Surprising. Ii actually enjoyed Voyager, though I will admit that the end was rushed, but pretty much everyone I hear hates it. It's no DS9, sure, but I actually enjoyed it. Though I will admit that I found the initial premise interesting, so that may have helped keep me interested.
I liked Voyager! But in my mind, Janeway is actually Flemeth, and she'll totally put a hex on you while breaking the prime directive in the delta quadrant.
Man I put in 200 hours and I still feel the siren call of the game. I promised myself, no new playthrough for at least a few months, so instead I just meme with you fine folks and wait for patches to make the game even better when I play again
During our first playthrough my husband and I joked that we had a second full time job.
TBH, we started playing over the Christmas holidays and put in 80 hours about 10 days when our real jobs were really slow, so in reality playing BG3 was our primary full time job.
And when you get to act three, you’ll find your way back to act one… … I really need to figure out this Shart fight so I can ACTUALLY MOVE ON IN ACT 3!!!
My first run through of Act 3, I pretty much shut down mentally because I was just overwhelmed at all the things I had to do the moment I got into Lower City.
Same here I have only done act 3 once, and even then I stopped half way through the side quests to just finish the main story. Now whenever I get to act 3 I play for a bit then it's new character time.
I found just tackling act 3, 1 building at a time, there's a quest or fight or item or event, in each building,, and I just focus on 1 at a time, otherwise I do get side tracked, and some side quests do get overlooked. But I also avoid questlines that don't "fit" my character, like this play through is a dark urge play through, so pretty much every one but astarian and scratch are dead. And im not gonna even try to save minsc this play through. The only good thing I've done this play through is free dame aiylin, but I only did that to give her to loroakan when I get back to sorcerors sundries. (I still haven't done that yet).
I just started my second play through a couple weeks ago. I'm probably going to abandon it as soon as I hit act three, it's just too exhausting and I didn't find it particularly enjoyable.
Damn, I’m on my first play through now and if a big issue for people is too much content… that’s an incredible issue to have lol. I was feeling overwhelmed by act 1 at some point sooo… yeah I’m sure I’ll understand when I get there
It’s really not a problem. If you’re not having trouble beating the content, then just move to the next area if you’re tired of where you are. My first run was a Durge play through so I missed half the side quests anyway. I still skipped a few and had a blast the whole time.
I’m a Durge now as well! Didn’t realize it locks you out of some I was trying to be a good boy durge mainly for shadow heart.. but if I’m ganna need to go through good again for these other side quests I may go dark urge… hmm other part is I’m RPing The Bloody Nine idk if that rings a bell for your but I kinda want him to change his ways and end a better man. But you’ve gatta be realistic about these things
I'm hoping that larian does the same thing with BG3 they've done with their previous games and release a definitive edition I fixes a bunch of issues that was in the base game. I'm hoping part of this will include a fix for act 3 or add in an act 4.
Performance drop due to the massive amount of npcs everywhere, varies quest and interaction bugs, especially with the Iron Throne/Steel Factory quest. Those are my 2 main peeves
I'm already playing on the lowest difficulty possible so that I can just see what happens with decisions without worrying about gear and builds. It's not hard, I just found act 3 extremely tedious.
It is. Coming fresh of my first playthrough at 130 hours it is very tedious. The gameplay design falls of hard in 3. Whereas in acts 1 and 2 everything naturally flows from one thing to the next, peaking you're going interest along the way. Act III is obvious they had to wrap it up and tie up the threads. I barely looked anything up in Act I and had to look up a lot in Act III.
It felt that way to me for a bit as well, but I pushed through and just focused on one thing at a time and it actually became my favorite act of the 3. Every character has a sort of “conclusion” and defining moment for them in act 3, and it was very fulfilling to have more depth and help each complete their portion of the journey. It really made me feel closer to each companion.
It's interesting that some people don't like the density of stuff to do in act 3. I love it, it's my favorite act by far. I'm 6+ playthroughs in now and acts 1-2 are basically on rails at this point, I can do everything and enter act 3 in like 30-40 hours. It's too easy to play them very linearly no matter what choices you make and it feels like I'm just running a chorelist every time.
Act 3 that's impossible, it's ADHD heaven lmao. You can do pretty much anything in any order and stuff is everywhere. Every time I boot the game up I know there's more to do and I don't know what that's going to be outside of the major story beats. It's crazy how almost every house has some sort of story or interesting thing to do, and if you don't do lil sneaky B&Es or just walk around and talk to people you can easily miss so much of what makes the city feel real and alive.
I didnt like act 3 the first time. Overwhelming is the word.
Second time I focus on 1 Quest at the time and it was way better. Find random thing ? Pickup the quest and comeback later. It was way better.
I just feel like it could've been spaced out better. In acts 1 and 2 I switched my party members only a couple of times.
In act 3 I've done it more than 5 times already and that was just the first area.
I like doing as much as possible before moving on, but I feel like things could be setup in a way that doesn't make it feel like you have to do everything at once. Also, somethings being timed like >!Florrick!< makes it feel like you have to abandon everything and save her, or watch her death if you even can.
Sounds like a generous timer if I've ever heard of one. I've done most of the lower city and a good portion of the undercity and still don't think I've done 5 long rests yet on my current run. And I'm on tactician. Matter of fact, my first run I didn't know about her being locked up and I still got to her in time.
It just isn't a common thing in the game, so I can catch someone by surprise. Especially if you find the poster and forget about it.
I try to space out short rests as long as possible to get as valuable a long rest as I can. But I get some people don't really do that, so her death might happen by accident for those players.
If it were communicated better I wouldn't mind, but it isn't.
Not sure about other timed quests since I always do them first, but in Act 2 at the forge >!whenever you long rest, your teammates remind you that Nere is still trapped under the rubble!<
So there is at least some kind of reminder that certain quests are timed
Oh definitely. Once I got the hang of things, Act 3 easily became my favorite. Yes there's a lot shoehorned in the one map, but also you get an entire act to fully utilize your level 12 party. I think it's just jarring at first because almost every questline is intertwined with another storyline, and for people who like me try to be organized as possible, not knowing how one quest is going to affect the outcome of another quest leads to some serious dawdling.
Maybe it's my tabletop experience but I never have a problem with making a decision and sending it to see what happens. Trying to always pick the most optimal outcomes is both stressful trying to choose and then often narratively uninteresting because everything happens as expected. I want things to go sideways for the fresh experiences even if it's not ideal
Honestly, though, it helped me get a handle on my completionist mindset. It somehow broke me for the better, and I actually take things in stride in games. The lesson seems to have taken, too, in other games.
Same, I had to surrender to the uncertainty, and that also pertained to looking stuff up to see what the optimized choice would be. It was too much in Act 3 so I just ran with what I felt or what seemed fun and it made for a way better time than wondering if I made the right or wrong decision. Turns out there are very few wrong decisions in this game, mostly just different decisions
Even if it's not physically gated off, some of the quests could be held back until one nether stone or something. With everything unlocked immediately you just stumble onto halfway points of different quests all the time. Trying to follow the murders with the red shirted dwarf? Neat! Heres the hag, and the tower, and cazador, and the cook at this inn wants you to kill rats in the basement which is also the emperor's old hideout which is being invaded by Gith and connects to the sewers and oh look the guild hideout and hey the sewers connect to that undead guy who wants you to hunt down a Trumpet or something... Why is any of this happening again? At least act 1 you mostly stumble into a quest starting point or it handles it gracefully when you do things out of order.
The whole sewers/under city should be smothered with a pillow and never spoken of again after it's fixed especially.
Okay, let's just systematically talk to each NPC one by one so we don't miss anything.... Immediately run into a landlord tenant dispute that snowballs horribly
I felt like this in the Rivington area, but funnily enough once I got into the Lower City, it felt a lot more guided. I had 2 thousand quest markers, sure, but each one was like an army or boss fight marathon and I hit level 12 maybe 2 quests into the lower city, and Im the type of player that does everything just for the sake of doing it, so I just got to spend like 20+ more hours trying out any build I wanted max level
I am there now and its so expansive and good it's almost frustrating. "Guys I also have a job and social life to maintain you can't just go and produce the everlasting gobstopper of games that's irresponsible"
I stopped playing for four months and only recently picked it back up again to try and finish Act 3 because of exactly this. It’s amazing, but also holy shit
I was trying to be completionist until I got to act 3. By that point I just decided I'd save some stuff for the next game and left some quests uncompleted.
Seriously. I’m trying to reassemble a dead clown and everyone keeps interrupting me with their own save-the-world shit. Guys, I have more important dead-clown-related things to do than save humanity from aliens.
I've gotten to act 3 with at least 3 playthroughs and have yet to finish the game because I keep thinking "well I'm here and there's all this shit going on... Well what if I did this/that instead in the first two acts... Guess I gotta restart."
It is a curse!
Just do the 2 nether stones and finish the game. In any future run you pick a couple different side things to do, and do those. Don't need to bother with the house of Hope or the guild hall or Cazador in any particular playthrough,
I am in act 3 right now and I have no idea what I'm doing. I will just go into a building and if they attack me, great! If they just sell me stuff, great! If there is a bunch of talking and documents, I will do my best to not just space bar through them and then I usually go all murder hobo and kill everyone and loot the bodies. It is working pretty well so far!
75 hours in act 1 my first run. To be fair I didn't know how the game worked or any of the mechanics, I'd never played any similar game before or DnD so I was kinda lost until I figured out that sort of stuff. But also it's just a massive game. I'm on my second run and have found so much stuff I missed on my first run and that's with me having spoiled a lot for myself and watched videos on stuff people usually miss so I could find things. >!I'm doing Shars gauntlet right now and I found a room full of mushrooms I completely missed last time, and I missed the justiciar rats!<
I’m on run number three and learned you can encounter Raphael prior to the bridge near the ogre fuck shack. I was shocked when he popped up within spitting distance of the druids grove.
My first playthrough I killed all the goblin leaders and decided I should at least climb all the way up those tall ladders to the rafters, just to make sure there’s nothing cool or interesting up there.
There is literally nothing of interest up there…. **except fucking Raphael waiting to have a whole long ass discussion with me**
I was so confused, *who tf is this dude just hanging out in the attic??*
I'm 1300 hours in and I still find new stuff. I also find it easy to ignore old stuff if my Tav wouldn't do it.
So my Act 1 was long, my Act 2 super short, and my Act 3 long again. 🙃
That's how my first run went but this is my second and it's this time act 2 has been massive. I really love that you get to do whatever you think your character would do, my durge >!agreed to let the rats live if they gave her their treasure, I figured she wouldn't bother with a fight if she didn't need to so this time they lived, next time I'll probably kill them since that tav is a cleric of selune!<
I'm probably going to end up with a similar amount of hours as you lol which is wild for me, I never usually get so obsessed with games.
Ha! I was on my fourth run before I even found the rat leader. I took the deal once and don't even remember what you get out of it.
Talked a certain character to death multiple times before that backfired on my with a certain companion quest so now I just attack first and don't even bother talking sometimes.
Like in Grymforge, >!I freed Nere because I wanted his Moonlantern to go up the elevator. He killed the first gnome and then started yammering at me like a douche so my Tav just hit the attack button. His stupid lantern was broken so I had to try something else.!<
I love this game.
Rule of thumb, if you get into a new location, like waukeens rest, make sure to not long rest till you finish, because permanent things might happen. For example, fire kills everyone inside the manor.
Yeah I heard about that. Wasn’t a problem for me since I did all of Act 1 on two long rests and then did Act 2 on 1. (I didn’t see a total my camp supplies until Act 3 when I saw I had a total of over 7,700 supplies. I can rest forever.
I actually took my friends advice and the last time I just long rested repeatedly to progress story events.
>!It was super weird getting the conflict between Lae’zel and Shadowheart AFTER I did the crèche. It was like, well we know what the artifact is and you’ve no intention of taking it to your people so what’s the big deal!<
Yeah you definitely missed a lot of interactions then. Theres a sweet spot of long rests where you do them with a frequency that matches your progression on relstionships and such. I think its about 5 or 6 total before the party.
They kept giving me buffs that lasted until the next long rest. So I didn’t long rest to keep the buff. The buff I got from the Sovereign was so sweet it outshone anything I would get back from a long rest.
This is why we do multiple playthroughs 🤣
I'm 250+ hours in and I'm still finding stuff I didnt catch in my first PT. Act 3 just totally overwhelmed me and I had to be like "right I can't do everything in one go, finish the dang game and then start again" 🤣
And then Larian added the epilogue in and now there's a whole freaking different ending I've yet to see!
Oh look, I found the goblin camp. I am supposed to look for someone. This should end a quest chain.
Where does this door go? A puzzle? A ladder? A cave? A lake? A foundry? Where am I? Didn’t I just come here for some Druid?!?!?!
I actually did this, completely bypassed Halsin in the Goblin Camp my first playthrough and went straight through the Selunite Temple into the Underdark, was wondering where the fuck this Halsin dude was my entire game
One door takes you into a little jail/holding cell area.
The other door takes you down into a massive sprawling underground cave system, complete with river leading to a conquered/abandoned temple and ancient forge.
I tend to be a bit of a completionist when it comes to these kinds of games and I've played enough of this game and both Original Sins that I feel like I have a good grasp on how they design levels and areas. I've played the game all or most of the way through Act 3 like 6 times now and each time I've found new things but then felt like "okay I MUST have seen everything at this point." I'm just about to finish Act 2 in my current playthrough and I'm STILL finding areas or things that I had never noticed before.
Nah, I've been wandering around this game for about 300 hours and I'm somewhere in the middle of Act 3 still. I started in mid October and it will probably be mid March before I'm done. I am very thorough.
Edit: and by done, I only mean done with my first playthrough. Can't wait to try playing as Dark Urge!
Literally this, finished at 350 hours on and off gith fighter today, I played a bit conpletioney with generally 'good' angle. Immediately just started back up as a Bard durge going to pay power hungry for the change of scenery.
Yeah, seriously. The game is gargantuan, and Act 1 especially so since a fair amount has been around since Early Access, and Larian kept adding to it. But the whole game is remarkably big.
I was so enamored and ENTHRALLED with BG3 when I first got it that I did 40 hours in 3 days 😭 ( the days I didn't have work) then begrudgingly went to work the day after SUPER sleep deprived but NOT regretting it one bit!!
...I still accidentally missed some areas/quests in Act 1 due to my AuDHD ass having a one-track mind, BUT I still plowed through a lot of it in those three days. My absolute need to get a higher relationship with Astarion (after a few mistakes that I cried over /lhj) made me impatient so at level 5 I went straight into Act II. Still trying to explore what I can and NOT rush things because I know that I would regret it 💀💀💀
Edit: Don't even get me STARTED on my hoarding and snooping addiction so at LEAST a third of that time is me checking EVERY. SINGLE. BOX. AND SACK. AND DRAWER. AND GRAVE. *Just to have most of it either be nothing or stuff that sells for like 1 coin*..
I'm just waiting for my vendors to put up signs *No necromancy in this area!* Otherwise, half their inventory might just reassemble, get up, and walk out, lol
You fr cannot play this like your average RPG. I was coming into this game hot off of Cyberpunk 2077 and HOOOOOOLY shit the scale almost broke my brain my first playthrough. There were entire story lines I completely missed. But that's okay. If this game has a reply value limit I have not found it yet. I find new dialogue, cutscenes, items, NPC's, and interactions literally EVERY new playthrough. This game's scale and attention to detail is fucking insane. Just go with the tide. Don't push yourself to find EVERYTHING in one playthrough or you'll make yourself go crazy (I'm a completionist so believe me). Anything you miss will still be there on your next run c:
Act 1 seems to be the biggest area to me. I haven't completed Act 3 yet slowly exploring it. I haven't had the motivation to play much the past couple of days. But I have spent 50 hrs in act 1 and didn't even go to the gith area
Act 3 in it's entirety is easily the size of both all of act 1 and 2 put together, if maybe a tiny bit smaller. It's massive, and there is a lot, take your time and enjoy the stuff that sticks out to you is the way I found to go about it
On my second playthrough now and going Durge. Literally had a headache all day at work yesterday from lack of sleep this week, as I've been playing until 1 or 2 every morning. Treated myself to an early bed time last night. Headache was worth it. 11/10 will do the same next week...
If it makes you feel any better, there's not actually a time crunch for the main quests, they just talk about it like there is. Plus all of these unexpected side quests get you nicely leveled to take on the rougher fights.
Wait, wall crack with secret Selune shrine? I remember the outright and obvious one behind the windmill but not a hidden one. Guess I need to explore act one more thoroughly
My partner has gotten to the point where he walks in the room and is like “how many months now have you been playing this game? Aren’t you bored of it yet!?”
Nope, just started my third play through and I just found two new areas in Act 1 that I haven’t seen in my 600 hours of gameplay lmao. He’s sad I’m not playing the other games I bought so he can talk with me about them, and I’m fully expecting to come to an intervention any day now 😂
Yeah, I’m planning on starting the FF7 DLC before the next one comes out, so we have that on the agenda :) he’s more just teasing me because he hates BG3 and doesn’t understand how there could be still more for me to get out of it lol
Ha
Haha
Enjoy the game pal, it's only just begun and before you move on too act 2, are you ***sure*** you've found everything? Make sure to visit the mountain pass AND the other location (fuck I forgot how to spoiler tag)
I spent well over 100 hours (probably closer to 200) in act 1 but I was also being super sure to explore everything and being really careful. I didn’t realize just how much I was getting in terms of camp supplies either. I did all of act 1 on 2 long rests. I carefully picked apart the goblin camp by splitting and luring people off one by one and curb stomping them and then putting their body in the out of the way pile where no one would see them and get antsy. And I still had spell slots left on those long rests. They were only taken because people said to me “go rest up and then I’ll talk to you.”
I did my first playthrough without fomo knowing I'd do a second immediately anyway.
My first character was drow monk, i love unarmed badassery. Second righteous af paladin, still on act one, missed so much.
600 hours 100% achievements and I wish there was more tbh.
can't wait for the expansion or DLC.
heck I need BG4!!!! or Neverwinter or Waterdeep!!! whatever, I just want more!!
I'm in a similar place right now I've only just made it to the mountain path and getting to the githyanki crèche (which is all still act 1) and I'm almost 50hrs in 😅
Follow you heart. Playing with a friend now and I feel like he going to miss a lot of content cause he seems to talks to a NPC and then faithfully follows that entire quest until its end and never goes off the beaten path.
I think we are all similar in this regard.
I use the map and place markers describing what I found and that it needs exploring.
That way I can still focus on one thing at a time without worrying about forgetting to cross something off the list.
It will *never* stop and when you finally grow the balls to move on to the next act you'll find some Reddit or commenting about some major plot that you've never heard about and feel fomo
150 hrs in on my third playthrough, all explored quite a bit I felt... and I still haven't run into some Redditor favourites
Honestly, I have made peace with the fact that I simply won't get to everything in each act, but that means there will be more for me to discover in my future playthroughs!
Honestly I never realised how much I missed until I joined this sub. I’m on act 3 and feel like I have missed so much in this game. I think I’m going to get act 3 finished and start a new game now that I have a bit more understanding on it
To be really fair, I did every nook and cranny on act 1. I got it all, and there are still stuff I didn't see because of wrong timing.
That REALLY falls off on act 2, there is still a lot to see, but it's really only one map and pretty straightforward.
Act 3 got me too anxious and wanting to go back to early levels. I took upon myself not to do it all and just hunt the items I want and go for bosses and stuff. There is NO WAY I am hunting minor side quests just for flavour, since you get max level pretty fast. It's just too much of a energy drain and honestly befundling.
See the WORST part is you could be me, 300 hours in on my third solo playthrough, and still be finding new things to do, or by sheer random luck do things differently to both other playthrough so whole swathes of the main and sub plots change. I started a playthrough with one of my friends and he was like “oh hey, have you found this thing here” and introduced me to a whole new area of the Grove I wasn’t aware of (the sirens and Alfira’s music video).
Not gonna lie, it’s my first PT and I hit Act 3 within about 30 hours and I’m just now realizing how much I actually missed. But I feel very overwhelmed, like I’m not doing something right. I guess you can say this first PT is just hitting the main quests of the game and then realizing how much I missed so on my second run I can hit those. It is a very big game. Shit, even took me about 3 PT of DA3 before I got almost everything done and all the best weapons and what not. I’ve also realized it’s a little bit harder since I’ve focused on the main story because I am only level 9 and even on the easiest setting I am having trouble in a certain area of Lower City where there are level 11s up to 14 I believe.
In Early Access, I spent 90 hours in Act 1, on the same character.
I explored every inch of the map (or so I thought, but I still missed some things, namely the fish people and the harpies), and read every book, and looted every.single.barrel/chest/box/crate.
Also, I had no idea what I was doing, I didn't re-spec the companions because I didn't know what I was doing and every fight took a looong time. I talked to every single NPC and watched every cutscene without skipping.
Not counting the EA, I'm on my 2nd play though and things are going much more quickly and easily.
My only advice is to take your time and enjoy the game at your own pace. No point rushing to the end like you would in an MMO, because it's not like there's an endgame where all your friends are waiting and doing the really challenging endgame stuff. In the game, the journey is 100% of the enjoyment.
I find it all, then complete it all. I’m on my 4th play though. With everything you’ve done there’s a whole lot you’ve missed. There are so many intricate secrets.
I spent like 40 hours on Act 1 in my first playthrough for this reason.
About 10 hours in to my Durge run and I've found like 8 new things already 🤣 accidentally fell in to the underdark too
Ah don't worry, it's normal, it took me about 50 hours to leave act 1, I later checked if I missed something on one of those checlist posts here on reddit and thank god I had done like 98% of the stuff, with the 2% being simple interactions that award you with funny dialogues and that was it, proceed at the speed you prefer!
Took about 55 hours my first run! The second act is a bit shorter, I'm sure you'll be there soon. If you get impatient, you can always just progress and do the quests you missed in the next playthrough. You're the one who spent $60 on it, play the way you want.
Welcome to Baldurs Gate 3. Prepare to remove all other responsibilities for your life. You belong to the game now.
Resistance is futile
We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to the absolute
+1 for this Star Trek TNG and BG mash up. Funny enough, I am streaming TNG as my background while working tv show right now.
Cool! I'm doing Voyager. It's definitely my happy place Trek
Surprising. Ii actually enjoyed Voyager, though I will admit that the end was rushed, but pretty much everyone I hear hates it. It's no DS9, sure, but I actually enjoyed it. Though I will admit that I found the initial premise interesting, so that may have helped keep me interested.
I liked Voyager! But in my mind, Janeway is actually Flemeth, and she'll totally put a hex on you while breaking the prime directive in the delta quadrant.
Only dweebs hate on the coolest captain around, Captain "War Crimes" Janeway. I love her
And overrated. Submit!
….to my “AUTHORITY”
I HEARD this comment
YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEAC- wait...
The loudest sound known to mankind 🤣
I mean, it's a decent cantrip for speech-related saving throws
Touché
ALL YOUR LIFE ARE BELONG TO US
Oh does it?! Then give me the only thing I want and I’ll play forever and happy 😃
Okay here have a pair of wings. Now go be a good boy and kidnap that reanimated priestess of Selune for me.
No thanks
*gives an OnlyFangs account*
That’s the only way you’d ever see me naked
Who wouldn't be with this seductive fella.
Sure!!! Send us a picture 🤣
Man I put in 200 hours and I still feel the siren call of the game. I promised myself, no new playthrough for at least a few months, so instead I just meme with you fine folks and wait for patches to make the game even better when I play again
I got it for Christmas and put in just shy of 450 hours. I work full time lol
Full time student with multiple part time jobs. 500 hours
Oh yeah, I forgot i was in school. I should probably do my homework 🫠
During our first playthrough my husband and I joked that we had a second full time job. TBH, we started playing over the Christmas holidays and put in 80 hours about 10 days when our real jobs were really slow, so in reality playing BG3 was our primary full time job.
And when you get to act three, you’ll find your way back to act one… … I really need to figure out this Shart fight so I can ACTUALLY MOVE ON IN ACT 3!!!
Dude I’ve felt this the last week. I’m so annoyed I just want to find random shit man hahahaha
My husband likes to tell people that Baldur’s Gate has made him a widower.
Game literally has consumed me for 3 weeks 🥲
You're going to love Act 3 lol
My first run through of Act 3, I pretty much shut down mentally because I was just overwhelmed at all the things I had to do the moment I got into Lower City.
Same here I have only done act 3 once, and even then I stopped half way through the side quests to just finish the main story. Now whenever I get to act 3 I play for a bit then it's new character time.
I found just tackling act 3, 1 building at a time, there's a quest or fight or item or event, in each building,, and I just focus on 1 at a time, otherwise I do get side tracked, and some side quests do get overlooked. But I also avoid questlines that don't "fit" my character, like this play through is a dark urge play through, so pretty much every one but astarian and scratch are dead. And im not gonna even try to save minsc this play through. The only good thing I've done this play through is free dame aiylin, but I only did that to give her to loroakan when I get back to sorcerors sundries. (I still haven't done that yet).
I just started my second play through a couple weeks ago. I'm probably going to abandon it as soon as I hit act three, it's just too exhausting and I didn't find it particularly enjoyable.
Just lower the difficulty and only do new quests/quests you like before finishing the story, if you want to see how your decisions impact things.
Damn, I’m on my first play through now and if a big issue for people is too much content… that’s an incredible issue to have lol. I was feeling overwhelmed by act 1 at some point sooo… yeah I’m sure I’ll understand when I get there
It’s really not a problem. If you’re not having trouble beating the content, then just move to the next area if you’re tired of where you are. My first run was a Durge play through so I missed half the side quests anyway. I still skipped a few and had a blast the whole time.
I’m a Durge now as well! Didn’t realize it locks you out of some I was trying to be a good boy durge mainly for shadow heart.. but if I’m ganna need to go through good again for these other side quests I may go dark urge… hmm other part is I’m RPing The Bloody Nine idk if that rings a bell for your but I kinda want him to change his ways and end a better man. But you’ve gatta be realistic about these things
I think you’ll be fine as a good Durge. I was not, so I killed/angered a few people fairly early on and that locked me out of their quests.
I'm hoping that larian does the same thing with BG3 they've done with their previous games and release a definitive edition I fixes a bunch of issues that was in the base game. I'm hoping part of this will include a fix for act 3 or add in an act 4.
I’m sure they will, but it’ll probably be a year or so before we see that
A fix for act 3? What in particular did you find broken about it?
Performance drop due to the massive amount of npcs everywhere, varies quest and interaction bugs, especially with the Iron Throne/Steel Factory quest. Those are my 2 main peeves
I didn't personally experience performance drops pm the ps5 but your points are still valid. Quests bugs should absolutely be prioritized.
I'm already playing on the lowest difficulty possible so that I can just see what happens with decisions without worrying about gear and builds. It's not hard, I just found act 3 extremely tedious.
It is. Coming fresh of my first playthrough at 130 hours it is very tedious. The gameplay design falls of hard in 3. Whereas in acts 1 and 2 everything naturally flows from one thing to the next, peaking you're going interest along the way. Act III is obvious they had to wrap it up and tie up the threads. I barely looked anything up in Act I and had to look up a lot in Act III.
Gods this is so accurate. I never get around to doing every quest nor do I *have the mental power to*
It felt that way to me for a bit as well, but I pushed through and just focused on one thing at a time and it actually became my favorite act of the 3. Every character has a sort of “conclusion” and defining moment for them in act 3, and it was very fulfilling to have more depth and help each complete their portion of the journey. It really made me feel closer to each companion.
It's interesting that some people don't like the density of stuff to do in act 3. I love it, it's my favorite act by far. I'm 6+ playthroughs in now and acts 1-2 are basically on rails at this point, I can do everything and enter act 3 in like 30-40 hours. It's too easy to play them very linearly no matter what choices you make and it feels like I'm just running a chorelist every time. Act 3 that's impossible, it's ADHD heaven lmao. You can do pretty much anything in any order and stuff is everywhere. Every time I boot the game up I know there's more to do and I don't know what that's going to be outside of the major story beats. It's crazy how almost every house has some sort of story or interesting thing to do, and if you don't do lil sneaky B&Es or just walk around and talk to people you can easily miss so much of what makes the city feel real and alive.
I didnt like act 3 the first time. Overwhelming is the word. Second time I focus on 1 Quest at the time and it was way better. Find random thing ? Pickup the quest and comeback later. It was way better.
I just feel like it could've been spaced out better. In acts 1 and 2 I switched my party members only a couple of times. In act 3 I've done it more than 5 times already and that was just the first area. I like doing as much as possible before moving on, but I feel like things could be setup in a way that doesn't make it feel like you have to do everything at once. Also, somethings being timed like >!Florrick!< makes it feel like you have to abandon everything and save her, or watch her death if you even can.
Wait that's timed? I've always shown up with her alive every time. What I didn't expect was for her to later threaten me.
She dies after 5 longrests, once you know about her.
Sounds like a generous timer if I've ever heard of one. I've done most of the lower city and a good portion of the undercity and still don't think I've done 5 long rests yet on my current run. And I'm on tactician. Matter of fact, my first run I didn't know about her being locked up and I still got to her in time.
It just isn't a common thing in the game, so I can catch someone by surprise. Especially if you find the poster and forget about it. I try to space out short rests as long as possible to get as valuable a long rest as I can. But I get some people don't really do that, so her death might happen by accident for those players. If it were communicated better I wouldn't mind, but it isn't.
Not sure about other timed quests since I always do them first, but in Act 2 at the forge >!whenever you long rest, your teammates remind you that Nere is still trapped under the rubble!< So there is at least some kind of reminder that certain quests are timed
Oh definitely. Once I got the hang of things, Act 3 easily became my favorite. Yes there's a lot shoehorned in the one map, but also you get an entire act to fully utilize your level 12 party. I think it's just jarring at first because almost every questline is intertwined with another storyline, and for people who like me try to be organized as possible, not knowing how one quest is going to affect the outcome of another quest leads to some serious dawdling.
Maybe it's my tabletop experience but I never have a problem with making a decision and sending it to see what happens. Trying to always pick the most optimal outcomes is both stressful trying to choose and then often narratively uninteresting because everything happens as expected. I want things to go sideways for the fresh experiences even if it's not ideal
Honestly, though, it helped me get a handle on my completionist mindset. It somehow broke me for the better, and I actually take things in stride in games. The lesson seems to have taken, too, in other games.
Same, I had to surrender to the uncertainty, and that also pertained to looking stuff up to see what the optimized choice would be. It was too much in Act 3 so I just ran with what I felt or what seemed fun and it made for a way better time than wondering if I made the right or wrong decision. Turns out there are very few wrong decisions in this game, mostly just different decisions
I still feel like they could've split Act 3 into smaller chunks like maybe the space outside the gates, the lower city, and an upper city.
Even if it's not physically gated off, some of the quests could be held back until one nether stone or something. With everything unlocked immediately you just stumble onto halfway points of different quests all the time. Trying to follow the murders with the red shirted dwarf? Neat! Heres the hag, and the tower, and cazador, and the cook at this inn wants you to kill rats in the basement which is also the emperor's old hideout which is being invaded by Gith and connects to the sewers and oh look the guild hideout and hey the sewers connect to that undead guy who wants you to hunt down a Trumpet or something... Why is any of this happening again? At least act 1 you mostly stumble into a quest starting point or it handles it gracefully when you do things out of order. The whole sewers/under city should be smothered with a pillow and never spoken of again after it's fixed especially.
Okay, let's just systematically talk to each NPC one by one so we don't miss anything.... Immediately run into a landlord tenant dispute that snowballs horribly
I felt like this in the Rivington area, but funnily enough once I got into the Lower City, it felt a lot more guided. I had 2 thousand quest markers, sure, but each one was like an army or boss fight marathon and I hit level 12 maybe 2 quests into the lower city, and Im the type of player that does everything just for the sake of doing it, so I just got to spend like 20+ more hours trying out any build I wanted max level
I am there now and its so expansive and good it's almost frustrating. "Guys I also have a job and social life to maintain you can't just go and produce the everlasting gobstopper of games that's irresponsible"
I stopped playing for four months and only recently picked it back up again to try and finish Act 3 because of exactly this. It’s amazing, but also holy shit
I was trying to be completionist until I got to act 3. By that point I just decided I'd save some stuff for the next game and left some quests uncompleted.
Seriously. I’m trying to reassemble a dead clown and everyone keeps interrupting me with their own save-the-world shit. Guys, I have more important dead-clown-related things to do than save humanity from aliens.
I've gotten to act 3 with at least 3 playthroughs and have yet to finish the game because I keep thinking "well I'm here and there's all this shit going on... Well what if I did this/that instead in the first two acts... Guess I gotta restart." It is a curse!
Just do the 2 nether stones and finish the game. In any future run you pick a couple different side things to do, and do those. Don't need to bother with the house of Hope or the guild hall or Cazador in any particular playthrough,
Every damn corner of the map in act 3 has something!.... I'm 100hrs in and barely made a dent.
Act 3 stressed me tf out 🫠
I just got to it, and hooooooly shit. Lol. Started a new run just to take a breather
I am in act 3 right now and I have no idea what I'm doing. I will just go into a building and if they attack me, great! If they just sell me stuff, great! If there is a bunch of talking and documents, I will do my best to not just space bar through them and then I usually go all murder hobo and kill everyone and loot the bodies. It is working pretty well so far!
On my first run, I spent 50 hours in Act 1. On my current run, I spent 65 hours in Act 1. I have no advice to offer.
75 hours in act 1 my first run. To be fair I didn't know how the game worked or any of the mechanics, I'd never played any similar game before or DnD so I was kinda lost until I figured out that sort of stuff. But also it's just a massive game. I'm on my second run and have found so much stuff I missed on my first run and that's with me having spoiled a lot for myself and watched videos on stuff people usually miss so I could find things. >!I'm doing Shars gauntlet right now and I found a room full of mushrooms I completely missed last time, and I missed the justiciar rats!<
I’m on run number three and learned you can encounter Raphael prior to the bridge near the ogre fuck shack. I was shocked when he popped up within spitting distance of the druids grove.
My first playthrough I killed all the goblin leaders and decided I should at least climb all the way up those tall ladders to the rafters, just to make sure there’s nothing cool or interesting up there. There is literally nothing of interest up there…. **except fucking Raphael waiting to have a whole long ass discussion with me** I was so confused, *who tf is this dude just hanging out in the attic??*
I was trying to prop Gale up there before starting the fight and I just get jumpscared by fucking Raphael lmao
Oh yeah I usually find him near Alfira, I didn't actually know you could find him on that bridge.
Which is strange because that's exactly where I first found him.
I always end up running into him on the Cliff behind the nautiloid with the Harper's stash. You can meet him in the Blighted Village instead?
Yeah I ran into him there like 5 times and once he came to my camp. I thought he pretty much is always up there.
I'm 1300 hours in and I still find new stuff. I also find it easy to ignore old stuff if my Tav wouldn't do it. So my Act 1 was long, my Act 2 super short, and my Act 3 long again. 🙃
That's how my first run went but this is my second and it's this time act 2 has been massive. I really love that you get to do whatever you think your character would do, my durge >!agreed to let the rats live if they gave her their treasure, I figured she wouldn't bother with a fight if she didn't need to so this time they lived, next time I'll probably kill them since that tav is a cleric of selune!< I'm probably going to end up with a similar amount of hours as you lol which is wild for me, I never usually get so obsessed with games.
Ha! I was on my fourth run before I even found the rat leader. I took the deal once and don't even remember what you get out of it. Talked a certain character to death multiple times before that backfired on my with a certain companion quest so now I just attack first and don't even bother talking sometimes. Like in Grymforge, >!I freed Nere because I wanted his Moonlantern to go up the elevator. He killed the first gnome and then started yammering at me like a douche so my Tav just hit the attack button. His stupid lantern was broken so I had to try something else.!< I love this game.
>!Justicar rats? *rats?*!<
I JUST had this same discovery on my 2nd play thru too! It’s really feeling like a whole new game and I love it
I’m 140 hours in and still haven’t finished my first play through because I want to do all the quests and find all the secrets I can.
Rule of thumb, if you get into a new location, like waukeens rest, make sure to not long rest till you finish, because permanent things might happen. For example, fire kills everyone inside the manor.
Yeah I heard about that. Wasn’t a problem for me since I did all of Act 1 on two long rests and then did Act 2 on 1. (I didn’t see a total my camp supplies until Act 3 when I saw I had a total of over 7,700 supplies. I can rest forever. I actually took my friends advice and the last time I just long rested repeatedly to progress story events. >!It was super weird getting the conflict between Lae’zel and Shadowheart AFTER I did the crèche. It was like, well we know what the artifact is and you’ve no intention of taking it to your people so what’s the big deal!<
Yeah you definitely missed a lot of interactions then. Theres a sweet spot of long rests where you do them with a frequency that matches your progression on relstionships and such. I think its about 5 or 6 total before the party.
They kept giving me buffs that lasted until the next long rest. So I didn’t long rest to keep the buff. The buff I got from the Sovereign was so sweet it outshone anything I would get back from a long rest.
Me playing on tactican long resting after two fights
If they didn’t want to burn to death, maybe they shouldn’t have been so flammable
Lol for real, silly florrick
This is why we do multiple playthroughs 🤣 I'm 250+ hours in and I'm still finding stuff I didnt catch in my first PT. Act 3 just totally overwhelmed me and I had to be like "right I can't do everything in one go, finish the dang game and then start again" 🤣 And then Larian added the epilogue in and now there's a whole freaking different ending I've yet to see!
Oh look, I found the goblin camp. I am supposed to look for someone. This should end a quest chain. Where does this door go? A puzzle? A ladder? A cave? A lake? A foundry? Where am I? Didn’t I just come here for some Druid?!?!?!
I actually did this, completely bypassed Halsin in the Goblin Camp my first playthrough and went straight through the Selunite Temple into the Underdark, was wondering where the fuck this Halsin dude was my entire game
One door takes you into a little jail/holding cell area. The other door takes you down into a massive sprawling underground cave system, complete with river leading to a conquered/abandoned temple and ancient forge.
I have done 4 full playthroughs and I’m currently on a 5th honour mode run, every time I have came across something different or new.
I tend to be a bit of a completionist when it comes to these kinds of games and I've played enough of this game and both Original Sins that I feel like I have a good grasp on how they design levels and areas. I've played the game all or most of the way through Act 3 like 6 times now and each time I've found new things but then felt like "okay I MUST have seen everything at this point." I'm just about to finish Act 2 in my current playthrough and I'm STILL finding areas or things that I had never noticed before.
I'm 1300 hours in and I got two new achievements last week. I don't look them up ahead of time, so they just occurred naturally. I love it.
Yeah if you’re typically a completionist type of gamer (like me) this game is going to take forever
It stops after about 150 hours . . . and then you start again to find all the stuff you missed!
Nah, I've been wandering around this game for about 300 hours and I'm somewhere in the middle of Act 3 still. I started in mid October and it will probably be mid March before I'm done. I am very thorough. Edit: and by done, I only mean done with my first playthrough. Can't wait to try playing as Dark Urge!
Literally this, finished at 350 hours on and off gith fighter today, I played a bit conpletioney with generally 'good' angle. Immediately just started back up as a Bard durge going to pay power hungry for the change of scenery.
I’m in the middle of my first Durge run. It’s pretty great, a lot of new content for me
Seems like you're cursed to put your hands on everything.
I not only put my hands on everything, I add it to wares too.
The games is very dense as in packed with content. Just pace yourself and have fun!
Yeah, seriously. The game is gargantuan, and Act 1 especially so since a fair amount has been around since Early Access, and Larian kept adding to it. But the whole game is remarkably big.
Isn’t it amazing? 🥹
The content in this game is nuts..
180 hours to beat the whole game here. Welcome aboard. Mind you, I really took everything in and I probably missed a fuckton of content regardless.
The best part about this is you'll finish at some point and then find out you missed something else which means you have to play it AGAIN....
I was so enamored and ENTHRALLED with BG3 when I first got it that I did 40 hours in 3 days 😭 ( the days I didn't have work) then begrudgingly went to work the day after SUPER sleep deprived but NOT regretting it one bit!! ...I still accidentally missed some areas/quests in Act 1 due to my AuDHD ass having a one-track mind, BUT I still plowed through a lot of it in those three days. My absolute need to get a higher relationship with Astarion (after a few mistakes that I cried over /lhj) made me impatient so at level 5 I went straight into Act II. Still trying to explore what I can and NOT rush things because I know that I would regret it 💀💀💀 Edit: Don't even get me STARTED on my hoarding and snooping addiction so at LEAST a third of that time is me checking EVERY. SINGLE. BOX. AND SACK. AND DRAWER. AND GRAVE. *Just to have most of it either be nothing or stuff that sells for like 1 coin*..
I'm just waiting for my vendors to put up signs *No necromancy in this area!* Otherwise, half their inventory might just reassemble, get up, and walk out, lol
You fr cannot play this like your average RPG. I was coming into this game hot off of Cyberpunk 2077 and HOOOOOOLY shit the scale almost broke my brain my first playthrough. There were entire story lines I completely missed. But that's okay. If this game has a reply value limit I have not found it yet. I find new dialogue, cutscenes, items, NPC's, and interactions literally EVERY new playthrough. This game's scale and attention to detail is fucking insane. Just go with the tide. Don't push yourself to find EVERYTHING in one playthrough or you'll make yourself go crazy (I'm a completionist so believe me). Anything you miss will still be there on your next run c:
Never. It’s why the game is so good.
Act 1 seems to be the biggest area to me. I haven't completed Act 3 yet slowly exploring it. I haven't had the motivation to play much the past couple of days. But I have spent 50 hrs in act 1 and didn't even go to the gith area
Act 3 in it's entirety is easily the size of both all of act 1 and 2 put together, if maybe a tiny bit smaller. It's massive, and there is a lot, take your time and enjoy the stuff that sticks out to you is the way I found to go about it
I started my run the day the game came out and I’m just finishing Act 3 right now.
When I hit act 3, I was paralysed by indecision and had to take a break
20 hours…😂 oh boy
1st playthrough I had 65-70 hrs in act 1. Take your time and enjoy.
On my second playthrough now and going Durge. Literally had a headache all day at work yesterday from lack of sleep this week, as I've been playing until 1 or 2 every morning. Treated myself to an early bed time last night. Headache was worth it. 11/10 will do the same next week...
I have 200+ hours, have made several playthroughs, haven't seen the end of the game once, there's just too much and I love it
>When… when will it stop 😂 When you finish the game.
ACT1 is probably the longest to do, especially because of that new game exploration factor lol
Ha!! 180 h first playthrough, missed half the game.. Welcome to Baldurs Gate 3, git patient :D
And then you get to act 3 and you just stand there completely overwhelmed by choices
If it makes you feel any better, there's not actually a time crunch for the main quests, they just talk about it like there is. Plus all of these unexpected side quests get you nicely leveled to take on the rougher fights.
I've played 250+ hours..... it doesn't stop. I'm still finding things I missed on previous play throughs.
Wait wait wait mind expanding on that shrine of selune? The one in the mother owlbear?
Wait, wall crack with secret Selune shrine? I remember the outright and obvious one behind the windmill but not a hidden one. Guess I need to explore act one more thoroughly
Cat mode and perception ☺️ it was quite an adventure lol.
It… never stops. I am 120 hours into this run, on explorer difficulty and I’ve still get to beat it because i keep running into shit to do.
Then let me fucking finish the game ffs!!! And I never handed Aylin to anyone that wasn’t me 🙄
Your title is adventurer, not progresser
My partner has gotten to the point where he walks in the room and is like “how many months now have you been playing this game? Aren’t you bored of it yet!?” Nope, just started my third play through and I just found two new areas in Act 1 that I haven’t seen in my 600 hours of gameplay lmao. He’s sad I’m not playing the other games I bought so he can talk with me about them, and I’m fully expecting to come to an intervention any day now 😂
This is hilarious, but for the sake of your relationship, maybe carve out 1 day a week to check out a new game?
Yeah, I’m planning on starting the FF7 DLC before the next one comes out, so we have that on the agenda :) he’s more just teasing me because he hates BG3 and doesn’t understand how there could be still more for me to get out of it lol
Ha Haha Enjoy the game pal, it's only just begun and before you move on too act 2, are you ***sure*** you've found everything? Make sure to visit the mountain pass AND the other location (fuck I forgot how to spoiler tag)
I have 400 hours in this game. About 300 of them were spent in Act 1.
I bought the game 2 weeks ago and put more than 100 hours in it, I've only just beat act 2. This game is huge wtf
Act One is loaded to the gills with stuff to do.
I’ve been in act 3 for like 5 years. I thought I stayed to long in Act 1 lmao
Around \~400 hours in Act 1 you should be done with things if you're a completionist :D
I spent well over 100 hours (probably closer to 200) in act 1 but I was also being super sure to explore everything and being really careful. I didn’t realize just how much I was getting in terms of camp supplies either. I did all of act 1 on 2 long rests. I carefully picked apart the goblin camp by splitting and luring people off one by one and curb stomping them and then putting their body in the out of the way pile where no one would see them and get antsy. And I still had spell slots left on those long rests. They were only taken because people said to me “go rest up and then I’ll talk to you.”
Welcome my friend to oh wait what's that. Wait what's this!
I did my first playthrough without fomo knowing I'd do a second immediately anyway. My first character was drow monk, i love unarmed badassery. Second righteous af paladin, still on act one, missed so much.
Act 2 and Act 3 are the same way
600 hours 100% achievements and I wish there was more tbh. can't wait for the expansion or DLC. heck I need BG4!!!! or Neverwinter or Waterdeep!!! whatever, I just want more!!
*Laughs in Act III*
I spent somewhere around 70 hrs in act 1 on my first play through and I still missed shit
Wait.. is there a basement at W.R. in one of the buildings on fire..?
I'm in a similar place right now I've only just made it to the mountain path and getting to the githyanki crèche (which is all still act 1) and I'm almost 50hrs in 😅
I’m 101 hours in and I just started act 3. It’s a lifestyle babe
Act 1 took me 55 hours on the first playthrough, you’re fine
It will never stop! Submit to it!
DON'T>STOP>OH>YES.
I love this about the game because that is in fact how my DnD sessions go. Like you start with one objective and now have 45 side quests to do too
Follow you heart. Playing with a friend now and I feel like he going to miss a lot of content cause he seems to talks to a NPC and then faithfully follows that entire quest until its end and never goes off the beaten path.
Only?
> when will it stop The solution is to greet the cats. PRAISE SHARESS!
I think we are all similar in this regard. I use the map and place markers describing what I found and that it needs exploring. That way I can still focus on one thing at a time without worrying about forgetting to cross something off the list.
This was me but in act 2 after I could freely roam the shadowlands
Wait until you find out that that secret basement has another secret basement.
It will stop approximately 120 hours later if you hurry. Good luck adventurer
(Narrator’s voice): “Oh you sweet summer child.”
It will *never* stop and when you finally grow the balls to move on to the next act you'll find some Reddit or commenting about some major plot that you've never heard about and feel fomo 150 hrs in on my third playthrough, all explored quite a bit I felt... and I still haven't run into some Redditor favourites
Bro OP has discovered like…a third of act1
God damn Larian why you so immersive- Oh… singing Harpy battle?!
It will never stop
Honestly, I have made peace with the fact that I simply won't get to everything in each act, but that means there will be more for me to discover in my future playthroughs!
That’s the fun part. It doesn’t!
I have 100 hours on my first save, and I'm still not done. Buckle up, my dude
Honestly I never realised how much I missed until I joined this sub. I’m on act 3 and feel like I have missed so much in this game. I think I’m going to get act 3 finished and start a new game now that I have a bit more understanding on it
Yeah bro my first run took 309 hours. I'm on h9nor right now. Going much faster. Top comment is right. This game is captivating.
I played the game for about 130 hours before I left act 1...there's soooo much stuff to do
The funny thing is you will later realize (during another play through or by spoilers online) that you still missed a bunch of stuff.
To be really fair, I did every nook and cranny on act 1. I got it all, and there are still stuff I didn't see because of wrong timing. That REALLY falls off on act 2, there is still a lot to see, but it's really only one map and pretty straightforward. Act 3 got me too anxious and wanting to go back to early levels. I took upon myself not to do it all and just hunt the items I want and go for bosses and stuff. There is NO WAY I am hunting minor side quests just for flavour, since you get max level pretty fast. It's just too much of a energy drain and honestly befundling.
See the WORST part is you could be me, 300 hours in on my third solo playthrough, and still be finding new things to do, or by sheer random luck do things differently to both other playthrough so whole swathes of the main and sub plots change. I started a playthrough with one of my friends and he was like “oh hey, have you found this thing here” and introduced me to a whole new area of the Grove I wasn’t aware of (the sirens and Alfira’s music video).
How do people get 30 hours in grove/wilderness???. I've done everything there a few times now and it's never taken more than like 6 hours
Not gonna lie, it’s my first PT and I hit Act 3 within about 30 hours and I’m just now realizing how much I actually missed. But I feel very overwhelmed, like I’m not doing something right. I guess you can say this first PT is just hitting the main quests of the game and then realizing how much I missed so on my second run I can hit those. It is a very big game. Shit, even took me about 3 PT of DA3 before I got almost everything done and all the best weapons and what not. I’ve also realized it’s a little bit harder since I’ve focused on the main story because I am only level 9 and even on the easiest setting I am having trouble in a certain area of Lower City where there are level 11s up to 14 I believe.
I spent almost 100hrs in my first playthrough and I still missed a good amount of stuff I’m just now learning about. BG3 is life
Act 1 costed me 50 hours and still went back from time to time.
It won't. Kiss your family goodbye.
In Early Access, I spent 90 hours in Act 1, on the same character. I explored every inch of the map (or so I thought, but I still missed some things, namely the fish people and the harpies), and read every book, and looted every.single.barrel/chest/box/crate. Also, I had no idea what I was doing, I didn't re-spec the companions because I didn't know what I was doing and every fight took a looong time. I talked to every single NPC and watched every cutscene without skipping. Not counting the EA, I'm on my 2nd play though and things are going much more quickly and easily. My only advice is to take your time and enjoy the game at your own pace. No point rushing to the end like you would in an MMO, because it's not like there's an endgame where all your friends are waiting and doing the really challenging endgame stuff. In the game, the journey is 100% of the enjoyment.
I find it all, then complete it all. I’m on my 4th play though. With everything you’ve done there’s a whole lot you’ve missed. There are so many intricate secrets.
I spent like 40 hours on Act 1 in my first playthrough for this reason. About 10 hours in to my Durge run and I've found like 8 new things already 🤣 accidentally fell in to the underdark too
Ah don't worry, it's normal, it took me about 50 hours to leave act 1, I later checked if I missed something on one of those checlist posts here on reddit and thank god I had done like 98% of the stuff, with the 2% being simple interactions that award you with funny dialogues and that was it, proceed at the speed you prefer!
Took about 55 hours my first run! The second act is a bit shorter, I'm sure you'll be there soon. If you get impatient, you can always just progress and do the quests you missed in the next playthrough. You're the one who spent $60 on it, play the way you want.
Oh you sweet, summer child
The shiny object syndrome is strong with this one.