Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)
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Read it so you don't have to - someone found a choice you can make in the second act that counts as an ending. So, they basically ran through act one and made that decision immediately.
They did not play through to what anyone would actually consider the end of the game.
How do you even get past act 1 in 10 minutes? I feel like even the time for dialogue to show up would take more than that
Jumping
Probably by not engaging in any dialogue.
Side question - Can someone try and define the line between the acts without spoiling? I just hit level 8 and found the nightsong last night. I think I'm in Act 2? Was kinda expecting major cutscenes or narration like DOS and BG2 to define them.
Once you get to the Shadowlands, you're in act 2. Leaving shadowlands is act 3.
You get an achievement when you complete an act. That's how I was able to tell I was in act 2 and eventually act 3.
Ah interesting I didn't think to look at them
Didn't you get a prompt saying you are leaving act 1 tie up your loose ends?
All the prompts I've seen saying to tie up my loose ends were misleading considering I could still go back and finish things. Going to the mountains or the gith creche, entering the under dark and the shadow cursed land... The only one with slightly different verbiage was when I entered the prism, and that was the only one that actually made it where I couldn't come back from shit.
It was a bit annoying, because up to that point I'd been told the same thing with different words and it didn't mean jack, so I figured this time wouldn't be different and it ended up killing a ton of people I know I can save. 😩
It didn't mention the act at any time, and from what other players have been talking about I am pretty fucking sure I got the ending this speedrunner did because the game basically ended at Ketheric my first run.
The game does auto save before that fight so you can go back and do it without the auto win against Ketheric
I got a prompt but I was still able to go back to all the places so I was just like sure? Compared to DOS and BG2 leaving acts/chapters had stuff not just a vague prompt
If it did, I wonder in how many seconds they speed-ran Wasteland 3.
Thank you. I figured as much. I still like that this is in the game.
Gale disapproves
I saw that news article too and didn't read it because I think it would be a spoiler. But it is interesting that some one figured out a way to do this.
I play Dark Souls and there are people doing speed runs to be the quickest.
I like to take games slow and enjoy the content. But still amazing what these guys do.
I'm not reading it for the same reason you aren't, but I can't help but wonder if there's something similar to the game "Myst" from the 90s going on, because 10 minutes seems way too short. For reference, in Myst, the entire game was essentially puzzles to solve other puzzle to solve other puzzles, but once you had gone through it once, you could "beat it" in like 5 minutes because the you could just go to the last puzzle and solve it using your knowledge from a previous run.
Maybe there's something you can do very early on that ends the game without having to progress through the actual game. I'm bookmarking the article to read after I beat the game.
Many games have “joke” endings as punishments for doing something incredibly stupid or out of character. Basically “this obviously killed you, but we’re going to have more fun with it than just ragdolling you”. They speedran to one of those.
One of the Far Cry games has an ending like this, if you just wait at the beginning instead of taking part in the game the big bad comes back and lets you go. The end.
Wasteland 3 has a few "You're an Idiot" endings :D
It also has a cheater ending. Basically there is a fight you shouldn't be able to win and should retreat, but if you manage to win, the game ends and even calls you out as a cheater.
Morrowind has an extremely fast speed run that is a genuine ending.
I will read it too after I finish the game. But the speed runs I saw in other games used game breaking bugs or out of bounds game play to skip areas.
But it could be as simple as an how you play an NPC's story-they would affect the main story and shorten the game to one of the many endings.
Reminds me of the old pick a path adventure books. "What do you do go right or left? I go right. A bugbear jumps out of the shadows and kills your character." Game over you died. LOL
Having seen parts of the speed run, you start as an Origin character and do a lot of jumping (keeping this effectively spoiler free). I don't think they're using out of bounds, but they do "complete" the game before act 3 even starts. It's an "Any %" run, which essentially is a run that takes you to the credits even if it's not the end of the actual game. Apparently there is a way to trigger that state earlier in the game. Having pased that point, it makes sense what it is and why the game allows it. But it's not something you'd likely run into on your first playthrough.
I'm sure there will be other categories added later, likely "Any % Act 3" or an any % category with other requirements, like specific boss kills or end conditions.
There is one "skip" done by using Misty Step to get into an area that normally requires you to have completed a story quest first.
The myst remake has an achievement for 3 minutes for the good ending.
There really is no point doing this other than for its own sake. The whole game is about the journey, and a short sprint doesn't really qualify.
Speedrunning is also about the journey. For a single good run it probably takes tens or hundreds of hours of failing.
Speedrunners generally play these games longer than most people do casually.
You've successfully described speedrunning 😊
Figuring out the fastest route through a game is one kind of a journey. There’s often big collaborative efforts involved in finding and perfecting the tricks necessary for the run. The actual journey is far longer than the resulting 10 minutes, and some people love being part of that journey.
Gotta go fast
I am of both sides. I play for the story and the choices and such, and take a long time to play... But then after I've seen everything, I like to dick around and see all the ways I can lose, and how fast I can get certain things or how early I can complete the game. For example, beating Chrono Trigger the normal way is cool and all; but have you ever defeated lavos the very first instance you can attempt it? It finishes the game super early, but it's also the hardest challenge the game offers.
I’m always impressed by these speed runs, I don’t want to do it myself but I’ve watched a few streamers like elajjaz do dark souls speed runs and it’s something for sure