If you feel this way, you should definitely look in to getting into D&D. This game is the closest you’re going to get to playing a D&D campaign in a video game as far as translation to the medium goes.

If you like this game, you will absolutely love D&D.

I’m not into DnD nor fantasy generally, but I am absolutely loving it.

Well, to me it seems you are into it now lol

I’m playing using moonlight to stream to my shield and an Xbox controller and it’s intuitive and works really well. They add controller friendly UI and features for controller use. It’s handled exceptionally well. Would recommend 10/10

50hrs+ playtime at time of posting. Not enjoyed a game this much in a very long time.

For what it is, it works exceptionally well on a controller. There’s a reason most of the genre doesn’t even bother, though. There are enough options that you will need to navigate through more than one layer of menus at times.

It’s absolutely worth it, and I’ve played it a lot of hours exclusively on steam deck, but the nature of the genre is that it can’t be quite perfect.

The controller is fantastic on PC. This guy shows how it works if you want to see.
PC Controller

It’s extremely similar to Divinity. The combat system is based on D&D 5th edition, so there is less teleporting people onto flammable surfaces and setting fire to them, but it’s still similar enough to be called a spiritual successor.

I’d say it’s feel very similar. But the system is based on D&D 5e. It feels slower and more restricted. Still super fun.

I’m not familiar with 5e stuff and I’m having a blast.

I’ve just started playing on steam deck about a week now. Overall its great and well worth it. it very much feels like the originals, but modernised with more options and choices. So long as you have the 100GB or so free.

As others have said, a few bugs in quests and stuff- probably more than i expected for a game that been in beta for a long time.
Save often and be prepared to go back.

Specific issues to (my) steamdeck - I’ve had a few graphics crashes at first.
It’s supposed to run in dx11 mode on steamdeck, but I think mine was launching in vulcan for some inexplicable reason.
I have stable up to date system, and i got it straight from steam - so it should be fine.
Vulcan a bit unstable even at low setttings - playable, but annoying and low is a bit too blocky.
All the fixes on line talk about a “launcher” that doesn’t exist any more.
It was hard to find relevant help and ignore the issues for windows and pre-release circumstances.

In the end I figured out I had to find the launcher.sh config file and manually edit it to point to use the dx executable.
Pretty simple fix once you know that’s what you need to do.

Switching to DX11 seems stable on medium settings (40fps locked) and no crashes so far.
I’ve not tried higher gfx settings yet - I don’t really care about high - medium is great.
it’s pulling about 12W give or take, at medium - so you might be looking 1-2 hours tops on battery.

Playing experience is pretty good on the steamdeck controls.
I was fully prepared to have to use mouse, but haven’t needed to.
I had to get used to the radial menus, but I’ve not even bothered mapping the back buttons to anything yet.
The interface has obviously been designed with a lot of thought about console controllers.

I’d say go for it - i think most people do not seem to have a vulcan issue - otherwise there’d be more comments about it - and it can be fixed easily enough

It’s basically DOS3 with different combat, better dialog mechanics and generally better designed. The way exploration, stealth and general flow is essentially the same as Divinity and will play very much the same way, with some improvements on most areas.

You can get the camera to follow you with K&M. Just left-click and hold it for ~2 seconds and the camera will go behind the active character and lock-on/follow.

It is. You also have actual choices with actual consequences too. The “normal” route is to side with the good guys, but I’m pretty confident you can also choose to play evil and have another campaign on the complete opposite side of the fight.

That’s a good way to put it. I am savoring this game.

you’re definitely living life wrong.

Hard to get context across in a post, this was only intended as a playful jab. I know all too well the consequences of aging and how it sucks your time away. Though I got divorced sometime ago and my (adult) kids live with me. I work full time but from home, the time I save on the commute allows me time to cook etc and not having to be up as early allows me to stay up later at night. But because of this isolation I don’t really get out much There’s no “other half” and friends are in short supply, no co-workers to hang out with in my free time. Which leaves me plenty of time for video games. Now is this a good trade off! I don’t think so, would much prefer to be in your shoes.

Being down voted for being stuck in the machine of capitalism and having little time for entertainment is bonkers. “Living life wrong?” Motherfucker, it’s not like most people have a god damn choice in the matter. Sure, let’s just quit our jobs and starve in the gutter. 🙄

I’d argue you have plenty of time for this game. It’s big, but it isn’t filled with bullshit and doesn’t waste your time. Treat it like playing pen and paper D&D. You can play a campaign over many sessions and possibly hundreds of hours spread out over a long period, but if it’s time enjoyed it’s time well spent. You don’t need to sit down for an eight hour session. Just play for an hour or two and come back some other time. It’ll still be there and there’s no battle pass or anything to miss out on.

Most modern games suck because they treat your time like nothing. They have you doing bullshit quests and collecting meaningless items. BG3 doesn’t do that. It treats you like an adult who can make their own decisions. It doesn’t waste your time and everything you choose to do will be fairly meaningful. It is what gaming should be in my opinion.

It is hard but very rewarding. Often if a fight seems too hard you can use the environment to your advantage.

Way way way less surface spam than in DOS2, and less aoe.

It is definitely not aoe focused. I played through all of early access, and in my experience it required some tactical thinking, you couldn’t just bum rush everything

I find the combat just right. I’m playing in balanced mode (there’s story mode, balanced mode and the mode you play if you hate yourself).

I find the combat super rewarding, I can think I’m about to lose but manage to pull it back by the skin of my teeth. It seems incredibly well balanced. Some fights really do have me on the edge of my seat.

There is surface effects but it’s not as ingrained as it was in divinity series, sometimes creating and exploiting the right surface can give you the edge, but it’s not always needed. Aoe sure helps but with the limited amount of casts and spell slots, it’s something you save for when it will be most effective.

As for save scumming, they seemed to have covered a lot of bases, and failing might open a different story arc etc, so worth sticking at it even in the face of defeat. It strikes me as a game with a lot of replay ability because of this, though I find it hard not to reload if something doesn’t go my way, it’s definitely worth running with the consequences just to see what might happen. My character lost one of his eyes :(

The bg, bg2, iwd trilogy was a magical play experience! Gameplay was unique, immersive, and the dnd element was unlike almost any other game on the market. Can’t wait to play bg3!