I Gave Up on Baldur’s Gate 3 Because of One Important Gameplay Mechanic

I want to preface this article with an admission that I think that, much like everyone else, Baldur’s Gate 3 is rather incredible. From its generous swathe of incredibly written quests, witty one-liners, impressively in-depth combat, and great worldbuilding, there is a lot that it gets right. I am not here to wholly criticize Baldur’s Gate 3 as, while I do have many issues with it, I can understand why it is such a beloved game and widely considered to be one of the greatest RPGs of all time, if not the greatest. That being said, I have, rather unfortunately, given up playing it.

I am, naturally, not the first to be bested by Baldur’s Gate 3. Many that I know and many I’ve heard discuss the game online have recounted the moment they finally gave up attempting to complete the monolithically long RPG, and I genuinely believe that is fine. It isn’t for everyone, and Baldur’s Gate 3’s handful of issues can prove to be a tad too frustrating for those not traditionally RPG-inclined. However, there was one mechanic, one facet of Baldur’s Gate 3’s design (which I believe ironically deserves rather a lot of praise) that finally killed my enjoyment of the whole experience and forced me to give up, potentially even for good.

Everything Is A Main Quest In Baldur’s Gate 3

The distinction between main and side content in video games has often been fairly apparent. Side quests are typically denoted by a unique symbol so that the player doesn’t confuse them for the main content, and are naturally far less time-consuming so as not to detract too much attention from the story. The necessary clarity to help distinguish what’s so-called important content and what is purely optional has ensured that players have the freedom to decide how they’d like to tackle each facet of an experience. This is especially true for 100-hour-long RPGs, which are, more often than not, filled to the absolute brim with side content.

Baldur’s Gate 3 does away with that distinction, makes it more or less unclear what is optional and what isn’t, and creates the sensation that each and every mission you embark upon has the potential to not only be important but potentially further the plot in one way or another. I would suspect that many think this to be a strength of BG3, something that not only stems from Larian Studios’ dedication to making every quest as fun, nuanced, and critical as the next, but also the commitment to replicating the tabletop experience Baldur’s Gate 3 takes so much influence from. After all, having varied, long, and well-written side content should not be seen as a flaw. Who in their right mind would take umbrage with that?

Well, me. I would. The issue isn’t that Larian has poured so much passion and love into each of its side quests (if indeed you could even call them that), but rather that lack of distinction between what will genuinely move the story along and what is optional but still likely worth doing nevertheless, ensures that an already incredibly lengthy experience feels all the more laborious. Doing something with the belief that you’ll make meaningful progress only to be more or less reset to where you were before starting it, albeit with a shiny new weapon and some experience, is extremely tiresome. Conversely, understanding a task is but a mere distraction and something to do while you want to take a break from your main job, at least sets the right expectation that, when you finish, you’ll still have that main job to do.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Needs A Clearer Balance Between Main And Side Content

To its credit, much like The Witcher 3 before it, Baldur’s Gate 3 reveals the worst trends in gaming by exposing just how throwaway side content typically is in other open-world RPGs. Ubisoft’s brand of endless fetch quests and mindless activities makes for a significantly more dull and exhausting experience than Baldur’s Gate 3’s poorly signposted side missions. Games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, The Witcher 3, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have shown us the value in more nuanced and detailed side quests, the power that they hold to further flesh out characters, deliver worldbuilding in an unintrusive way, and allow players to make meaningful choices to help aid in their role-playing journey.

I am certainly not advocating for a continuation of the Ubisoft brand of bad side quest design. I’m glad Baldur’s Gate 3’s optional content feels so momentous and impressive. However, I’m also not particularly fond of spending multiple play sessions feeling as if I’ve made little to no progress because I’ve embarked on a mission disguised as main content, only to find it is entirely optional.

That was, at least throughout my modest thirty-hour playthrough, a significant majority of my time with Baldur’s Gate 3. A questgiver would claim to be able to fix the tadpole in my head, lure me to a new location, only to then basically begin an entirely different quest that, very rarely, brought up the original reason I had begun speaking to them in the first place. Naturally, when I had eventually wrapped up whatever task they demanded of me, they either said they couldn’t remove the tadpole or ended up dead. A prime example of this is Auntie Ethel’s questline, which, should you meet her in the Tiefling camp, presents itself as yet another possible option to complete the main story, but, in actuality, is all about saving an unrelated character and gaining a useful new item.

There’s Still Value In Side Quests

I completely appreciate that this is a fairly hot take; after all, many consider Baldur’s Gate 3 to be one of the greatest RPGs ever made because of just how in-depth its side quests are. However, I’m merely trying to state that there needs to be some level of balance between what should feel like optional fun distractions and the main story. The entire purpose of side quests is to give both the players and developers a moment of respite from the epic scope and scale of the main story. It is typically the aspect of the game with the most money and time devoted to it, and, as such, becomes challenging to create and overwhelming to overcome.

Developers can use side quests to flesh out ideas they couldn’t allocate the budget for in the main story, switch up the tone without causing too much friction, and offer simpler, ideally cheaper to develop tasks that still provide a modicum of fun. Meanwhile, players can use them to grind, gain experience, or take a break from the story and enjoy another facet of the world they’re inhabiting. They are clearly a valuable asset, especially within the RPG genre, and should be used when appropriate. That’s not to say they should feel basic, repetitive, and mindless, but rather that they should serve as a bonus to players interested in exploring more of what the world and developers who created it have to offer.

The frustrating part of all of this is that it wasn’t as if these missions in BG3 weren’t enjoyable. I likely would have loved many of those that I ended up disliking had I gone in with the correct expectations. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 does little to correct your expectations, either in an attempt to maintain the spirit of D&D’s unpredictability or to encourage you to do content you may have otherwise missed. I completely understand the intention here and even admire it.

At the end of the day, I want more side quests to be of such high quality as Baldur’s Gate 3’s. However, in an age where every game is vying for your time and attention, and said time is dwindling the older I get, I’d appreciate knowing just what I’m getting myself in for when I accept a quest, rather than being led to believe one thing is true, only to discover I’ve dedicated four hours to a mission that has brought me no closer to achieving my actual goal.

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