Baldur’s Gate 3 can be played solo, but also with up to three friends. One player wanted to experience the campaign of the game with a good friend, but this experience did not leave a good impression on him.
What does the player report? The player and Reddit user Small_Wedding_1456 writes on Reddit that he shared his first experiences in Baldur’s Gate 3 with a friend in co-op. His friend wanted to “have fun” by playing a truly chaotic evil character – which is why he chose the “Dark Urge”.
The player had nothing against an evil alignment, however, their definitions of “fun” turned out to be quite different from what he initially expected. His friend’s approach involved not only evil decisions, but especially the “chaotic” seemed to take precedence. Thus, the player had to realize that their playthrough developed into an absolute disaster.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
“Does chaotic evil really look like this?”
What exactly ruined the experience? The player’s friend claimed, according to the author, that his behavior was part of role-playing and his chaotic evil alignment was to blame for it. He wandered alone in the Underdark to wipe out the Myconid Circle, killed more NPCs without motive or logical reason, and acted generally very suddenly and destructively.
This is of course perfectly fine in a solo playthrough, but the player reports that it really affected his own gaming experience.
Even his friend’s reasoning that he justifies all of this through the alignment of the Dark Urge makes the player ponder:
“Is this really chaotic evil? […] How can one portray an evil character in a way that remains true to the alignment but does not ruin the experience for other players?” (Small_Wedding_1456 on Reddit)
What does the community advise? The post received a lot of reactions from other players who took up the author’s problem.
The player Japoots points out that the Dark Urge is not the problem in the case of the two friends, but rather that his co-player is constantly running away to “do his own thing” (Reddit). So it is not about the alignment, but about player behavior in co-op.
The player FacetiousTomato explains to the author that this is also a problem in Dungeons & Dragons as a tabletop game: “The central premise of DnD is that you play together with the other players. If someone decides to play a murderous character, he should clarify this first with the other players” (Reddit).
He also adds that the statement “I am just playing my character’s role” is often used by many players as an excuse to justify this behavior. To this, he could respond with “Well, my character would not stay with someone who has done such things, so I guess we are done together”.
After the community’s reaction, the player added something to his original text. He now understands how important it is to set personal boundaries and communicate, which he definitely wants to do. He hopes that this will not affect their friendship, as they get along really well outside of the game, but their play styles are simply too different.
Another player had a similar experience with a friend in Baldur’s Gate 3, but there was not the murderous intent of the co-player to blame: “A Disaster” – Player finds the one friend with whom you should never play Baldur’s Gate 3 in Co-Op
