Yup I've long been at the point where I treat critic praise as a bad thing, especially if they are handing out 9's and 10's to something, they tend to only do that if it pushes "the message." The more I read about this game the more it sounds lame and gay. Helps how I played the original and thought it sucked as well. One of those games that seems to demand you to obsess over it with it's fucked up save system that has some straight up garbage combat mechanics. When I tried to play it I was struggling to see what I could possibly like about it over Elder Scrolls or Baldurs Gate. Heck I would even rather play Dark Souls or Elden Ring and I usually think of those as offputting sweatlord games, but at least their combat isn't broken.
To think that all it took to raise some of the red flags early on was the Saudi Arabian ratings blocking the game for gay sex and leakers, and of course the director denied that shit.
This one game also opened up a
lot of smaller reviewer grifters as well who jumped to defend this game regardless of the bait and switch of the game being contaminated.
And now that you mention it, I do remember how the first game was known for being janky with obtuse mechanics like the weird saving, so I honestly don't understand why so many have a vested interest in defending the game and the studio despite lying to their consumer faces.
Just saw this post. Nah, then what they did wasn't just gay but incredibly lame. They defended how much he was a straight guy with his own identity in the first game and then caved like a buncha losers for the second game? Fuck off, I identify as non-buynary.
It only gets worse the more you read about what they've hidden from people, the complete turn around from being as authentic as possible for a historical fiction game, and the director himself acting like a raging twat waffle.
Past a certain point you just see these patterns like Neo at the end of The Matrix and instinctively know when a game or developer is beyond salvaging.
The set in stone rule has already been established that
these people hate you and want your hobbies destroyed, so the only winning move is to play by the same rules as them with zero tolerance while blowing up their failings so everyone else knows to avoid their trash.
The really bad part is how because this game slipped the wool over enough people's eyes, the video game industry will learn that they can do the same thing and get away with it.
*It occurred to me that the whole KCD2 Jew/synagogue bit in a game taking place in what was part of the
Holy Roman Empire is an awful lot like the forced synagogue segment in The Last of Us 2, down to lecturing the player and "no violence in the holy site, but it's okay literally everywhere else."
I believe they're hanging their hat on a similar defense: it was legal back then so we were trying to get the historical accurate pedophilia.
While having all the historically accurate DEI shit too, of course.
That tracks because another one I saw was this:
@Lightning Lord Rule my bad man. I had no experience with this series and was hoping it would be good. Spent an ungodly # of hours playing skyrim, yet
BG3 didn't scratch that itch for me... I was looking forward to that complete sandbox experience.
Don't expect Baldur's Gate "4" to do any better, then...
As a point of consolation, Larian isn't involved at all with this, so the IP owners are going full retard all on their own.
Was it even legal back then? When the Catholics were running shit I don't think sodomy was legal.
Fags were burned at the stake or beheaded.
As I said above, we're talking about a land smack dab in the middle of the Holy Roman Empire - zero fucking way that it was legal, let alone tolerated.
Therein lies the problem with all of the "playersexual"/player choice cope for these games: if they want to play the whole, "you can
choose the bottomed out option," then let me choose the good Catholic who reports the sodomites, Jewish golem witchcraft, and gypsy prostitutes.
Apparently even one of the straight options still has the main character getting literally cucked... well, I guess
that explains the glowing critical reviews.