“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.” – Steam Synopsis
Larian Studios – Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 – Genre(s): CRpg – Mode(s): Single-Player, Co-op – Release Date:
Aug 3, 2023
Every once in a while, a game will come out that simply defines a generation. I think about games like Mario64, the original Pokemon games, Halo, Skyrim, and Breathe of the Wild as games that transcended every gaming barrier and reached massive praise and appeal. Baldur’s Gate 3 is that game. A CRPG becoming so popular and beloved in the 2020s is a ridiculous feat. After spending well over a 100 hours in this game in roughly a month, I come away from it in awe. There are almost no words for me to describe the individual aspects of this game that create what is genuinely a masterpiece. Beautiful undersells the world and environmental fidelity this game has at all times. Amazing doesn’t convey how fun, intricate, and free the combat and gameplay are. And Wonderful doesn’t do the world building, character building and story nearly enough justice. It’s not flawless, but it is a masterpiece.
Story wise, this game overall is fantastic, but this is also this is the area where most of my issues come from. You start off as either a created character or one of the origin characters who have been abducted and taken aboard a Mindflayer ship that you have to escape from. After that intro and crash landing, the journey to free yourself of the Mindflayer tadpole that you’ve been infested with begins. That’s just the starting point and the primary motivator of the story. There are so many choices to make within that and after that. You meet so many wonderfully voiced and written companions and side characters and the game takes you on a constantly ramping grand journey that, at least for me and the decisions I made, in the end had me feeling very fulfilled and also sad that it was over. This game really puts the choice in your hands and not only do you feel the immediate ramifications of your actions, but also what you do will affect things dozens of hours later. The amount of meaningful choice and consequence is genuinely amazing not only from a writing perspective but also a technical perspective.
But that’s where trouble lies because when you have so much, choice, freedom, and creativity with what you do and say. The moment the game reduces its level of interactivity and reactivity of what you do, it’s very noticeable. Act 1 constantly reinforces all of those things. It is clearly the most polished act in the entire game. It’s where I and most other players will probably spend the bulk of their playtime. Act 2 acts as more of bridge between 1 and 3. It introduces the big threats and big end goal. Then the issues start to present themselves with Act 3. Compared to even act 2, but definitely compared to act 1, the polish and reactivity just isn’t there. Now Act 3 is amazing in other ways. It is where pretty much all of the long side quest and story lines end and I loved every single one of them. But pretty much every story line or plot point started in act 3 that has to end in act 3 just didn’t do anything for me. Baldur’s Gate is a marvelous city, and I felt like I really couldn’t interact with it like I could the previous areas. Which is a shame because it is so fun being able to talk to pretty much everyone in act 1 and act 2. And that is just sorely missing from act 3. More so than the others, act 3 is when I stopped taking my time and exploring, cause there just wasn’t much. But the ending I got plus the conclusion to all the story lines started prior to act 3 make up for its shortcomings in spades. The final conclusion, the point of no return, is absolutely amazing. There’s also a lot of Easter eggs as well that players of previous games or DnD in general should appreciate. The good heavily outweighs the bad here.
The individual companions in this game are so good I had to install a mod that let me bring every single one of them along at all times. Just hearing their dialogue between each other and how they all react to the events of the story in real time was so nice. There’s such a range of personalities and stories and ultimately everyone, not just you, grows to love each other (at least in my good play through) and there is this huge feeling on comradery. The mark of great companion writing is when everyone has their favorite and it’s always different. They all play differently as well, but having the freedom to change their classes is a great touch. Really, only Mass Effect 2 was in contention, but after playing this game, these are my favorite companions in a game ever. Getting to know each and everyone of them was such a treat, and I know there’s still more to learn when I play this game again. So many moments between them that genuinely made me smile, laugh, upset, or even cry at some points. The companions are where Larians’s writing shines so brightly and are the brightest spot of this already amazing game.
I do have to say this one thing, though. I do enjoy romance options in games. They are a fun, sweet addition that never really takes away from anything, but I do wish that in a game like this (where it seems like everyone wants to have sex with you at some point if you click one wrong dialogue option) that there was an adjacent best friend option. While it’s nice to romance one person, maybe more than one, It’s also nice to just be best buds with someone. And I get that feeling with some companions but I wish it was more of an option.
Gameplay wise, I don’t think I can over go back to traditional RPGs or even western RPGs. Genuinely I think I found a new favorite genre of mine. The freedom of movement and action is game changing for me and opens up so many creative turns and things you can do in combat and outside of combat. My only gripe is that it can become a bit tedious when there are a lot of characters that need to take action because the ai can be a bit slow to take their turn and also friendly ai’s pathing is actually bad. AoE spells were pretty much completely off the table if there were any friendly ai in battle cause they will walk through and sit in them. But those issues, annoying as they may be, were easy to work around and I loved the gameplay and the creativity it enabled. I definitely became addicted to the dice roll and the skill checks. Overall the amount of cool things and personal skill expression in this game is off the charts. From just a pure gameplay perspective, this is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played.
I believe this game is a perfect 10/10 without mods, but it goes even beyond that with mods. I’ll add my mod list below, but mostly what I went for mod wise was to add things that I felt were lacking or improve certain aspects. For instance, I loved every companion and their interactions so much I wanted them all with me at the same time. Got a mod for that. Also, I found gear in the first two acts to be kind of lacking in variety, so I got a slew of mods that added class specific gear and spread it out throughout the game. If you play multiplayer, there is also a mod that allows all players to be in dialogue, which I think is a must. While this game vanilla is incredible, I definitely recommend taking a look at all of the mods and getting some that you may enjoy enhancing the experience even more.
So yeah, there are things in my life that I walk away from and I know that it will forever hold a special place in my heart. I know that I just consumed something special. Baldur’s Gate 3 is not without its flaws, but what Larian Studios has been able to accomplish, and by every sense of the word this game is an accomplishment in graphical fidelity (this game looks beautiful all the time. Especially during the in game cut-scenes), game design, story telling, player choice and freedom, and the medium overall, is simply astounding. Through 3 play troughs and well over 100 hours into this game, I know that in the years to come, both numbers are going to skyrocket. To me, as I write this now, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game like no other and it is my favorite game ever.
Baldur’s Gate 3 – 10/10
My Mod List:
