Highlights
- One of the main antagonist in Baldur's Gate 3, Lord Enver Gortash, is being criticized by fans for falling short of expectations in the game's final act.
- Some players attribute Gortash's underwhelming character to his design, comparing him to a cosplayer, while others believe he suffered from cut content.
- Despite this criticism, many fans still consider Baldur's Gate 3 to be a top CRPG, with its first two acts being highly acclaimed, setting high hopes for its console versions.
A vocal portion of the Baldur's Gate 3 fandom has recently taken to social media to discuss how disappointed they are with one of the game's main antagonists. Their criticism emerged online shortly after Baldur's Gate 3 fell out of the top ten highest-rated games of all time list, signaling that the end of its honeymoon period is on the horizon.
Warning! Late-game spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 ahead.Larian Studios' latest RPG has already proven to be a huge hit, with Baldur's Gate 3 still boasting the title of the highest-rated new game of 2023, beating the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the Resident Evil 4 remake. But as more players are now nearing the end of its lengthy campaign, the online fandom is gradually becoming more aware of some of the game's shortcomings, the vast majority of which appear to be contained to its third and final act.
In yet another example of that trend, hundreds of fans have recently taken online to label Baldur's Gate 3 villain Lord Enver Gortash as one such weak point in an otherwise stellar game. A discussion that hit the front page of the r/BaldursGate3 subreddit over the weekend hence saw some players describe Gortash as the RPG's most underwhelming antagonist by some distance, arguing that he fell completely short of the expectations set up in Act 2.
And though the vast majority of the fans participating in the discussion agreed that Gortash ended up being a let-down, the player base still appears to be divided on the reasons for that turn of events. For example, Reddit user thelumpyslapper, who started the thread criticizing the villain, primarily took issue with his design, positing that they simply cannot take a character with the appearance of "a 45-year-old man trying to cosplay as Sasuke [from Naruto]" seriously. Meanwhile, many other players said that Gortash is merely a victim of cut content, opining that a literal lord of tyranny raised by the devil would have benefited from having his own act focusing on the political intrigue in the city of Baldur's Gate.
Seeing how the game doesn't provide players with a chance to explore the Upper City dominated by the realm's political elites, Gortash was crammed into Act 3 together with Orin, the villain who absolutely steals the spotlight in the final hours of Baldur's Gate 3. That state of affairs led to him being overshadowed by his murderous co-conspirator, according to some fans.
Irrespective of this criticism, many genre aficionados continue to tout Baldur's Gate 3 as one of the greatest CRPGs ever made, describing its first two acts as a near-flawless experience. This air of positivity bodes well for the game's console prospects, even though its PS5 and Xbox Series X/S ports will have to go head-to-head with some of the most anticipated RPGs of 2023 such as Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.
Baldur's Gate 3 is out now for PC, with a PS5 version coming September 6 and an Xbox Series X/S port also in development.
