Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game where you have to decide what to do. Find a huge, demonic creature in the depths of a cavernous underground temple. Depending on how the player made their character, the monster may be persuaded to kill its demon guards and even send itself back to hell, depending on how the player made their character. The enemy could also be beaten in a more traditional way, like with a sword slash or a blast of electricity that knocks over grease barrels and sets the battlefield on fire.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Description
If the player character needs to get something that’s locked up in a well-guarded room, they can sneak in, lie well enough to get in, or, once again, just make everything around that room a bloodbath. After spending 160 hours figuring out plots, setting monsters on fire, and finding more and more fancy hats for my Bard, I can say with confidence that Baldur’s Gate 3 is the best role-playing game (RPG) I’ve ever played. It’s my dream game because it has the best parts of Ultima, Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, and Divinity: Original Sin.
But it does a lot more than just use the most popular RPG ideas. For example, it finds a way to combine different ideas like cinematic storytelling, uncontrolled sandbox chaos, and tabletop-style gameplay. You can have your cake and eat it too, it says. It’s as deep as it is wide, and it’s a huge area. Each of the three acts could be its own epic role-playing game, with complex dungeons, memorable quests, and unique stakes, all of which are backed by systems that give players a really scary amount of freedom. It is a game full of forks in the road, and every step you take brings up more ways that try to take you off the beaten path.
Baldur’s Gate 3: About
Larian Studios made the role-playing video game Baldur’s Gate 3 and put it on the market. It’s the third main game in the Baldur’s Gate series, which is based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing system.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Initial release date | 3 August 2023 |
| Developer | Larian Studios |
| Platforms | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Mac operating systems, Microsoft Windows |
| Composers | Borislav Slavov |
| Genres | Role-playing Video Game, Adventure game, Strategy Video Game |
| publisher | Larian Studios |
| Series | Baldur’s Gate |
| Download |
Baldur’s Gate 3: Storyline
In the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3, the player character and their allies are infected by illithid tadpoles on a mind flayer nautiloid ship. Players learn that the illithid tadpoles will finally turn their hosts into mind flayers. After the ship goes down, the first thing to do is to get rid of the tadpole infection. This means that the party has to start looking for a doctor. Soon, the group meets more people with the same kind of illithids. These people are all part of a cult that worships a new god they call “the Absolute.”
As the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 goes on, it becomes clear that the Absolute is a very big problem. Some goblins stopped worshiping their god and started worshiping Her instead. Since then, they and other goblins have been kidnapping people all over the Sword Coast and taking them to Moonrise Towers to infect them with tadpoles. The people who are affected become devoted followers of the Absolute and are able to communicate with each other mentally.
As the player character starts to realize this, a Dream Guardian shows up and tells them about the fight against the Absolute and how dangerous the new god is. The player goes to Moonrise Towers to find a way to get rid of their bug and learn more about the Absolute and the cult, either through the Mountain Pass or the Underdark. There, players are told they will find answers, and they do.
How to play Baldur’s Gate 3
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the first thing you do is either choose a named character with a set of skills and a history already set up, or make your own. If you choose a premade character, they become available as companions as you play through the game. The screen for making a figure might look scary, but you can choose anything that sounds interesting. The companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 give you many choices for combat, exploration, and even conversation, so it’s hard to go wrong. But the character-creation screen does show the biggest problem with Baldur’s Gate 3: a very complicated set of rules and processes.
This PC game, Baldur’s Gate 3, is almost an exact copy of the most recent version of D&D’s pen-and-paper role-playing game rules. It’s such a good adaptation of the tabletop game that as you try out different skills, abilities, and conversational methods, a real 20-sided die (or dice) pops up to let you know how well you did. At first glance, Baldur’s Gate 3 looks a lot like an action game. But when conversations start, you see dialogue options that are directly affected by the skills and attributes you’ve chosen. If you’re a thief, for example, you’ll see rogue-focused options, while wizards and sorcerers might see prompts that let them try to figure out how magic works in the objects around them.
Baldur’s Gate 3 changes from a real-time point-and-click system, where you click on the map or an item and your characters move toward it, to a turn-based system when you run into hostile creatures. Then, you see each creature on the screen roll a die to show who goes first, and then… well, this is where things get confusing. We don’t have time to go over all of the rules here, but if you don’t want to spend hours studying the rules of 5th-edition D&D online, save the game often and try out everything.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Gameplay
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best role-playing games ever made. It is an accurate adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, with all the freedom and flexibility that comes with that. In the Forgotten Realms, players can make their own characters, choose their race, class, and skills, and then go on an epic journey.
The game looks and feels great, with beautiful graphics and a deep mood. The fights are hard and require strategy, and the story is interesting and well-written. Baldur’s Gate 3 is also a game that can be played over and over again because there are many ways to finish each quest and dozens of possible ends.
The game is still in early access, so there are still some bugs and parts that aren’t finished. But the game is always getting new updates, and it’s clear that the people who made it want to make it the best it can be. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a must-play for anyone who likes role-playing games. It is the best game of its kind in years, and it will probably set a new bar for the genre.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Graphics and Art Style
The art style in Baldur’s Gate 3 is styled isometric, which is both pretty and useful. The figures are animated well and show a lot of emotion, and the backgrounds are detailed and full of atmosphere. The art style is also the same throughout the game, which helps make the experience feel more unified and real. The way color is used in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the things I like most about its art style. There are many bright colors in the game, which help bring the world to life.
The skin tones of the figures look natural and real, and the backgrounds are lush and full of color. The way colors are used also adds to the mood and setting of the game. For example, the dark and gloomy Underdark is different from the bright and sunny Sword Coast. Overall, I think Baldur’s Gate 3’s graphics and art style are one of its strongest points. They are nice to look at, useful, and constant. If you’re looking for a great-looking RPG, you should definitely check out this one.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Music and Sound Design
The music and sound creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 are excellent, and they help make the game feel very real. The music is dramatic and evocative, and it fits the mood of each place in the game perfectly. The sound effects are also great and help bring the world of the game to life. The fact that the music in Baldur’s Gate 3 changes based on where you are is something I really like about it. For example, the music in the goblin camp is a lot more chaotic and violent than the music in the druid grove.
This helps you feel more linked to the world around you and gives you a sense of where you are. The sounds are also done very well. The sounds of your friends walking, your weapons clanging, and a dragon roaring are all very convincing. This makes the fighting feel more real and thrilling. Baldur’s Gate 3 has great music and sound creation as a whole. They help make a truly realistic experience that will keep you coming back for more.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Powergaming
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a pretty low level cap compared to many other RPGs. 12 levels doesn’t sound like much, especially since most of the time when you level up, you won’t be able to choose anything. But this is less of a problem when you think about all the other ways you can grow as a person. You will find so many magical things in your game that you could fill every shelf in Baldur’s Gate’s best magical shop, Sorcerous Sundries, a hundred times over. Many of them give you new spells and skills that change your build totally.
After finding a lot of lightning-themed gear, I changed Gale into an unstoppable, electricity-spewing bomb that could just walk around the battlefield killing people without getting hurt. After that, he never left my side. There are even times when you can choose to get surgery to give yourself strange new abilities, like the ability to see invisible enemies. I’m not a big fan of “min-maxing,” especially in story-driven RPGs, but Baldur’s Gate 3 makes it so much fun to try out weird builds.
I’m not so much interested in making small changes to do a little more damage here and there as I am in messing around with things and spells to see what kind of chaos I can cause. And boy, could there be a lot of trouble! Who needs more levels when you can change into an owlbear, cast the Enlarge spell, and then drop from a great height on an enemy, turning into a meteor that can shake the earth?
Baldur’s Gate 3: Pros and Cons
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great example of how to make an RPG. It’s a lot like the tabletop game in that it gives you a lot of control over your character, puts you in the world, and has tactical combat. The story is interesting, the characters stand out, and the decisions you make feel important. Even though it’s still in early access, the game is already one of the best role-playing games of the year. Those who like this type of story won’t want to miss it.
Pros
- The most authentic video game adaptation of D&D ever made
- Beautifully-realized environments and cutscenes
- Innovative turn-based combat system
- Extensive modding support
Cons
- Sheer size means it’s easy to miss entire storylines
Final Words
It’s enough to say that Baldur’s Gate 3 makes it seem like Larian has done the impossible. This is a beautiful recreation of a pen-and-paper roleplaying game that went on for years. It’s not just taking a set of rules; it’s also a deep knowledge of what D&D is, down to the smallest details. This is the result of a staff of hundreds working for years on something they love.
At a time when Dungeons & Dragons is more famous than at any other point in its 50-year history, Baldur’s Gate 3 will stand with the best games, like Curse of Strahd, Critical Role, and its own beloved predecessors. It’s not just one of the best D&D games or RPGs ever made; it’s a new gold standard that will be used to judge the whole genre, if not the whole industry.
