Baldur's Gate 3 Player Discovers An Unexpected Game Over
A player from Baldur’s Gate 3 took the effort to discard an important item from Act 3 and discovered it triggered an unexpectedly sinister game over screen. The game goes beyond the norms in allowing its players to shape their personal experiences. Nonetheless, there are some restrictions to make sure players don't hinder their progress due to an error.
Pushing The Game's Boundaries
The player’s attempt to test the boundaries of the game revealed that the Larian Studios game developers included a failsafe in case a player manages to lose one of the most significant key items from Act 3. Although there are other safeguards to prevent players from getting rid of it, the designers once again demonstrate their exceptional anticipation and understanding of the behaviour of its player base with this end.
Caution! Spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 3
The crux of the final act in Baldur’s Gate 3 involves gathering three Netherstones to help players in their battle against The Absolute, eventually disclosed to be the Elder Brain. One Netherstone is acquired at the end of Act 2, while locating the others is a task for Act 3.
Attributing to the crucial nature of these items, the game prohibits players from disposing the Netherstones. Nonetheless, YouTuber BOB_BestOfBugs managed to find a way to bypass this restriction. The YouTuber also discovered an extremely dark cinematic sequence that resulted in a game over screen.
Although players can't explicitly throw a Netherstone away, they can put it in a container and then throw that container. Following the act of tossing the container housing the Netherstone into a void, a cutscene gets activated. In this scene, The Emperor reproaches the player for their foolishness, reminding them that the trio of stones are their sole chances at victory against the Elder Brain.
Furthermore, the Elder Brain then appears and changes the player into a mind flayer, undeniably indicating doom for the Sword Coast. This occurrence is followed by a game over screen displaying a message, “A Netherstone is lost. The only path now leads to her…” along with an option to reload a previous save.
The good news is that players are unlikely to come across this series of events unintentionally, as one has to make a significant effort to lose a Netherstone. However, the mere existence of this scene clearly proves that Larian knew the kinds of mischief players were likely to engage in, and therefore included means to make sure the game would progress smoothly regardless of their decisions.