Patch 5 addressed a fair few of my criticisms which you can see here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p9apnLSdnNGXaXk.html

A game that filled the hole in our hearts where Bioware used to be

Raphael works hard but Mort works harder

*Everyone:* “This game will take years to fully experience!” *Mort:* “Hold my 100%.”

I legit cracked a smile when you said doing this allowed you to pay off your house. Nobody deserves it more Mort - much success to you and your channel.

I think one aspect that sets larian studios Crpgs apart from other Crpgs that it does not get a lot of praise for is the immersive-sim esque approach to problem solving people have no idea how hard it is to develop these kind of gameplay mechanics, its not just an rpg from narrative and reactivity perspective, but also from a gameplay perspective spells and abilities can be used in and outside the combat, you see a fire? you can put it out, you see a corpse? you can cast a spell and question the dead, dead refuse to talk to you? well you can shapeshift into something else then talk to it again, cant jump down without dying? well you can cast feather and then jump down, thats what elevates BG3 from other crpgs for me and i hope more games will learn from it.

11 playthroughs..truly one of the hardest working gaming youtubers. Massive respect to you, Mort, and hope the channel keeps growing

Mort, I really appreciate what you do. If it wasn't for your channel, I wouldn't have even tried to get into content creation. Love the work you put in.

Congratulations on paying off your house Mort! Personally, I really enjoy your build ideas and would be happy to see more of those for bg3, rogue trader or other crpgs to come.

At long last the coveted BG3 review and it’s movie length, congrats on finally getting this out Mortismal!!

500 hours and 11 play throughs?! Ive done about 150 hours and 1.5 playthroughs and im burned out! You're a machine

Great review! We all know BG3 is a fantastic game, but thank you for being honest and pointing out it's few flaws. Also, congratulations on paying off your house. Being debt free sure feels good.

Wow…just wow..a truly Herculean effort. Congrats man! The only spoiler here is the way Mort spoils us with the quality of his reviews.

I'm happy for you, Morty. Even during the worst CRPG droughts I never gave up on the genre, and I can't wait to talk to all the new people that BG3 will hopefully bring into the fold. I'm excited for what might happen next now that BG3 has proven that, when done right, AAA CRPGs can be both critical _and_ commercial successes. And I'll keep tuning in here to get all the latest CRPG news and reviews. As for the review itself, IMO, BG3 is a game with a lot to praise, some nitpicks which don't warrant much discussion, and a small, small number of genuine issues. If Larian fixes anything in a 'complete edition', I hope they 1) Add a real epilogue, and 2) Fix the Act 3 performance issues. The way the game ends so suddenly is almost unforgivable after the epic journey that brings you there. And while Act 1 ran buttery smooth for me, by the time I got to Act 3 I was literally getting sometimes less than half the FPS I started the game with.

Two things I was most excited about when I got BG3: playing the game and the Mort 100% review. Looking forward to grabbing beer and listening tomorrow. Congratulations man.

Never played a cRPG, or even any RPG games, never played DnD, my most played games before this were survival/puzzle/cosy games but BG3 is now my most played game of all time with 400 hours, and I'm running it on a crappy laptop. I absolutely love this game, the writing, the interesting mechanics and I especially love that the combat is turn-based, I typically don't play combat based games because playing with a touchpad makes them honestly kind of impossible, but turn-based combat takes what normally is a reaction/mechanical skill based thing and makes it more like a really cool game of chess, keeping track of all the pieces and their abilities and having time to think about each move ahead of time and plan out a strategy, it gives me the same satisfaction as solving an interesting puzzle , honestly a lot of my hours have just been going back and reloading combat encounters just to test out new ideas or mess around with builds! And after all those hours I’m still yet to actually finish any of my saves 😂😂 Also, doing the jack of all trades achievement was such a struggle XD the minute I completed it I respecced my character as a super strong padlock as a reward for getting through it XD

I like romances as a tool to tell Tav's character development, and so I usually sketch out the general progress of the romance throughout the story right at the start but man, Lae'zel was the absolute hardest person not to romance when I had other plans. Her development was done stunningly.

I don't own a PC and neither do I own a PS5 yet. I planned on buying a PS5 and BG3 on Black Friday this year because I'm such a huge fan of choice driven RPGs like this. That and I'm also taking a week off from work to play this game 🎮 Thank you so much for helping keep the hype around this game alive. I can't wait to dive right into it after Thanksgiving 😁

I'm so glad your amazing BG3 content turned out to be so profitable as well. Thanks for a glorious review, and for the rest of the content you're producing without drop in quality and quantity. I personally started to explore the CRPG genre thanks to your videos, and I can't wait for Rogue Trader release and incoming flow of dedicated content on your channel

Mort, amazing video. I’m so delighted to see your section about playing as origin characters! I’m trying my first origin run through as Gale and I’m amazed in act 1 how much new content is there for him! Wow!

I found this channel less than a year ago and enjoyed every video that has been posted on it. The details you explain and the time you put in shows in the qaulity of your work. Cheers to you and congrats on your personal achievement. Can't wait for the future of the channel and your personal growth. Thank you for all you do. Take a bow Mort!

I simply believe it is the best approximation of an actual table-top setting that has ever been done, which, at the time, was exactly what the original Baldur's Gate was. A true virtual Dungeon Master for those who can't or don't want to find a real-life group. In that way, if not mechanically, it is a true successor to it's namesake titles. As for it's legacy, my GF has never played a single game like this. She is now on her second playthrough and completely obsessed. A difficulty beyond Tactician may be added as DLC, or will be taken care of by mods ala Sword Coast Stratagems for the originals. It seems to me focusing on attracting and enthralling normal people like my GF was a far better value for them to focus on.

The legend strikes again! Congratulations on another 100%, specially on this one, Mort!

I found your channel looking to get into the EEs of BG1&2 and I’ve been watching nearly every video since I subscribed. No one deserves the success more than you. Thank you for introducing me to my new favorite genre of games! Now I’m going back to DOS2 and Pathfinder with your guides

I found your channel through BG3 and since then I have watched a lot of your backlog on other games. I'm super happy that things worked out for you in this way and your channel got a lot of more eyes!

Your critiques are really fair. I’ve been shocked at the difficulty, as both divinity games beat me to a pulp at times just on the standard difficulty! I think my extreme familiarity with 5E is probably helping me, but I’m still amazed at how little Tactician is challenging me. Would love to see a video on what you think the future of the genre might look like after the unprecedented success of BG3, as well at looking at announced games in a sort of preview format. Congrats on the success and the 100%!

Well let's hope that after 6 months to a year there will be a goty edition with a reworked last act and a difficulty where enemies have and use more abilities and might have more hp.

Congrats! Happy for you and always love hearing what you have to say

I've waited patiently for this. Thank you for the thorough review, it is very much appreciated!

As a CRPG/D&D newbie struggling through Explorer mode, it’s very hard to imagine Tactician being too easy. But your guides have been a huge help, Mort!

Congrats on finishing the video! Hope you have a nice day

So happy you are able to do what you love. Your videos are great. Thank you

It's finally here! thank you so much for doing this :)

Thank you for telling us about the unique scenes for each companion when you play as each origin character.

The definitive review on KZfaq! Thanks for all your hard work. You bring up a very interesting point about getting railroaded into helping the Emperor until endgame. Would have been much more interesting if you could side with Orphaeus during that first fight and open up more narrative potential.

Love your sentiment around your work and videos, Mort

Such a great video! I can't express how grateful I am to you and your content. I'm so happy to have found you as a creator because of BG3. You deserve this success and I can't wait to see what other new content comes our way through you! I'll be watching closely for Rogue Trader content! Last two videos were pretty awesome! Lastly I have to say your opinions on these is always a breath of fresh air. You don't nit pick the things that don't need to be but hold things into the light that do. I especially enjoyed your comments on the story line between BG 1 2 and 3. I was also an avid player of the first two during my youth as well. Thanks again for such amazing content!

Well spoken about the negatives. BG3 is a fantastic game but I feel like the negatives get swept under the rug. Act 3 just deflates after the buildup of Acts 1 + 2 and made me actually take a break and instead play Cyberpunks DLC. You easily feel how stuff was cut and how the 2 other big bads feel crammed in. You rightfully pointed out it does so much better than DOS2 (even with the Enhanced Edition) but I hope Larian learns how to fully stick the landing without any stumbles in the future

I am a first time player to turn based games. This game has been a huge learning curve for me but I think I'm nearing the end of Chapter 1 and slowly beginning to grasp it. Having fun so far. I won't be watching all of this as I don't want spoilers but have enjoyed some of your other videos on the game.

Very happy for your continued success. Great review!

Congrats on the success! Great to hear your work has paid off :D

Lots of good points. Really appreciate the section on Origin characters to get an idea of what to expect when going for another run. I agree with a lot of your points about the difficulty and balance, but I'll take a bit of an easier game in exchange for not having it be as cumbersome as something like the Pathfinder games (around 1:07:00 where you discuss the need for prebuffing in them, I hate that kind of stuff, it's just so much pointless busywork).

BG3 is one of those games that single handedly expanded my taste in video games. I've always been a fan of rpgs, ever since I was a kid, but I barely knew anything about crpgs as a genre overall and what little I did know, they didn't really seem like my kind of thing. But with the hype of BG3, I decided to check it out and ended up loving it. So much so I went out of my way to purchase the first two baldur's gate games, as well as planescape torment, divinity original sin 2 and pathfinder wrath of the righteous. I actually already owned kingmaker for free via epic as well. I decided to try out kingmaker after BG3 and while I haven't finished it, I absolutely adored it (overall at least, it does have some issues and things I'm not a *huge* fan of) and can't wait for my inevitably playthrough(s) of WOTR. I've also since started DOS2 and am enjoying it immensely as well. If not for BG3, I never would've considered any of these games, let alone fallen in love with any of them.

Congrats man! Your hard work definitely deserves it. I look forward to your future vids 👏👍

As usual: an awesome video you have made! I keep recommending your channel - to people who care for a balanced and proper review which really looks deep into the game your videos are the best!

It's finished!!! Congratulations Mort ❤

Having grown up with the original games, it's honestly so heartwarming seeing the life Larians breathed into this franchise, the love it's recieved and all the new people checking out the genre.

I'm just really happy this game has made your channel skyrocket and get exposure. To more years of content like yours and all the best!

So happy for you, congratulations on your achievements!

Oh this gonna be good! Edit: I am so glad for your success man,and I am glad that you can make a living covering what you love!

I am glad I you mentioned the new patch 4 performance issues because it has absolutely impacted my playthroughs, but specifically my cooperative ones. It has become very difficult to get through in Act 3. That being said, Larian has earned my full trust, so I will assume it will be ironed out soon.

Fabulous review! Thank you for your hard work.

You're the man Mort! Congrats on 100% and thanks for the review!

you deserve a medal for even considering the thought of 100%ing this game!

Khalid was killed by Irenicus? No, he died when heroically charged at three half ogres on the road to Nashkel. Very sad.

Another thorough review from Mort. I’m amazed every time how you can hit 100%. Im shooting for all the achievements and I’m on my second play through, it would have been doable in two, but I missed a few on the good run so I’ll have to do a third.

Thank you for all the hard work and dedication. I love all of your vids.

Great video! I know it's pretty standard for you, as I'm a fan of your content, but man is it just amazing to see the amount of time and effort you put into all of your reviews. You have become my favourite reviewer for all games you cover as I believe there is no one who is willing to do 100% reviews as often and as you do. Now with my simping out of the way, with Rogue Trader approaching release, is BG3 your current front runner for Game of the Year, and if not, what other games are among that tier for you personally?

1,5h video, we're eating good, guys! just in time as I'm in the middle of my 2nd playthrough

I'm so glad that making these videos has brought you so much success and enabled you to pay off your house. The quality of your work is always top notch and appreciate them so much!

Been looking forward to this!

Patch 6 has addressed so many quality of life issues, I think it's pretty close to being a near perfect game now.

A couple of things: Swen posted on Twitter yesterday with some testing on Series S that looks like it'll significantly improve performance issues on all systems. Secondly, there's been an alleged 4th Difficulty Mode found in the game files, so it looks like that may arrive at some point.

i just know this vid was a massive project , super thankful for these reviews love watching them. :-)

The review i was looking for. Thank you!

Not sure if you'll see this comment, but I appreciate you calling out the Act 2 -> Act 3 railroad. I chose to play my first character as hardline anti-illithid. Never consumed any tadpoles, refused to make use of any powers, and going to any lengths to find a way to remove the parasite. Reaching the end of Act 2, the Emperor's deception made me genuinely want to kill him. By chance, all the gith ended up dying before I zeroed his hitpoints, which IMMEDIATELY triggered dialogue where he commended me for changing my mind, and I was forced to continue on like nothing happened. Worse still was that after the forced dialogue ended, I obviously still wanted to kill him. So I attacked...and attacked...and attacked... His hitpoints can reach 0, and absolutely nothing happens. Nothing. At all. He doesn't die, doesn't warn you or fight back, he just tells you to piss off and that's that. I was genuinely so disappointed, and it was entirely because of the standard Larian had set for themselves leading up to that point.

I agree very much with the epilogue not giving me satisfying conclusions for the origin characters. I barely did Gale's quest line but he seemed to have the most to say at the end with me even though I spent way more time with Shadowheart, Wyll and Astarion in my party. Astarion seems particularly the worst since I completely finished out his story quest and helped him avoid ascension only to have him comically run off because he's sensitive to light again...

Finally! I have really enjoyed this review, Morti! I feel I agree with you on so much. Keep it up!

Amazing work, Mort! Thank you!!

This man works hard...!

Baldurs 3 is freaking great. Goty without a doubt. Your negatives are fair points, and I'm glad to see a youtuber that isn't afraid not only to point out the weaknesses of the game, but to also straight out enjoy it. Too many people reviews I've seen try too hard to either overpraise it, or to underwhelm it because they want to be "based". Glad to have a fair reviewer.

Great story at the end I’m so happy for you! Wanted to add your videos encouraged me to play BG1&2 to the end before BG3 and I’m so glad I did because I had such a great time with both the old games and it made the experience of BG3 all the more enjoyable (in spite of the lore fudging you mentioned). So thank you!

Congrats on the 100% review, it was worth the wait, thank you so much for doing it.

I've played many CRPGs but I feel that BG3 really got many things right with script/story writing, game mechanics, quest decision variation and voice acting. It all comes together forming something so compelling to me.

Won't play BG3 for a long a time, but I really was waiting for this. This is the review that matter the most.

The perfect companion to my morning commute. Wonderful vid as always

Nice work man. We appreciate your dedication.

I have no experience with D&D and played on tactician difficulty my first time around and didn’t find it too difficult outside of a handful of combat encounters, most of which were in Acts 1 & 2. In Act 3 my characters ended up being so powerful I pretty much ran through the remaining combat scenarios without breaking a sweat. All that said, I agree that there should be a harder difficulty.

Better put my suit on for this one!

Thank you champ for always being honest and upfront with all your thoughts

I Love all your guides for both BG3 and Pathfinder

I actually quite liked Karlach's ending when i played. I played a bard and romanced her. I also did Wyll's quest and pushed him to continue protecting people. My bard went down the Illithid route and eventually went full Mind Flayer. So at the end when Karlach was dying, Wyll wanted to go with her to Avernus, and my Mind Flayer bard went with them. The three of us against the Hells. Wasnt the outcome i wanted, but it was still pretty satisfying. Also, im fairly certain this is the outcome that does the most good. Orpheus canonically wants to continue his mother's work of exterminating with Mind Flayers, but also wants to conquer and enslave every plane.

Love the content but gotta disagree about minsc. I recruited him early in act 3 (like you said it’s a lot so I specifically worked toward it) and he added a ton to the last act for me. Plus having him and jaheira walking around the city commenting on everything is a real treat. I think they have more lines than the origin characters in act 3 lol

This is amazing. The quality of your videos are gold standard

Amazing, being waiting for this 100%. I've been able and encourage to play so many CRPG's because of your guides. WotR, BG1&2, POE1&2. Greetings from Perú, keep doing amazing content and may we all wonder in wisdom.

What bothered me in the story was that there is no benefit in not using Illithid powers. It is implied you lose humanity when you use them, that in fact you should not be using them. Guess what - if you don't use them the only consequence you get is you are limiting your options in gameplay - have less powers for combat. Regardless of whether you abstain from using powers or use them constantly, at the end you get the same story outcomes, e.g. turning into mind flayer when you free Orpheus has the same consequences.

This is a great and fair review. Like you, I have enjoyed all of Larian's games. Heck, even Beyond Divinity had a few enjoyable aspects. That said, my biggest complaint with Larian that continues with BG3 is that they do not respect the story and lore of prior games. They didn't respect the lore of their own Divinity universe, and so it's no surprise that they didn't care much about respecting the Bhaalspawn saga. I hope that changes, but given that it has never been a priority for Sven (who never even plays his own games again after they're released), I don't expect that will change.

Your Baldur’s Gate 1 guide was immensely helpful. I loved playing Fallout 1 and 2, but could never even get passed the most basic encounters in BG1 which lead me to rage quit for years until stumbling onto your channel. I’ve now finished the Bhaalspawn saga and am looking forward to BG3, all thanks to you.

I think reducing potions/scrolls in order to increase difficulty is probably the wrong way to go. It is very easy to get to a point where those resources are too rare to actually use (think of pretty much any JRPG with an "elixir"), but in BG3 a great deal of the fun in combat comes from actually using those resources. It's also not all that difficult to do a "no consumable" challenge run anyway. I do agree it needs a far harder difficulty, but I don't think that's a good way to do it.

I personally think Larian flopped in certain parts of act 3, especially the iron throne. They had an opportunity to create a really cool underwater dungeon but instead we got a lame rescue/escort mission involving low level enemies we previously fought. Not to mention they could have given us an actual beholder fight in house of hope but instead got more spectators.

Your video essays make my work days way more bearable, cheers homie

Great review, Mort, Im still waiting to get my vacation on February to give it a go, thank God my anxiety has decreased and hopefully the game gets even better with future patches.

Im not sure im ready to watch this as i have about 15 hours into the game and have not experienced anything in it besides the beginning 1%. Damn it i want to watch it though, dilema

Love the review, agreed on the difficulty. As a long time player of these games and 5e and having a few playthroughs under my belt before a tactician run, I demolished tactician with a party of 3. Mort, do you have a link or build for the drow solo build you were showing in the difficulty section? I want to run a similar build and would love a starting point. :) Thanks!

Yeah I think the first video I watched from you was on the full story of BG1 followed by 2 cause I was hyped for 3. I played them both as a kid but never beat either one and haven't ever went back to them, but I've read books on the lore since and have always liked the setting a lot. Since watching those first two videos, I started getting other videos by you in my suggestions and have found some cool new games to check out and ended up subscribing which is something I don't ever really take the time to do, even with channels I watch a lot, just because I'm usually thoroughly interested in the games you cover and enjoy the way you cover them. Thanks for all the hard work, glad it's paid off for you! Cheers

Thank you very much for your awesome reviews man! Keep it up the good work.

I absolutely love BG3 and its now one of my favorite games of all time. I am so thirsty for a similar game but there is no game like it. I tried to get in to Pathfinder wrath of the righteous but it just didnt click with it. The main problem isnt event the presentation which of course is many levels under BG3, but neither the story in the beginning nor the feeling of the game could hook my. My biggest complain is that the game does absoluetely nothing to teach you its mechanics and its unique rule sets and gameplay. So i just felt like I was at the wrong place because the intrudoction in to the story and world wasnt as smooth and good for a newbie as in BG3 and the mechanics are also extreme complicated. Sorry but I dont want to have to watch hour long videos or guides about a game I want to play. The Leveling alone and the class system and character chreation looks so more complicated and you just have no clue which is good or bad for the character you want to build. I think BG3 just nailed completely the balance of statisfying deep combat and many possible interactions with in the world ( many physic objects, also something Pathfinder is lacking ) and is very addictive written in its narrative and story design and also gets it right to introduce newbies very good to the world and story. Pathfinder WotR just feels like a game for Pathfinder Fans only, it just feels like it doesnt even want to try to get Outsiders involved. I think this one of the main problems why many CRPGS dont appeal as much in the mass as BG3. Its not because they are too complex, its because they are often designed entirely with a mindset only thinking about people already extremely involved into the world, story and rule sets. Thats why I am looking forward for warhammer 40k rogue trader, because I am a huge Warhammer (40k) fan and I am very into the lore and world of it. But I think if OwlCat Games wants to reach the same highs as Larian in success, they need to give Outsiders more attention. Larian already did a good job with the Divinity games well to introduce the players with the right pacing and story telling into its world and rules. Also Games such as Disco Elysium which I really love as well reall nail introducing players into its world and characters ( even if its a bad comparison, because the games isnt based on a already existing PnP universe)

I think the major reason people resonate with BG3 is the full voice acting. I've had many friends approach me asking for games like BG3 they could play. The second question is always voice acting and the lack there of making it a no go. I don't know how you fix this other than allocating a rather large amount of your budget to VA which would already be challenging when this genre doesn't typically operate in the AAA space. Either way I can only hope we see even more CRPGs in the future.

THE Review. My man. Props to you for doing this. You did a great job. Love the channel!

Congrats on the review and a stellar year!