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Games & consoles · role-playing game

Baldur's Gate 3

Hacker Approved

Praised as a deep, freely explorable role-playing game with a strong campaign and no DLC; critics note combat frustrations and Linux performance issues.

Summarized from 87 comments.

Praised as a deep, freely explorable role-playing game with a strong campaign and no DLC; critics note combat frustrations and Linux performance issues.

recommend
71
criticize
11
months recommended
11 of 13

Why people love it

  • Strong story and campaign · 4

    the BG3 story was the one that ended up feeling like -- for me -- something that would have been a modpack for Neverwinter Nights.

    Oct 2026 · comment

    Great single player campaign with mod support. No DLCs or expansion packs, you get it all in the base game, finished, done.

    Mar 2026 · comment

    Baldur’s Gate 3 was an event unlike any BioWare (really any studio) has been able to drum up

    Oct 2026 · comment
  • Runs well on Mac, Deck, Linux · 4

    looks absolutely fantastic on it due to the HDR rendering and high screen quality on Apple hardware

    Nov 2025 · comment

    they optimised the heck out of it, finally shipping a native Deck build earlier this year.

    Nov 2025 · comment

    Baldurs Gate 3 runs better on the newer Apple chips than my somewhat aging gaming PC.

    Jan 2026 · comment
  • Freedom in how you approach things · 2

    Where BG3 shines is the freedom the game gives you to approach things how you like

    Dec 2025 · comment

    choices tend to align more along character axes than good/evil

    Nov 2025 · comment
  • No DRM and works offline · 2

    It doesn't have DRM, doesn't require an online account to play and uses direct connections for multiplayer.

    Jun 2026 · comment

    which I can install and play offline to my heart 's content.

    Jun 2026 · comment

What people warn about

  • Combat frustrates some players · 2

    Every time it drops me into combat I roll my eyes and often quit.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    Even darlings such as Elden Ring or BG3 failed to grab me.

    Jan 2026 · comment
  • Linux needs tweaks or Proton · 2

    BG3 also seems to require a custom Proton and tweaked settings for some people

    Jan 2026 · comment

    Baldur's Gate 3 Linux build is a slideshow on Nvidia cards

    Jan 2026 · comment
  • Buggy releases needing many patches · 2

    that will invariably be the buggier experience so want to avoid it

    Jan 2026 · comment

    terrible delta updates. Baldurs Gate 3 had 8 patches in 3 Years.

    Jul 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 87 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. the BG3 story was the one that ended up feeling like -- for me -- something that would have been a modpack for Neverwinter Nights.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “EA is shutting down BioWare”

  2. Great single player campaign with mod support. No DLCs or expansion packs, you get it all in the base game, finished, done.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “What Are Your Guilty Displeasures?”

  3. It doesn't have DRM, doesn't require an online account to play and uses direct connections for multiplayer.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Stop Killing Games”

  4. looks absolutely fantastic on it due to the HDR rendering and high screen quality on Apple hardware

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark”

  5. Baldur’s Gate 3 was an event unlike any BioWare (really any studio) has been able to drum up

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “EA is shutting down BioWare”

  6. they optimised the heck out of it, finally shipping a native Deck build earlier this year.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “I don’t need a Steam Machine”

  7. Baldurs Gate 3 runs better on the newer Apple chips than my somewhat aging gaming PC.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe”

  8. Where BG3 shines is the freedom the game gives you to approach things how you like

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Fallout 2's Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy”

  9. BG3 also seems to require a custom Proton and tweaked settings for some people

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”

  10. that will invariably be the buggier experience so want to avoid it

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it”

  11. Every time it drops me into combat I roll my eyes and often quit.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “After 40 years of adventure games, Ron Gilbert pivots to outrunning Death”

  12. Runs Baldurs Gate 3 and my final fantasy ps2 emulator just fine

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating”

  13. choices tend to align more along character axes than good/evil

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Game design is simple”

  14. which I can install and play offline to my heart 's content.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “If You Can't Hold It, You Don't Own It”

  15. the depth comes from the character stories and development

    Recommends · Oct 2026

  16. terrible delta updates. Baldurs Gate 3 had 8 patches in 3 Years.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Resetting Xbox”

  17. Baldur's Gate 3 Linux build is a slideshow on Nvidia cards

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it”

  18. Even darlings such as Elden Ring or BG3 failed to grab me.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible”

  19. BG3 has some pretty amusing hidden interactions if you steamroll events you're not supposed to be able to win.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “The Joy of Playing Grandia, on Sega Saturn”

  20. Baldurs Gate 3 the video game taught me DnD, videogames where you can go at your own pace are a nice option.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Model-Based Testing for Dungeons & Dragons”

  21. I would have done the same in BG3 if I still had the time to replay 50 hour games every few years

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “EA is shutting down BioWare”

  22. the difficulty settings make sense in how they translate to gameplay, and the default is fun.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Making difficulty curves in games”

  23. If you compare most complex modern games they blow out of the water anything from the past.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “The Melancholy of Slaying Monsters”

  24. Theres a LOT of variation and events between leaving camp and returning later that night.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Rare concert records going on Internet Archive”

  25. Both clair obscur and Baldur's Gate 3 (goty 2025 & 2023) were in gog since the beginning

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you”

  26. suddenly the cinematic cutscenes don't feel like a tradeoff for sacrificing choice

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Game design is simple”

  27. I loved it, but it consumed 50 of the 100 hours I spent on my first playthrough.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)”

  28. After that I'll get to Baldur's Gate 3 and probably have the same experience.

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Videogame stocks slide after Google's Project Genie AI model release”

  29. Recent AAA games that pushed the boundaries are Elden Ring and Baldurs Gate 3

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “New 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M6”

  30. There are rare exceptions like Baldur's Gate 3 that seem to reach everyone.

    Recommends · Mar 2026

  31. Would they be great games even with 15-year old graphical fidelity? Sure.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “32GB of DDR5 now costs $375 – AI shortage continues to squeeze PC building”

  32. BG3 had that magic for most of the first act I think for a lot of people

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)”

  33. All of them are incredible games spanning a vast series of game style

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent”

  34. is not only indeed really good, it's only the tip of the iceberg

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “What Are Your Guilty Displeasures?”

  35. it was nice to play against a substantially more intelligent AI

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible”

  36. Baldurs Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Crimson Desert, No mans sky

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook”

  37. Not at all my experience which makes me question the rest.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it”

  38. some of the highest quality AAA games like Baldur's Gate 3

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it”

  39. The newer games all work fine (e.g. cyberpunk 2077, BG3).

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “RemoveWindowsAI”

  40. Love me some Baldur's Gate 3, everything turned up to 11

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Apple discontinues the Mac Pro with no plans for future hardware”

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