Dungeons & Dragons is one of if not the most popular and well acclaimed tabletop RPGs ever to be made. I think we can all agree on its influence and how a lot of successful RPGs we love owe a lot to this well established property. Dungeons & Dragons, as with many RPGs, allows you to be who you want to be and solve problems in any way imaginable. You could be a hero striving to help and save anyone they come across. A freelancer who fends only for themselves and tries to get by in the world. A hunter of heads, a blood hungry savage, a sorcerer, etc. Anybody can hop into a Dungeons & Dragons session and spend hours playing with their friends. What really drives Dungeons & Dragons is the creativity on display and it’s why I’ve become so intrigued by it. I always wanted to get into Dungeons & Dragons but haven’t found the time with how busy my schedule is and how I have to crack through these games on a regular basis. I enjoy hearing friends show their love for D&D and the many adventures they had. Thankfully D&D has had a plethora of adaptations to other media over the years, and one such is video games. That’s pretty obvious by now seeing how I’m one who spends most of their freetime talking about games.
There’s Dark Alliance, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights just to name a few. However, none have been as well praised as the original two Baldur’s Gate games. Two CRPGs that have stood the test of time for a lot of people and help get CRPGs to where they are now. Well written, well designed, and well respected. They were both developed by Bioware who you may know for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. This was their crown jewel for a long time and years ago there were plans for a third game. The third game was gonna be made by Black Isle who made the first two Fallout games, but just when they were halfway through development the whole game got axed. Scrapped as Black Isle went bankrupt and the studio shut down. All work was put into a bin and Baldur’s Gate was never talked about again besides by die hard D&D players and people who grew up with those first two games.Years have passed and another studio has begun to make a name for itself. A team known as Larian Studios who’ve been knocking it out of the party with Divinity: Original Sin. Second game in particular quickly became one of the best CRPGs out there and RPG in general. They one day approached Wizards of The Coast, the people who own D&D, and asked if it were possible for them to work with Baldur’s Gate. The company said yes and gave them the rights to develop the third property entry to the series.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was revealed back in 2019 and it wowed everyone. This beloved property was coming back and it would look better than ever thanks to modern hardware. The game was released into early access and while the initial state wasn’t very good, updates overtime would expand and improve. Transforming Baldur’s Gate 3 into a colossal beast of an RPG. Larian kept working and working, and around late 2022 they began wrapping up development. Publishing the full version midway through 2023 and hoping their hard work would pay off. Did it? Yes and it paid off more than they’d hope for. Baldur’s Gate 3 took the world by storm. With its fantastic written story that could play out in multiple ways. Characters who you could decide where they ended up by the end of the game. Choices that mattered, numerous ways to solve a problem, and being a near perfection encapsulation of Dungeons & Dragons in video game form. You could pump hundreds of hours into Baldur’s Gate 3 and even after a single playthrough you still feel like there was more to discover. Baldur’s Gate 3 set the standard of what video games should be and I believe Larian Studios truly deserve all the praise they’ve been getting. The state of the video game industry has not been great in recent memory, and we need studios like Larian to remind everyone of what we should aim for. Quality, heart, soul, and above all else greatness.
I’ve been dying to play Baldur’s Gate 3 ever since it came out last year. My friends have been telling me how much of an amazing game it is and how it quickly rose to being their favorite. All the articles and posts about Baldur’s Gate 3 made it very clear this wasn’t a game to skip. I don’t have a thousand dollar gaming PC like most people, so I waited for the console release. Then I saw how big of a download it was and waited for a physical release. Took longer than it should have, so I decided to find a website where I could order a physical Japanese copy of the game because they got prints of the game first. Installed the game immediately once I got it in the mail and have been spending the last few weeks nailing away at it. So what do I personally think? Is this game as good as people say it is? It is truly a masterpiece deserving to sit in the video game hall of fame. Did it become one of my all time favs alongside everyone else. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game that absolutely deserves the hype and praise. It is a true masterpiece… That I find difficult to call perfect. I have some grievances with Baldur’s Gate 3 that make it easy to understand why it might not click for some people. This is not a beginner friendly RPG and I wouldn’t suggest hoping in if you have no experience with CRPGs. It is a game you have to be in the right mindset for, but once you are you’ll have the most memorable experience of a life. This game is great and I’m so excited to talk about it. So let’s discuss why Baldur’s Gate 3 is a modern masterpiece.
Story
The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms. A land full of mythical creatures, races, societies, cultures, and ideas beyond your comprehension. There are many brave heroes who have traveled the land, but the greatest ones all eventually come to Baldur’s Gate. Where legends are born and protect the people from the madness that dares to threaten them. All was well at Baldur’s Gate, but one day the city was attacked by an array of Illithid ships. Now I’m not very good when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons lore. Was surprised to see there was lore at all. So I’ll do my best to describe to you certain aspects of the story and world. Okay, so you know what Cthulu is right? Think of that but more humanoid and dozens of them called Mindflayers. The Illithids begin capturing the many inhabitants of Baldur’s Gate and placing them within pods on their ship. They then infect these captured individuals with parasites burrowing deep into their brain. With time the parasites will take control of their bodies and transform them into one of two things. A mindflayer hell bent on conquest and torture, or a Thrall who serves as a servant to the mindflayers. You are one of the many captees and wake up hours after having the parasite put into your body. The pod you were sealed in mysteriously unseals and you discover the ship you are on is under attack. With the help of a few other captees you manage to escape.
You crashland onto the world below and instead of dying instantly you are saved by an unknown force. You’re dumped into the wilderness with a few goals in mind. Figure out how to get the lil parasite in your brain out and find your way back to the city. Along your journey you meet a few survivors from the crash all of whom are willing to travel with you. Gale Dekarios, a wizard who hails from Waterdeep and claims to have romanced a goddess. Shadowheart, a believer of Shar who cannot remember who she truly is. Lazael, a githyanki warrior who wishes to serve loyalty to her queen and purge the mind flayers. Wyll, son of the duke of Ravengard who helped fight in a war within the Nine Hells. Astarion, a vampire spawn who wants to find his owner who he had escaped. Then there’s Karlach, a tiefling with an infernal engine for a heart and also fought in the war Wyll fought in but on the other side. All of these characters have their own goals, and you’ll meet factions seeking your aid. Like tiefling refugees who want to get to Baldur’s Gate, druids who want to maintain peace in nature, or the Absolute who wish to carry out the plans of the Illithids. You decide who you help or who you fight.
The choice is yours.
Gameplay
Much like Divinity: Original Sin 2, this is very much like a CRPG from the olden days but what sets it apart is how you can rotate the camera to get different views of the world. Baldur’s Gate 3 is split into three acts and each of these acts take place in vast locations. Often with bigger areas lying within big areas. There’s a lot to uncover, loot to find, and quests to partake in. Quests can play out in multiple ways depending on your choices and the game will bring up your actions. You are a full on roleplayer in a roleplaying game. Consequences matter and opinions on you change as you perform more heroic deeds or continue to be selfish. Sometimes you need certain pieces of info or items to progress in a quest, and other times you’ll have to do a dialogue check. This has you roll a dice much like Dungeons & Dragons, and if you roll above a specific number you pass the dialogue check. You can gain boosts to check if your stats are a certain level, or you can add bonuses to help increase the number. You can also reroll using inspiration, but once you run out of inspiration you’ll have to live with your failed rolls. That or you can just save scum, which we'll talk about later in the review. As you complete quests, kill enemies, or reach certain points you gain experience points.
Each character levels up differently depending on your class, and the different perks and bonuses offered allow you to craft different builds and playstyles. You can major in two classes if at the start of a new game you turn on the option to. Your maximum health increases, you gain more spell slots to perform more spells, and special classes like the bard or barbarian will gain extra slots for their special skills. Can we talk about the classes for a bit? The game doesn’t have the wide customization Original Sin 2 has, but by giving each class certain traits and cons they allow the player to determine who they should and shouldn’t bring with them for the problems ahead. Warriors are your basic DPS characters and barbarians can enter a rage mode to go full ham on your enemies. Clerics are good at performing support spells and healing, and wizards unleash a variety of elemental storms. Druids can transform into beasts, rogues can perform sneak attacks and get the upper hand, bards can cheer up their parties, and so forth. Bringing the right party and the right gear can transform a difficult fight into a slightly more manageable one. However, during your travels you’ll take loads of damage. Healing spells and potions will run out and you will run out of options. Well you got two left and those are two forms of resting. A short rest is quick, easy, and gives you back a fraction of health depending on what options you have active. A short rest can be done two times, three if you are a bard, but a long rest will replenish every single thing. Short rests slots, health, and spell slots which can’t be replenished under any other circumstance. You may even trigger certain cutscenes at your camp as you progress further into the game, help them with their quests, and strengthen your relationships.
Combat is very much like Original Sin 2 in that you and your enemies take turns navigating the battlefield and exchanging attacks. You have an action point, bonus action point, and movement meter. The meter dictates how much you can run around, and the two points let you perform an attack or skill. Every attack can land a set number and there’s a percent chance on if you hit the enemy or not. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you move the cursor over to an enemy and it says sixty percent. You have a sixty percent chance of landing the attack. Your attack says it can deal damage between four and thirteen. Your attack can either fail and deal little damage or it can be a critical success and deal a high number. It is much like Dungeons and Dragons where the roll of the nice and random number generation determines the flow of a fight. Does it play in your favor or will it be the thing that betrays you. Quests, choices, combat, exploration, progress, these are all the things Baldur’s Gate 3 prioritize in and I haven’t even scratched the surface. I want to keep these sections simple because I do want to talk about this game’s design during the conclusion of this review. Hopefully you can make your way to the city, discover some way to rid yourself of the parasite, slay powerful foes, and become the hero everyone needs.
Thoughts
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an RPG dream that is difficult to review normally. Skill Up said it best during his 2023 year wrap up when he mentions why he didn’t post a review for Baldur’s Gate 3. He wanted to, but each time he tried to write it he felty displeased because he felt like was forgetting a crucial part. There are so many things this game does that even missing a few aspects does it disservice. Well I’m gonna try and keep my thoughts on this game simple, but I’ll say one thing now that I said earlier in the review. This game is not for everyone. I love it when niche games blow up, because it usually means they succeed at pleasing the audience they aimed for. It’s just luck that Baldur’s Gate 3 blew up bigger than expected and won all those end of the year awards. Again, I think it deserves it, but this is not a beginner friendly RPG. Much like Elden Ring it will whip your ass if you don’t come in with experience, and that’s why I’ve seen a small number of players walk away without understanding what makes it great. I got into the game instantly since I had experience with Original Sin 2 and Disco Elysium, but over my 60 hour playthrough which I enjoyed I noticed things that somewhat frustrated me. Things that I’m surprised not a lot of the players of this game brought up. Yet again, this game is doing a lot of things right to have a large number of players ignore those flaws and talk about why it’s a fantastical work of art.
Let’s talk about the things I love first that I don’t have any criticism with. The story and writing is great, we can all agree on that. Baldur’s Gate 3 has one of the best fantasy stories out there not because of what it has to say, but where it ends up taking you and the people you meet. It’s the core reason why I love Octopath Traveler so much. Every single character in this game to the smallest and most bizarre creature is memorable due to how you interact with them, and how the actions you make affect where they end up. The tiefling refugee at the beginning of the game is a perfect example of this. You can choose to not help them and let them all die, or you can clear the way and let them travel to Baldur’s Gate. Some members of the group will get captured or end up somewhere bad, and you can go out of your way to find them. Once you reach the city you get to see them live the peaceful lives they’ve been struggling to work towards. A couple you helped reunite during a prison break will become an entertainer and waitress. A blacksmith will open up a shop, or a kid who spends her life stealing will become a loyal member to a guild. The story unravels in exciting ways and every single plot twist will leave you engaged as you wonder where it’ll lead next.
Your party members are some of the best characters in the game, because of how you build your relationship with them. Some of the choices you make will gain or lose their approval, and you feel like you gain a connection by doing things they like. Talking to them during their downtime, hearing them make comments on what you should probably do, hearing them offer ways to solve a puzzle, or just getting to know them as a person. Their struggles are more interesting and you push forward not just because of the main story but to help the only friends you have. Helping Shadowheart reconsider her faith and who she is as a person. Reasoning with Lazael and telling her loyalty to her queen isn’t everything and that they may have been lying to her. Gale’s pursuit of knowledge and letting it destroy him or not. Wyll’s sacrifices, Astarion’s abuse, Karlach’s sad and lonely life, and much more. These characters will have an emotional and relatable effect on you, and I’ve already seen the handful of players who were torn apart by Astarion’s ending. The choices you make matter and the game for the most part will not tell you what is right. I talked about it before, but I said good moral choice forces you to decide what is best, not the game. You must look at the evidence before you and choose, and these choices are not easy to make.
The game uses much of the modern tech that Triple A games use, but the universe stands out due to good art direction. Everything is a step up from production since Larian’s last game from the detailing, physics, lighting, and animation. They were able to get The Witcher 3 levels of cinema direction and character conversation, so that’s good. I love the amount of options they give you when creating a character. Allowing you to create the hottie of your dreams, or a character that is literally you in real life. The soundtrack is splendid. The many hums of the environment and the orchestras of battle that carry you through every encounter. Borislav Slavov recently won a big gold award for the soundtrack and he rightfully deserves it because he’s making some of the best music in the video game industry. Voice acting is stellar too as every single character gives off a grade A performance. I love how the world is free for you to explore and experiment with. There were a couple of moments where some characters weren’t athletic enough to jump up to a certain height, but by using a few barrels and crates I was able to get them to where we needed to go. I can use ground levels and environmental hazards to my advantage. Push enemies off cliffs or electrocute them in a body of water. I found dialogue checks really fun even if I didn’t pass them. I know people save scum when it comes to the dialogue checks, but I rolled with my decisions because it made succeeding in rolls more fulfilling. It gave me these lil bursts of energy.
Now this is where we move onto some of my criticisms with the game. There are design choices in this game you will not like at first, and trust me I was one of those individuals. With time you will learn to work your head around it and appreciate them for what they are. The resting system is a great way for you to connect with your team members and have a cozy place to relax in. Like how every party member’s tent is unique from each other, or if you come across certain pets in the wild you can send them to your camp where you can pet them. Like how party members have their own clothing and pajamas at the end of day’s rest, whereas in Original Sin 2 they just wear what they have equipped. I like how you have to spend food supplies or camp packs to take long rests, because it encourages you to scrounge for food with how hard it is to come across. It feels great to take long rests, but from a mechanical perspective it leads to inconveniences. Spell slots can only be refilled from long rests, and the only thing short rests refill are health. I’m surprised they don’t allow you to recover a small number of spell slots from short rests, because for certain characters and classes once you run out of spell slots you’re pretty much just f*cked. It also doesn't help that the more you rest at camp the higher the cost of supplies to rest will be. Some part way through act one I turned on an accessibility slider that lowers the cost.
The turn based combat is great. It is some of the most fun and rewarding combat you’ll have in a CRPG since Original Sin 2. Attacks are meaty, opponents are challenging, and just when a battle feels overwhelming you come up with some smart tactics and persevere. It’s great when you get out alive and make it to where you need to be or safety. Yet, if you’ve played Original Sin 2 like I did then you’ll have to get used to some new aspects. The percent chance of hitting foes in this game is much lower than Original Sin 2. I completely forgot that Original Sin 2 had percentage chances of hitting foes at all probably because your hits were more guaranteed. In Baldur’s Gate it’s more noticeable and can be really frustrating during stressful fights. You keep tanking blows and your enemies keep dealing high damage attacks, and you just want to get a few hits in. You try to and then it misses because it was half and half. You’ll also have to get used to how attacks have damage ranges. You’ll think an attack will deal a full twenty hit points worth of damage, but then you dish out six and it feels disappointing. Percentage rolls are annoying, but what if I told you it gets you to play smarter. Consider when you should go all in or, use certain attacks, or spend a turn supporting instead of attacking. This is what makes the combat of Baldur’s Gate so satisfying because it’s when you work around all these grievances and triumph that you feel like a champion of the battlefield instead of the game letting you do things perfectly.
The game doesn’t do a good job at teaching you actions you can perform or take with characters. I’m not saying hold the player by the hand, because being able to figure things out on your own and feel rewarded is what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 amazing. It’s more like how come Lazael can attack twice with a sword but Astarion can’t even though he has really light weapons? How come all these spells take a spell slot to perform, but fire bolt or electric grip doesn’t. Why can this character perform a reckless attack during a normal attack when I’d have to select it normally? What does bardic inspiration mean by improving attack rolls? Does that mean boost the chance of dealing a high numbered attack or just give them a numbered strength boost? My friend who plays Dungeons & Dungeons says it makes more sense when you are playing the board game because you have a rulebook to refer to. In Baldur’s Gate 3 they don’t always have something to refer back to, and if so it’s not gonna give you a good enough explanation. Again, figuring stuff out on your own is what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 rewarding. Learning the pros and quirks of your characters. Realizing Karlach the barbarian is great at dealing heavy damage and tanking hits. Gale the wizard can exploit elemental weaknesses but is very weak. Astarion does not have a lot of spells or support skills, but can have a high chance of dealing critical blows.
Next criticism might tick some people off, but there was a point near the end when I started to get really sick of the combat. It’s in small doses compared to most RPGs, but the way you pace yourself into the difficulty is not great. For a game with multiple quests you can partake in and record in your journal I’m surprised they don’t list a level recommendation for them. You run into a fight you think you can manage and get obliterated immediately. I’m not even saying this for the main story. Sometimes I try to do a side quest and get dunked on. Later fights I feel like aren’t as well crafted and if so are overwhelming. Part of the reason is because for some bosses in the game they thought the best way to make it difficult is to throw ten plus enemies at you, or to give a majority of them the ability to act multiple times in one turn. I ended up chasing a lot of the fights near the end by either exploitation or save scumming. The moment your player starts using cheap tactics to win is the moment you realize they don’t want to engage with core parts of the gameplay. There is some joy to be had from cheesing though. I know just rambled on why it’s bad, but think about it. Dungeons and Dragons is a game that rewards creativity. Players are finding unique ways to solve a problem even when the simplest solution lies in front of them, and that’s great design in some way. Gives you enough room for freedom and experimentation.
I think act one is a great start off, act two is great although the weakest, and act three is the best but probably the one that will test your patience. Act three feels like two acts put together, but it’s overwhelming with how many quests are probably gonna be dumped onto you at the start. With difficulty being all over the place seeing how you are at the endgame. My final complaints deal with the performance of the game. It’s nothing terrible, the game ran fantastically for the most part, but there’s a lot of fans saying this game has perfect levels of performance. That is a lie, and Larian Studios acknowledge this as they are still working at fixing a lot of the bugs of Baldur’s Gate 3. Pop in, visual flickering, framerate drops especially near the end of the game, characters taking a bit to perform their actions, having to wait for a character to take damage after getting hit, dialogue not playing when you skip too much during a scene, and loading times.Divinity: Original Sin 2 also had these problems and I’m still fine with it here. The team at Larian aren’t very big and I’m pretty sure they’re considered indie.
So there've been quite a few complaints by. Complaints that make it sound like Baldur’s Gate 3 is a tad bit overrated. What if I told you I give this game a 10/10 nonetheless. I have played a lot of games over the years, and the one thing I’ve realized is that the greatest games of all time are willing to take risks instead of playing it safe. Look at Ubisoft for example. The Far Cry series has followed the same formula since Far Cry 3, but with each new entry the series has gotten stale. Far Cry 3 has a formula that works, but by not taking risks and trying to innovate on what made it good it stops being so. It’s why I love indie games so much even when the idea is completely wack. I would consider Elden Ring not a perfect game. Side dungeons get repetitive, there’s a weird difficulty curve after the capital, and the game lacks replay value. Yet, I still give it a 10/10 because it aimed to do something interesting and nailed what it wanted on all fronts. Baldur’s Gate 3 dove for a lot. It may not have landed in the water perfectly, but the spins in between were splendid. This game overall is a masterpiece, has a wonderful narrative and world that carries you to the end, and I think every RPG fan should at least experience it once in their life. I give it a 10/10 for being incredible.
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