Baldur's Gate 3 devs address Act 3 criticism including cut content and performance - and promise a better ending for Karlach

While Baldur's Gate 3 has broadly been beloved by, well, just about everyone, players have increasingly been raising concerns that Act 3 isn't up to the standards set by the earlier stages of the game. Developer Larian Studios has directly responded to those concerns, and says that fixes for some - but not all - of the points raised are coming.

Criticisms of Act 3 have basically taken three forms: the performance isn't up to snuff, there are too many bugs, and there are indications that some content has been cut. To that first point, Larian says in a blog post that it knows Act 3's performance, "isn’t as good as the first two acts," but there will be some notable improvements as of Patch 2. "We’ll also be working throughout September to improve performance in Act 3 further with new technology that’s been taking a bit longer to release than we expected."

Patch 2 is also going to eliminate some of the more egregious Act 3 bugs left behind after Patch 1. "Some things that are currently being associated with 'cut content' are actually things like companion reactions to events in the world that didn’t trigger," Larian says. "These are being solved. Where there seem to be loose ends, we’re tying them up."

But as for most of what some players are calling 'cut content,' Larian says it hasn't been cut at all - at least, not because of time constraints. Particularly in regards to the epilogue, Larian says that "What’s been datamined is not really cut content but content that we didn’t want to release because we didn’t think it worked. We’re pretty strict with ourselves and our ideas. If it isn’t good - if it isn’t fun to play - it doesn’t make it into the game."

Larian says it felt that overlong ending cinematics might "detract from the epicness of the experience. But clearly, not everyone agrees with us! So we’re going to do something about it." That starts in Patch 2 with a "new optional ending with Karlach. It’s fiery, poignant, and gives her the ending she deserves."

When it comes to Baldur's Gate 3's Upper City, Larian says it always intended this to "be an epic, cinematic epilogue" for the game. In other words, Larian is saying the area wasn't truncated to get the game out the door.

"We feel confident that there’s enough content in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the city itself, clocking in weeks-long playthroughs at a time. But that’s not to say Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t see cuts just as every game. It’s just important to know that what ultimately shipped was planned long ago, in function primarily of making Baldur’s Gate 3 fun to play, not for us to close development quickly."

Earlier today, Larian said that Patch 2 is "around the corner," so we might not have to wait very long to see these fixes in action.

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