To preface this review, I went into Baldur's Gate 3 lacking any context about what this game was about, other than the game being "very good" and people thirsting over Astarion. I haven't played Dungeons and Dragons, and probably never will. Further, I have little experience with table-top RPG inspired games aside from Disco Elysium and Darkest Dungeon (does this count?) so this was a decently-sized step out of my comfort zone. I played about 20 hours worth of this game, up until I reached Act II, and decided that I had my fill.

There's a lot to like here. Clearly, a lot of love and care went into making this game. I liked the character designs and I thought the voice actors generally did a good job. Aside from some visual bugs I encountered, the game looked quite nice as well. Initially, I found exploring the world and getting new party members to be quite fun. There's a lot happening in the first ten or so hours of this game, and I was with it. Unfortunately, past a certain point, the game's pacing slowed to a crawl and I sort of lost interest.

I was not remotely hooked by the game's opening sequence. It felt like there were pieces of requisite information I needed in order to understand what was going on. The inciting incident of "let's get these parasites out of our brains, or else we're going to die" kind of loses its luster when you can take as many days as you like working through the world. I'm not suggesting that they add a strict time limit or anything like that, but some kind of motivation other than the parasite would make me way more interested.

I would have only a slight problem with the main quest's structure if the game's other systems were fun and engaging enough to make up for the weaker story. I did not find that to be the case. My gripes with the gameplay mostly stem from being given entirely too much choice. In battles, my magic users have a huge repertoire of spells that they can learn and use, to the point where it's overwhelming. I don't understand basic system mechanics like saving rolls, advantage/disadvantage, and status effects in general because the game does not explain them well enough. I could simply find this information online, but even at the medium difficulty I had no problem clearing battles, so I felt no need to. Winning battles and not really knowing why you're winning is not satisfying to me, however I recognize that those with more knowledge on the systems will likely enjoy it more.

Exploration started to feel like a chore once I had already recruited all (from what I can tell) of my party members. I think that throughout all RPGs, the make or break point for me comes from the party. If I have no interest in the party, then I have no interest in the game. I won't say that I have no interest in the party members of Baldur's Gate 3 - aside from Astarion and Lae'zel, who I couldn't care less about- but I would say that my interest is mild at best. I like their surface-level appearances, but there doesn't seem to be enough depth to these characters to justify spending potentially 60+ hours with them.

What was perhaps most damning to this game in my perception was dealing with inventory management and equipment. I don't like that I even have the option of picking up some of the useless stuff around the world, be it rings that don't do anything or shit like goblets or plates or what have you. I also found most scrolls and potions that I would be rewarded with to be too niche to bother with, creating a situation where I don't want to waste something that could potentially be valuable, so I end up hoarding it for the entire game. I recognize that this is a very personal problem, and this is not necessarily a slight on the game or its design. It's just not for me.