Baldur's Gate 3 and How Endings are Hard to Nail

As I've talked about in multiple prior articles from last month, I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 a bunch. Both with my friends and in a solo game. It's been a lot of fun and, now that I completed my solo run I wanted to review it. Sort of.

See, this is gonna be a bit of a different review. Not only will it be differently structured but it's mainly focused on criticism and not about the positives. Not because I didn't like the game but because there's plenty of positive things out there about it you can find, I mean Baldur's Gate 3 is adored all over the industry. You can't go anywhere without people heaping praise on it. So instead I'm getting the score over with at the start so I can talk about my biggest problem with the game, the ending.

Also, as this is going to be focusing on the ending of the game, it is filled with spoilers so just be aware of that because I'm not gonna warn you about them before they happen like I do in my ending section. This is your only warning.

The Conclusion Score

Again, I'm doing the score for Baldur's Gate 3 here at the beginning to get it out of the way so I can talk about what actually matters to me in this article.

Ta-da. I scored it high. Who would have thought. Seriously though, I think the experience of the game is something that can't be replicated, playing it might have moments of disappointment or frustration but it's such a large game that has such a wide variety of things you can do in it (and things you can completely miss), that very few other games have achieved. Baldur's Gate 3 is a once in a decade experience and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it both during my Solo playthrough that I have already finished, and my still ongoing multiplayer playthrough. At least, I enjoyed most of it, besides the ending.

The big problem.

Okay, endings are hard. Like really hard. Sticking the landing is one of the most difficult things in writing and adding other levels to it like Games or any kind of visual media format just create so many more ways for it to go wrong. Baldur's Gate 3 turns this up to 11 with a ton of different choices that can have some kind of impact on the ending you get, some large some small.

The problem then arises that some of these endings will just feel...weird. For instance, in my solo game I chose to wake the Githyanki prince Orpheus so he could help me during the final fight and so Lae'zel wouldn't make me fight her. This caused the Emperor to do something incredibly out of character, turn against me and join the bad guy he had been fighting for the entire game and years before, he joined the fucking Netherbrain. I just don't understand why he would decide to join the enemy that he had often talked about how much he hated. It was just so, so, so dumb. Then, when it came to killing Orpheus, I'm able to make a roll to be able to convince Lae'zel to not fight me but she will then be super pissed at me and says she will leave right after the final battle but there is no similar possibility for the Emperor? I can't convince him that maybe joining the bad guy he hates is the worst possible thing he could do and maybe he should trust me that Orpheus can be helpful?

This was the only ending I got on this playthrough, I haven't reloaded a prior save to get something slightly different, but this still just bothers me. As I said, endings are hard and Baldur's Gate 3 has a ton of different endings, one even at the end of Act 2, but not all of them can feel satisfying. Some of them will feel disjointed, like something came out of left field and has no basis in the characters I have come to know. Some will, undoubtedly, feel pretty good, but those I think will be the minority.

When writing, figuring out a satisfying ending is one of the most difficult things you can do, trying to figure out something that ties up loose ends, maybe leaves a door open for a sequel if that's possible, but overall doesn't feel out of place is incredibly difficult and getting it right takes tremendous talent. And Baldur's Gate 3 has so many endings, the one I got though just didn't feel like it stuck the landing. Even the shift into the Epilogue after the final fight felt....weird. I romanced Karlach and my character and her walked toward the camera in a fancy room, one that I had never seen before, and their hands were what the camera was centered on. It was a sweet moment but...there was no music. No swell of satisfaction, nothing. They walked into the camera then cut to black. Then we get a 6 months later epilogue that was interesting but still didn't feel super satisfying. I think it was definitely more interesting to hear from the characters where they are after 6 months instead of a slideshow but it still felt like a weird transition.

I just think that the game ending didn't have the same punch that moments earlier in the game had. As if the best parts of the game were everything up until the ending where things just felt...fine. Which is something that I think other games have done much better, which, speaking of...

In Comparison

Let's talk about how the ending works in comparison to other games in the fantasy RPG genre, because it's...complicated. I've played a lot of games in the fantasy RPG genre, two of my favorites were the entire Dragon Age series and Avowed. Dragon Age does their endings wonderfully because they don't vary so wildly. The writers are able to predict the place the player is going to be effectively and only have to take into account some prior decisions as opposed to having to vary the ending wildly based on tons of decisions like Baldur's Gate 3.

Even more so, the endings don't actually change that much. In Dragon Age Origins you still defeat the Archdemon, in Dragon Age 2 the Templars and Mages will still end up at War, in Inquisition you still seal the rift and defeat Corypheus, and in Veilguard you still defeat the Evanuris saving Thedas from certain destruction. These all just have mild changes depending on decisions you've made, but they all end the same. Then, in Avowed, you still have to face Lodwyn at the end, even if you're given the option to side with her to avoid the final fight.

Meanwhile Baldur's Gate 3 has much more complex endings even if the predictability of fighting the Netherbrain is still there for the writers to consider, at least for most of the endings. This leads to, as I've talked about, some things just not making sense or not having a satisfying conclusion.

I actually find this rather frustrating how different I view this as opposed to many others in the community. I think less endings but all of them are satisfying is better than more endings where some of them feel flat out underbaked. I've seen many many people in the gaming community say they want more games like Baldur's Gate 3 where there are a fuck ton of endings and you can make so many damn decisions in the game that can completely change some aspects of future story beats. I just don't think this works well and even in Baldur's Gate 3, as I've talked about here, I dont' think it worked super well, at least ending wise. I think Avowed and Dragon Age: The Veilguard do endings better than Baldur's Gate 3 not because they have more decisions that lead into the experience but because they feel like tighter, more well structured endings that didn't have parts come out of nowhere and characters act completely out of character like The Emperor. Of course Baldur's Gate 3 does other things better than those games but I don't think it's as simple as saying that it's better than them.

The Actual Conclusion

It is perfectly possible that the ending I got is actually one of the few endings where it feels underbaked, where things felt strange or just plain unsatisfying. That the ending I get with my friends will feel much more satisfying. I know I've seen some endings online that felt better with the short clips of them that I saw but I just...I dunno. It still feels like Baldur's Gate 3 has the reputation it does not because of the endings being satisfying but because of everything leading up to them. You make a ton of different decisions and get to see how utterly wild those are, which is cool, but if the endings don't pull them together I don't think it really has all the same weight that is implied by the games reputation.

Again, endings are hard to get right and I think many other games have gotten them right in the fantasy RPG genre, but I just don't think Baldur's Gate 3 did super well here even if there are a wide variety of endings. I also intend on doing another playthrough eventually where I play The Dark Urge that I think will impact my game more and might help me have a more satisfying ending but I doubt it will change that much.

Pulling this back to this being a review, I'd still recommend Baldur's Gate 3 to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre. But I still think that the game, at the end of the day, is not something any other game can live up to. No other game will ever be quite like it, even Larians next game will be different to an extent. I don't want developers to try and replicate the game with the idea that it is the new standard. I'd rather have more games akin to Avowed than I ever would Baldur's Gate 3, although that might just be a me thing. Also, as I've talked about a couple weeks ago, I highly recommend modding the game, even for your first playthrough. There are some absolutely fantastic mods out there and they don't ruin the experience. Just maybe don't install the ability to turn yourself into a car on your first playthrough because, while funny, it's really not helpful.

Meow,

Cat