When playing through a campaign inDungeons & Dragons, there is always the pretense that players are being guided through a set narrative, but the real joy of atabletopRPG is the unpredictability. Even with the best intentions and well-laid plains, a stray dice roll or a wayward saving throw can completely change the narrative for players, something that has always been at the heart of a goodD&Dcampaign. In that sense, with Larian Studios serving as the Dungeon Master,Baldur’s Gate 3almost perfectly captures what makes banding together on a fantasy adventure through roleplaying so alluring.
As the developers behind theDivinity: Original Sinseries, Larian already made a case for themselves that they were up to taking the mantle of theBaldur’s Gateseries, which is still regarded as one of the all-time RPG classics. Though players ofDivinity: Original Sin 2will likely find a lot of that game’s DNA strewn throughout Larian’s latest project,Baldur’s Gate 3is unabashedly aD&D-inspired adventure with a truly heavy emphasis on role-playing. From its storyline set in the Forgotten Realms, to its systems that feel right out of the 5E Player’s Handbook,Baldur’s Gate 3is one of the best game adaptations of theD&Duniverse yet, even though it clearly has a long way to go to reach its full potential.
Baldur’s Gate 3has beenreleased by Larian Studios this week in Early AccessonPCand Mac, which will give players the chance to delve into the RPG before its full release sometime in the future. However, the most notable part of the Early Access release worth mentioning is the fact that this build isn’t the full game and instead is focused solely on the first of the game’s three acts. A dense experience on its own, the first act ofBaldur’s Gate 3offers about 20-25 hours of gameplay, while also giving players a glimpse at most of the systems and mechanics that will fuel the rest of the experience once it hits its finalized release.
Normally I’m someone that tends to shy away from playing games in Early Access in favor of playing a finished, polished release, and playing throughBaldur’s Gate 3a few days prior to its Early Access release was a reminder of why I tend to wait. New builds of the game were introduced over the past weekend that erased progress from previous ones, and new updates and patches released would gradually fix some of the issues that I ran into. There are placeholders for features like pre-made Origin characters that aren’t in the game yet, along with other components that aren’t fully fleshed out, such as a wider selection of character classes beyond six basicD&Dstaples: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric, and Warlock.
[pullquote]“Baldur’s Gate 3is one of the best game adaptations of theD&Duniverse yet, even though it clearly has a long way to go to reach its full potential."[/pullquote]
In its current form, there’s no question thatBaldur’s Gate 3is very much an Early Access experience with bugs and technical issues to spare. In my time with the Early Access build texture loading, missing character animations, and delayed sound cues were among the most common issues that I ran into, along with some initial tweaking with the game’s settings to improve performance. Though the game as a whole often looks gorgeous, there were moments where beautifully-rendered scenes were dampened by low-res textures or a character model that didn’t fully render correctly, reminders that this build is functional but not yet fully polished.
However, despite some of those issues that are inevitable with a release that is clearly a work-in-progress, what Larian has offered with the Early Access version ofBaldur’s Gate 3is still an enjoyable and satisfying experience in its own right. Given that there are plenty more updates and tweaks in store for this build over the coming weeks and months, the best approach towards the Early Access release is taking it in as a very extended demo of what will (eventually) be an enormous, highly-detailed RPG. From the hours that I’ve spent with the game, there are already a vast assortment of options and ways for scenes to play out, giving more of an incentive for players to experiment with each of the available classes and races in the Early Access build.
[pullquote]“Whether you decide on a Tiefling Wizard or a Half-Elf Cleric, the character creator inBaldur’s Gate 3offers enough depth that players can finely tune their characters from skin and hair color to tattoos and facial features."[/pullquote]
After a cinematic opening cutscene introduces the threat of the Mindflayers to Faerun,Baldur’s Gate 3brings players into itscharacter creatorto create both their playable protagonist and their potential love interest. Here, Larian Studios strikes an excellent balance with a fantastic character creator that feels streamlined, approachable, and with enough depth to bring the player’s characters to life, especially since they all look incredible when finished. Whether you decide on a Tiefling Wizard or a Half-Elf Cleric, the character creator inBaldur’s Gate 3offers enough depth that players can finely tune their characters from skin and hair color to tattoos and facial features, but with enough approachability to not feel too overwhelming if you want to delve right into the action.
That last point especially defines the opening hours of the game, asBaldur’s Gate 3doesn’t waste time introducing players to its story, world, and the stakes at hand. Your playable character finds themselves onboard a Mindflayer ship alongside other captives, with the infamousD&Dnemeses implanting their prisoners with parasites to turn them into members of their growing army. With the help of a Githyanki Fighter named Lae’zel, your character escapes the prisoner ship and discovers that they have yet to turn into Mindflayers themselves, leading to the search for a cure and to thwart the Mindflayers' plans to overrun Faerun.
[pullquote]“Elemental effects and learning how to combine them with the environment is a tactic that players can make full use of inBaldur’s Gate 3."[/pullquote]
From the simplicity of its opening setup, the rest of the Early Access experience ofBaldur’s Gate 3puts a greater emphasis on teaching players the basics of exploration, combat, character interaction, and the dynamics of its many gameplay systems. Like theDivinitygames before it and theDungeons & Dragonsmechanics it is drawing from,Baldur’s Gate 3will likely be a bit complex for those without a basic understanding of theD&Dfundamentals. But even then, Larian does a solid job of laying out the core mechanics of exploring each environment for what objects you can interact with, how to approach conversations with different characters, and eventually how to engage with combat.
The influence of theDivinityseries is especially felt inBaldur’s Gate 3, as Larian puts a heavy emphasis on interactivity within each environment. Elemental effects and learning how to combine them with the environment is a tactic that players can make full use of inBaldur’s Gate 3, such as dousing enemies in oil and lighting them on fire with a flaming arrow to deal extra damage. For fans of theDivinitygames, it won’t be much of a hard transition at all with so many of that series' staples and mechanics working their way into Larian’s latest project.
[pullquote]“Baldur’s Gate 3really embraces giving players a variety of outcomes and choices for how they approach each encounter, with surely a lot more to come."[/pullquote]
However,Baldur’s Gate 3’s more immediateD&Dinfluences are felt in conversations with other characters and exploration, which rely heavily on dice rolls and saving throws to determine the outcome. In several situations, players will be presented with a d20 dice roll and a number that they will have to surpass to successfully pass through an encounter, lending itself to the ways that situations inBaldur’s Gate 3can vary wildly between playthroughs.
For example, in the game’s opening where the player encounters an Intellect Devourer (I.E.,a brain with legs) feasting on the skull of a captive prisoner, choices are presented then to either destroy the brain, gently remove it and have it join your party, or leave it be. Having played through the opening section of the game twice, both of my outcomes were wildly different. At first, I managed to have the brain follow along in my journey battling Imps, while in the second playthrough, I flubbed the attempt to remove it and left the encounter in a bloody mess. Though this is just one specific example, it speaks to the ways thatBaldur’s Gate 3really embraces giving players a variety of outcomes and choices for how they approach each encounter, with surely a lot more to come.
[pullquote]“Coming offDivinity: Original Sin 2, it’s no surprise thatBaldur’s Gate 3already shows a ton of promise not only to build off Larian’s predecessor, but as a worthy successor to an iconic RPG series."[/pullquote]
In terms of combat,Baldur’s Gate 3plays out in a turn-based fashion between your party members and the enemies that you engage, with each character having a movement action, attack, and bonus action to utilize each turn. If you already have familiarity withD&D,Baldur’s Gate 3’s approach to combat should be straightforward and approachable, with a few tweaks made to streamline things a bit. Even if you aren’t, Larian has made its systems approachable enough that if you’ve played some form of tactical RPG or strategy game–even something likeXCOM–you can quickly get the hang of how to take on enemies, with its turn-based combat giving a chance to reflect and plan out your next moves.
Coming offDivinity: Original Sin 2, it’s no surprise thatBaldur’s Gate 3already shows a ton of promise not only to build off Larian’s predecessor, but as a worthy successor to an iconic RPG series. The caveat of course is that it isn’t quite there yet, instead showing players a foundation for what’s to come through its complex but satisfying systems of exploration, combat, and player agency and immersion. In its current state, the Early Access release ofBaldur’s Gate 3is an entertaining but buggy one-shot versus a fully-polished experience. But even in that form,Baldur’s Gate 3looks like the beginning of a grand campaign for the ages.
Baldur’s Gate 3
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23 years on from the release of the seminal RPG, Baldur’s Gate 2, the third game in the series has been developed by Larian Studios (of Divinity: Original Sin fame). Set over 120 years after the events of the last game, Baldur’s Gate 3 tasks you and your party of heroes to fight off a mind flayer invasion of Faerun, while seeking a way to remove the tadpole in your brain that’s slowly turning you into the enemy…
