Baldurs Gate 3 - Endings Underwhelming at Best, Act 3 Bugs

This post is written with a heavy heart. Despite the fundamental flaws of game and story design that BG3 has in Act 3...

The game is still my GOTY.

Comparatively speaking, Act 1 and Act 2 were 10/10's. I cannot think of 1 thing to add to those acts to make them better.

Act 3 and the endings on the other hand shed a different light. Unfortunately for Larian, their Act 3 curse continues from the DOS series.

Act 3 had a lot of bugs, to say the least:

  • Inability to speak with certain NPC's even with a past reloaded save file
  • Companions bugged (I couldn't speak with Wyll after I chose to sacrifice his dad to save him for the rest of my Playthrough)
  • Glitches, Tearing, and overall Gameplay bugs that if you didn't constantly save to reload to 'save' your game, good luck
  • And many more

Act 3's level design was... a bit on the annoying side:

  • Walking and more walking to find bosses and things to kill
  • Areas were not as polished as Act 1 (you could feel it rushed in a sense)
  • Not intuitive level design (oh god the sewers made me want to shoot myself).
  • You maxed out your XP very quickly so the game quickly became a chore (uh, let me just do all these side missions so I can change my outcome)
    • I thought this was going to be like the Witcher 3 Battle where the more side quests you did, the more you affected the ending in a way - NOPE
    • The game turned into a slog of, damn you just want to go through these quickly so you can finally see where things go

But, this post isn't to talk about the bugs or level design, because those can be fixed, and as we see, Larian is ON TOP of getting those hotfixes out (which is awesome).

This post is to talk about the lackluster, underwhelming endings that leave you feeling empty, unsatisfied, and void.

After sinking 60+ hours in your playthrough, you would think you'd have a 'satisfying' conclusion to your ending. After save scumming a trillion times to get the outcomes you want, the companion relationships you want, the 'story tweaks' you want to see...

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... those matter NOTHING (or very little) in the final 2-3 hours of the game.

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You are basically pigeon holed into two forks

  • Control Brain
  • Destroy Brain

Which then lead into another 2 forks:

  • Become a mindflayer (or let Karlach become one)
  • Let Orpheus become a mindflayer

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And whilst sure, the choices you make up to that point (kind of?) matter in terms of who's with you, and what companions say before you make your choice...

... This is NOT the level of Freedom anyone was expecting.

17,000 endings - what's the variation? My race? Hair Colour? If I decide to wear a thong?

Saltiness aside, I'm sure there are key differences with certain choices... but we were all lead to think that our choices mattered in the game.

I did not consume a single tadpole, giving up some pretty cool powers in exchange for a super good ending, only to be forced into becoming a mindflayer?

Or dooming Orpheus to become one and making the githyanki lose their prince?

Or Karlach? - Her endings by the way are SO bad (she either dies, goes to hell, or becomes a mindflayer and dies again)

On that note, oh god the ending scenes were a slap in the face.

You spend 60+ hours with your companions, building a bond, doing their side missions, making sure all conclusions are happy...

... only to be given (AT BEST) 1-2 lines of dialogue and then fade to black to the menu screen.

One could argue that 'Well, it leaves it up to the imagination on what happens.'

Not enough - especially after you invested so much time with your characters in story, you deserve to get some form of satisfying conclusion (even a fallout after credit scene with slideshows would suffice)!

Conclusion:

  • Larian Studios is an awesome company that created a great game. Act 1 and Act 2 were freaking STELLAR and nothing needs to be done
  • Act 3 was unfortunately lackluster and unfinished (and left a lot to be desired for endings)
  • Bugs and level design wonky

I love this game, not sure I'll do a second playthrough given how I know that the story is. Maybe with friends to do a kill everything run and be a dark urge maniac.

I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts here.

Additional Notes that I've thought Post-writing this:

  • The Emperor - you do everything with him and in the end when you side with orpheus, OK yup Imma go yeet with the Elder brain - like... huh? We did everything to avoid the elder brain and now you're siding with it?
  • Some notes about making a deal with Gortash (other posts) and in the end it doesn't even matter, so you just skip a rather boring bossfight basically with no effect to the ending
  • What about siding with the Absolute? That would have been a sick juxtaposition of choice
    • You could side with them, but it pigeon holes you in the same ending variation (of encounters and the like)
  • There is seemingly no effect whether you take Raphael's deal for the Orphic Hammer or not. No after scene.
  • Randomly the brain went from Elder to Netherbrain without explanation...
  • All those quests you did to 'get people helping you' doesn't affect any outcome. Just gives you a 'Call Allies' button to use. Which you can go the entier ending sequence without.
  • Evil ending doesn't feel... good. It's a 45 second clip of your companions awkwardly cheering and you saying 'In my name.'
  • Astarion ending was by far the funniest (and most disappointing) - 'LOL BYE NO VAMPIRE ANYMORE SUN KILL ME'

I'll continue adding as I get more insight.