Baldur's Gate 3 lead writer says Act 2 is deliberately lighter on exploration for pacing's sake

pcgamer.com:

There's a good reason some Baldur's Gate 3 players plugged in over a hundred hours into its early access. Act 1, which the early access encompassed, is absolutely massive—both the overworld and the Underdark are large enough to keep you busy for a while with its chaotic, explorative adventures.

That feeling of openness doesn't reappear as dramatically in the game's later acts, though. Act 2 is a more contained experience, with a stronger main quest, a killer villain, and far higher stakes. Meanwhile, Act 3 serves as a big hub for several endgame dungeons.

There are some practical reasons for narrowing the game's scope like this—Larian Studios don't have infinite time and money, after all. However, according to lead writer Adam Smith (who spoke to GamesRadar last week), this choice was also important for the game's story and design.

«You have a lot of choice space in Act 2, but it's much more about 'how do we handle these very specific things?' rather than 'what are we exploring, what are we learning?' … I think some people have found it quite jarring because it's like, 'this is very different'. But that's kind of the richness of it. In terms of the pacing, I think if we'd done three big slices of space like we did in Act 1, I think it would get exhausting.

»We didn't want people to think 'ok, I think I've done every piece of content in this map', and then you move on, and you're like 'and now there's another one'. That can be great, but it can also be like, 'ok, now I'm gonna do the same process again'."

There's something to be said for the comforting rinse and repeat of open world exploration, but turning your mind off and ticking off side quests isn't really what a CRPG's about, so while I did enjoy my hours of mucking