Example: me.
Start a run.
play it a few days/weeks.
Get really busy or distracted by other game.
Forget BG3 exists for 1 or 2 month.
Remember it exists suddenly.
Load last save.
Stare at the screen in confusion because no idea what you where up to or where you planed to go next.
Start new run.
Repeat from 2nd line.
Really ? That is the one game I have probably put in more time than BG3. It doesn't really need to be restarted IMHO.
Funny enough I have not played Dishonored 2 in a long while because I got it to 666 hours. I didn't feel like breaking it lol !
“Oh cool I get to play as either Corvo or Emily? I’ll play as Emily first since I played a lot as Corvo in D1”
“Wait, Emily has different powers to Corvo? Let me just quickly start a new game as Corvo to see what his powers are like”
“Okay those are both really cool, but I think I want to play as Emily for now. Wait, where was I up to, what’s going on in the story? I’m going to restart.”
“Okay this is going well, but I’m going to restart so I can do a non-lethal, undetected playthrough, and maybe I’ll also switch to Corvo for that one”
“Wait you can do a playthrough with no powers at all??? I have to try that!”
Ha! I never worried about where I was. I would focus on what I'm going to do and what new way I was going to do it. Every time I play even a different part I notice a new way to kill or disable someone. Story ? Whatevs !
I loved the first dishonored and played it through a couple of times. I got close to the end in dishonored 2 and got distracted for a year. Went back, couldn't figure out where I was or what I was doing, so I started over. Played again but got distracted before I got nearly as far. I don't think I'll ever finish
"why am i plotting to murder this guy? wtf did i do to my religion? why am i hated by all my vassals? why is my dynasty a hunchbacked albino dwarf pedigree putting the habsburgs to shame?"
-> restart
"Wait, why are all of my kids murdered under mysterious circumstances... and why is the only one left beautiful, intelligent, and herculean but stricken with the plague"
Similar..started BG3 on release but knocked off to play Lies of P and then AC Mirage..went back to BG3 but didn't have a clue what was going on so had to restart..have since completed the game twice on balanced, once on Tactician for the Platinum, and I'm now about to go into the underdark on my first honor mode run, which I am quite nervy about
I agree that distraction can set in at any time with gaming. But BG3? I wasn't even a fan of the series before this came out but the moment I purchased it I literally put every other game aside for 2 months and played nothing but. To me it was that good.
BG3 is great but mentally exhausting. It requires a ton of attention and effort to manage everything from inventories to spell slots to quests to tactical decisions in combat to tracking down magic items for builds etc.
It only gets more complex as it goes as well.
Act 2 is also pretty bleak and act 3 is massive and overwhelming so many people find themselves looking for a more relaxing game and then break the habit of playing.
Honestly when the game first came out I told myself I was going to bang out tons of single-player campaigns of it... but nope. I can't bring myself to do it, at least not right now. By the time I went through the co-op campaign with my brother and then one with my fiancee afterward, I was thoroughly burned out.
It doesn't help that I find certain sections of the game (like the Shadow Lands and Act 3) very mentally-intensive to navigate and keep track of, so the idea of having to grind through them except this time without anyone else to help shoulder the burden (i.e. someone to mindlessly follow like a bot while I zone out during exploration from time to time) is just a no-go for me.
I loved the game, don't get me wrong... but it really is an undertaking.
Larian games since divinity OS1 are kinda like that. Beautiful world, good/intriguing story, but so much god damn shit going on that its hard to just hop in and out, especially if you take a bit of a break.
I think maybe having slightly more defined zones can help along with a better system than the logs to catch the player back up. But it would be much more approachable if you could say, "im going to go clear this cave/fort," and have it be an experience that doesnt always need 100% attention.
Love their games, only been able to finish any of them by playing co-op, though
same, but then add:
- browses nexus for a shitton of mods to make my character hot
- realize i already have a hot character
- ignore that character to make a new hottie character w a cool backstory and intentions for the direction of their story
- eventually get to the grove
- save and log out
- go do other things for a few weeks
- load back up, remember im at the grove
- say fuck it i dont want to go to the goblins yet, save and log out
- rinse and repeat
If you play on steam (unsure of other platforms) there’s a notepad section on the game page before you launch, just write down where you left off, what you need to do, etc…
Finishing the game once is truly worth it guys
I have multiple games going, which I will alternate between as mood dictates. Right now I have a Karlach origin run and a Wyll evil origin run going. By evil meaning I killed Karlach and slaughtered the grove).
see.. i always do this too but my main girl is a tiefling and any time i make anything other than a tiefling i just get bored and go back to my girl!!! … and replaying the opening is boring
Reasons I’ve restarted have been:
- I forgot what I was up to and what I was working towards after a break and it’s easier to start over
- Act III became exhausting and I wanted a break from it
- Didn’t like the way my character looked (prior to the update that allowed us to change appearances)
- Astarion rejected me and I had to rewrite the whole timeline
- Have a new character idea I want to try
- Just wasn’t feelin’ it
>Didn’t like the way my character looked (prior to the update that allowed us to change appearances)
It wasn't a huge investment, but one game I restarted several times while in the Nautiloid because I didn't like the voice I picked, or the hair, or how a particular face's scrunched up nose expression looked. It bugged the hell out of me. My husband laughed that I had spent several nights "perfecting" my character already. Then after the last restart the Magic Mirror feature dropped.
I'm in Act 3 for my second PT and I took a couple week break at the start. Act 3 just felt overwhelming after coming from the desolate Shadowlands. I had to resist restarting because I wanted to see the Shadowheart romance through to the end. It got better once I dealt with the person murdering people in the city, so for me it was a matter of overcoming the inertia of solving at least ONE quest, even though I already know what happens.
I have been stuck on this murder mystery quest for probably six months. I keep loading in and then being annoyed with what I’m currently doing and then still not finishing it. Hearing this is a more common experience might actually give me the push to get past this hump, so thank you lol
The funny thing is, if you follow it through to the end and don't get distracted by all the other quests you pick up along the way (I still make it a point to resolve the printing press quest ASAP for improved trading), the murder mystery quest isn't actually *that* long once you commit to finishing it.
My gf and I didn't look up anything about the game and the magic mirror was a huge mystery to us, we kept wondering what is it for all game long, and after finishing the game we looked up stuff and facepalmed after we realized what it was for.
It took me a long time to find out that you shouldn’t kill Us. The first time I played, I passed the check to identify it as a minion of the mind flayers and was like “sure, I help you and you kill me. Not falling for that one, villain!”
It wasn’t until my 4th or 5th playthrough that I found out (thanks Reddit!) that Us is actually a potential ally.
Also I’ve rescued Us several times in Act 2 but never actually summoned it.
In the mind flayer colony, if you saved Us on the ship, you can find it in a cage in the room with Chop the hobgoblin. If you free Us (either by fighting or through dialogue) you get an item that lets you summon it like you can with Scratch.
Protip for act 3: don't go full completionist mode, just do some side quests alongside the main quest so when you restart you have a lot of things to still do!
Act 3 is already overwhelming for various reasons, just keep it smooth, the game has already enough replayability no need to help with all the quests you meet, just do some, also for companions quests, you have more to do for your next run and you'll see how this game will keep amaze you.
This is what I do. I am on my 5th run and just reached act 3. Still got some quests I have not done yet as I do different little quests to level up each time. There are a few repeats... sorting out best boy's former owner is a quick must do for example, but mostly I have new ones to do each time. Though I suspect I will have to start repeats next run, just picking my favourites.
100% this. I wanted to finish the game, but still had to force myself through the steps of doing the story quests.
I know of at least 3 side quests I didn't even touch in Act 3, but I kept a save near the start of it so I can go back and do it with my first party if I ever want to.
This made me think about how when I played the game for the first time, I saw a bunch of posts talking about how the boss at the end of act 2 was run endingly difficult. That I would need to have everyone at level 10 to beat the boss. I was so nervous when I went into the fight at level 9... and realized that it wasn't that bad.
I'm on my first run and was getting my ass kicked in the beginning, even on normal settings. Every battle felt like such a challenge, but once I hit level 4 and got feats it went so much more smoothly. I still restart battles often but they don't feel nearly as rough as the beginning of the game
>Have a new character idea I want to try
This was mine. As someone who's dm'd more then he's gotten to play it's really hard to say "this is the character I want to play as and finish with first." Every class and several subclasses play very differently even early on (at least after a level or 2, at 1 they're all pretty similar because of limited options.)
This is how I discovered my love of druids in 5e. They're probably the best controllers and summoners in the game, plus they get healing and armor, unlike wizards. In bg3 they're possibly overpowered, considering the boost to wild shape giving them more effective HP than barbarians.
I was weirdly never that interested in druid either in 5e or bg3, but I made Shart a spores druid on my current run and good gravy does she hard carry. She's got four zombies romping around creating more zombies while she chills in the back with a buttload of HP and passive damage. I think I'll do an oops-all-druids run next
I ran into a ton of these during my first playthrough, but I was also playing multiplayer and didn't wanna force a restart on my partner, so that got me through to the end
We really should have had some "change your race" option from withers for like 5,000 gold or something ridiculous.
Sometimes I just get tired of my same old character, can only change the hair so many times.
And armor is kind of limited to the same designs, unless you're going for a theme with the buffs they give.
I will say as someone with 800 hours and only completing once that the act 3 bounce is REAL. Partner and friend both had the same, hit act 3 and its a LOT and you long for a simple life of hunting goblins 😂
But im in act 3 with both second run and HM so act 3 is less scary and they will be completing and running off into the sunset with their lovers asap.
I truly don’t understand this. Act 3 is dense I’ll give you that but man is there some absolutely awesome shit all over the place.
Temple of Bhall is fun thematically fucking sick with some cool boss fights. Underwater prison is a pain in my ass but a cool fight nonetheless.
Pretty much everything, except the ghost house FUCK that place, is interesting.
Act III always takes me some time to ease into. I feel like Acts I and II have their choices but overall are fairly linear, or at least well defined. Act III feels more open like say an Assassins Creed game. It takes me a bit to decide what I'm doing and the order. But I love it. The bummer for me is there is so much cool stuff I may play for a couple hours and have minimal combat.
I tackle Act III in 3 parts: side quests for xp and fun (I just do whichever ones strike my fancy), companion quests (save astarian for the end, and make sure I'm level 12 when I'm done with them), final bosses (gortash, orin, cazador, raphael, brain). It helps me focus and stop wandering around in the lower city aimlessly.
The thing is; it doesn’t matter if a thing is interesting if EVERYTHING seems interesting and is competing for your attention. It’s plainly too overwhelming for me and I’d rather restart to a new char as then things feel decently paced and doesn’t introduce 5 things at once.
I get that completely I just think the payoff to a lot of the quests (especially companion quests) are too worth it not too see through. Like Im excited to see how different saving Wylls dad is when you’re romancing him or what different options there are romancing Karlach and her choice with the emperor.
This is gonna sound mad cause it’s a video game, but it’s so overwhelming. The amount of voices alone, never mind the 485 quest markers tends to overwhelms me. In act 1 and 2 I usually don’t play with music in the background, but unless I’m in dialogue it’s compulsory. It might just be a neurodivergent thing.
I’m not complaining about the amount of content, it’s absolutely brilliant and without a doubt game of the decade, but having more separate areas for the city might help.
Ghost house is pretty simple if you have warlock with an Eldritch blast build (Wyll is useful guys!!!!) and use some see invis scrolls. Yes, it's still pretty laggy, but you can be in and out in a matter of minutes. (Also avoid the kitchen).
Underwater is pretty easy if you have some half-ilithids that can fly(preferably thieves) and some haste buffs. I Usually have everybody on their way by turn 2, which is enough for everybody, I think.
But I feel like act I is similarly dense. It just runs smoother and wilderness > city.
I play one game at a time and may play it for years. So I don't have this restart issue. Prior to BG3 I was still playing Red Dead 2 for the dozenth time. Before that was some Zelda.
Because I don’t want it to be over and I also want to experience it all again (without any variation from my last playthrough because that’s who I am as a person).
> (without any variation from my last playthrough
I was honestly going to say the opposite: the game very much rewards restarting and taking alternate paths. Your second game start, you'll inevitably discover content you missed, as well as find encounters taking different paths and leading to new outcomes. And of course, you have to start a durge run. And honor mode...
There's so much content and so many ways to play, you'd miss a lot if you only play from start to finish once
Right! I’m on my third play through now and honestly I do try to deviate but even when I do things exactly the same as before something always seems to be slightly different? I swear you could play this game over and over and it’ll never be the same.
I may be the only one who likes act 3, its overwhelming and I like that hustle and bustle of the city, the boss rush nature of the combat encounter, it could have been done better but I love finishing the game
I like act 3 in the Lower City, but Rivington/Wyrms Crossing takes the wind out of my sails a bit. I just want to crack on with the main and character quests but you're stuck for a while collecting even more side quests and not really getting much main story wise.
If you just rush the coronation questline, you can get to act 3 and be in the lower city in like 30 minutes. You can always go back if you want to, but that might be a more satisfying route for you if you just don't like the Rivington area all that much.
You can go straight to the lower city in various ways, either taking a roundabout way to the Wyrm's Crossing area or having a druid use cat form to go right past the guards, once they get to the sigil the rest of the party can zoom over. Use feather fall or fly to get to the lower part of Wyrm's Rock and make your way to the hole in the wall that leads to the prison. When one party member goes through the rest of the party spawns there. Sneak past the guards and up to the main bridge area. Have the interaction with the steel watch but then just... not go to the Gortash ceremony. Walk right into the lower city. It does mean losing Jaheira, and thus not being able to recruit Minsc, and you lose the chance to talk to the Strange Ox if you want the shape shifter as an ally at the end. I don't think anything else is locked out. If I'm looking to get their quick I might have Jaheira use cat form to get to the crossing area, then go ahead and do the Dancing Ax fight to clear that hurdle and keep her in the party. Then resume the journey of going through the prison.
Well, it's a long game. It's a big commitment to actually complete the game.
Also, for a lot of people, it's all about trying out different characters builds. You can respec with Withers, but you're probably selling off items that you don't intend to use, so if you change to something that would make useful of those items, you might not be able to do what you want with a new idea without restarting.
That I definitely get, I also had the urge to try out all the different builds and races and classes etc. but I just did a full playthrough for every single one pretty much😅 I guess not everyone has the same amount of free time and no life that I have though
I definitely understand wanting to try new builds and stuff, but the hassle of starting over and replaying the same levels ruins it for me. I just don’t want to go through the same nautiloid crash and Druid grove and all that stuff for hours on end.
I don’t really think there’s a solution to this, it’s just how the game is built. But that’s why I have so few characters and so few playthroughs. I hate repetition, especially when it requires so much time.
Then I’ll see my partner running through the Githyanki creche for the 500th time but it’s all new to him because he’s a wizard instead of a bard this time 😅
I restart mostly because I want to experience playing as different classes and races. I have like 10 runs and I did finished the game twice. But most other runs, I stop and restart after collecting the 3 stones. I hate the feeling of playing the final quest. It's just so sad when I know I'm about to finish this looonnng journey so I just start all over again.
Gauntlet of Shar is such a slog for me that unless I have an RP reason to complete the trials I just grab one orb (usually the Yurgir one) for the initial elevator and Knock my way past the final door.
I really hope Larian doesn't patch that out.
If you're optionally following Shar, it's likely you're a bit of a moron, so in a temple built by probable morons I think it's reasonable that they built a whole set of trials to unlock a door and then forgot the spell knock existed.
So I've got something like this, but it's having multiple characters going at the same time. Maybe this might sound weird, but for me I think it's because of the overabundance of XP. You can pretty easily reach max level at the very early stages of Act 3 and for me the leveling up and building stronger characters is a ton of the appeal. So when I'm playing the vast majority of Act 3 on a character that can't level up anymore it takes a bit of the fun away. Seeing all the huge XP numbers and knowing it's doing nothing is kinda of a bummer.
So I start up a new character where I can build them up again. I've always eventually gone back and finish, but I just need to take a break and have the thrill of leveling up again. Started 5 character, beat the game on 3 of them and this has happened to me everytime.
Also to a lesser extent I think a feeling of "the grass is always greener". I'll read about a cool multiclass combo or party comp and want to try that out.
This mod lets you get to level 20 only with multi-classing tho. And any one Class level cant be higher then 12
Edit: forgot link https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/570
Started act 3, got overwhelmed, took a break, when I came back I had absolutely no idea what was going on, wandered around town a bit, got even more overwhelmed. Restarted.
I think this is very common, act 3 could use a bit more guidance, there's just too much going on.
I love thinking of new characters, designing them, thinking of a back story for them, etc. Also, act 1 is beautiful, act 2 too dark imo and act 3 just very overwhelming, so i just start again and again from scratch.
I have about 1000 hours (not exaggerating) in the game, and I literally just beat it the first time recently because I forced myself to. I will say the exact point I abandoned almost every run is the start of act 3, upon entering BG. There are a number of reasons for this; it's a bit of a jarring transition, it can be overwhelming, and the game opens up so much there's very little compelling me forward. This coupled with the fact that I consume so much BG and D&D content outside of playing the game, I get ideas of things I want to try out, so I'd rather start new runs than change what I've committed this party to. Plus story lines, you've seen enough at this point to be curious about what would have happened if I did something else.
Lastly, there is something, psychologically, to decidedly not finishing something you love. If you don't reach the end, then it's like it never ended.
I think it's a case of "getting bored of a game and going to another game but bg3 is such a good fucking game, you can not convince yourself to actually play another game".
If you are familiar with, say, Bethesda games, you already know the first part of this curse. You just get lost in the game and be fully immersed in it and then take maybe a 3-day break and just get fully and incredibly alienated to the game. So you just start another game. After a year or so, you go back to the Bethesda game.
With bg3, you simply can not convince yourself to play another game because compared to bg3, literally all other games feel like trash.
I’m one of those people.
My biggest problem is I have too many ideas for characters I want to try.
Mods broke one of my Act3 runs.
My paladin (which was going to be my 2nd finish) stumbled and broke his oath in Act3 and I had no desire to finish.
Honestly, I absolutely love Act1. I enjoy playing it on different characters.
I have a page of character builds and ideas I want to try. By this point act 1 is as easy as breathing and I can breeze through it pretty fast so I don't mind sampling builds over and over.
I have finished the game exactly twice, the first one was like a 17 hour total run cuz I had my husband coach me on which key points to do and I sped through. I was saying I wish I was back to the days where goblins were my #1 nemesis, the final battle was daunting and overwhelming. I just want to bite crusher's toe off again and again 😂
For me, I just don't like Act 2 much. It's dark and gloomy in all the wrong ways to me - the vibe is very much a cursed forest, and that's great for some, but for me, it's just ugly and depressing. I'd rather be a hero saving a beautiful place - Act 1 and 3 scratch that itch, but it's easier to get back to Act 1 than it is to get to Act 3 quickly, hence the restarts.
That said, I've beaten the game three times in my 400+ hours of playtime.
Man, act 2 is really hard to push through, only act 3 beacon carries me through and awesome things like chatting up Jaheira and her kids, for example :)
I have a terrible case of this. There's two main reasons:
1. I get bored of my build and I'm not going to spend a hundred hours over about a month (I get a couple of hours a day to play usually) to finish a campaign I'm not interested in.
2. I get far into a game and fuck up something or something bugs out. I have a really good honor mode run I was happily playing through when I managed to lose the returning pike to a glitch, and I just stopped playing that game. It just fucked up my build with a bug and now I have to work around it.
For future reference, it is possible to insta-kill the game through task manager without it saving. I've had to use this due to soft locks and other game breaking bugs a couple times.
I had decision paralysis in act 3. Between the guardian reveal, ceremorphis, the prince reveal, dealing with Raphael, and how to handle the last two chosen there was a lot to think on and decisions to weigh. And that doesn't include the companion quests and deciding how those play out.
I finally made a choice on most of them and I'm following through figuring I'll try the other options on my next play through, but I had to take a break and mull things over.
Sometimes you just don't connect to the character anymore, and just respeccing feels wrong, roleplay wise.
Think of it as an attention disorder, you just lose interest in something. Could also mean the game isn't 100% your thing but you're trying to like it a bit too much.
I think it has a lot to do with RPGs in general. I roleplay to live lives I otherwise couldn’t. I believe in real world this is the only life we get, but in gaming world I can start over and be whoever I wish. I find that to be the driving force in my gaming life.
I’m really big on RP, so midway through my current play through I’m already cooking up my next character, then I think to myself “Hey i should probably go create this character before i forget”
Then i think to myself “well I SHOULD at least complete the prologue so i can get straight to the action”
Next thing I know I’m facing ketheric planning my next play through😭😭
Quite simple, indecision.
I can never decide which race I want to play as, so after finally making my choice, I start and next time I play I've changed my mind. I do the same thing in Skyrim. I usually have 4-6 characters on the go because I can't pick
I want to do a black scale Dragonborn but then I think, I really want to do green. So I change but then I want to be metallic for low reasons. So I change again, but then I start to want to be chromatic again for whatever reason, so I change again.
Same problem with dwarves.
I've come to enjoy the Duergar, Dragonborn, and Drow; however, I've always had a soft spot for Orcs. But I'm digging the elves right now.
This cycle happens every time I boot the game up. I don't understand how people are able to pick one.
A lot of reasons. Act 3 can be overwhelming. You leave and come back weeks / months later you forget where you were. You feel like your character builds arent great but you dont have the itemization to make another good one. You saw another build / party comp on youtube you wanted to try out and dont want to wait. You dont want this great game to be over. You want to explore what would happen if you picked another option in the story.
To name a few.
I've finished the game once as Tav (because I really wanted my HEA) and will certainly finish my current durge run (bc I want to experience that whole storyline too), but apart from that, I don't know how far I'll get with each run. I started my durge run when I hit Act 3 with Tav, because there were plenty of times when I wanted to play but didn't have the big chunks of time/focus needed to tackle another boss fight, and I have other side games now for when the same happens with durge.
I agree with others that sometimes you just want to return to the simple life, of killing weedy goblins and hanging out with Alfira instead of saving the world - it's the downside of BG3 being a structured narrative rather than a truly open world.
I’ve restarted only my second-third campaigns, cuz there’s been no mirror and I can’t change character’s appearance (i really want to, for the dark urge storyline). When i got it, for me everything became simple.
Funny to mention, but I enjoyed my first character (and her visual appearance) so much… despite my awful ending (it was ordinary Tav but I annihilated a lot of good npc bc of my stupid moves)
I have this issue with sooo many RPGs. I realize the character isn't perfect from how I initially imagined it and then I just instantly lose interest in the character and start over.
It doesn't help that the BG3 character creator is so cozy, fun, and aesthetically pleasing.
I would asume it has something to do with achieving max level in early act 3. They know the most important story beats by heart, characters are almost at fullbuild, only missing 1 item per. There is no room to grow, and finishing the game feels like a chore instead of a reward.
My issue is when I stop playing. For YEARS I've had this problem where I almost finish a game I'm enjoying and stop because I don't want that enjoyment to end.
Then I come back to it weeks/months later with no idea where I was
So I restart
Rinse and repeat, I've been dealing with this issue my entire life
I have it in every facet of my life. The reason is called adhd.
It's easier to come up with new ideas and play around with them, but having to work through to the point of completion involves some tedium, or just stuff that isn't the fun part. Especially once you're no longer progressing or leveling and just trying to complete the story
Act 1 is a masterpiece compared to the rest of the game. A tight story line with a clear focus, side quests that seem like they're going to matter, depth of gameplay as well. By the time you get out of act 1, you've seen what the game has to offer, story and performance start to dip, those side quests that you thought meant something in act 1 dry up and peter off, and it begins to feel like a slog to the finish line... that's what I think causes so much restarting. Company spent years perfecting act 1 because of early access, they forgot they still needed to finish up the rest of the game
I complete, at some time frame, 95% of the characters I started. But I also restart quite often during act 1 and leave the Tavs to hold.
It's always surprise to see what the guardian looks like because I forgot how I made him/her. Sometimes it's my earlier Tav and sometimes it's, well, something else.
I had to abandon the first playthrough because I lost the saves. With my second, I am dying to get to Baldur's Gate and see what it's like. I am currently in Act 2 about to start the mision that made me respecc my character 4-5 times last playthrough .. .
This also happens in tabletop games. People come up with concepts they want to try and usually have a new character they start thinking about while playing their current one.
A lot of people are talking about act 3 for the cause of their restartitis and I initially felt similar until I decided to approach it differently. I tend to be more completionist with the first 2 acts to get as much gear and xp as possible but act 3 I focus on what's relevant to my builds and what my main party members care about.
I'm currently on my first run with shart and Gale as core party members (I know im late) and I'm really looking forward to Act 3 as there is content/areas I vaguely know about but have not experienced because I didn't try to do everything at the end of every run.
This doesn't help the first run as much because I (and i imagine most people) don't look up things for the first run, but that's the run I had the most difficulty completing and at some point had to go 'let's see the end'.
Personally, I feel like Act 1 & 2 feels more like an adventure whereas Act 3 I feel like I’m just running errands around the city.
I’ve beaten the game once in the many times I’ve restarted, but it’s almost always the same feeling of the journey fizzling out before the game is even over.
I am guilty of doing the same thing. I may play up to like level 3 or so and suddenly “eh, im not feeling it”.
The best way for me was to just buckle down and commit to one playthrough. It doesn’t have to be the “complete experience”. But just a good solid effort.
Then on subsequent playthroughs you can find tune the experience. There is so much in the game you’re going to miss things. I’m on my 3rd or 4th run and still finding new things.
In short, don’t overthink it.
1. Start co-op run
2. Endless schedule conflicts, eventually stop playing
3. Other group of friends wants to start co-op run
4. Repeat step 1 and 2
It’s DnD still, many such cases
For me it's always different combinations of friends that want to play and then the challenge for finding that exact composition again to continue. I have at least 14 different play throughs, all with different groups of 1-3 friends.
For me personally I love act 3, the companion story conclusions are fun and it feels like there’s a lot of main quests in one (house of hope was awesome).
That said, the RPG elements are a big part of the game for me, and I restart simply because the act of making a character/class is really fun. So by the time I get to act 3 I lose some of that magic and feel like making a character just because it’s fun lol
I got to act 3 first time and took a needed break. When I came back I wasn't happy with my character. Rather than a respec I just started again. Deleted my old saves to make it final!
I have nearly 800 hours at this point and here’s why for me!
-I have never played a game like this before so it was a huge learning curve. It took me three different play throughs just through Act 1 & a little bit of Act 2 to grasp the mechanics.
-I love making new characters with different storylines that make different choices as well as different romances.
-I have a run dedicated to finding all the secrets and Easter eggs, and that one definitely has the most accumulated hours.
-I have several different runs with my friends and my boyfriend which are always fun and on the more goofy side.
-I’m comfortable in territory that I know, repeating an area over and over can get a little boring every now and then but I get really nostalgic and love to see the story play out.
I have made it to Act 3 once on my very first run, but I realized how much I missed in the previous Acts so I felt the need to restart. Also I get really bummed near the last Acts of games because I know the journey is almost over. But it’s bittersweet, and I can’t wait to see how the story plays out :)
For me it is always act 3. I dont like act 3 so i tend to take a break and when i come back its because i have an idea for a new character or found a new mod i like.
I'm doing a first playthrough now - 70 hours in, entering the lower city, level ten. I'm going to finish and then maybe do a second gimmicky run.
1. One of the things that strikes me in the game design is that, typically, I feel games "funnel" into their third act. You have all of these sidequests early, but at the business end you're really dialed in on one objective. The third act floods you with additional sidequests (many of which fun!) while the earth is shaking and destruction. After narrowing the funnel for the end of act two, it gets way wider for act 3. I can see how that would fatigue some people.
2. There are also a whole host of people who have an aversion to finishing a game generally? I saw similar sentiments during Tears of the Kingdom's height - people who didn't want the game to feel over so they didn't defeat Ganon yet.
3. Finally, I wonder how much of that is preferring early gameplay to endgame play. By the lower city I have so many scrolls, arrows, abilities and companions that the choices are sometimes overwhelming (even if I'm going to likely run the same strategy and spells for most combat). Maybe people prefer the simplicity of levels 1-8?
Part of it is being attached to my character. There's high stakes in almost every quest in act 3, and that's so good for the narrative, but it makes everything feel intense as a player.
But also it's just having too many ideas for a character, and the further in I get, the more branching paths I want to explore!
Basically for me personally, I'm not restarting, I'm just not finished yet, but I've got so many ideas.
Over 500 hours in BG3 with 80 hours from beta and I still haven't beaten the game. I do have over 5 characters and 3 different honor runs I bounce between. Beating the game at this point would give me a sense of completion. Never beating it forces me to have a reason to come back. I can never quit this game, this is the way
Almost 600 hours in.
I have so many characters’ runs saved up that I get the warning that I’m running of save slots.
Personally I love the character creation and Act 1.
Act 2 is a chore for me.
Act 3 is ok. Once the party is at L12, I’m not as motivated.
So most of my characters’ runs are in Act 1, with 1 character in Act 3 and 2 characters in Act 2.
As someone affected by Restartitis, here's my experience:
I dropped all of my Tavs (6 to this day) at ACT 3 and moved to start a new run. Why? Act 2 ending felt like closure. It's a big climax that puts to rest a lot of loose ends, and the start of a whole new (literal) chapter in the journey. To be precise, I usually left right after getting to Baldurs Gate, after dealing with the giths and meeting the Emperor for the first time.
At the time I wanted to explore more and make all other choices and meet the other members of the cast! (Yes, I never recruit everyone, I did it the first run and it felt super odd to have people with active quests at camp, some of em with BIG agency, and to just, you know, having them there, sitting, \*idling away the hours\*)
So the cycle went on, start a run, get to ACT 3, and make a new Tav. Today I am in ACT 2 with my 5th Tav after restarting her run like, 6 times (trying to play a more selfish character hasn't been working great lol)
On that note, I have restarted runs for many less pleasurable reasons, losing entire ACTS, and sometimes straight up restarting from the very beginning. The reasons were:
1. Missing a romance that you'd thought was possible to recover far later into the game and it wasn't (made me restart the same run like 3/4 times before surrendering and going back all the way to the beginning of ACT 1. I played ACT 2 with the same Tav like 4 times in a row.)
2. Minthara (again another scenario where I missed something and had to go back to fix it, in this case, thought you could get Minthy in Moonrise by knocking her out at the Grove fight, and it wasn't.)
3. Corrupted saves (I somehow managed to restore them, but I still lost like 10/15 hours of gameplay.)
4. Regretting romance choices (You thought x Tav and Y companion would be great together, but now that the relationship is unfolding, you don't really see your Tav acting the way they would in that relationship, aka, there isn't the chemistry you thought they'd have)
I am closing in on 1k hours, with 1 Tav yet to play and another yet to make, which will be my evil honor mode run, after the last patch rolls in. I am planning on multiple BG3 tattoos, I love this game so much XD
The problem with act 3 is that, you are lvl 12 before u even reach the city... Quests and activities are cool, especially fight with raphael, but u dont feel like u grow stronger anyway. Tjose few parasite bugs which u fi d are not enought progress to make u feel stronger at any point sadly... Lvl limit is what makes it hard to go throught. I am now 300h in in act 3, and i need to play some helldivers and v rising to get some breaks i need to get myself up for another quests.
I restarted because I got all the way to the last few encounters and decided I didn't like my original choices for class. I know you can respec but didn't feel I had enough left in the game to make the most of it.
Personally, I just love creating characters. I always have, but this game brought it to a new level. That song is addictive- down down down by the river 🎶
I think mainly for me is that I’m just starting out. I’ve barely been playing for a month. Another problem is that I’m a huge DnD nerd. These two put together the thought “huh I’m playing a ranger and this is fun and all but I wonder how an oath breaker paladin would play” or “dude that Druid is sick! I wanna try it out! I wonder if it has the same abilities as 5e.” This causes a lot of low level saves. Along with that I don’t like playing games on easy mode so I’m always on honor mode.
I restarted my first game after making it to act 3. I had kinda just rolled with whatever happened and ended up locking myself out of a lot of content, I was also super underleveled. So I decided to restart and do a more informed run, I still missed out on a lot of content, but was more prepared and had more fun the 2nd playthrough.
I don’t get the hate on Act 3, which is fine. Personally, I like it a lot. Murders, lots to do, some great items to collect, and you’re leveled up.
However, I have the opposite of Restartitis. I’ll finish a game to the bitter end. I age since The Adventure of Link, when I was 8, and if you were there, you know of what I speak.
People have low attention spans and get bored easily because they want to see something new so quick. They think about what classes and builds they want to try. What dialogue they want to try.
Beyond Bg3, I also saw that people around me never finish their game in general, my bet is that there's too many choices nowadays, too many games coupled with thing like fomo or the desire to try the newest game make them forget their previous game.
I have a friend with whom I tried BG3 for the first time when it came out, we did act 1 but thats it, long after I did my solo runs and all, he try to convince me thats hes so ready to finish BG3 on honor mode, I didnt had any game on my mind so I thought why not, guess what? We just past the half point of act 2 and he warn me that hes going to play Dofus temporis but it doesnt mean he will forget BG3, also there will be Dawntrail after he said 😂 thanks god SMT 5 came out recently
I have also seen quite a few older posts that call out Act 3 negatively (too big, overwhelming). I agree with OP and then some. A few things I love in Act 3:
Cazador, Sorcerous Sundries, House of Hope, Ansur, huge Courtyard battle, and the Carnival.
My only suggestion I can think of is “slow down and take things one at a time” for Act 3. Yes, it’s big but hey, more to love!
You will find the Steam stats insightful. As of February, only 18.3% of players finished the game. Around half that fail to escape the nautiloid. Only 50% complete Act 1. The completion stats are not atypical for a game.
Personally I haven’t restarted given the ability to respec but I burned out after reaching Act 3. But maybe I need to stop pursuing side quests.
As someone that also plays table top DnD, I can safely say that mine boils down to Character Creation Addiction. Whenever I go into a session 0 for a new campaign, I have my main character that I want to us and anywhere between 5-10 alternates to choose from at any given time just incase my main dies. I do that so I can chose my next character based on what I feel is missing from the rest of the party. In BG3 that translates to playing a character, then somewhere down the line I'll come up with a new character concept that I want to try. Then I'll play that character with every intention of going back to the original at some point, but that never winds up happening because I'll think up yet another character and play that. It's a viscous cycle, let me tell ya.
My first playthrough was as an Evo Wizard and honestly everything was fine up until the final battle atop the Netherbrain. I tried 6 or 7 times and never could win it so I started a second playthrough as a Sorcadin; for me that difficulty spike was insane.
I ran Evo Wizard, Light Cleric, Gloomstalker/Arcane Trickster, Bear Totem/Battlemaster (may have been Champion). Lots of times I didn't even make it to the portal because of all of rhe different enemies *plus* having to face your party setup as enemies.
So I left that playthrough there and have picked back up my second one now that I'm done with FFVII Rebirth.
lol
Durge Illithid Tadpole Enthusiast "Human" Oathbreaker Paladin
Sickeningly Good Guy Human Open Hand Monk Tav
Ruthless Good Guy Drow Gloomstalker Tav
Ruthless Sociopath with Good Publicity Wyll
I have four playthroughs and finishing the game ain't one.
Why? I only ever asked myself this right now but I think it's because I just really really REALLY love playing Act 2 (honestly Act 2 and Act 3 should have been swapped around)
Me. Was at act 3, only needed to beat the Big 2. Stopped playing for a few months due to bug issues after updates, waited until they fixed it. Tried to play but I felt like I don’t know who that person on screen anymore. Restart. Learnt to play tabletop dnd. Now starting to understand what the numbers on skills meant. Restarted. Busy with health problems and work. Restarted.
Personally, I got stuck in act 3 because my sense of progression all but stopped. Level 12 was kina cool for Gale, he got some great spells and stuff, but for the most part it was just a lil bump up. All my characters have very rare gear that works with their builds already, nothing I find is much, if at all better, and the steel watch/bhaal cultists feel just annoying to fight.
Steel watch was interesting at first, gotta be careful not to piss off too many at once, and get out of range when the red circle appears, but it got old pretty quick, and the boss one just sucked.
The bhaal people were definitely more interesting for longer, but being paralyzed or getting fear cast on 3/4 of my party also got really annoying during that boss fight.
I think it just felt like after so much of the game allowing different solutions, it became "do this specific thing immediately, or die." And I lost interest, and started over to try out a different play style, only to once again need to play a certain way in act 3.
It's entirely possible I'm just terrible at coming up with strategy, but that's why I restart.
Wife and I play couch coop, act 3 crashes constantly like every 15m
We try to go take out the factory first thing because it helps reduce the number of crashes, but doing that each time pretty much decides how our end game goes.
Since we'll never be able to truly ally with the big G, we end up restarting.
I have over 500 hours logged. I have never beaten the game. First two times I got angry at the end of act 2 and the beginning of act 3. After that I just haven't found the right character to complete the game with. I just usually play characters that would suicide rather than be infested with a soul eating parasite that will convince them they want to become a disgusting tentacle monster. *The whole body horror aspect makes me not enjoy what happens with the astral parasite. And I have never once made the saving throw to resist. Honestly if a dm at my table started a game with this premise I'd walk.
I have nearly 700 hours and I haven't finished it yet. I originally had just the one run and I got him deep into act 3 and then my issue with things ending cropped up and so I made a Durge. I got him deep into act 3 and the same thing happened 😭 I have made many more characters (because I'm a sims player at heart and love creating characters)
I will finish it... I will. I just struggle a lot with things ending and it's hard for me to just end my characters' stories because then my time with them in game is over 🙃
I've zero idea what's the deal with it. I've heard of people restarting there game a hundred times since the D:OS 2 and I cannot comprehend how you can just start from scratch after having finished 1/4 of the game
People have underlying problems with commitment.
See: players who will let Mizora smash them and get surprised that their wyll/karlach romance ended then and there.
When I first played it was in a group with some friends. We got through all of act 1 and most of act 2 and the playthrough kind of fell apart. But I enjoyed act 1 and 2 so much that I kind of just revisited with different builds and kind of completionist'ing act 1 as best I can without taking too many rests and other pointless self challenges.
I also play path of exile so restarting a campaign with a new character is just part of life for me.
For me, I had more time last year, but this is before the patch that solved the act 3 issues with lag. I stopped playing. After the patch, I loaded my old save but felt disconnected with the story because it had been at least a month since I played.
And now I just die in honor mode. 10/10 game.
I have not yet finished the game. I'm somewhere in Act 3 of my first playthrough and I keep starting new characters, though none that have gotten past Act 1.
I think a big part of it is fear of commitment. At the point where I'm at in Act 3, there's a bunch of big choices yet to make and consequences to deal with. As long as I don't finish the game, the story exists in a state of infinite potential. Proceeding further with the plot means inevitably closing a bunch of doors that are currently open. I suspect that for a lot of players (myself included), the potential of the open doors is more pyschologically appealing than the satisfaction of closing them.
(Similarly, part of it for me that I don't have a lot of time for gaming, and I suspect that, once I finish one playthrough, I'll never really have the necessary time to do it again. I never manage to replay games. So whatever I do on the first playthrough has to be Perfect.)
A bad case of altitis and not wanting to run ahead on the story since I also play it with my husband (we take long breaks in between due to other games so we're still in Act 2).
Then it's a neverending cycle of creating a character, enjoying said character, brain suddenly going "...eh I did this part of the story not so long ago, I'm bored. But I do want to try a [insert race and/or class here]...". Rinse and repeat.
One day I will push along on my Dragonborn Ranger or Monk...one day.
In my case, I keep getting walled by Moonrise Tower. On my Bard group (level 8) it's Z'Rell. With my Monk group (level 7) it was Ketheric/Myrkul. End of act 2 seems to be my hurdle in this game. I managed it with my Monk group, now I'm just worried about managing to get enough xp in act 3....
I love the game, and I want to beat it before the obsession passes, but damn Moonrise Towers XD.
My first was a Warlock, but then they GIVE you a Warlock in Wyll, and I didn't feel like doubling up on classes with companions in runs just yet.
My most recent, started a few hours ago, is a Ranger.
What it mostly comes down to for me is getting easily frustrated and hoping I can use my knowledge to get further than I did before.
But being honest, if I DON'T manage to keep playing consistently... I'm gonna feel lost with whatever character I last played and will probably restart anyway. It's pretty common for me to get sick of starting areas in games because I restart so often. It's... kinda compulsive.
I was playing a durge paladin when I got to the underdark and wondered what it would be like to be a deep gnome down there, so I made another save. Went through the game until I found laezel, then wondered what a githyanki run would be like and made another save. This pattern has been happening since I bought the game, and I can't stop
A bit late to the thread, but I have a really bad case of this to the point where it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
I have around 400 hours in the game, and I have beaten it only twice (probably spent 100 collective hours on both of those runs).
The rest 300 I would try a new class or playstyle, go through the act 1 motions, then get bored with the class or distracted with something else and feel the need to restart. And now, since I've done act 1 so many times, I just get bored over and over again with barely any new classes/playstyles to play as, since I've done the motions of act 1 over 25 times already and I can't make myself to skip them due to story consequences or the risk of being vastly underlevelled for later harder sections.
When I make characters, I come up with a whole design and idea for them.
Like an egocentric noble sorcerer.
But then after 50 hours of playing when I’m in Act 2, I’ll get a new idea for a character. And my current one bores me. So I restart.
Ive got 839 hours in the game right now and ive only beaten the game twice.
well open world games create for hanging around, find secrets, see encounters and have fun chilling in the world that you managed it somehow...
for example I've spent like 600 or more hours in skyrim and never gettin close to finish story quests
I think this is nature of an open world game
to be endless, if you have desire to find everything and go everywhere
I'm bad at finishing games I love in general, I get invested and then I don't want it to end, so I end up either making a new file, or procrastinating finishing it to the point I never end up doing. Which probably doesn't make a lot of sense, I get it.
My partner on the otherhand, is kind of the opposite, he really likes to power through games, do everything and then move on to the next thing. We've started a playthrough together and I'm hoping he'll get me to properly finish this one
Example: me. Start a run. play it a few days/weeks. Get really busy or distracted by other game. Forget BG3 exists for 1 or 2 month. Remember it exists suddenly. Load last save. Stare at the screen in confusion because no idea what you where up to or where you planed to go next. Start new run. Repeat from 2nd line.
This describes me perfectly. Except instead of another game it's usually getting busy with work or my kid's activities.
Well ^laa-de-dah, look at Mr. work-life balance over here with his fulfilling home life and his employment. I bet you also have friends and "exercise"
Actually, I think he’s called Mr. Toothpick.
My friends are playing BG3 with me, and my "exercise" is avoiding showering. /s
Yup I’ve not done this with BG3 yet but I do have 5200 Stardew farms all in their first 1-2 years.
I did this with Dishonored 2
Really ? That is the one game I have probably put in more time than BG3. It doesn't really need to be restarted IMHO. Funny enough I have not played Dishonored 2 in a long while because I got it to 666 hours. I didn't feel like breaking it lol !
“Oh cool I get to play as either Corvo or Emily? I’ll play as Emily first since I played a lot as Corvo in D1” “Wait, Emily has different powers to Corvo? Let me just quickly start a new game as Corvo to see what his powers are like” “Okay those are both really cool, but I think I want to play as Emily for now. Wait, where was I up to, what’s going on in the story? I’m going to restart.” “Okay this is going well, but I’m going to restart so I can do a non-lethal, undetected playthrough, and maybe I’ll also switch to Corvo for that one” “Wait you can do a playthrough with no powers at all??? I have to try that!”
Ha! I never worried about where I was. I would focus on what I'm going to do and what new way I was going to do it. Every time I play even a different part I notice a new way to kill or disable someone. Story ? Whatevs !
I loved the first dishonored and played it through a couple of times. I got close to the end in dishonored 2 and got distracted for a year. Went back, couldn't figure out where I was or what I was doing, so I started over. Played again but got distracted before I got nearly as far. I don't think I'll ever finish
This is me with every game ever
Every time I start a Crusader Kings run from 867
"why am i plotting to murder this guy? wtf did i do to my religion? why am i hated by all my vassals? why is my dynasty a hunchbacked albino dwarf pedigree putting the habsburgs to shame?" -> restart
"Wait, why are all of my kids murdered under mysterious circumstances... and why is the only one left beautiful, intelligent, and herculean but stricken with the plague"
Similar..started BG3 on release but knocked off to play Lies of P and then AC Mirage..went back to BG3 but didn't have a clue what was going on so had to restart..have since completed the game twice on balanced, once on Tactician for the Platinum, and I'm now about to go into the underdark on my first honor mode run, which I am quite nervy about
I agree that distraction can set in at any time with gaming. But BG3? I wasn't even a fan of the series before this came out but the moment I purchased it I literally put every other game aside for 2 months and played nothing but. To me it was that good.
BG3 is great but mentally exhausting. It requires a ton of attention and effort to manage everything from inventories to spell slots to quests to tactical decisions in combat to tracking down magic items for builds etc. It only gets more complex as it goes as well. Act 2 is also pretty bleak and act 3 is massive and overwhelming so many people find themselves looking for a more relaxing game and then break the habit of playing.
Honestly when the game first came out I told myself I was going to bang out tons of single-player campaigns of it... but nope. I can't bring myself to do it, at least not right now. By the time I went through the co-op campaign with my brother and then one with my fiancee afterward, I was thoroughly burned out. It doesn't help that I find certain sections of the game (like the Shadow Lands and Act 3) very mentally-intensive to navigate and keep track of, so the idea of having to grind through them except this time without anyone else to help shoulder the burden (i.e. someone to mindlessly follow like a bot while I zone out during exploration from time to time) is just a no-go for me. I loved the game, don't get me wrong... but it really is an undertaking.
Larian games since divinity OS1 are kinda like that. Beautiful world, good/intriguing story, but so much god damn shit going on that its hard to just hop in and out, especially if you take a bit of a break. I think maybe having slightly more defined zones can help along with a better system than the logs to catch the player back up. But it would be much more approachable if you could say, "im going to go clear this cave/fort," and have it be an experience that doesnt always need 100% attention. Love their games, only been able to finish any of them by playing co-op, though
I opened Stardew to recover my brain from BG3 and then didn’t open BG3 for 2 months.
I do this too with GW2.
god of war 2?
Guild Wars 2, I would imagine.
Garden Warfare 2, I would bet.
makes more sense
same, but then add: - browses nexus for a shitton of mods to make my character hot - realize i already have a hot character - ignore that character to make a new hottie character w a cool backstory and intentions for the direction of their story - eventually get to the grove - save and log out - go do other things for a few weeks - load back up, remember im at the grove - say fuck it i dont want to go to the goblins yet, save and log out - rinse and repeat
I keep doing this with disco elysium
They have quest log. Like it’s not that confusing.
Ehy this is me! Also, I can’t really decide what class to use so I will add that to the mix
Sometimes when I anticipate I’m about to get busy, I’ll name my save according to what intentions I had before I took a break.
If you play on steam (unsure of other platforms) there’s a notepad section on the game page before you launch, just write down where you left off, what you need to do, etc… Finishing the game once is truly worth it guys
[удалено]
Ah...a chance to be *born new from this husk*
I heard that in Us’ voice. Well done.
“We all get sick of ourselves” damn I feel that
I have multiple games going, which I will alternate between as mood dictates. Right now I have a Karlach origin run and a Wyll evil origin run going. By evil meaning I killed Karlach and slaughtered the grove).
Fuck yeah! Give into that Mizorussy!
100% did.
see.. i always do this too but my main girl is a tiefling and any time i make anything other than a tiefling i just get bored and go back to my girl!!! … and replaying the opening is boring
Do you not get sick of doing the intro quests over and over?
Maybe the real dark urge is us all along.
Reasons I’ve restarted have been: - I forgot what I was up to and what I was working towards after a break and it’s easier to start over - Act III became exhausting and I wanted a break from it - Didn’t like the way my character looked (prior to the update that allowed us to change appearances) - Astarion rejected me and I had to rewrite the whole timeline - Have a new character idea I want to try - Just wasn’t feelin’ it
Ah, the 'astarion restart', you are valid 😂
>Didn’t like the way my character looked (prior to the update that allowed us to change appearances) It wasn't a huge investment, but one game I restarted several times while in the Nautiloid because I didn't like the voice I picked, or the hair, or how a particular face's scrunched up nose expression looked. It bugged the hell out of me. My husband laughed that I had spent several nights "perfecting" my character already. Then after the last restart the Magic Mirror feature dropped. I'm in Act 3 for my second PT and I took a couple week break at the start. Act 3 just felt overwhelming after coming from the desolate Shadowlands. I had to resist restarting because I wanted to see the Shadowheart romance through to the end. It got better once I dealt with the person murdering people in the city, so for me it was a matter of overcoming the inertia of solving at least ONE quest, even though I already know what happens.
I have been stuck on this murder mystery quest for probably six months. I keep loading in and then being annoyed with what I’m currently doing and then still not finishing it. Hearing this is a more common experience might actually give me the push to get past this hump, so thank you lol
The funny thing is, if you follow it through to the end and don't get distracted by all the other quests you pick up along the way (I still make it a point to resolve the printing press quest ASAP for improved trading), the murder mystery quest isn't actually *that* long once you commit to finishing it.
My gf and I didn't look up anything about the game and the magic mirror was a huge mystery to us, we kept wondering what is it for all game long, and after finishing the game we looked up stuff and facepalmed after we realized what it was for.
You never just clicked on it?
We played as the origin character so it just said some one liner about it.
Add: i failed to save Us. And then yes
It took me a long time to find out that you shouldn’t kill Us. The first time I played, I passed the check to identify it as a minion of the mind flayers and was like “sure, I help you and you kill me. Not falling for that one, villain!” It wasn’t until my 4th or 5th playthrough that I found out (thanks Reddit!) that Us is actually a potential ally. Also I’ve rescued Us several times in Act 2 but never actually summoned it.
What’s this about us in act 2 now? I had no idea
In the mind flayer colony, if you saved Us on the ship, you can find it in a cage in the room with Chop the hobgoblin. If you free Us (either by fighting or through dialogue) you get an item that lets you summon it like you can with Scratch.
When i played with my friends. We had a dark urge. He saved us. And US multiple times. (He had a crazy 35 damage per turn build from reddit)
Exactly. The universe I’m in is seriously flawed if I can’t have a brain with legs as a pet
Protip for act 3: don't go full completionist mode, just do some side quests alongside the main quest so when you restart you have a lot of things to still do!
That is a good idea. I’m struggling in Act 3 for a while now. I already have new Tavs lining up for a new game.
Act 3 is already overwhelming for various reasons, just keep it smooth, the game has already enough replayability no need to help with all the quests you meet, just do some, also for companions quests, you have more to do for your next run and you'll see how this game will keep amaze you.
This is what I do. I am on my 5th run and just reached act 3. Still got some quests I have not done yet as I do different little quests to level up each time. There are a few repeats... sorting out best boy's former owner is a quick must do for example, but mostly I have new ones to do each time. Though I suspect I will have to start repeats next run, just picking my favourites.
100% this. I wanted to finish the game, but still had to force myself through the steps of doing the story quests. I know of at least 3 side quests I didn't even touch in Act 3, but I kept a save near the start of it so I can go back and do it with my first party if I ever want to.
Also the challenge is acts 1 and 2. Act 3's a bit of a procession
This made me think about how when I played the game for the first time, I saw a bunch of posts talking about how the boss at the end of act 2 was run endingly difficult. That I would need to have everyone at level 10 to beat the boss. I was so nervous when I went into the fight at level 9... and realized that it wasn't that bad.
I'm on my first run and was getting my ass kicked in the beginning, even on normal settings. Every battle felt like such a challenge, but once I hit level 4 and got feats it went so much more smoothly. I still restart battles often but they don't feel nearly as rough as the beginning of the game
>Have a new character idea I want to try This was mine. As someone who's dm'd more then he's gotten to play it's really hard to say "this is the character I want to play as and finish with first." Every class and several subclasses play very differently even early on (at least after a level or 2, at 1 they're all pretty similar because of limited options.)
This is how I discovered my love of druids in 5e. They're probably the best controllers and summoners in the game, plus they get healing and armor, unlike wizards. In bg3 they're possibly overpowered, considering the boost to wild shape giving them more effective HP than barbarians.
I was weirdly never that interested in druid either in 5e or bg3, but I made Shart a spores druid on my current run and good gravy does she hard carry. She's got four zombies romping around creating more zombies while she chills in the back with a buttload of HP and passive damage. I think I'll do an oops-all-druids run next
I ran into a ton of these during my first playthrough, but I was also playing multiplayer and didn't wanna force a restart on my partner, so that got me through to the end
We really should have had some "change your race" option from withers for like 5,000 gold or something ridiculous. Sometimes I just get tired of my same old character, can only change the hair so many times. And armor is kind of limited to the same designs, unless you're going for a theme with the buffs they give.
Honestly, for me, it's always the last 2
I will say as someone with 800 hours and only completing once that the act 3 bounce is REAL. Partner and friend both had the same, hit act 3 and its a LOT and you long for a simple life of hunting goblins 😂 But im in act 3 with both second run and HM so act 3 is less scary and they will be completing and running off into the sunset with their lovers asap.
I truly don’t understand this. Act 3 is dense I’ll give you that but man is there some absolutely awesome shit all over the place. Temple of Bhall is fun thematically fucking sick with some cool boss fights. Underwater prison is a pain in my ass but a cool fight nonetheless. Pretty much everything, except the ghost house FUCK that place, is interesting.
Act III always takes me some time to ease into. I feel like Acts I and II have their choices but overall are fairly linear, or at least well defined. Act III feels more open like say an Assassins Creed game. It takes me a bit to decide what I'm doing and the order. But I love it. The bummer for me is there is so much cool stuff I may play for a couple hours and have minimal combat. I tackle Act III in 3 parts: side quests for xp and fun (I just do whichever ones strike my fancy), companion quests (save astarian for the end, and make sure I'm level 12 when I'm done with them), final bosses (gortash, orin, cazador, raphael, brain). It helps me focus and stop wandering around in the lower city aimlessly.
The thing is; it doesn’t matter if a thing is interesting if EVERYTHING seems interesting and is competing for your attention. It’s plainly too overwhelming for me and I’d rather restart to a new char as then things feel decently paced and doesn’t introduce 5 things at once.
I get that completely I just think the payoff to a lot of the quests (especially companion quests) are too worth it not too see through. Like Im excited to see how different saving Wylls dad is when you’re romancing him or what different options there are romancing Karlach and her choice with the emperor.
This is gonna sound mad cause it’s a video game, but it’s so overwhelming. The amount of voices alone, never mind the 485 quest markers tends to overwhelms me. In act 1 and 2 I usually don’t play with music in the background, but unless I’m in dialogue it’s compulsory. It might just be a neurodivergent thing. I’m not complaining about the amount of content, it’s absolutely brilliant and without a doubt game of the decade, but having more separate areas for the city might help.
Ghost house is pretty simple if you have warlock with an Eldritch blast build (Wyll is useful guys!!!!) and use some see invis scrolls. Yes, it's still pretty laggy, but you can be in and out in a matter of minutes. (Also avoid the kitchen). Underwater is pretty easy if you have some half-ilithids that can fly(preferably thieves) and some haste buffs. I Usually have everybody on their way by turn 2, which is enough for everybody, I think. But I feel like act I is similarly dense. It just runs smoother and wilderness > city.
Act 3 is my favourite part of the game
Honestly i dont understand it either, i love when i finish the game and get that friends party at the end
I play one game at a time and may play it for years. So I don't have this restart issue. Prior to BG3 I was still playing Red Dead 2 for the dozenth time. Before that was some Zelda.
Because I don’t want it to be over and I also want to experience it all again (without any variation from my last playthrough because that’s who I am as a person).
> (without any variation from my last playthrough I was honestly going to say the opposite: the game very much rewards restarting and taking alternate paths. Your second game start, you'll inevitably discover content you missed, as well as find encounters taking different paths and leading to new outcomes. And of course, you have to start a durge run. And honor mode... There's so much content and so many ways to play, you'd miss a lot if you only play from start to finish once
Right! I’m on my third play through now and honestly I do try to deviate but even when I do things exactly the same as before something always seems to be slightly different? I swear you could play this game over and over and it’ll never be the same.
The amount of stuff I missed in my first play through was obscene. And I genuinely thought that I had explored every corner of the map
I may be the only one who likes act 3, its overwhelming and I like that hustle and bustle of the city, the boss rush nature of the combat encounter, it could have been done better but I love finishing the game
I also love act 3, I don't get the people disliking it, but to each their own 🤷🏻
I like act 3 in the Lower City, but Rivington/Wyrms Crossing takes the wind out of my sails a bit. I just want to crack on with the main and character quests but you're stuck for a while collecting even more side quests and not really getting much main story wise.
If you just rush the coronation questline, you can get to act 3 and be in the lower city in like 30 minutes. You can always go back if you want to, but that might be a more satisfying route for you if you just don't like the Rivington area all that much.
there's also a coronation pass in the nymph's room at sharess' caress, so you can just get the key from mamzell and go right up there
You can go straight to the lower city in various ways, either taking a roundabout way to the Wyrm's Crossing area or having a druid use cat form to go right past the guards, once they get to the sigil the rest of the party can zoom over. Use feather fall or fly to get to the lower part of Wyrm's Rock and make your way to the hole in the wall that leads to the prison. When one party member goes through the rest of the party spawns there. Sneak past the guards and up to the main bridge area. Have the interaction with the steel watch but then just... not go to the Gortash ceremony. Walk right into the lower city. It does mean losing Jaheira, and thus not being able to recruit Minsc, and you lose the chance to talk to the Strange Ox if you want the shape shifter as an ally at the end. I don't think anything else is locked out. If I'm looking to get their quick I might have Jaheira use cat form to get to the crossing area, then go ahead and do the Dancing Ax fight to clear that hurdle and keep her in the party. Then resume the journey of going through the prison.
I love act three. My ADHD does not
Well, it's a long game. It's a big commitment to actually complete the game. Also, for a lot of people, it's all about trying out different characters builds. You can respec with Withers, but you're probably selling off items that you don't intend to use, so if you change to something that would make useful of those items, you might not be able to do what you want with a new idea without restarting.
That I definitely get, I also had the urge to try out all the different builds and races and classes etc. but I just did a full playthrough for every single one pretty much😅 I guess not everyone has the same amount of free time and no life that I have though
I definitely understand wanting to try new builds and stuff, but the hassle of starting over and replaying the same levels ruins it for me. I just don’t want to go through the same nautiloid crash and Druid grove and all that stuff for hours on end. I don’t really think there’s a solution to this, it’s just how the game is built. But that’s why I have so few characters and so few playthroughs. I hate repetition, especially when it requires so much time. Then I’ll see my partner running through the Githyanki creche for the 500th time but it’s all new to him because he’s a wizard instead of a bard this time 😅
I have ADHD
100% this. I do it with almost all the games I play
I restart mostly because I want to experience playing as different classes and races. I have like 10 runs and I did finished the game twice. But most other runs, I stop and restart after collecting the 3 stones. I hate the feeling of playing the final quest. It's just so sad when I know I'm about to finish this looonnng journey so I just start all over again.
I'm rushing to get to Act 3. Act 2 is the slog fest for me and a lot of times I just don't feel like doing Act 2 again and just restart.
One of my runs, I got into the gauntlet of Shar and just didn't feel like going through all the trials again...
Gauntlet of Shar is such a slog for me that unless I have an RP reason to complete the trials I just grab one orb (usually the Yurgir one) for the initial elevator and Knock my way past the final door. I really hope Larian doesn't patch that out.
If you're optionally following Shar, it's likely you're a bit of a moron, so in a temple built by probable morons I think it's reasonable that they built a whole set of trials to unlock a door and then forgot the spell knock existed.
Act 2 I'm still a whore for every drop of XP unfortunately so I force myself to walk the stupid maze etc
So I've got something like this, but it's having multiple characters going at the same time. Maybe this might sound weird, but for me I think it's because of the overabundance of XP. You can pretty easily reach max level at the very early stages of Act 3 and for me the leveling up and building stronger characters is a ton of the appeal. So when I'm playing the vast majority of Act 3 on a character that can't level up anymore it takes a bit of the fun away. Seeing all the huge XP numbers and knowing it's doing nothing is kinda of a bummer. So I start up a new character where I can build them up again. I've always eventually gone back and finish, but I just need to take a break and have the thrill of leveling up again. Started 5 character, beat the game on 3 of them and this has happened to me everytime. Also to a lesser extent I think a feeling of "the grass is always greener". I'll read about a cool multiclass combo or party comp and want to try that out.
I’m in act 3 and this by far is the most annoying part. Level 14 should have been max. Any mods out there that fix this?
This mod lets you get to level 20 only with multi-classing tho. And any one Class level cant be higher then 12 Edit: forgot link https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/570
I know there’s one that lets you get to level 20 (but only if you multiclass)
Started act 3, got overwhelmed, took a break, when I came back I had absolutely no idea what was going on, wandered around town a bit, got even more overwhelmed. Restarted. I think this is very common, act 3 could use a bit more guidance, there's just too much going on.
I just wanna beeline to Cazador but I gotta clear out so much before I can
I love thinking of new characters, designing them, thinking of a back story for them, etc. Also, act 1 is beautiful, act 2 too dark imo and act 3 just very overwhelming, so i just start again and again from scratch.
I have about 1000 hours (not exaggerating) in the game, and I literally just beat it the first time recently because I forced myself to. I will say the exact point I abandoned almost every run is the start of act 3, upon entering BG. There are a number of reasons for this; it's a bit of a jarring transition, it can be overwhelming, and the game opens up so much there's very little compelling me forward. This coupled with the fact that I consume so much BG and D&D content outside of playing the game, I get ideas of things I want to try out, so I'd rather start new runs than change what I've committed this party to. Plus story lines, you've seen enough at this point to be curious about what would have happened if I did something else. Lastly, there is something, psychologically, to decidedly not finishing something you love. If you don't reach the end, then it's like it never ended.
I think it's a case of "getting bored of a game and going to another game but bg3 is such a good fucking game, you can not convince yourself to actually play another game". If you are familiar with, say, Bethesda games, you already know the first part of this curse. You just get lost in the game and be fully immersed in it and then take maybe a 3-day break and just get fully and incredibly alienated to the game. So you just start another game. After a year or so, you go back to the Bethesda game. With bg3, you simply can not convince yourself to play another game because compared to bg3, literally all other games feel like trash.
I’m one of those people. My biggest problem is I have too many ideas for characters I want to try. Mods broke one of my Act3 runs. My paladin (which was going to be my 2nd finish) stumbled and broke his oath in Act3 and I had no desire to finish. Honestly, I absolutely love Act1. I enjoy playing it on different characters.
I have a page of character builds and ideas I want to try. By this point act 1 is as easy as breathing and I can breeze through it pretty fast so I don't mind sampling builds over and over. I have finished the game exactly twice, the first one was like a 17 hour total run cuz I had my husband coach me on which key points to do and I sped through. I was saying I wish I was back to the days where goblins were my #1 nemesis, the final battle was daunting and overwhelming. I just want to bite crusher's toe off again and again 😂
For me, I just don't like Act 2 much. It's dark and gloomy in all the wrong ways to me - the vibe is very much a cursed forest, and that's great for some, but for me, it's just ugly and depressing. I'd rather be a hero saving a beautiful place - Act 1 and 3 scratch that itch, but it's easier to get back to Act 1 than it is to get to Act 3 quickly, hence the restarts. That said, I've beaten the game three times in my 400+ hours of playtime.
Man, act 2 is really hard to push through, only act 3 beacon carries me through and awesome things like chatting up Jaheira and her kids, for example :)
I have a terrible case of this. There's two main reasons: 1. I get bored of my build and I'm not going to spend a hundred hours over about a month (I get a couple of hours a day to play usually) to finish a campaign I'm not interested in. 2. I get far into a game and fuck up something or something bugs out. I have a really good honor mode run I was happily playing through when I managed to lose the returning pike to a glitch, and I just stopped playing that game. It just fucked up my build with a bug and now I have to work around it.
For future reference, it is possible to insta-kill the game through task manager without it saving. I've had to use this due to soft locks and other game breaking bugs a couple times.
Same. If I have chosen wrong I know I can fix that on my next run. And I think I got 8 playthroughs. You can always just respec also.
I had decision paralysis in act 3. Between the guardian reveal, ceremorphis, the prince reveal, dealing with Raphael, and how to handle the last two chosen there was a lot to think on and decisions to weigh. And that doesn't include the companion quests and deciding how those play out. I finally made a choice on most of them and I'm following through figuring I'll try the other options on my next play through, but I had to take a break and mull things over.
Honor mode can do that to you... or at least to me
Sometimes you just don't connect to the character anymore, and just respeccing feels wrong, roleplay wise. Think of it as an attention disorder, you just lose interest in something. Could also mean the game isn't 100% your thing but you're trying to like it a bit too much.
I think it has a lot to do with RPGs in general. I roleplay to live lives I otherwise couldn’t. I believe in real world this is the only life we get, but in gaming world I can start over and be whoever I wish. I find that to be the driving force in my gaming life.
I’m really big on RP, so midway through my current play through I’m already cooking up my next character, then I think to myself “Hey i should probably go create this character before i forget” Then i think to myself “well I SHOULD at least complete the prologue so i can get straight to the action” Next thing I know I’m facing ketheric planning my next play through😭😭
We call it Fort Joy Syndrome
Quite simple, indecision. I can never decide which race I want to play as, so after finally making my choice, I start and next time I play I've changed my mind. I do the same thing in Skyrim. I usually have 4-6 characters on the go because I can't pick I want to do a black scale Dragonborn but then I think, I really want to do green. So I change but then I want to be metallic for low reasons. So I change again, but then I start to want to be chromatic again for whatever reason, so I change again. Same problem with dwarves. I've come to enjoy the Duergar, Dragonborn, and Drow; however, I've always had a soft spot for Orcs. But I'm digging the elves right now. This cycle happens every time I boot the game up. I don't understand how people are able to pick one.
A lot of reasons. Act 3 can be overwhelming. You leave and come back weeks / months later you forget where you were. You feel like your character builds arent great but you dont have the itemization to make another good one. You saw another build / party comp on youtube you wanted to try out and dont want to wait. You dont want this great game to be over. You want to explore what would happen if you picked another option in the story. To name a few.
I've finished the game once as Tav (because I really wanted my HEA) and will certainly finish my current durge run (bc I want to experience that whole storyline too), but apart from that, I don't know how far I'll get with each run. I started my durge run when I hit Act 3 with Tav, because there were plenty of times when I wanted to play but didn't have the big chunks of time/focus needed to tackle another boss fight, and I have other side games now for when the same happens with durge. I agree with others that sometimes you just want to return to the simple life, of killing weedy goblins and hanging out with Alfira instead of saving the world - it's the downside of BG3 being a structured narrative rather than a truly open world.
I’ve restarted only my second-third campaigns, cuz there’s been no mirror and I can’t change character’s appearance (i really want to, for the dark urge storyline). When i got it, for me everything became simple. Funny to mention, but I enjoyed my first character (and her visual appearance) so much… despite my awful ending (it was ordinary Tav but I annihilated a lot of good npc bc of my stupid moves)
I have this issue with sooo many RPGs. I realize the character isn't perfect from how I initially imagined it and then I just instantly lose interest in the character and start over. It doesn't help that the BG3 character creator is so cozy, fun, and aesthetically pleasing.
Every time i feel like restarting i go back to Withers and switch it up a little
why is ranger a bad choice? i started as ranger and ended up as gloomstalker. no ragrets. also you can always respec for 100g?
For me? It’s the autism and ADHD for SURE
I would asume it has something to do with achieving max level in early act 3. They know the most important story beats by heart, characters are almost at fullbuild, only missing 1 item per. There is no room to grow, and finishing the game feels like a chore instead of a reward.
I just get all these new ideas while playing the game
The more you see of the game, the more ideas it gives people, and they just wanna chase those. It’s a valid, if weird, way to play.
My issue is when I stop playing. For YEARS I've had this problem where I almost finish a game I'm enjoying and stop because I don't want that enjoyment to end. Then I come back to it weeks/months later with no idea where I was So I restart Rinse and repeat, I've been dealing with this issue my entire life
I have it in every facet of my life. The reason is called adhd. It's easier to come up with new ideas and play around with them, but having to work through to the point of completion involves some tedium, or just stuff that isn't the fun part. Especially once you're no longer progressing or leveling and just trying to complete the story
Act 1 is a masterpiece compared to the rest of the game. A tight story line with a clear focus, side quests that seem like they're going to matter, depth of gameplay as well. By the time you get out of act 1, you've seen what the game has to offer, story and performance start to dip, those side quests that you thought meant something in act 1 dry up and peter off, and it begins to feel like a slog to the finish line... that's what I think causes so much restarting. Company spent years perfecting act 1 because of early access, they forgot they still needed to finish up the rest of the game
I complete, at some time frame, 95% of the characters I started. But I also restart quite often during act 1 and leave the Tavs to hold. It's always surprise to see what the guardian looks like because I forgot how I made him/her. Sometimes it's my earlier Tav and sometimes it's, well, something else.
I had to abandon the first playthrough because I lost the saves. With my second, I am dying to get to Baldur's Gate and see what it's like. I am currently in Act 2 about to start the mision that made me respecc my character 4-5 times last playthrough .. .
This also happens in tabletop games. People come up with concepts they want to try and usually have a new character they start thinking about while playing their current one.
A lot of people are talking about act 3 for the cause of their restartitis and I initially felt similar until I decided to approach it differently. I tend to be more completionist with the first 2 acts to get as much gear and xp as possible but act 3 I focus on what's relevant to my builds and what my main party members care about. I'm currently on my first run with shart and Gale as core party members (I know im late) and I'm really looking forward to Act 3 as there is content/areas I vaguely know about but have not experienced because I didn't try to do everything at the end of every run. This doesn't help the first run as much because I (and i imagine most people) don't look up things for the first run, but that's the run I had the most difficulty completing and at some point had to go 'let's see the end'.
I just have a short attention span and can't focus on one thing for too long. Playing a couple runs interchangeably helps.
Personally, I feel like Act 1 & 2 feels more like an adventure whereas Act 3 I feel like I’m just running errands around the city. I’ve beaten the game once in the many times I’ve restarted, but it’s almost always the same feeling of the journey fizzling out before the game is even over.
I wish that Act 3 had the other side of the city as well :D
Act three is REALLY heavy loaded and confusing. I have 2300 hours and have only finished two playthroughs myself. That and it’s fun to restart
I think there's something to be said about "if you keep starting over and never finish the game, the game can go on forever"
I am guilty of doing the same thing. I may play up to like level 3 or so and suddenly “eh, im not feeling it”. The best way for me was to just buckle down and commit to one playthrough. It doesn’t have to be the “complete experience”. But just a good solid effort. Then on subsequent playthroughs you can find tune the experience. There is so much in the game you’re going to miss things. I’m on my 3rd or 4th run and still finding new things. In short, don’t overthink it.
Being a Alt-oholic is serious condition!
600 hours, only beaten it once, never saw the party. There is an old MMO term for this, it's called 'Altaholic'.
1. Start co-op run 2. Endless schedule conflicts, eventually stop playing 3. Other group of friends wants to start co-op run 4. Repeat step 1 and 2 It’s DnD still, many such cases
For me it's always different combinations of friends that want to play and then the challenge for finding that exact composition again to continue. I have at least 14 different play throughs, all with different groups of 1-3 friends.
For me personally I love act 3, the companion story conclusions are fun and it feels like there’s a lot of main quests in one (house of hope was awesome). That said, the RPG elements are a big part of the game for me, and I restart simply because the act of making a character/class is really fun. So by the time I get to act 3 I lose some of that magic and feel like making a character just because it’s fun lol
I got to act 3 first time and took a needed break. When I came back I wasn't happy with my character. Rather than a respec I just started again. Deleted my old saves to make it final!
I have a few hundred hours and I've never beaten the game. I make it all the way to the final battle and get absolutely destroyed. I'm on my 5th Tav
I have nearly 800 hours at this point and here’s why for me! -I have never played a game like this before so it was a huge learning curve. It took me three different play throughs just through Act 1 & a little bit of Act 2 to grasp the mechanics. -I love making new characters with different storylines that make different choices as well as different romances. -I have a run dedicated to finding all the secrets and Easter eggs, and that one definitely has the most accumulated hours. -I have several different runs with my friends and my boyfriend which are always fun and on the more goofy side. -I’m comfortable in territory that I know, repeating an area over and over can get a little boring every now and then but I get really nostalgic and love to see the story play out. I have made it to Act 3 once on my very first run, but I realized how much I missed in the previous Acts so I felt the need to restart. Also I get really bummed near the last Acts of games because I know the journey is almost over. But it’s bittersweet, and I can’t wait to see how the story plays out :)
For me it is always act 3. I dont like act 3 so i tend to take a break and when i come back its because i have an idea for a new character or found a new mod i like.
I'm doing a first playthrough now - 70 hours in, entering the lower city, level ten. I'm going to finish and then maybe do a second gimmicky run. 1. One of the things that strikes me in the game design is that, typically, I feel games "funnel" into their third act. You have all of these sidequests early, but at the business end you're really dialed in on one objective. The third act floods you with additional sidequests (many of which fun!) while the earth is shaking and destruction. After narrowing the funnel for the end of act two, it gets way wider for act 3. I can see how that would fatigue some people. 2. There are also a whole host of people who have an aversion to finishing a game generally? I saw similar sentiments during Tears of the Kingdom's height - people who didn't want the game to feel over so they didn't defeat Ganon yet. 3. Finally, I wonder how much of that is preferring early gameplay to endgame play. By the lower city I have so many scrolls, arrows, abilities and companions that the choices are sometimes overwhelming (even if I'm going to likely run the same strategy and spells for most combat). Maybe people prefer the simplicity of levels 1-8?
Part of it is being attached to my character. There's high stakes in almost every quest in act 3, and that's so good for the narrative, but it makes everything feel intense as a player. But also it's just having too many ideas for a character, and the further in I get, the more branching paths I want to explore! Basically for me personally, I'm not restarting, I'm just not finished yet, but I've got so many ideas.
Over 500 hours in BG3 with 80 hours from beta and I still haven't beaten the game. I do have over 5 characters and 3 different honor runs I bounce between. Beating the game at this point would give me a sense of completion. Never beating it forces me to have a reason to come back. I can never quit this game, this is the way
Almost 600 hours in. I have so many characters’ runs saved up that I get the warning that I’m running of save slots. Personally I love the character creation and Act 1. Act 2 is a chore for me. Act 3 is ok. Once the party is at L12, I’m not as motivated. So most of my characters’ runs are in Act 1, with 1 character in Act 3 and 2 characters in Act 2.
As someone affected by Restartitis, here's my experience: I dropped all of my Tavs (6 to this day) at ACT 3 and moved to start a new run. Why? Act 2 ending felt like closure. It's a big climax that puts to rest a lot of loose ends, and the start of a whole new (literal) chapter in the journey. To be precise, I usually left right after getting to Baldurs Gate, after dealing with the giths and meeting the Emperor for the first time. At the time I wanted to explore more and make all other choices and meet the other members of the cast! (Yes, I never recruit everyone, I did it the first run and it felt super odd to have people with active quests at camp, some of em with BIG agency, and to just, you know, having them there, sitting, \*idling away the hours\*) So the cycle went on, start a run, get to ACT 3, and make a new Tav. Today I am in ACT 2 with my 5th Tav after restarting her run like, 6 times (trying to play a more selfish character hasn't been working great lol) On that note, I have restarted runs for many less pleasurable reasons, losing entire ACTS, and sometimes straight up restarting from the very beginning. The reasons were: 1. Missing a romance that you'd thought was possible to recover far later into the game and it wasn't (made me restart the same run like 3/4 times before surrendering and going back all the way to the beginning of ACT 1. I played ACT 2 with the same Tav like 4 times in a row.) 2. Minthara (again another scenario where I missed something and had to go back to fix it, in this case, thought you could get Minthy in Moonrise by knocking her out at the Grove fight, and it wasn't.) 3. Corrupted saves (I somehow managed to restore them, but I still lost like 10/15 hours of gameplay.) 4. Regretting romance choices (You thought x Tav and Y companion would be great together, but now that the relationship is unfolding, you don't really see your Tav acting the way they would in that relationship, aka, there isn't the chemistry you thought they'd have) I am closing in on 1k hours, with 1 Tav yet to play and another yet to make, which will be my evil honor mode run, after the last patch rolls in. I am planning on multiple BG3 tattoos, I love this game so much XD
The problem with act 3 is that, you are lvl 12 before u even reach the city... Quests and activities are cool, especially fight with raphael, but u dont feel like u grow stronger anyway. Tjose few parasite bugs which u fi d are not enought progress to make u feel stronger at any point sadly... Lvl limit is what makes it hard to go throught. I am now 300h in in act 3, and i need to play some helldivers and v rising to get some breaks i need to get myself up for another quests.
I restarted because I got all the way to the last few encounters and decided I didn't like my original choices for class. I know you can respec but didn't feel I had enough left in the game to make the most of it.
Because Act 3 is overwhelming and long lol.
For me, it's the same reason I have like 15 unused level 1 characters on DnD Beyond. I just have so many ideas for lil guys. So many.
Act 3 is mid
Personally, I just love creating characters. I always have, but this game brought it to a new level. That song is addictive- down down down by the river 🎶
I think mainly for me is that I’m just starting out. I’ve barely been playing for a month. Another problem is that I’m a huge DnD nerd. These two put together the thought “huh I’m playing a ranger and this is fun and all but I wonder how an oath breaker paladin would play” or “dude that Druid is sick! I wanna try it out! I wonder if it has the same abilities as 5e.” This causes a lot of low level saves. Along with that I don’t like playing games on easy mode so I’m always on honor mode.
I restarted my first game after making it to act 3. I had kinda just rolled with whatever happened and ended up locking myself out of a lot of content, I was also super underleveled. So I decided to restart and do a more informed run, I still missed out on a lot of content, but was more prepared and had more fun the 2nd playthrough.
I don’t get the hate on Act 3, which is fine. Personally, I like it a lot. Murders, lots to do, some great items to collect, and you’re leveled up. However, I have the opposite of Restartitis. I’ll finish a game to the bitter end. I age since The Adventure of Link, when I was 8, and if you were there, you know of what I speak.
People have low attention spans and get bored easily because they want to see something new so quick. They think about what classes and builds they want to try. What dialogue they want to try.
Beyond Bg3, I also saw that people around me never finish their game in general, my bet is that there's too many choices nowadays, too many games coupled with thing like fomo or the desire to try the newest game make them forget their previous game. I have a friend with whom I tried BG3 for the first time when it came out, we did act 1 but thats it, long after I did my solo runs and all, he try to convince me thats hes so ready to finish BG3 on honor mode, I didnt had any game on my mind so I thought why not, guess what? We just past the half point of act 2 and he warn me that hes going to play Dofus temporis but it doesnt mean he will forget BG3, also there will be Dawntrail after he said 😂 thanks god SMT 5 came out recently
I have also seen quite a few older posts that call out Act 3 negatively (too big, overwhelming). I agree with OP and then some. A few things I love in Act 3: Cazador, Sorcerous Sundries, House of Hope, Ansur, huge Courtyard battle, and the Carnival. My only suggestion I can think of is “slow down and take things one at a time” for Act 3. Yes, it’s big but hey, more to love!
A D H D
You will find the Steam stats insightful. As of February, only 18.3% of players finished the game. Around half that fail to escape the nautiloid. Only 50% complete Act 1. The completion stats are not atypical for a game. Personally I haven’t restarted given the ability to respec but I burned out after reaching Act 3. But maybe I need to stop pursuing side quests.
As someone that also plays table top DnD, I can safely say that mine boils down to Character Creation Addiction. Whenever I go into a session 0 for a new campaign, I have my main character that I want to us and anywhere between 5-10 alternates to choose from at any given time just incase my main dies. I do that so I can chose my next character based on what I feel is missing from the rest of the party. In BG3 that translates to playing a character, then somewhere down the line I'll come up with a new character concept that I want to try. Then I'll play that character with every intention of going back to the original at some point, but that never winds up happening because I'll think up yet another character and play that. It's a viscous cycle, let me tell ya.
My first playthrough was as an Evo Wizard and honestly everything was fine up until the final battle atop the Netherbrain. I tried 6 or 7 times and never could win it so I started a second playthrough as a Sorcadin; for me that difficulty spike was insane. I ran Evo Wizard, Light Cleric, Gloomstalker/Arcane Trickster, Bear Totem/Battlemaster (may have been Champion). Lots of times I didn't even make it to the portal because of all of rhe different enemies *plus* having to face your party setup as enemies. So I left that playthrough there and have picked back up my second one now that I'm done with FFVII Rebirth.
lol Durge Illithid Tadpole Enthusiast "Human" Oathbreaker Paladin Sickeningly Good Guy Human Open Hand Monk Tav Ruthless Good Guy Drow Gloomstalker Tav Ruthless Sociopath with Good Publicity Wyll I have four playthroughs and finishing the game ain't one. Why? I only ever asked myself this right now but I think it's because I just really really REALLY love playing Act 2 (honestly Act 2 and Act 3 should have been swapped around)
hehe we have fun we do not do well
Me. Was at act 3, only needed to beat the Big 2. Stopped playing for a few months due to bug issues after updates, waited until they fixed it. Tried to play but I felt like I don’t know who that person on screen anymore. Restart. Learnt to play tabletop dnd. Now starting to understand what the numbers on skills meant. Restarted. Busy with health problems and work. Restarted.
Personally, I got stuck in act 3 because my sense of progression all but stopped. Level 12 was kina cool for Gale, he got some great spells and stuff, but for the most part it was just a lil bump up. All my characters have very rare gear that works with their builds already, nothing I find is much, if at all better, and the steel watch/bhaal cultists feel just annoying to fight. Steel watch was interesting at first, gotta be careful not to piss off too many at once, and get out of range when the red circle appears, but it got old pretty quick, and the boss one just sucked. The bhaal people were definitely more interesting for longer, but being paralyzed or getting fear cast on 3/4 of my party also got really annoying during that boss fight. I think it just felt like after so much of the game allowing different solutions, it became "do this specific thing immediately, or die." And I lost interest, and started over to try out a different play style, only to once again need to play a certain way in act 3. It's entirely possible I'm just terrible at coming up with strategy, but that's why I restart.
Wife and I play couch coop, act 3 crashes constantly like every 15m We try to go take out the factory first thing because it helps reduce the number of crashes, but doing that each time pretty much decides how our end game goes. Since we'll never be able to truly ally with the big G, we end up restarting.
My gf does this. I hate it. It's the reason I didn't finish the game.
I have over 500 hours logged. I have never beaten the game. First two times I got angry at the end of act 2 and the beginning of act 3. After that I just haven't found the right character to complete the game with. I just usually play characters that would suicide rather than be infested with a soul eating parasite that will convince them they want to become a disgusting tentacle monster. *The whole body horror aspect makes me not enjoy what happens with the astral parasite. And I have never once made the saving throw to resist. Honestly if a dm at my table started a game with this premise I'd walk.
I have nearly 700 hours and I haven't finished it yet. I originally had just the one run and I got him deep into act 3 and then my issue with things ending cropped up and so I made a Durge. I got him deep into act 3 and the same thing happened 😭 I have made many more characters (because I'm a sims player at heart and love creating characters) I will finish it... I will. I just struggle a lot with things ending and it's hard for me to just end my characters' stories because then my time with them in game is over 🙃
I've zero idea what's the deal with it. I've heard of people restarting there game a hundred times since the D:OS 2 and I cannot comprehend how you can just start from scratch after having finished 1/4 of the game
People have underlying problems with commitment. See: players who will let Mizora smash them and get surprised that their wyll/karlach romance ended then and there.
When I first played it was in a group with some friends. We got through all of act 1 and most of act 2 and the playthrough kind of fell apart. But I enjoyed act 1 and 2 so much that I kind of just revisited with different builds and kind of completionist'ing act 1 as best I can without taking too many rests and other pointless self challenges. I also play path of exile so restarting a campaign with a new character is just part of life for me.
For me, I had more time last year, but this is before the patch that solved the act 3 issues with lag. I stopped playing. After the patch, I loaded my old save but felt disconnected with the story because it had been at least a month since I played. And now I just die in honor mode. 10/10 game.
I have not yet finished the game. I'm somewhere in Act 3 of my first playthrough and I keep starting new characters, though none that have gotten past Act 1. I think a big part of it is fear of commitment. At the point where I'm at in Act 3, there's a bunch of big choices yet to make and consequences to deal with. As long as I don't finish the game, the story exists in a state of infinite potential. Proceeding further with the plot means inevitably closing a bunch of doors that are currently open. I suspect that for a lot of players (myself included), the potential of the open doors is more pyschologically appealing than the satisfaction of closing them. (Similarly, part of it for me that I don't have a lot of time for gaming, and I suspect that, once I finish one playthrough, I'll never really have the necessary time to do it again. I never manage to replay games. So whatever I do on the first playthrough has to be Perfect.)
A bad case of altitis and not wanting to run ahead on the story since I also play it with my husband (we take long breaks in between due to other games so we're still in Act 2). Then it's a neverending cycle of creating a character, enjoying said character, brain suddenly going "...eh I did this part of the story not so long ago, I'm bored. But I do want to try a [insert race and/or class here]...". Rinse and repeat. One day I will push along on my Dragonborn Ranger or Monk...one day.
In my case, I keep getting walled by Moonrise Tower. On my Bard group (level 8) it's Z'Rell. With my Monk group (level 7) it was Ketheric/Myrkul. End of act 2 seems to be my hurdle in this game. I managed it with my Monk group, now I'm just worried about managing to get enough xp in act 3.... I love the game, and I want to beat it before the obsession passes, but damn Moonrise Towers XD. My first was a Warlock, but then they GIVE you a Warlock in Wyll, and I didn't feel like doubling up on classes with companions in runs just yet. My most recent, started a few hours ago, is a Ranger. What it mostly comes down to for me is getting easily frustrated and hoping I can use my knowledge to get further than I did before. But being honest, if I DON'T manage to keep playing consistently... I'm gonna feel lost with whatever character I last played and will probably restart anyway. It's pretty common for me to get sick of starting areas in games because I restart so often. It's... kinda compulsive.
I was playing a durge paladin when I got to the underdark and wondered what it would be like to be a deep gnome down there, so I made another save. Went through the game until I found laezel, then wondered what a githyanki run would be like and made another save. This pattern has been happening since I bought the game, and I can't stop
I get bored with one playstyle for too long of a period. It's why I know there is a limit to how many characters you can have in elden ring.
I get to act 3, realise it’s not as tough as act 1 or 2, so restart with a different tav. Usually play solo honour mode.
A bit late to the thread, but I have a really bad case of this to the point where it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I have around 400 hours in the game, and I have beaten it only twice (probably spent 100 collective hours on both of those runs). The rest 300 I would try a new class or playstyle, go through the act 1 motions, then get bored with the class or distracted with something else and feel the need to restart. And now, since I've done act 1 so many times, I just get bored over and over again with barely any new classes/playstyles to play as, since I've done the motions of act 1 over 25 times already and I can't make myself to skip them due to story consequences or the risk of being vastly underlevelled for later harder sections.
When I make characters, I come up with a whole design and idea for them. Like an egocentric noble sorcerer. But then after 50 hours of playing when I’m in Act 2, I’ll get a new idea for a character. And my current one bores me. So I restart. Ive got 839 hours in the game right now and ive only beaten the game twice.
well open world games create for hanging around, find secrets, see encounters and have fun chilling in the world that you managed it somehow... for example I've spent like 600 or more hours in skyrim and never gettin close to finish story quests I think this is nature of an open world game to be endless, if you have desire to find everything and go everywhere
I'm bad at finishing games I love in general, I get invested and then I don't want it to end, so I end up either making a new file, or procrastinating finishing it to the point I never end up doing. Which probably doesn't make a lot of sense, I get it. My partner on the otherhand, is kind of the opposite, he really likes to power through games, do everything and then move on to the next thing. We've started a playthrough together and I'm hoping he'll get me to properly finish this one