Baldur's Gate 3

What an idiot

“At more than one point in the game, there are moments where the game prompts you to make a decision between two or three things, but one or more of those choices result in you going through some dialogue, and then the game just goes ‘No, game over, you’re dead now, you lose.'”

It does? I'm nearly done with Act 2 and haven't encountered that.

Perhaps what I've learned by paying attention to the books, letters, and NPC chatter (which are abundant in this game) has guided me away from those game-over options. They constantly telegraph useful information like history, faction politics, plots, and character motivations. By the time I'm in a dialogue, I usually have some idea of which options are likely to be bad choices, and in exceptional cases, just relying on good old situational awareness has served me well.

Does Rodis do none of that?

“You are blindly making decisions at almost all points.

I'm not, though. A few decisions have been unknowns, of course, but in story-appropriate ways. (Is this character going to attack me if I rescue them?) But for the most part, I've found that the clues I need to make good decisions are out there; I just have to explore and talk to people to find them.

How can Rodis have "a vast, intimate understanding of Dungeons & Dragons" when he seems to be ignoring two of the game's three pillars (exploration, social interaction, and combat)? Maybe he does these things but quickly forgets what he learns, and doesn't take notes?

In short, you are punished for trying to think deeply about the situation or the characters, or the potential impact your choices may have because there is no consistency to them.”

I have been rewarded over and over again for thinking deeply about the situations and characters. Even when I make suboptimal choices (often for role play reasons), they have never felt unfairly punishing.

And that’s not even the full picture of how the game undermines the weight of decision-making and, by extension, the weight of the game’s narrative. As Rodis alluded to above, each and every one of those choices can be reversed by save scumming

Well, yes, that's how game saves work. Abusing them for advantage is a player choice, not a game flaw. For a more immersive story experience, I recommend exercising a bit of self-control instead of habitually reaching for F8.

Take it from Cory Rodis, a professional game developer, designer, and educator with over a decade of experience in the field.

I appreciate that the author admires her mentor, but ten years of experience isn't all that much, and in this case, I think it really shows. His analysis seems very subjective to me, based more on consequences of his personal play style than in the game's fundamentals.

(For the record, I have a multi-page document of complaints about BG3, but I think the complaints here are off the mark.)

“This is a bad game because the bad choices are not marked red and the good ones are not marked green” -“Game Designer” turned “Professor” of game design at some random college, as reported by one of his Discord students.

Thanks for sharing.

Its not a bad article and I can see how the author and his friend have gripes, but there isnt a video game out there that those 2 cant scrutinize under the same criteria. Video games are crafted narratives and any "choice based" game is only going to get you to a couple different outcomes, and usually only one minor ending is different.

"then we could say that chess or soccer are bad games."

And Ill argue soccer is a bad game, but thats just my opinion. Whether that makes me right or wrong doesnt matter

My problem isn’t with the game, but the fact that I put so many hours into it and beat it and now I want another experience like it… but I don’t know of any.

I do have Divinity II on Switch. I’ll try that again unless you guys have a better idea.

I disagree with some of their assessment. Specifically the point that you really aren't given enough information to weigh out which decisions you go with and that is something problematic. Unknowns are pretty inherent with Dungeons and Dragons. In tabletop, you typically don't know what the outcome is going to be. You can only veer towards decisions you think will be a net positive and then hope you make your rolls.

With a couple of exceptions, no decision you make is really game over for you. It just changes how the story unfolds.

The most inconsistent thing that cracked me up is doing an evil run, slaughtering the Grove citizens and then having my own character say something like "massacred... Whoever did this won't get away with it."

I think this is a good analysis. I often make choices based on what NPC I'm wooing rather than any consistent sort of personality of my character. Heck my party composition is based on who will like my natural choices and who won't. I mean I generally side with good and empathy, but sometimes someone just rubs me wrong or I take the unique bard/wizard/etc option just because I won't get that option on another playthrough. For example just today I encountered someone and the bard choice was different based on whether I succeeded or failed an insight check and I wound up in combat on the wrong side. So I scum loaded, but maybe that would be an interesting storyline had I followed that path.

Some of the choices seem meaningful, though, should I ever manage to bring myself to do an evil playthrough.