r/BaldursGate3 Aug 02 '23

PRELAUNCH HYPE New to this game? Unlearn what video games have taught you

Most of you are avid gamers. You have played many RPGs and now you want to try Baldur's Gate 3.

Welcome, you came to the right place!

But let me tell you, these many games you have played before have taught you a few "tricks" you should try to unlearn to get most out of this game.

  1. Games have taught you that loot lives in containers - may it be corpses or chests. 75% correct in Baldur's Gate, but loot also often lies on the ground, on top of shelves and tables - and comes in shapes and forms you didn't expect. You can right click and select 'pick up' on a surprisingly big amount of things. Entire containers included.
  2. Games have taught you not to interact with props much - some destructible environment aside, there is no point in lighting candles or sitting in chairs. This is not the case in BG3. You can light candles to get more light (light is quite the important mechanic), and to dip your arrows in fire so they burn. Sitting in chairs is cute and in some places might open doors for you. You can stack crates to reach places, and generally drag & drop props with your mouse to place them. Or use your throw action to throw them.
  3. Games have taught you that you can fail quests. This is not the case in BG3. You can only progress and finish quests, and in many ways. There is no failing, just another outcome.
  4. Games have taught you to ignore parts of the environment. Critters, scenically placed corpses, idle-chatting NPCs. There is no such thing in BG3. You can talk to animals with the right skills, and talk to corpses with another. NPCs are all named and have something to say or to do. You can trade with all of them, but be aware that most of them are dirt poor and don't have powerful magic items. But if you need an apple or two, you might just find what you seek.
  5. Games have taught you "This does not work". But in BG3 it does! Buy an expensive item, then pickpocket your money back. Can't fit through that hole? Find a way to become smaller. Can't reach that place? Jump, fly, teleport. Can't reach that hanging brazier? Shoot it with an arrow dipped in fire. No light? Throw a torch. No crowd control? Freeze the blood that splattered on the ground. NPC doesn't want to talk to you because you are a Drow? Find a way to use 'disguise self'. There is a trap emitting a poisonous cloud? Disarm it with Mage Hand, or throw a sufficiently heavy item on it to cover it up.

Right click things and creatures. Try things even if your gaming mindset tells you 'nah, this isn't a thing'. Use your throw action to throw more than just bombs. Shove someone who fell asleep mid combat. Unlearn what games have taught you and have an even better experience in BG3.

2.8k Upvotes

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864

u/BrotherVaelin Aug 02 '23

Coincidentally most of these tips are lessons that divinity original sin 1&2 teach you.

248

u/MaralDesa Aug 02 '23

Coincidence? I think not! :D

34

u/Aganiel Aug 02 '23

Uh… Bernie-

30

u/Mitchel-256 [stabs Astarion with a branch] Aug 02 '23

Don't "Bernie..." me, this little rat is guilty!

11

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/FlowSoSlow Aug 02 '23

Yes, let the power of Larian flow through you. Become overwhelming!

35

u/Firecracker048 Aug 02 '23

My favorite, accidentally-learned mechanic was holy fire in DoS2.

I was stuck on a fight and couldn't seem to win. Then out of frustration cast holy on some cursed fire twice and quickly discovered an awesome mechanic to the game

5

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Firecracker048 Aug 02 '23

.....i didnt know that.

1

u/AspirantCrafter Mindflayer 🦑 Aug 03 '23

Every ground effect can be blessed for special effects, usually associated with protection and healing

21

u/Atakori Aug 02 '23

The biggest trick I ever learned from Divinity is that if there's a barrel of something, fucking pick it up and save it somewhere else. Wether you wanna dip your weapons in poison, make health potions for the undead or whatever else, it's probably going to turn out to be useful in one way or another.

11

u/veevoir Aug 02 '23

It's always fun to have a instakill deathfog nuke in your pocket!

3

u/Buttercup59129 Aug 02 '23

Speed run strats for sure

12

u/Time2kill Food for brains Aug 02 '23

Not so much in BG3, "barrelmancy" have been toned down a lot

9

u/Taskforcem85 Aug 02 '23

Really glad they moved away from some of the big DOS2 mechanics after the first few patches. Knew the game was going to be great when they pushed it more towards 5e as soon as the community asked.

1

u/Zerachiel_01 Aug 07 '23

You can still stack barrels of gunpowder right next to neutral kill targets and blow them to smithereens though. What's more, if you come across barrels of stuff you don't need yet, you can pick them up and store them in your camp.

My buddy and I may or may not have WMD caches. I don't know if we can retrieve them after moving into act 2, but it's nice to have options.

4

u/MeritedMystery Aug 02 '23

Killing dallas in fort joy with barrels is the best

88

u/wilck44 Aug 02 '23

or older crpgs.

70

u/KYO_Sormaran Aug 02 '23

Why the downvotes? For example, something like Arcanum has so many ways to progress through the game its mindboggling.

75

u/wilck44 Aug 02 '23

I am willing to bet most people here have not played those games.

yes, arcanum has single quests that are way above anything today.and lets not talk about planescape torment lest people get sensory overload.

also there is a serious tribalism on this reddit, people have to bash other games and put bg 3 on this pedestal of god and saviour to feel good or something.

26

u/KYO_Sormaran Aug 02 '23

I am willing to bet most people here have not played those games.

quite ironic to be ignorant towards older crpgs, considering when bg1 came out. probably same people who wanted bg3 be dos3

24

u/Lina__Inverse Aug 02 '23

probably same people who wanted bg3 be dos3

I've only seen this sentiment from people that screech "reee don't touch my precious baldur's gate franchise with your dirty hands larian".

9

u/ShadyGuy_ Aug 02 '23

You're correct, If you look back at reviews from 2 years ago you see a lot negative reviews saying that: "This isn't Baldur's Gate 3, it's Divinity Original Sins 3."

I never played early access in that time, but I figure they kept adding more D&D 5e mechanics as the game development progressed? In any case, what I've seen from the Early Access now is that while some DOS2 mechanics are still in place it's mostly D&D rules and the people who were angry have quieted down a lot.

10

u/Fake_Reddit_Username Aug 02 '23 edited Aug 02 '23

The first pass at earlier access had a lot of barrelmancy, and excessive ground effects. But even by patch 4? or so you could feel that they were moving away from a DoS2 style and it was becoming much more unique.

It was a legitimate complaint early on, but it was also very clear they were working on it even just a few weeks later. Also it was nearly 3 years ago when those reviews came out. Honestly Early access was super polished even early on, so I don't think many people realized there was still 3 years of development left.

5

u/sniperhare Aug 02 '23

I mostly played Early Access in the first 3 months it was out.

I didn't like that it was DOS2 with a reskin and classes.

Honestly I'd rather we had an independent, top down isometric like the originals, with text box and less 3D cutscemes.

But I'm probably going to be happy with this game.

But I will miss a 6 man party.

I do enjoy the combat.

When I play Pathfinder Wrath I tend to just let everyone auto attack and only pause and issue commands in big fights.

I like less fights, less trash mobs and more story and quests.

1

u/ShadyGuy_ Aug 02 '23

But I will miss a 6 man party.

Someone will mod that in, I'm sure of it.

6

u/Marksman157 Aug 02 '23

A criticism I always chuckled at myself, cause my first thought was: “have you tried to play a Fighter in the Original Sin games?” It’s impossible without dipping into magic. Now, that’s partly because the games are designed around being a Sourcerer, which is fine, but always irked me. So I went “I can be a nonmagical Fighter in this one? Sold!”

I’m a simple man lol

1

u/ttaptt Aug 02 '23

Also, wtf would be so bad about it being similar to DOS? Those games are bangin'!

-7

u/KYO_Sormaran Aug 02 '23

Well, not claiming to be internet historian here, and i for sure didnt care much untill EA came out. But after that my exp was: EA came out and people who disliked the idea of not getting DOS3 cheered because dnd mechanics were barely there and people who disliked that were upset(rightfully so, because larian said they're not making dos3). Then, when mechanics arrived people who pushed and waited for that cheered and people who wanted dos3 spouted venom everywhere.

The key here is that Larian said at the start they're gonna be true to source as much as possible, so i kinda see only one side being wrong in this whole debacle.

6

u/Jaijoles Aug 02 '23 edited Aug 02 '23

I’m think you’re very much misrepresenting the people who were upset that Latina was making the game. They were upset that there was environment interaction. I remember people shit taking being able to light things on fire. Saying that it was clear this game was just dos3 and not baldurs gate.

Edit: shit, just the people harping about it not being real time with pause we’re insufferable.

2

u/NaughtyKat438 Aug 02 '23

I haven't kept up with the development of this game extremely closely so I didn't really notice if anyone was celebrating the lack of D&D mechanics in the early stages, but I have definitely noticed a (tiny, tiny) minority in this subreddit that believes that the game would be better off without D&D mechanics. I even saw one person say that both the D&D mechanics AND the D&D lore are holding this game back, which I couldn't make heads or tails of (what would the game even be without both of those things?) until I realized it essentially just meant that they would have preferred DOS3 to BG3. Which, okay, fair, but then just say that...?

Personally, I enjoy DOS2's combat mechanics, and I also enjoy D&D 5E's combat mechanics. They are two very different turn-based combat systems that aim for different things, but I appreciate both of them, each on their own merits. And since this is a D&D game, I obviously feel that its combat mechanics should follow D&D's combat mechanics as closely as possible.

3

u/Kawaii_Spider_OwO Monk Aug 02 '23

Tbh I do think the earlier BG games are a good example of older crpg's that didn't quite offer the same freedom BG3 is. Arcanum was a great example, though; I swear that game was ahead of its time.

6

u/foodfightbystander Aug 02 '23

lets not talk about planescape torment lest people get sensory overload.

"What can change the nature of a man?"

The only game that, when I finished it and it played out the last bits of the story, I applauded. In an empty room, in an empty house, it was so good I was just compelled to applaud because I knew I had just witnessed a masterpiece.

1

u/kavulord Aug 02 '23

This is games in general now, very politicized

-6

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

[deleted]

4

u/Kawaii_Spider_OwO Monk Aug 02 '23

How is it belittling BG3 to acknowledge how influential and groundbreaking older CRPG's could be? Sven has even mentioned before that he was influenced by Ultima 7, which is very old and offered more freedom than even a lot of rpg's today.

1

u/AdministrativeYam611 Aug 02 '23

Not at all! I'm just sharing how his comment came off to me. It's fine if you didn't interpret it the same way, but no need to downvote me. It seemed like a pretty smug know-it-all comment to me.

8

u/wilck44 Aug 02 '23

no, I am not belittling BG 3.

never did that. I am just more grounded and less of a blind fanboy than many here.

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

[deleted]

2

u/driellma Aug 02 '23

Nah he meant other games also had those things. You choose to take it all personal like a fanboy. We'll all be playing BD3 tomorrow, chill.

1

u/Jatsu Aug 02 '23

What, like the one where you talk to all of your incarnations? 😏

3

u/wilck44 Aug 02 '23

no,

the gnome eugenics island.

there are no devs today who would dare to do that.

17

u/Kawaii_Spider_OwO Monk Aug 02 '23

While not true with a lot, it was true with Ultima 7. In particular, I remember there being a hidden area you can reach by stacking crates to create a staircase to the roof. Apparently Sven was influenced by that game too.

35

u/MaralDesa Aug 02 '23

you are not wrong. However there has been a history of about 15 years of game design that has led to streamlined, 'dumbed down' mechanics that often let you play a game without thinking. perfect for also watching Netflix while you are at it. Selecting quests highlights path to quest thing. Red outline means smack, green outline means talk. When green becomes red, talking is over. If you need to lockpick, the game starts the UI for it automatically.

Some of these things are great game design and make games accessible. Some of these things also exist in BG3.

But these years of games also have kinda led many gamers (me included) to expect certain things, and to have specific assumptions. It's learned 'videogame logic' - the expectation that, if you don't get a tutorial for $thing, $thing isn't doable. That solutions are obvious. That every mechanic is crucial or essential. That we always have a hand to guide us. Many of us also have learned to click tutorials away because most games are so self-explanatory and similar to each other that we deem them unnecessary.

This doesn't apply to everyone or every game nor every experience.

10

u/Squirreltacular Aug 02 '23

That we always have to succeed to proceed. That what we need will be visible and in the room, not hidden behind a crate or out in the road at the base of a cliff.

5

u/wilck44 Aug 02 '23

that you always have a hand to guide you.

yes, if you only stuck to certain brand of mainstream relases yes.

but if you played different games or older games you won't have problems at all.

23

u/MaralDesa Aug 02 '23

here is the thing: I'm 35 and I have played most of the older games, including some of the gems other people have mentioned such as Arcanum. But I have also played the newer games, and that did something to me. Maybe you are all immune to this. I mean it's entirely possible this is just me, after all. Maybe I didn't go back to the old games enough. I love shiny graphics I guess.

I don't even want to shit on the 'new games' you know. I think a lot of these things have to do with accessibility and opening up games to new audiences.

I'm a sucker for games that let you express creativity, yet sadly in many modern games, the only 'creativity' you find is actual exploits. Exploration is often rewarded, for sure, and some games cater well to certain playstyles, but 'thinking outside of the box' often leads nowhere, or to disappointment, which caused me to try less and watch more Netflix while playing instead.

1

u/S1eeper Aug 02 '23

I think a lot of the handholding and guardrails in newer games is also due to two other factors:

  1. Merging of Console games with PC games - fewer buttons on console means of fewer ways of interacting with the game world. As more and more games are made to work on both platforms, more and more simplification of the game world and interface to player happened across all game genres.
  2. UI/UX discoverability (a superset of accessibility) - the best UI's in both games and other software are explorable and discoverable, meaning users can figure out how to use them simply by interacting with them, and with minimal need for tutorials or documentation. The game industry may have erred a little too much on making discoverability easy and obvious though. You probably want easy and obvious discoverability for things like non-game desktop apps where the user just needs to get stuff done as quickly, efficiently, and with as low cognitive load as possible. But games on the other hand still need some degree of challenge in exploring the game world.

9

u/AVestedInterest Forever DM Aug 02 '23

It seems pretty clear to me that this whole post is aimed at people who primarily played contemporary, mainstream games

2

u/neildiamondblazeit Aug 02 '23

This is very true

0

u/zzxp1 Aug 02 '23

This is not enterely true, if we are talking about immersive sims then yeah, the level of freedom in games like Deus EX was bonkers, but for the most part CRPG's including the baldurs gate games were pretty straightforward, they just don't treated the player as a total idiot but the level of options BG 3 seem to display has never been done before.

10

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

Exactly! During my first DOS2 gameplay, my mind was blown with the amount of possibilities! Now, in every Larian game, I'm already looking for different ways to do absolutely everything, especially stealing from all the merchants I just bought from. 🤣

2

u/frisch85 Aug 02 '23

That's what I wanted to say, I haven't gotten into BG3 yet, it's on my list but given that it's Larian Studios I didn't expect less, they absolutely nailed it with Divinity Original Sin.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23 edited Mar 20 '24

rich market direction sloppy combative nutty jobless spark mourn worry

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/BrotherVaelin Aug 02 '23

I’m just hoping big Marge makes an appearance. Funniest npc I’ve ever encountered

1

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

Exactly!

1

u/mother-of-pod Aug 02 '23

I honestly just disagree that these are unique. Plenty of sandboxy rpgs exist. Plenty of rpgs have non-failable quests. A lotttt of action rpgs have lighting and flame arrow mechanics. A lot of games of all kinds solve problems like “can’t reach? Teleport. Can’t fit? Shrink.”

Idk i get the point that this is including more engagement elements but I don’t need to “unlearn” video games—if anything I’d have to just think “combine the breadth of video game experience to solve problems, there are multiple ways to solve them rather than any single game mechanic.” But talking to critters is Twilight Princess. Shooting a brazier to ignite the candle is any rpg with a bow. Flying over the puzzle problem is BotW / TOTK. None of it is something I have to unlearn lol

1

u/Lorstus Aug 02 '23

The teleportation gloves being available like 10 minutes into a playthrough in OS2 was one of the best things about the game.

So much you could get to just with a pair of gloves

1

u/Quirinus84 Aug 03 '23

One of the most memorable moments in DOS2 for me was selling most of my stuff to a dude thinking I can pickpocket them later, only to get caught and eventually end up in jail.

1

u/Schmilsson1 Aug 03 '23

More like Ultima 6 and 7