And So We Came To The End - Almost

Time for a little update on how Baldur's Gate 3 is going, I think. There's a very good chance this might be the penultimate post on the subject because I have reached the final battle. Well, probably. You never can be sure with this game.

And I am not looking forward to it. Not one little bit. I'm imagining it's going to be some ridiculously overwrought epic with vast numbers of troops on the battlefield. Far too many enemies with insanely over-powered abilities and vast heaps of hit points. The chaotic kind of fight where I can't even see half the units, let alone get to them.

I really enjoyed the D&D-based tactical combat earlier in the game but only so long as the scale remained manageable. In the latter stages, there have been a few fights where the biggest challenge was working out where everyone was. That's not fun.

It doesn't help that the camera in BG3 really isn't great. Is that something people complain about? I haven't seen anything. Maybe it's just me. I don't think I'm imagining it, though.

For example, there's a huge problem with the z-axis. Since the game uses click-to-move, if you want to go upstairs, you have to click on a point that is literally up the stairs. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't understand that's where you're going until one of the characters gets there, meaning if you sweep ahead to see what's coming, as I do all the time, your POV goes through the staircase as if it wasn't there, leaving you on the lower floor.

In some locations, that makes it extremely awkward to get any impression of where you're going. One especially bad example is the artist's house, which is on several floors and has mezzanines as well. 

The house is haunted, filled with possessed items that blast you as soon as you come into range and/or sight (Never did figure out which.) Working my way up the floors, I had to re-load numerous times because I just couldn't get the camera to give me any useful information before my party arrived at the danger spots, where they'd be killed before I could see what they were supposed to be fighting. 

You might think that's just the game preventing the player from having information the characters wouldn't have but it was plain my characters ought to be able to see the relevant locations from where they were. It was just me that couldn't. 

There are lots of other things wrong with the camera but I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say I feel like I've spent nearly as much time fighting the controls as I have the baddies.

And speaking of baddies, are we them now? It's starting to feel like it.

I'm watching the second season of Marvel's Runaways at the moment. I'll get to reviewing it soon enough so I won't say any more other than it's excellent. The reason I mentioned it is that it's very strong on how good intentions can be corrupted by necessity, compromise, pragmatism or self-delusion, often without you even realizing it's happened until it's too late. You can start out with the noblest of ideals and end up doing  the very thing you thought you were against.

Let's just steal a boat and make a break for it!

There's a lot of that in BG3. It's one of those "Decisions Matter" games in both the positive and the negative meaning of the phrase. The good part is that, when you make a choice, the narrative and even world changes as a result. That is almost certainly something you want if you choose to play an RPG.

The bad part is that the writers have deliberately set out to create situations in which there is no good choice. They mean to back you into a corner, where you have to make a decision you're almost bound to be unhappy with. Presumably this is supposed to suggest emotional depth. I just find it irritating.

There is, of course, always the option of walking away. I've done that several times but it's rarely satisfying. Or there's the ever-popular save-scumming, whereby you try all the available choices for size before picking the one you're going to walk out of the store wearing. Done that a few times, too. It's more satisfying than just skipping the entire thing but it still feels cheesy.

The cumulative effect of all of this is the reverse of what's presumably intended. Instead of choices that matter all that's left is choices I don't really care about. I just want to get on with things and see what happens next. Moral consequences be damned.

And what does happen next seems to get more perfunctory the closer to the climax we come. In my last session there were at least two decision points that felt like they were bound to lead to big fights but instead the person I was thwarting just shrugged their shoulders, mumbled something along the lines of  "Well, if you're going to be like that about it..." and left. 

Which was fine, in a way. I really didn't want another big fight and it's not like I hadn't done the same a few times. 

The main reason I didn't want those incidents to turn into fire-fights is that I'm all too aware the really big fight is just around the corner. And I'm not there for it. If I could skip it without actually giving up, I would. Sadly, I don't see any way to avoid it other than to stop playing altogether. 

Is that the state of mind the developers were hoping to encourage in the endgame? A kind of weary, grudging acceptance of the inevitable? One last heave and it'll all be over. Then I can uninstall and forget this ever happened. Shouldn't I be excited, thrilled by the prospect of one, titanic, final battle, followed by absolute victory? Maybe want to start over again because I had so much fun?

This wasn't what I meant...

Yes, well, I expect it's me. I was already very annoyed by the way all progress stops when you hit Level 12. That really put a damper on my enthusiasm.

Larian decided, quite reasonably, that since D&D basically goes insane at high levels, it would be impossible to balance the game after that. They'd have to allow for characters throwing around Wishes, Earthquakes and Meteor Storms and bringing dead party members back to life with full health at the wave of a hand. To avoid the inconvenience, they capped levels for the player and their companions at 12, giving them access to 6th level spells and nothing higher.

It's a choice I have no problem with. Or it would be if they'd also switched off the xp spigot. But they didn't.

I had to go look up why my xp was frozen even though I kept seeing yellow numbers every time I killed an enemy or completed a quest. It seems you get the xp but it just dissipates into the ether, leaving you forever stuck on whatever you were when you dinged 12.

It's far more frustrating to carry on gaining xp but not be able to use it than it would have been had it stopped altogether. Every time I do anything of any significance now it feels like I'm being cheated out of my rightful progression. It's very disheartening and it makes me want to avoid doing anything more than what's absolutely necessary.

None of which entirely stops me from enjoying myself altogether but it certainly hasn't been as much fun for a long time now as it was at the beginning and it gets to be less fun the larger the ending looms ahead of me. I'm at the point where I can feel the finish so close by, it seems more trouble to stop than it does to go on. One more push and it'll all be over and thank god for that.

I can't wait to be done with Baldur's Gate 3. It's been an experience, that's for sure. Whether it's an experience I'd recommend is another question. It feels masochistic occasionally and enervating much of the time.

I hope I'm right and I really am almost at the end. I'd hate to think there might be some kind of coda to drag it out even longer. I suppose I'd better wrap this up and go make my final assault on the Netherbrain. 

If I said I was looking forward to it I'd be lying. 

I just want it to be over.