Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece in the making
It’s hard to deny that when Baldur’s Gate 3 was first announced back in 2019, the excitement in gaming circles was palpable. A Baldur’s Gate from Larian Studios, from a studio that created Divinity Original Sin 2? It was hard not to be stoked for a future game that would combine the team behind one of the most well-received RPGs this generation, and the gameplay mechanics and world behind the tabletop game, Dungeons and Dragons.
Now that Baldur’s Gate 3 is here – albeit it only being early access of Act 1 of 3 – it’s got a lot to live up to and, for the most part, I feel that it succeeds. The premise is as thrilling as any Dungeons and Dragons adventure and brings together a group of characters that – in any other circumstances – wouldn’t have even looked twice at one another. Throw players into a world they recognize, aka Faerûn, and Baldur’s Gate 3 comes out of the gate swinging.
The game begins with us waking up on a mind-flayers ship and, after a few minutes of cutscenes that show the mind-flayers kidnapping folks and shoving nasty tadpoles into our eyes, we get asked a question: who are you?
With 16 races (subraces included) and six classes to choose from so far, Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t shy away from giving you options and I spent more than my fair share of hours clicking away, trying to find the best option for my half-elf with hair, tattoos, eyes. Customization-wise, the game soars ahead of its predecessors, and even bigger Western RPGs like BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. There’s a lot to choose from – if you don’t want to be basic about it – and I deeply appreciate that Larian has included hair and faces that aren’t just white and eurocentric. You can actually make your character look like you! You can also put make-up on your character no matter their chosen gender, and that goes for the beard too. You’re also able to pick whichever voice you want, as that isn’t restricted by gender either. Weirdly enough, hair options are locked behind gender, though. It seems strange considering the options I just mentioned. There’s also a lack of different body types outside of, well, races. A dwarven body isn’t going to look like a human body and vice versa, but considering there’s an extremely ripped elven druid in the game, I’m a little confused – and disappointed – why that, as well as being chubby, isn’t an option for your character.
You’re not only asked to create a character for yourself, but the character of someone you keep dreaming about. This seems as though Larian just gave us the reins to make ‘our type’ of person that we’re attracted to. Unfortunately, I was unable to make Irish actress, Katie McGrath, in this game so it wasn’t a complete success. That said, I much prefer Larian giving us the option to make something that we can relate to, something that actually appeals to our attraction and doesn’t force us into an option that makes queer gamers uncomfortable (yes, I’m talking about you Fallout 4) and not want to play.
After creating your character, you end up going through a huge mind-flayer ship, making friends (or enemies) with severed brains with legs and meeting your first companion – all in the space of 5 to 10 minutes. It’s a lot to take in, and to be frank, the mini-tutorials at the side of your screen aren’t all that helpful. You mostly learn by doing, which may be off-putting to anyone who has never played Larian’s previous Divinity games or is familiar with how D&D works. I found it come naturally to me, but for newcomers? Larian needs to step up their game in making the tutorials more approachable (perhaps a codex?) and their UI much easier to navigate with.
Then there are bugs. And that’s not including the bugs that affect combat, such as enemy bodies being non-interactable after death due to them suddenly morphing into weird shapes. Because yes, as expected, the early access is a buggy mess. The game has since improved thanks to hotfixes and the most recent patch, with the most heinous bug of not being able to load up saved data now finally resolved. That said, do be aware that this game is early access and bugs will appear from time to time, even as the game progresses. It can be frustrating, and if I were you? I’d wait for version 1.0 to hit.
Of course, Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t so messy that it’s unenjoyable. While I’d still, hand on heart, say that if you’re not at all interested in watching this game grow and develop into the diamond it seems so certain to become then you should wait, there are hours of fun, and engaging content if you want to play this game as it is. It’s got a lot about it that is still compelling, even at its barest bones. One thing that stands out are the characters, and how deeply respectful Larian Studios have been for certain races, like the Githyanki. Lae’zel, your Githyanki Fighter, comes off as mean-spirited and cruel, but it never feels out of place from who she is, her background, and the circumstances of her culture. In fact, get to know her more and like all of the companions in this game, there is something deeper beyond the harsh exterior. Unfortunately, this respect doesn’t show when looking at races like goblins or hobgoblins. Instead they’ve been reduced to violent brutes, which seems on par with what they were written like in the tabletop game, but it’s still disappointing to see that the goblins we encounter are pretty much just racist caricatures.
Still, the companions you travel with really do shine. Not only are these characters well-written, but they feel much like the characters I’ve come to get used to when I play a tabletop game with my friends. They all have their secrets, their personalities, and they clash and either eventually grow into friends or respected rivals. It’s easy to see the same happening in Baldur’s Gate 3, with Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s rivalry, and Astarion and Wyll’s strange, but budding friendship. There’s a lot to unpack, and it’s clear early on that we’re still only just scratching the surface with these characters.
Magic that you can use to influence the world too feels as though it’s in the early stages. I felt this particularly when in conversation with characters and I was unable to cast ‘charm person’ during our conversation. To do this, I had to leave the conversation, (and this was only if they were friendly) cast the spell, and then return to the conversation in order to get some sort of boost. While I guess it works for the moment, it reduces magic into feeling solely combat-based, which isn’t all that great considering some spells are useless when used in combat. It’s obviously a work-in-progress, but I sincerely hope Larian realizes magic isn’t just a tool for violence as they continue to improve Baldur’s Gate 3.
Speaking of violence, the combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is top-notch and has the same zaniness as to be expected from a Larian game. You can do things from the book – which just means cast Eldritch Blast 9 times out of 10 and hope for the best – or you can do what I did: collect a ton of oil barrels and chuck them at people from above, then set them on fire. Alons-y! It’s incredibly satisfying, and it’s only made better by the fact that there are so many different classes and subclasses to choose from, the method of how you go about annihilating your enemies would take all day to explain. So let me just say this: the action ‘Shove’ is your best friend. Use it often and expect hilarious results. Throw is also a good alternative if you want to chuck an enemy’s corpse at people – though I’d recommend saving beforehand. Some people can be so touchy about that sort of thing…
All in all, the excitement for this game is well-earned. From the opening scenes of Yatar being invaded by a Nautiloid ship, to the first time you get to explore the wildlands of Faerûn, Baldur’s Gate 3 immerses you in the world that D&D players, in particular, will have already spent hours upon hours in. Does it live it to their expectations? That is, ultimately, up to the player in question but for myself? Yes, oh god, yes. It may not have all the silly tavern names, or the exact same character types, but this is as close to Dungeons and Dragons as any video game will ever get. And that’s something Larian should be proud of.
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