Players have just discovered a mechanism removed from Baldur’s Gate 3. A decision by the developers that divides the community of the flagship RPG of this summer 2023.
A game is constantly evolving during its development and Baldur’s Gate 3 is living proof of that. Indeed, several days after the release of the title, players stumbled upon a deleted feature. A mechanic that would have changed the way you approach your adventure.
A buried Baldur’s Gate 3 mechanism makes people happy…
With approximately 274 hours of gameplay, including cutscenes and gameplay footage, players of Baldur’s Gate 3 are still far from having gone through the game. Even being extremely invested, many will surely miss a good number of details during their first run. And this is where the sharing of experiences on the Web brings great added value. A Reddit user, When_is_, rightly noticed the presence of a mechanism that was probably abandoned along the way.
Upon entering the Druid’s Grove in Baldur’s Gate 3, this player encountered a bird with a peculiar condition “Exhaustion”. “The lack of rest has exhausted you. There are six levels of exhaustion, and each one is worse than the last. A long rest reduces your exhaustion level by 1”. Except that, even if there are references to this during the adventure, it is not a feature that is applied to the characters or their companions. An element obviously not retained for the final version, and even before. Early Access didn’t have this mechanic, and in fact, before release, players were wondering if exhaustion was going to be a mechanic or not.
A discovery that is debated within the Baldur’s Gate 3 community. For OneNineSevenNine, it’s a relief not to have to deal with fatigue. “Thank God they took it down. Act 1 emphasizes moving quickly and not wasting time. I can’t imagine long breaks AND a penalty. It seems unnecessarily punitive to me.. The Legionstone member meanwhile is happy, especially due to some timed quests.
… and inevitably disappointed players
On the other hand, others would have really liked to see this idea in the final version of Baldur’s Gate 3. “I wish they had kept that mechanic. This would have motivated players to go to camp and trigger dialogue as well as cutscenes. I was so reluctant to do it in Act 1 that I went back and rested several times in a row. This resulted in half a dozen cutscenes. And those were important scenes, including a romance sequence.” (via spaceguitar). User ArlianDeBias agrees: “I wish it was in the game. There are a lot of scenes at camp that you can miss if you try to avoid the long rest periods. And you only realize that when you see them somewhere online and someone points out that you missed them”.
A divisive mechanic, but maybe future mods could introduce such a thing? Baldur’s Gate 3 is in any case brought to evolve during the months and the years to come, with great reinforcements of patches more imposing than the others.