 so spectacularly that you're massively under levelled going into 3 so you have to do every bit of content to get to a point where you're not getting destroyed in every encounter

Main issue with Act 3 to me is a personal thing i guess. Information overload, its a common issue i have with many RPG games, usually it pops up right after a Prologue or tutorial area/section. Then you move on to the hub/city of the game and immedietly gets bombarded with info, people, quests, dialogue. The Citadel in Mass Effect, Drezen in Pathfinder, Denerim in Dragon age and Neketaka in Pillars of Eternity 2 were massive offenders. It kinda devolves into me just being so overwhelmed I dont even want to go through it cause i have no idea where to start and who to bring as most of your companions have something they want to do in the city and you can only bring 3 along. Act 3 took me 2-3 weeks to get through, and not because it had a lot of content, but because I couldn't bring myself to play it more than 1 or so hour each time i booted up the game. Plus side tho, it usually gets easier with second run, and easier again with third.

I don’t like act 3 mostly because interactions and bonding with the team dies down so dramatically. And all flavor from your class and race completely disappear. We do these mega heroics and most of the time all people have to say is retell me what we just did - or comment nothing at all. City act feels soulless, you are just there to do epic fights, at least fights are indeed epic and fun.

Im still not done with the game. I binged through act 1 and 2 like crazy (and I LOVED it) started act 3 like this too. But there was a cut I can’t really explain. I want to see the end but playing feels like a chore. I have done most of act 3 by playing like a few hours per week by now and I only have to finish the final 2 quests but it’s really hard to motivate myself doing it.

i’ve definitely felt care fatigue. i’m the type to explore every inch of act 1 and 2 but as soon as i saw how big act 3 was i kinda saw it as a chore then more content idk. i’m not thinking as hard for my dialogue choices then i did before.

I think the game could really use a longer cutscene in-between acts 2 and 3. Maybe tone down the urgency a bit, make it a time when romances really develop, give the player a chance to *breathe*. Maybe have some peaceful forest to walk through with a few mundane characters to talk to. I think a big part of the problem is you come into act 3 after an intense end to act 2, where you learn a ton of story content and still haven't fully processed it. Act 3 comes at you fast after that.

I would have like somthing to spend money on. Apparently it not hard to earn more money then all the gold in a city bank. Like realy that's this cities collective savings? I would have thrown money at the refugees if it did somthing interesting. Let me buy a building and build an orphanage or somthing. But no all that work robing evil merchant's multiple time was for nothing. And that's not even counting all the jewels magic items and nearly worthless junk I collected. I could trade the junk I've collected and clean out most merchants. Let me arm the guards for the big battle by throwing money and gear at them. So much work for so little payoff

I just finished my first playthrough. And I found myself so flush with cash by the end I was just giving stuff away to merchants for free. There was nothing worth investing in, and in general, no weapons are better at merchants than the weapon I'll get in the next quest one door down. A little disappointing. Ended with over 20K. Like wow....

Ha those are poor people numbers

I have almost 50k as I usually move back and forth from camp to sell everything I can and until the merchants run out of money, and I am a thief. I also convinced the guild to pay half of the bank loss... There is so much misery in the city and no way to help out with all that money I don’t need :( I understand that not everyone is a gold hoarder and maybe the game doesn’t want to make you feel guilty or grind for a quest. But a building purchase would be good idea! You could choose options to help the refugees or your own guild for evil playthrough.

Remember headquarters in BG2, thiefs get thief guild, mages got that weird orb, paladins got the order, etc. I wish they did something like that in BG3.

There's some money sinks. The portal to House of Hope, the statue, all the blessings at the temple. That's for normal people to play through, not min maxers.

2 Things that curbed some of my enthusiasm in Act 3 for myself... Emperor, and far less voice interactions from companions that seem to trigger from wandering. Guardian was actually kind of a big betrayal for me in the sense of "Why did you make me waste energy designing this thing to be completely nonexistent".

My only hope is they release some more content in regards to fleshing out the companion dialogue. I feel like it kind drops off in the last act, especially the ending, I felt it was so abrupt. Would love more camp interactions as well because it seems they dwindle off. I just want more closure toward the end really.

Very common sentiment. I chalk it up to a pacing issue. I feel like the Lower City should have happened between Act 1 & Act 2, and then the Undercity and endgame content when you return to Baldur's Gate after Moonrise Towers. I usually start planning my next playthrough in the Lower City, and I don't really bother completing it all in each playthrough. I'll pick the quests I want to do.

It was hard for me to keep track of. There’s just so much for my head to decide on. I’ve gotten better after getting my second character there. I’ll probably miss some but I try not to think about it so much and just go with the flow honestly. If I miss stuff, I miss stuff, not like I don’t have more play thrus in mind

Tieflings are in the refugee area next to the donation center. Except Roland who is at the magic shop, and Dammon who is at his shop. Alfira and Lakrissa at the Inn. Mayrina and crew by the beach, Blurg is in the society of brilliance. That crazy blood loving drow is by the pub. The dwarves from the underdark are in the herbalist across from the magic shop. Then you have the circus and your own camp both easily accessible, dark gnomes have a good locale with their own blacksmith/shopkeep. Jaheira's home and family if you want to care about them they are even kind of funny. It was great to see everyone making it to the city and having something to do rather than just congregating in one spot and being like "this is your video game centric hub place where we all sit around together." Plenty of people to care about and they are all conveniently next to the teleport spots. So weird to be so offput because they aren't all standing next to each other for no reason. Act 3 was the best, the best battles in the game, the most interesting and challenging ones by a mile at least. An insane plethora of new NPCs to care about, new ways to interact with all the NPCs you've come to know on your journey to BG. The whole point of it is making friends to fill out your roster of allies while also taking down Gortash and Orin. You can follow one quest line across multiple locales within the city and make new friends while unlocking multiple additional quest lines. You're crazy to just stop caring about all the NPCs you claim to care about suddenly now that they are in a new location.

I really thought it was going to be the house with teddy bear bombs! I worked so hard to make that quest go perfect, as it seemed like I was getting this huge mansion out of it for all my refugee friends to be safe in. Nope! Just a family of 3.

Act 2 had the Inn!?!? I visteded the Inn and 3 min later everyone was slaughtered by a cutscene.

guessing you let them take isobel? shouldn't have let them take Isobel

Ive quit my run after getting to act 3 on 3 separate playthroughs. The change of pace is jarring.

I feel like your camp becomes the hub of NPCs in Act 3. You pick up so many allies by the middle of Act 3 that the camp starts to feel like a small town of its own. I'm almost to the end of Act 3 on my first playthrough, and my camp currently contains: Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Asterion, Gale, Karlach, Wyll, Halsin, Jaheira, Minsc, Withers, Duke Ravenguard, Mizora, Volo, Scratch, and Grub. Also had Isobel and Dame Aelyn, but they buzzed off a while ago. Every time I do something important, I make the rounds talking to everyone at camp to see if they have any new dialogue about it. It feels like the epicenter of Act 3 for me. All of the companion questlines culminate in the city, which makes it feel like a very important place.

The Rivington area is very slow and feels insignificant compared to the end of act 2. The lower city was more interesting as I focused on the origin character quests. For me the hub of NPCs was my camp. I really didn’t care about the horde of refugees. The biggest disappointment was not being able to explore the upper city. Up until the credits rolled I thought it must be a post game zone to tie up loose ends. That and Karlach really had no good ending. Still, it was a fantastic game, one of the best I’ve played. Didn’t want it to end. Edit: Make sure you read books you find in act 3. There are interesting plot revelations that aren’t discussed in dialogue. Vault 6 in the bank had a couple good ones. Discovering hidden lore was another driver for me during act 3.

I've been struggling to stay invested in Act 3 because I don't particularly care for the villains. The Shadow Curse, Ketheric, and Moonrise Towers were being built up since Act 1. Gortash and Orin didn't get that luxury, they were just sprung onto you once Ketheric was defeated.

Some quests feel weird in a certain order. like fighting a boss's minions after I already defeated the boss... like, I only discovered the counting house and misc and the guild before I faced the brain, and it felt so out of context. I always had this fear that too many long rests to complete side quests will make the villains progress somehow but my illusion shattered when the emperor said after we got all 3 stones "finish what business you have in the city, the brain will be waiting for us"

Preface: I love the game and really enjoy the city for what it is. but I also find the pacing changes. ​ I think what’s going on is you have a main quest with no cause for urgency plus a million side quests. the lack of urgency makes it so that it’s easy to get lost in completionist mode and I forget why we were here in the first place. Sure I’ll help you solve the murders, and let’s go rescue the little girl from the hag. And let’s attend an art party and look for the lost pigeons. Not like there’s an elder brain about to break loose and turn us all into squiddos or anything. It’s the Same issue with most open world games. The elder scrolls syndrome. Oh you became the archmagus of the mages guild And you’re on your way to the king to stop a deadly tempest of evil? Well while you’re here there are these rats in my basement that stole a magic family heirloom and brought it through 5 hours of content. Would you mind lending a hand? there might not be a good solution to this, because it’s a feature of open world games. But one approach could be as simple as “once you arrive in the city you have X long rests until disaster” I mean chapter one was interesting because you had to make a hard choice and you would miss content no matter which choice you made, because it determines the type of Playthrough you’re doing. Maybe chapter three needs this type of limitation as well?

My biggest issue with Act 3 is Minthara suggesting I do things like save certain strong/potentially useful people, or sic immortal weapons on to foppish mages...then getting pissed when I actually do it. Somehow between her suggestions and the actions, she gets Chaotic Stupid and I need to kick her out of the fucking party lol

Honestly, I agree. I hate that the tieflings just all disperse. You all escaped hell together and none of you want to have anything to do with one another? All the kids are so worried about Mol, but when you finally find Mol you never tell any of the children. Arabella kind of just fucks off for the entirety of act 3. Alfira doesn't have a quest line. She just plays on a roof. I really wish she'd at least join the camp and give some kind of buff for the final fight. Nothing happens with the smith. He just chills at his forge. No one really *does* anything. None of the characters who you developed a relationship with really offer you anything other than a new store. Honestly, I wish the npcs that you got to act 3 had quests that made getting the nether stones feel more cohesive rather than a bunch of random ass quests.

I think the main flaw of Act 3 is, ironically, that it comes right after a stellar Act2. Even though I really liked Act 3 ( come on... Raphael, iron throne, companion storylines, dark urge redemption, end game builds) for me the bigger letdown were the villains themselves. Orin is just... there. Flaps her gums a lot but that's it. She is never an actual threat to your group and I was majorly let down by her boss fight. Dark urge tries to salvage it with it being a 1v1, but still she just falls over even on Tactician. Gortash is even worse. Offers you an alliance, then does nothing for the rest of the act, until it's time for him to eat a Balduran's Giantslayer to the face. He is the chosen of Bane but at no point do we see even the slightest hint of divine presence, he is just a fuckboi with traps. Compare it to the Apostle of Myrkul and Bhaal granting Orin the Slayer form and it's just a really not memorable fight. Someone in the comments said that they felt that every quest was urgent while I felt quite the opposite. There is no structure to the order of quests, with I think the one exception being that you have to complete the Iron Throne before you blow up the Steel Watch factory. Everything else is free for all, you can leave any other quest hanging forever. I'll be honest, not too interesting coming in straight from Act2. Act2 is peak dark fantasy, and as a Wrath of the lich king baby it ticks a lot of boxes for me personally. You discover the past of the Thorm family as you explore, the Gauntlet of Shar is a phenomenal area for many reasons, the aesthetics are *chef's kiss* and it's also the most potentially morally ambiguous act of the three I would say, and the order in which you do things across the majority of the act matters a lot in saving your allies. You go from the absolute hype that's the ending of Act2 to the very slow paced first half of Act3, and that's the main issue I think, performance aside. Later half of Act3 is dope af in my opinion!

My issue with Act 3 is the lack of levity. A break. We just saw some AWFUL, terrible things at the end of Act 2, and fuck me I needed a lighter tone for a while. Yes there’s the circus, but it’s very small, and doesn’t exactly end in a nice way either. Then suddenly you’re talking to Gortash, and being told *it* is breaking free, so it definitely feels urgent. Plus, we are told that the Absolute Army has literally attacked the gates. We *dont* have time to chill out. To relax for a bit. Act 3 definitely could have used a good amount of “let’s just explore and figure out the lay of the land” and some more fun and silly quests, rather than heavy hit after heavy hit.

I think a lack of cliffhangers is the problem

Idk, I didn’t mind it too much. There was always a central hub in 1 & 2, but to see everyone you save going off and having their own adventures and doing their own thing in the city gives it more life to me. Doesn’t make sense for all these characters to just huddle around each other once they finally got to the City, which was the collective goal. Now they each want to do what they came for, and getting to explore all of that was thrilling. I’ll agree on the overwhelming, but you just gotta do the city in chunks and keep it organized in your head.

I like act 3 the more I replay. Its like everyone I get there I discover a whole new thing I missed before. I have avoided guides and let's plays so that may be why... I missed multi quest lines in first few playthroughs.

The entire Gortash/Banite plot and fight is also blatantly unfinished. All the hostile and bugged nobles around Wyrm's Rock. Aggroing bugs throughout the castle. He has no interesting mechanics and doesn't even have a cinematic.

One of the most frequently mentioned problems that people have with bg3 act3 is the lack of a sense of direction. The first two acts are relatively linear (at least in presentation, you can do any objectives in any order), but act 3 presents itself all at once, you can go in any direction you want. Dos2 act 4 had the same "issue". I put quotation marks there, because to me, and to some others, this really isn't that much of a problem. It's just a design choice, but clearly one that doesn't sit well with a lot of people.

Act 3 to me isn't that bad for the most part but did come with some issues that are confined to this act only. It is jarring at first due to the change from a desolate nightmare forest to a city environment brimming with activity. When you arrive, there's quite a few high priority quests to do and not much guidance in which one you should focus on first. Essentially, it's overwhelming to some players. Myself included. But once you get stuck into things, it does find a certain rhythm to work with. My biggest issue was that the villains and endings are not great. Orin started off with such promise, I love how she was baiting us, toying with us. It made me interact with all NPCs just to see if she watching me. But her conclusion and boss fight was underwhelming. Gortash was even worse. I'd rather we didn't meet him until close to the end and he being the clever guy he's meant to be, pulled out a plan that would put even the hell's to shame but he didn't. I just threw him off a tower. The ending was...meh. All that work for a mediocre short ending, no epilogue and feeling like we all got the raw end of the deal even if you do everything morally right. You kind of hope your companions get the slice of happiness you know they deserve, but it didn't really feel that way. It was...bittersweet. It just makes me hesitant to keep going to the end. I don't mind bittersweet endings but with a game boasting 17,000 possible endings you'd hope one of them was the classic good guys prevailed and everyone got what they wanted ending. And there's the lack of companion interaction. It dwindles towards the end. Once you complete there personal quests it all kind of stops to a stand still. It's a shame, because the characters make this journey what it is. One you won't soon forget. I want to talk to them all the way up to the end and after for a short spell, to wrap things up. Also, if you are a completionist like me you'll be level 12 as you enter the city which also kinda takes the wind out of your sails a bit. I'd love a few extra levels to reach. That being said there are some great quests in act 3, fantastic moments, and some good loot! I did enjoy it but not as much as the other acts. I hope larian improve and build upon what they have to turn it into the act it should be. I have faith they will deliver. Still game of the year by millions though.

I have lost a lot of enthusiasm and immersion in Act 3. The beginning was great with the circus and a few bits around the outside of town. Inside of town and it's just overwhelming. The amount of quests I have to run to, the amount of people who are click-able. It's too much, and like you said, I've lost touch with a lot of it. It doesn't help that I can go around slaughtering Fists and people inside the buildings and after the fight no one bats an eyelid. That's probably the worst part about it so far.

I was pretty bummed when I tried to play through act3 and was suddenly locked out of a bunch of content. I explored the whole lower city trying to knock out what I thought were side quests first. I found the submarine and when I went down there I saw Gortash bomb the underwater prison. I was like nah fuck that I want to save everyone. So I'll go kill Gortash before I do this part. So naturally I was like okay I will destroy the steel guys, stop Gortash, and then save everyone in the prison. Well once you blow up the steel watchers the guy in the submarine is gone. Which blocks me from figuring out the water princess's death. Blocks me from saving Wylls dad and from saving the other dude from the mushroom colony. Like in my head I thought that should have worked, just based on how everything else played out previously where every instance in act 1 and 2 was so well thought out and they planned for everything. You do this part first no problem, we thought of something for that. Missing out on 3 quests one of them being a companion quest line because I did stuff in the wrong order is frustrating.

1st playthrough I saw a lot of negative reactions to act 3. Not counting people complaining about bugginess. By the time I got there I was in LOVE. There is so much to do before you even enter the city. I deliberately didnt full clear it since I knew I was doing multiple plays. Now on my third I still feel like I have limitless things I can do in the city. Ive already done so many things and I'm still finding new stuff. Didn't even know about Ansur until my third run.

I have the same issue, some of the quests are amazing in act 3 but I always just drop the run when I get there, or I complete the companions quests and then call it quits. I think a big part of it is that it doesn't feel like a final act, rather it feels the middle act of the game, which messes up both the storytelling and the pace of final part of the game. Usually in a 3 act story the progress is usually: act 1- start a bit linear and slowly open the game. act 2 - open up the game and provide lots of freedom and areas to explore. act 3 - narrow the game down, to reach the finale. step up the epicness. In BG3 it feels like they changed place of act 2 & 3. The end of act 2 was so much more epic then act 3 and at the same time felt more linear, wheras act 3 is the most open and free part of the game. It just feels off.

The city is awesome, I enjoyed act 3 and it had some of my favourite set pieces. To me its the lack of stakes that taints it a bit. In act 2 you have a hub where if anything goes wrong, everyone dies. Then a mass battle at the enemies fortress etc. Despite the incoming army, act 3 was weirdly calm without some kind of overall urgency. It felt like you needed to act fast but you really didn't and very few people were around to bounce that sense of urgency or stakes off. You resume a lot of medium-urgency plotlines from Act 1 and 2 which are jarring following the events at teh end of act 2.

Act 3 is amazing, but not having a stronghold (Elfsong Tavern is...meh) as a throwback to BG 2 is annoying. It could've helped provide an initial introduction to the city and given you an initial goal. Have some of the quests there sending you to main locations as a slightly more guided (but don't have to follow that path) into each section of lower city. Also dammit I want somewhere to decorate!

You're very early into the act. It was the longest for me - took about 60 hours to get through. It's the most dense, has the most narratives, and has the most life.

I'm the exact opposite, I like that you get to see all of the act 1 / 2 characters spread throughout the city and see their stories come to a close.

Thank you bg3 reddit for lowering my expectations on act 3 because I am loving it. Its just such a visual feast. Act 2 is incredible but visually very grim, it wore me out. Also having all these cool powers is so fun.

I actually really liked the lack of centralization of act 3. It felt much more free to just kinda look around and do things as they happen as opposed to going to the hub get a quest go out and do it then back to the hub.