I saw people going on about how great BG3 is on this site, so I thought I’d check out a let’s play to see what all the fuss was about. I immediately fell in love with the graphics and the mechanics, such as the classes, races, spells, dice etc, but I disliked the emphasis on gore/horror in the game, and I know I wouldn’t enjoy playing a game with that whole brain horror thing going on. Not to mention the price and storage requirements being excessive. (150GB!)
So, bearing in mind that, is there a game that would match my criteria, and if not, what do you think comes closest?
If you liked these, you can check out the other games by Larian - Divinity: Original Sin (1 and 2). There’s also Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic (very old game though). Also, Never winter nights 2. I’m sure there’s a bunch more.
Pillars of Eternity 1&2? (only 2 has turn based combat) They’re free* on gamepass if you got it. Don’t play the console versions of 2.
Why don’t play on console?
The port wasn’t handled in-house and it’s not very good. Constant crashes, bad performance, minute long load times.
Divinity: Original Sin 2! It’s by the same devs and it’s absolutely incredible. Different classes and spells and stuff, but you’ll pick it all up very fast, and I actually think character building in Divinity is a lot more fun than D&D, because there’s a lot more flexibility about how you choose powers and abilities.
If you’d prefer to stick with something based on the D&D mechanics, Owlcats games are excellent (it’s Pathfinder, but Pathfinder is just a lightly modified D&D 3.5)
I second the owlcats games, especially Pathfinder Kingmaker, which is less gory in theme, more exploration and kingdom building in addition to the adventuring
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
To be pedantic, PF1 is lightly modified 3.5E. 2nd Edition is rather different
Fair. My experience of Pathfinder was mostly with 1st.
Planescape: torment. Just do it
Seconded. This game is above and beyond my most cherished game.
Is any form of violence or blood a no-no? If you can accept some, Larian (bg3’s developper) was already well known for the Divinity series. Many even say that BG3 is kind of Divinity:Original Sin 3 with a DnD license. You’ll still be killing some people though. Otherwise, I suggest searching for Turn-Based games which BG3 is. You might like Battletech which is a mech warrior themed game or the X-Com series where there’s an alien invasion.
And also, you might have been mislead by the videos. Yes the brain parasite is important but you’re really only directly dealing with mind flayers (the tentacle clad monsters) in the very beginning and very end. The rest is just a classic fantasy setting.
The rest is just a classic fantasy setting.
There’s a lot of really grim and dark fantasy, but it’s definitely not all of fantasy. BG3 is full of super dark stuff with or without the gore.
Yes but it’s not all of the stuff, far from it
It’s not all as much gore as the brain parasite, but it’s full of scenes that are every bit as dark and fucked up. I won’t list anything in particular detail because of spoilers, but i’ve seen dozens of things that are super fucked up, and I’m not even out of act 1. I’ve had numerous people want to rip out eyeballs, failed a dice roll to mind control an enemy into eating himself, been suicide bombed, had a slave incubator for a witch go apeshit on me for rescuing her, and loads more. It’s absolutely super dark.
Not all violence is a deal breaker, just really grim stuff, like those pus balls exploding, or the worm burrowing into the characters’ eyes, exposed brains, that sort of thing.
So I’ll reinforce my first suggestion to look into turn-based CRPG as a genre and see for yourself. That’s where you’ll find most of the mechanics you seem to want and you won’t have to take the opinions of strangers as to how much gore is too much for you.
Are you playing with a controller or M/KB?
There are plenty of other CRPGs (good search term) that are fine with a mouse/keyboard. Larian kind of stands alone in terms of how well they handle with a controller though. Divinity Original Sin 2 is still dark, but not as in your face about it.
Other terms that have similar battles (but generally more closed maps) are tactical RPGs, strategy RPGs, turn based tactics or turn based strategy. I can’t break down the lines between any of those sub-genres, but they’re all kind of in the neighborhood. A lot of them are also dark, though.
I use mouse and keyboard, so I don’t need to worry about console support. Thanks for the suggestions!
Divinity Original Sin 2
I think Fallout 1 & 2 have a lot of parallels. The first two fallouts are a lot more like ttrpgs, it was when Bethesda bought them they became FPS rpgs.
Oviously older, but they hold up pretty well and certainly a different setting.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns has similar top notch graphics, and somewhat similar mechanics, but with deck building added. I don’t remember if there’s a class system.
If you like the d&d mechanics, check out Solasta, which I like a million times better than BG3. The graphics aren’t as good, but it’s also not as gore/horror focused.
Mass Effect
How does mass effect have even remotely similar mechanics to bg3? The dialogue is it
Mmmmaybe XCOM 2?
