Baldur's Gate 3: Act 3 Bugs and Missing Content Becoming a Problem as More Players Near End
Baldur's Gate 3: Act 3 Bugs and Missing Content Becoming a Problem as More Players Near End
Baldur's Gate 3 launched earlier this month to player and critical acclaim. However, as players have begun to reach act 3, many are discovering that it's...a touch less polished than the first two acts.
I dunno, maybe I'm just easy, or got lucky with bugs (not that I ran into none, but none were game breaking) the ending wasn't great but I enjoyed it enough that it didn't spoil the rest of the game. Now it does feel like there is missing content in the final act, and seems like they probably rushed it out at the end, but I spent 100 enjoyable hours getting there so I can't complain too much.
However, I really really hope that either via patches or DLCs they include the missing content and the final act gets polished up to the quality of the rest of the game. Again I didn't think it was bad, just the first two acts were amazing. i will say however one of the best parts of the game is in act 3 as well. Loved the game, almost immediately started a 2nd playthrough, and have plans for a 3rd and 4th.
38Can't forget that people who don't experience big bugs are far less likely to tall about it than people that do
21Great point- “I Finished Baldur’s Gate 3 and Didn’t Experience Any Bugs” is a nothingburger of a post.
16
It's not luck. You probably went with Halsin over Minthara. :)
4I would count "choosing the non buggy path without knowing about the bug" as luck.
1
The game has only just gotten it's first patch and they wrote in the notes what other things could be expected in Patch 2.
It'll be polished off before you know it. Plus, I have a sneaking suspicion there's plans for a DLC. More content is likely to come.
31Here's an idea, how about it gets polished before release.
54Didn’t they push up release so they would come out before Starfield?
12It's pretty damn polished. There's just a lot of possibilities and they rarely mess up. With biggest Act 3 issue is performance is worse, which is expected when you're going from wilderness to dense city. It still runs pretty fine on my old PC on ultra. It's about 25fps, which for top down strategy is fine. I could lower graphics if it were an issue.
7
I'm in act three right now, and the most noticeable issue I've run into has been characters mistakenly referring to choices I supposedly made. Really takes you out of it when that is such a focus of the game.
I also have Minthara in my party, and I can confirm that she's broken as hell. You give up quite a lot to recruit her, and it's not worth it at all. Don't do it.
30I had a laugh when everyone had !'s and I go talk to them and they are all commenting on the death of Shadowhart, but every single time, you can see Shadowhart just vibing in the background because I prevented Lae'zel from killing her.
12Yeah, I had one of those happen that ended up spoiling something really big, along with really confusing the ever-loving daylights when it happened, because I had absolutely no idea what Gale was talking about, because he was referencing a quest I hadn’t actually started yet.
I’m going to put my currently playthrough on hold until patch 2. I don’t mind waiting a bit.
8
This is pretty par for a Larian Studios game. The first act receives all the polish while each act afterwards gets less and less polish.
It should be no surprise that there wasn’t any feedback for acts 2 and 3 considering only Act 1 was ever available to play in EA.
20I'm in Act 3, about mid way through, and definitely Act 1 shines above the other 2, but Act 3 so far is more enjoyable than 2.
3
But noone ever finishes an RPG, right?
18Well, not if your sidequests are bugged, no. ;)
14
I just reached the underdark, the only annoyance I've had is that I totally misunderstood my fellow party member's intent with wanting to show me something & I had to reload my last save to avoid a gay romance I had no interest in being.
18LMFAOOOOO it was fucking gale wasn't it.
14right
3
Ah the "Wait, Angel's a guy?" Problem from Cyberpunk
5The dick pic experience!
4I ran into this too. I had this RP moment where I was going to convert my character to a wizard based on where the conversation was going. I realised what was going on and pulled my character out of the conversation and went with my original idea, getting Withers to convert my character to a wizard. In my mind, that's how the story went.
3
Good thing I’m such a slow gamer nowadays
15I was fortunate enough to not run into any of the quest-breaking bugs. Had no issues doing what I wanted to do. What I did run into a lot was buggy scripting where dialogues assumed I had information I didn't, so I wouldn't know what my companions were talking about some of the time.
The bigger problem in my eyes is spells/items/class abilities/feats not working correctly and being outright non-functional in some cases. That's going to be an enduring problem for replays, and it's not encouraging to me that very little has been done on this since release.
I do think this game wouldn't have scored as well as it did if so many publications didn't rush to press with half a playthrough. In this particular case, I think the game--bugs and all--is still a strong GotY contender, but I really hope there's a conversation being had in the professional games criticism sphere about how this practice could cause a scandal in the future.
As it is, I'm genuinely surprised the reviewers aren't coming under fire more than they have for this. I come from an era where publishing a review without completing a game would have been unconscionable.
13Do you have an example? Haven't noticed that yet in 110h of playing.
7A couple minor broken ability examples: Mage Hand requires a short rest to recharge, which is fundamentally wrong for a cantrip, and Feather Fall is a bonus action instead of a reaction, making it useless for its primary purpose. These aren't game-breaking, of course, but annoyances like this add up, and it never feels good to have chosen an ability that turns out not to work as it should.
One of the more problematic issues is stupid pathing logic, especially around known hazards: Party members absolutely love to spot traps, announce them, and then walk right into them. Sometimes it results in someone getting a minor injury. Other times it nearly wipes out the whole party.
I suggest saving often.
10For the items, etc. the ones I can remember offhand are:
- Boots of Stormy Clamour (applies Reverberation with conditions) - never seen it proc with any of the conditions I've tried. Meanwhile, Diadem of Arcane Synergy will (likely incorrectly) proc on damn near anything, even self-buffs.
- Jhannyl's Gloves (auto-cures Poison/Paralyze/Blindness) - hasn't worked for me once. The +1 to saving throws is active though.
- Goad (disadvantage on attacks, from Battle Master subclass) - either doesn't work or is very inconsistent.
- Uncanny Dodge (Rogue) - I think everyone that's played a Rogue knows this one. It's got a weird passive effect implementation that auto-disables a lot.
- Chromatic Orb - having occasional issues getting Storm Sorcerer's Heart of the Storm to proc with this. Still pinning this one down, if anyone else has run into it?
- Lucky (feat) - doesn't reroll incoming crits.
- Polearm Master (feat) - I have no idea where the bonus action is. Either I'm blind or it's just missing.
There's also stuff on the plus side, like Titanstring Bow double dipping with Lightning Charges or, famously, Haste and Haste-like effects (Elixir of Bloodlust) granting second attacks on each additional action for lv. 5+ martial classes. It's possible Larian just balanced it this way, but I don't think so. It's crazy broken.
6Here's a few:
spoiler
- The High Harper quest start is bugged if you talk to the shopkeeper with Jaheira instead of your MC. You get the key but cannot get into the basement without making the shop staff hostile. If you go around through the balcony the bottom floor is empty.
- Wyll's dad thinks his son sold his soul to save him even though he chose to free himself from the contract.
- Gale thinks I agreed to give Raphael the crown even though I unambiguously turned him down.
- Gortash thinks I agreed to help him in his pre-battle speech with Karlach even though I did not.
- Gortash has loot on him that is cut content "Ilithid Jar with Larvae".
- Targetting with AOE spells will sometimes just not attempt to hit enemies that are clearly in the circle and highlighted.
- Chest of the mundane broke at start of Act three (fixed in first patch)
- Returning weapons wont return if thrown while entering combat.
- The rescued gnomes in the steel foundry keep getting mad at me for being there and starting the "you're not allowed to be here" dialog when they spot me, despite being marked as allied with a green circle.
- After the Steel Foundry conclusion Wulbren won't acknowledge the fact that he's no longer leader, and his model spawns on top of and clips through the leader of the other faction.
- Various enemies will randomly take extremely long turns and do nothing.
- Allied AI will walk through allied ground effects after combat and become hostile.
- Dame Aylen flew to the bottom of the tower during the fight with Loroakkan and didn't trigger her scene when the fight was over.
- The conversation with Isobel after Loroakkan fight took place in the tower despite being initiated in the camp.
That's a short list off the top of my head but there's been plenty more.
3The main example cited in the article comes from recruiting Minthara instead of killing her. It looks like Act 3 didn't really take that option into account.
Other problems include questlines that can't be completed.
2
I finished the game after about 85 hours and yeah.. act 2 and 3 need some polish. I ran into more than one gamebreaking bug. But overall it was still a really really great experience and taking the complexity of the game into account I think the overall polish of the game at release was quite good.
12How did you beat it that fast? I'm 70ish hours in and only starting to get close to done with act 1 maybe.
5By at some point saying 'OK, enough side quests, let's move on with the story'. I plan to replay this game multiple times, so I do not mind missing some side quests in my first playthrough.
10I’d say I did 85% of the content but I’m also a very „effective“ player. Methodic. I don’t dabble around :)
1
I just finished Act 1 and am a completionist who literally inspects every chunk of map, reads every book, finishes every quest-log item before moving to next map area. I can safely say that Act 1 has been amazing for me.
I did encounter one inventory bug. Prior to patch one, I was using the Chest of the Mundane as a poor man's Bag of Holding due to the weight reduction. At one point I took 600kg of items out of the chest to sell them to a vendor, and my inventory bugged. After screwing around with my buggy inventory for an hour (having fun earning infinite money from a vendor, for example), I reloaded from the save prior to taking the stuff from the chest and removed it in smaller chunks and everything was fine. Patch 1 killed the weight reduction in the chest, so it is unlikely others will find this fun bug.
Side note: my Lawful Good Gold Dwarf Cleric of Moradin has been a blast. I first talk my way into any circumstances, because one shouldn't pass judgement without all the information. But after judging them as evil, wiping out the goblin, duergar, and zentarim camps has been super satisfying. The completionist in me worries about plot implications of these judgements down the line, and what I get locked out of, but so far it's been great.
9The interesting thing about DnD morality for clerics and paladins is that when someone asks "Who made you the judge of what is good?" your character can honestly say "God."
2
Just to post my own experience…
Finished the campaign duo with a buddy. Didn’t experience any particularly bad bugs. Had a couple times where shit didn’t load right for me but closing and reopening would fix so eh.
Kind of felt like a couple plots didn’t flow right going into act 3 but nothing that bad. Act 3 did feel overall a little rushed and unfinished but was still damn good. Some act 3 highlights: House of hope, underwater part, final boss battle (if you don’t count the gauntlet, that part sucked huge balls)
8Sadly I've started to experience the same. I hope the devs address these issues quickly.
7IMO, what is there in Acts 1 and 2 still more than justify BG3's price tag and glowing reviews. While I wish Act 3 was more polished (and yes, the ending does feel a tad rushed and underwhelming), what is there in Act 3 is still plenty.
I'm hoping for an expansion for an Act 4 to bridge the gap between Act 3 and the ending, maybe set in the Upper City, with better outcomes for our companions. However, with all the branching choices that already exist in the game, simply the feat of having to create one more story might be a nightmare.
7Game's a buggy as hell mess. MP with my partner has had many, many bugs. Until this patch many spells were straight up wrong in the tool tip. Unacceptable stuff, imho. Reviewers have been way too kind.
Edited to add
Played again tonight. In a fifteen minute span of playing, we had four significant bugs. First my dialogue got bugged and didn't get the speech choices (my partner did, but I was leading the conversation so that didn't matter). After a quick load that was fixed. We move to a new zone and suddenly I have a characters outlined permanently. Check settings, it's set to off. Quick load doesn't fix it, quit to menu doesn't fix it. Have to completely restart the game.Then I listened in on one of my partner's conversations and when it was done, I was randomly stuck inside a box. Quick load later, we're going along and after climbing down a ladder my partner is teleported into a box.
Like... Honestly, I don't believe anyone who says they are playing MP bug free. This shit happens every play session for us.
5Also playing with my partner. Spell tooltips have been completely accurate, and we've only encountered one issue, which was solved with waiting a minute and the game sorted itself out.
11Permanently Deleted
4I'd recommend repairing your install in case some of the bugs are caused by corrupt files. I'm doing a multiplayer runthrough with a friend and we've encountered minor bugs like a exclamation mark being stuck over Wyll's head, but nothing gamebreaking.
2Have you been able to progress Wyll's storyline? Because that sounds like the "he's broken" bug.
1
I didn't get many bugs with later content, but a big problem with later content is that the player gets immensely stronger but enemies stay about the same. It also becomes way too easy to pass out of combat checks. I doubt this will be fixed any time soon, maybe in the future they will add a new difficulty.
3I think it's part of the RPG appeal to see your character get stronger.
If you scale the enemies too much, and ennemies are still as hard to beat, you don't feel that power levelling.
2Even if enemies got a lot stronger you'd still have numbers go up, and less superficially you'd still have significantly more options than a bunch of level 1 characters. I don't want to feel like Superman when the roleplaying situation is supposed to feel grim and insurmountable. My mood to use caution and diplomacy is really killed when I know I can destroy any encounter. I also just want a fun tactical experience in addition to the roleplaying elements, is that too much to ask?
Currently, the game on tactician, even without abusing resting, consumables, or strong multiclass is too easy in my opinion, and this is coming from someone with no prior DnD experience. I do have a little bit of Pathfinder experience as I got WotR during the Steam Summer Sale.
1
I think it's sorta okay that the enemies don't get too much stronger, especially since (at least for casters) a lot of the added power comes in the form of gaining access to stupidly OP spells like Hypnotic Pattern. I don't think it would be very fun if enemies started using tactics that amounted to "Hahaha, I rolled higher initiative so now you don't get to play for the next three rounds while I can do whatever I want."
1“Hahaha, I rolled higher initiative so now you don’t get to play for the next three rounds while I can do whatever I want.”
I had to reload multiple fights because the enemies just killed 3-4 of my partymembers before I had my first turn. Random Initiative is really not something I like in Games.
1
The differences in playing at launch vs after patch 1 are insane. My first time through the game, I kept thinking things were a little off and just thought it was simply weird writing that assumed too narrow of a range of player actions. Turns out half of the shit I was doing was accounted for, but the scripts or cutscenes weren't triggering properly.
I had gotten through the entire game pretty early because of my obsessive way of gaming, and tried to bring up all the broken shit a bunch of times and was downvoted and dismissed as contrarian.
2