So I’m about 71 hours into this game. I’m switching play time between PC (mostly PC) and SteamDeck. And I have to say it’s a pretty amazing game.
I struggled, at first, with the camera POV. I wanted to see more! I’m used to zooming way out and that’s not happening in BG3. I can actually zoom out more with the SteamDeck than I can with the PC… just sayin.
I also have to admit that I’ve restarted the game 3 times and have reloaded saves… I don’t even know how many times. In fact, I’m writing right now because I am sooooo frustrated that I didn’t save my game before entering the Underdark in search of Sussur Tree bark. *sigh* When Gale went down from a single blow I was like, Ooooh shite, this isn’t good! And I went to game saves to see if there was an autosave and there was. Woooohooo! Except when loaded it I saw the autosave was created AFTER Gale had been floored. As the Minotaur spawned I knew it was all over. My last save was from at least an hour earlier. Whyyyy?! WhY? *cry* 🙂
So if there is one piece of advice I can give you about this game it is to SAVE SAVE SAVE after everything important and after an amount of time… every 15 minutes?…. or else, like me, you will lose time of simple game playing at the very least. The problem with not saving after simple game play is not just having to do everything over but also forgetting what you’ve done and having things slip through the cracks.
Saving is also handy when you want to explore different story lines or even knowing what would happen if… That came in handy when I was clearing out the goblin camp and killing those three bosses, Gut, Minthara, and Dror. I also used this with the Hag quest (Rescue Mayrina). In the latter used one of my NPCs to ‘pay the price’ and then left the poor vampire in camp. ha!! So mean of me.
Like most you other gamers I’ve watched a few videos about game play and read a few articles, gone through a few game wikis. I can tell you that what you read, see, and learn there may not be the whole story. There are many different ways to do something, to get somewhere, and to make headway. For example, I didn’t see any videos or articles about raising Mayrina’s husband from the dead and him being basically a zombie. That was creepy… especially when she wanted to keep him anyway. Of course, more videos and articles are showing up every day so that may not still be the case.
About getting somewhere… there is no magic dust to lead you to your quest target. There is no directionals on the map to guide you. The best you might get is map coordinates like x: -22 y: -144 for that stupid Sussur tree bark. I started using maps from Map Genie (free version) and that’s been very helpful. I find the in-game map a bit buggy… I open it and it doesn’t center on my group. I don’t know how it picks where it centers but I have to scroll around to find us. A minor nit.
Like all these huge games there is a ton of content. As far as I can tell, the game goes through 3 stages:
- It starts in the Nautiloid (I did not get the good weapon which is supposedly available there despite started over 3 times).
- Then it goes into the Wilderness (which I’ve barely covered).
- And it ends in Baldur’s Gate
I have a quest with the Druid I rescued, Halsin, go to the Moonrise Towers and I see that’s on another (4th) MapGenie map titled: Shadow Cursed Lands. Oh joy.
Inventory management isn’t too bad. I’ve become encumbered more than once but you can spread, fairly easily, your inv between the party so that’s nice. You can sort on various things including weight.
I’ve only just started to craft. There isn’t stuff everywhere like there is in Witcher3. One PC keyboard key I use for help with finding things is ALT… it’ll show sort-of significant stuff in your immediate vicinity that you may have overlooked.
Anyway, despite being 70+ hours into it, I’m merely lvl 4 and less than 100hp. Long way to go. But I reallly like this game. I can’t wait to do some multiplayer playing but I want to get more single player time under my belt first. Especially since my friend decided to ditch the game. BOO
More updates to come. Eventually.
Oh! BTW, I came across this and I loved seeing the actual voice actors. The narrator voice gets on my nerves a little bit. Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart are my favorite voices in game so far. It’s very cool to see them in action: