Ever since I heard about Baldur’s Gate 3, my anticipation reached new heights, amplified by snagging an early access pass. With high hopes, I embarked on what I believed would be the ultimate gaming journey. Yet, as I dived in, an unexpected challenge arose.
Every character I designed, every crossroad faced, and every spell selected became an intense internal debate. I was striving for that elusive “perfect run,” where every decision was optimized, every consequence foreseen. The game’s vast potential felt more like an overwhelming maze of possibilities. “What if I chose differently?” became a constant refrain, casting a cloud over every joyous discovery.
The excitement I had was overshadowed by the pressure of perfection. Hours were spent revisiting choices, rerolling characters, and second-guessing strategies. Instead of being an adventure, it felt like an intricate puzzle that I was forever trying to solve.
But then, a shift occurred. I asked myself: “What if I just play, embracing every twist and turn?” Rather than striving for the perfect game, I chose to savor the journey itself. And in that choice, I found liberation.
By owning my decisions, the game transformed. Mistakes? They became intriguing plot twists. Unexpected outcomes? Exciting surprises around each corner. The narrative of Baldur’s Gate 3 became alive, dynamic, and I was genuinely immersed.
For those ensnared in the quest for the flawless path, consider this: sometimes, the beauty of a game lies not in perfection, but in the spontaneous, unpredictable journey it offers. Embrace it, own your choices, and find the joy I rediscovered.
I think it depends on whether or not people are coming to games like this having played ttrpgs before. Video games often punish failure, whether by removing quest rewards, impeding forward progress, having no follow up to a failure state, or even an outright “game over.” This trains a lot of gamers to min-max their playthroughs of games so as to not miss anything, as even a failure in a conversation check can lock them out of content. This was something I struggled with as well, quick-saving before every conversation in case I failed a persuasion check or something and was punished for it. Up until I did a quest in this game where a character died by accident and the game just kinda went, “That was a thing that happened. Anyways, here’s your xp. Let’s move on.”
That broke me from that mindset because the game wasn’t punishing me for screwing something up - it just changed the flow of the story. It was no longer like the game was a Dark Souls boss where I had to learn the right pattern to get the game to give me what I want, now it’s play the game the way I want and see what wrenches it throws into my plans because the game won’t lock me out of half the story because some kid died in a sidequest, it’ll just give me a different version of the narrative.
Now I largely use quick saves just in case me and my buddy mess up an encounter so badly we end up with a total party wipe, or if we just wanna try something funny like using shrink + a potion of giant’s strength to see if we can throw Kagha off a cliff in the druids grove (it didn’t work).