Controversial Choices in Baldur's Gate 3: Does Being Evil Pay or Suffer the Consequences?

Highlights

Fans of Baldur's Gate 3 are disappointed with the lack of rewards for making evil choices, highlighting the game's imbalance between good and evil playthroughs.

The game's implementation of immoral choices is perceived as unsatisfying, leaving players feeling excluded from content and devoid of access to exclusive items, companions, and quests.

Players are recommended to adopt cunning tactics instead of purely evil actions, as betraying commitments and prioritizing profitability frequently result in more fulfilling outcomes within the game.

Recent discussions on social media have revealed that many Baldur's Gate 3 fans are disappointed with the game's lack of rewards for choosing evil paths. Despite the game's highly regarded role-playing potential, this criticism highlights the uneven development of certain storylines compared to others.

Warning! Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 ahead. Like many popular games, Larian Studios' latest release initially received overwhelmingly positive feedback. However, as more players completed the game's extensive campaign, they began to notice some less noticeable flaws. This led to constructive criticism from the fanbase, particularly regarding the unsatisfying portrayal of one of the game's main antagonists.

A recent Reddit thread, started by user Parasocial_Potato, exemplifies this trend. Many players expressed their dissatisfaction with the game's implementation of evil choices, finding them to be unrewarding and even punishing. While Baldur's Gate 3 offers various character builds that can significantly impact combat, players felt that the role-playing aspect of the game was limited. Morally right choices often proved more advantageous than the alternative.

The imbalance between good and evil playthroughs extends beyond quest rewards. Some fans complained that choosing immorality resulted in missing out on a vast amount of content, to the extent that they completed the game in just 40 hours. In comparison, Larian Studios had previously estimated that the average playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 would take at least 75 hours.

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One of the fans' most frequently mentioned examples of this content imbalance is the Emerald Grove quest in Act 1. During this quest, the adventuring party has the choice to side with either the Emerald Grove refugees or the Goblins. Opting for the evil route by raiding the refugee camp results in gaining a single companion, but at the cost of losing three other companions and missing out on a dozen unique items, a few ability-enhancing tadpoles, multiple vendors, and various quests. This specific criticism has been present since the early access period of Baldur's Gate 3, which began in late 2020.

For fans seeking to play an evil playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, it is not recommended to solely act vile, but rather be cunning. The game offers many opportunities for players to break their promises, so agreeing to do the right thing before pursuing what is most profitable often leads to greater rewards than simply being exaggeratingly evil.

Baldur's Gate 3 is out now for PC. A PS5 version releases on September 6, and an Xbox Series X/S version is expected to launch in late 2023.