After 200 hours I’m still in the first round of Baldur’s Gate 3

MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski has now played over 200 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 and feels like she’s still finishing the tutorial.

Actually, I would have played Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty a long time ago. Actually. My plan was simple:

The early release of Baldur’s Gate 3 gave me exactly a month to play through it and then devote myself to the other big game releases. A month should easily be enough.

But Baldur’s Gate 3 has had me in its clutches since its release in August. For over 12 weeks I’ve been playing nothing other than Larian Studios’ massive RPG. The worst thing is that after over 200 hours I’m still far from finished!

Most people around me finished the third and final act in about 80 hours. I’m currently in the third act and estimate it will take me another 20 hours to complete Baldur’s Gate 3.

I’m lame, I watch everything, but I still miss half of it

How can it be that it takes me so long to complete one pass?

First I have to admit that I am generally a slow player and usually play above average. However, it has never been as extreme as in Baldur’s Gate 3.

But Baldur’s Gate 3 makes me want to really explore every corner, talk to as many NPCs as possible, read all the notes and books. Of course, as a Druid I also have to chat with every animal I come across. They also have the weirdest dialogues.

I am rewarded every time I go exploring. Almost every little quest has a cutscene, and sometimes the greatest stories are hidden in the seemingly most insignificant tasks. For those in the know, I’ll just say: carrier pigeons and Gale’s cat.

It’s actually really stupid to be so obsessed with wanting to see everything. Because every decision you make in the game means that you never see certain things.

I always manage to completely overlook things, as I often find out in conversations with others.

In the first act I left only death and devastation. So a large part of the game remained hidden forever.

I really wanted to kill an evil witch for whom my level was still too low. This led to me sleeping a lot to fill up my life – I even unlocked a nap queen trophy for this – and as a result the story sometimes continued without me.

I destroyed a druid grove, there was a genocide of Tieflings, I massacred a few more goblins in the hope of being able to do something here and save an important druid. But he was already dead by then.

Well… that resulted in three potential companions dying and one no longer wanting to join me because of my atrocities. I won’t see your stories.

But none of this demotivated me to continue exploring every corner of the game. I want my current story to be as complete as possible.

There won’t be anything like Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time

I could go into a lot more detail here about why I am generally very slow in role-playing games.

I haven’t even talked about things like staring at the screen for ages trying to figure out what move I want to make in turn-based combat. Only for all my plans to backfire and I have to adapt again. I’ve spent several days in the same battle without making any progress in the story.

And guess what?

These 200 hours still feel like a damn tutorial!

Because right now I’m torn about finally catching up on the games that I’ve had on the list for a long time, right after Baldur’s Gate 3. At the same time, I’m thinking about starting the next run in the role-playing game because I want to see all the other options.

I also have in mind for every single point how I could do it better this time. As if this XXL run was just preparation for the next one. I’m playing my current playthrough as Dark Urge, which is the perfect experience for me to experience this game. Experiencing this quest series is something special!

The last RPG that I was so obsessed with that I immediately wanted to play it again and again was Skyrim. That was 12 years ago.

I’m afraid that the really big releases of late will rather disappoint me. So I’ll probably first dedicate myself to a smaller indie game, like Cocoon, a puzzle adventure where worlds exist in a ball that you carry on your back.

I know that it will be a long time before a game triggers this level of escapism and immersion for me.

What about the other Tavs in Baldur’s Gate 3? How long have you been playing and how many hours have you got under your belt?

I’m just hoping that something like that doesn’t happen to me: “I deserve the ridicule” Player continues for 100 hours after bug, loses save, spoils the end of Baldur’s Gate 3