It is unlikely that I will end up finishing Baldur’s Gate 3 anytime soon. And I think I’m okay with that.

I am currently at 61 hours played and still in Act 1. To be clear, I’m probably 90% done with the Underdark path, so not too far from the beginning of Act 2. But also to be clear, I fully intend to march up to wherever the boundary is, turn around, and fully clear out the Mountain Pass path as well. As is tradition. That is… unnecessary and probably ill-advised. “Save it for a second playthrough!” When, do you imagine, that will occur? And if I am running a second playthrough – most likely on Tactician difficulty – why would I give up on an entire extra area of loot?

The reality is Starfield hits Game Pass in less than a week now. And three weeks after that, the expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. I think the Cyberpunk patch that radically transforms the base game (revamped talent trees, etc) will be released prior to the expansion too. Sea of Stars just came out on Game Pass a few days ago, by the way, and while it too was going to be somewhere on my list, I had not realized that Yasunori Mitsuda was involved. Truly an embarrassment of riches scenario right now.

What really sealed the BG3 deal though, was a recent Mass Effect 3-style ending acknowledgment:

The second is about the epilogue. What’s been datamined is not really cut content but content that we didn’t want to release because we didn’t think it worked. We’re pretty strict with ourselves and our ideas. If it isn’t good – if it isn’t fun to play – it doesn’t make it into the game. One of the reasons why we trimmed the epilogue is because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long and would detract from the epicness of the experience. But clearly, not everyone agrees with us! So we’re going to do something about it.

We’ve started expanding the epilogues and you’ll see the first results of that in Patch 2 with the addition of a new optional ending with Karlach. It’s fiery, poignant, and gives her the ending she deserves.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3669924544104905987

As I said, I’m still in Act 1. However, I have consumed enough of the very thorough, very spoilery media posts to know that, for example, there were issues with Karlach. And had I plowed through the game as quickly as possible, I would probably be upset about this “optional” ending that nevertheless gives Karlach “what she deserves.” Which, from my partying experience with her in Act 1, is: all the nicest things in the world.

The talk about “first results” in terms of expanded epilogues foreshadows similarly corrected character developments. At which point the question is: why play this game right now at all? Collectively, I think we all kinda knew that someone playing BG3 Day 1 is going to have a vastly different experience than someone else picking up the Definitive Edition a year(s) later. But I’m not sure that a whole Mass Effect 3 ending situation was on the Bingo card.

Perhaps that comparison is premature. The fact that it is a possibility though… is making my dithering rather auspicious. The trick will be whether I come back to BG3 at all. My track record with “taking breaks” in CRPGs is not great. Didn’t work with Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 2, or Solasta.

Fourth time’s a charm, I hope.