Baldur's Gate 3's most beloved feature is overrated and ruins the game

How thin can you stretch a story before it loses cohesion? There is a common opinion regarding 2023’s Game of the Year winner, Baldur’s Gate 3, that the storytelling and characters outshine the gameplay. While not necessarily shared by the majority of fans, this opinion still surprises me: I actually enjoy BG3’s gameplay, but I’m not that impressed with the story and writing in Larian Studios’ RPG. Some context for the angry mob that’s about to draw the torches and pitchforks in the comment section: I am an old-school gamer. My references, in terms of RPGs, are the likes of Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect 3, the Fable series, the first 10 Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, etc. You get the gist. These are games that, while experimenting with player agency and letting their decisions affect the game, still make story a central focus, even if it’s sometimes divided into a handful of branches. To summarize: Your input as the player matters, but not as much as the folks who created and wrote this game. These games had a story to tell you. Baldur’s Gate 3? Not so much. Larian’s take on the Dungeons & Dragons world has been praised for the freedom it gives playe