Baldur's
Gate 3 by developer and publisher
Larian
Studios—PC (Steam) preview written by
Louis
with a purchased copy.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Beautiful, Fun, Epic… Sorta wonky?
Baldur’s Gate 3. That’s right, Baldur’s bloody gate three.
Those words were enough to make any gamers in their early thirties
giddy with excitement ever since it was announced. Developed by
Larian studio, which made the excellent Divinity series, the game has
been ripe with hype since the day of the first teaser.
It finally released as a dreaded early access game on October 06
2020, at exactly 13h00 EST, and like thousands of fellow nerds stuck
at home, I jumped on the occasion to give it a shot. After playing 13
hours since then already, here are my impressions.
Spoiler
free synopsis:
Baldur’s Gate 3 is not, so far, a direct sequel of Baldur’s Gate
1 and 2. It actually takes place in the era in which D&D 5E
happens. This means that, not only is the ruleset different, but the
majority of the pantheon of gods has died and been replaced. The main
character starts off having been abducted by Illithids (AKA
mindflayers, AKA Squidfaced braineaters, AKA Squidward’s Revenge).
These weird creatures implanted a rather disgusting tadpole thing
behind the MC’s eyes that will eventually transform them into an
Illithid themself. Cue the mindflayer ship crashing near Baldur’s
Gate (because that place is seriously a giant epic adventure magnet),
and the MC gathering a party of parasite infested weirdoes. The quest
begins to find a way to get the sickening bug out of your brains.
First
impressions:
Character
creation
So far, I’ve tried multiple classes and races as I always do. I
haven’t seen a very large difference in the way the people react,
other than the occasional flourish in conversation, or extra options
to avoid skill checks. That being said, some NPCs will treat you
differently if you are certain races (for example, other tieflings
will tend to like you more if you’re one – and everyone seems to
dislike and distrust Giths). This is nothing that’s particularly
new in RPGs, but adds some flair for sure.
So far, the available races are limited to Humans, Elves, Half-Elves,
Drow, Dwarves, Halfings, Tieflings and Githyankis. Each of them
except Humans and Giths has sub-races from which to choose with their
own flair. As far as D&D races go, they got most of the basic
ones in at least. As this is early access, we can expect (hopefully)
a few more races to be added over time. I’d be disappointed if we
didn’t at least see gnomes, half-orcs and aasimars.
As for available classes, I was disappointed in the selection for the
early access. You can presently choose from Fighter, Ranger, Rogue,
Wizard, Cleric or Warlock. Although the classes have a few choices
within them – Fighter, Ranger and Rogue can select one of two
subclasses each; the Mage can choose either Evocation or Abjuration;
the Warlock can select either the fiend or the great old one; and the
cleric can chose from 3 domains. Larian studios has claimed that all
classes from the 5e player’s handbook will be available at launch,
but it’s still disappointing that they left out fan favourite
monks, barbarians and paladins from the first Early Access version.
Skills, stats and origins seem to follow the 5e rules pretty
decently, with some slight modifications to make it work better in a
game, but it works.
Character looks are a mixed bag for me so far. On one hand, they look
amazing, but on the other, I feel like there’s a lack of options so
far. The photorealistic graphics on the faces are beautiful, but you
can only choose one of a handful of faces, two dozen hairstyles and
colours. The game would benefit greatly from something as simple as a
body type choice, as right now, everyone has the exact same body
(lean, cut, average height for men; decently curvy for women). Like
many other players, I like to spend a lot of time making characters,
so the more options, the better. I’ll give them props for gender
fluidity though. Bearded woman? Man in makeup with female voice? No
problem!
Visuals
Beautiful, but sometimes wonky. That is the best way to sum up the
game’s visuals. The early access shows on occasion. The physics
engine is mostly what makes things wonky, which seems somehow much
weirder with the amazing graphics of the game. For example, in the
prologue there’s an Illithid talking to you, and the camera zooms
to its face, the tentacles are just rag dolling everywhere going
through its face. It’s distracting and beautiful and weird all at
the same time. Like a lava lamp.
 |
| don't mind them, they have a mind of
their own |
The scenes are gorgeous, the monsters looks amazing (except maybe for
the half-naked ogress I chose to fight – that’s a decision I’d
like to take back) and the spells are very interesting. Occasionally
a monster will randomly stretch out to cover a square mile after it
dies, but the skin textures still look life-like!
Story/Characters
So far, I’m enjoying the story, but I can identify its weakness.
This version of the game only has the first act, with a maximum level
of 4. The story so far feels more like a Divinity sequel set in
Forgotten Realms than a real Baldur’s Gate though. I won’t be the
first to make the parallel between the stories so far in BG3 and the
opening act of Divinity Original Sin 2 – (start on a ship with
something you don’t want on/in you. Escape your captors, and then
try to leave the area in which your ship crashed… Even the
tentacles of the Mind Flayer ship are reminiscent of the kraken that
attacks the ship in Divinity 2). In the same way as Divinity 2, it
lacks any way to make you attached to your own character, other than
the fact that you created them.
In Baldur’s Gate, there’s a full prologue in which you just get
to know the protagonist. It builds an emotional bond to the MC, and
gives some sort of meaning to the inciting moment of the story. In
Baldur’s Gate 2, the assumption is that you, the player, have
already been through a full story with your protagonist, therefor it
was ok to start already captured. Baldur’s Gate 3, like Divinity 2
before it, suffers from being thrown into the inciting moment without
first going through the introduction. It’s not earned. They try to
hide it behind a raw epic prologue full of action, dragons,
explosions and demons (produced by Michael Bay maybe?), but it didn’t
work.
The companions also suffer from this. I think they are all
interesting characters, with diverse and sometimes conflicting
personalities which shine through within the first hours you
adventure with them. You start off not liking them, but they grow on
you. However, you get the feeling they know that they skipped
the whole introduction part and are suddenly in the action. They seem
to be following your lead without knowing why. This is especially
apparent for the strong-willed Gith warrior. She is strong,
resourceful, and as far as she knows, the only one who can lead the
party to a cure. She overtly treats the MC as a subordinate
(literally calling them a subordinate at one point). Despite this,
she will just calmly follow you around even if you go against
everything she wants. This blind obedience is odd. It doesn’t quite
fit.
Gameplay
This part will have the biggest disparity in opinion. Some people
love it, others hate it. The best way to describe it is this: it’s
Divinity 2, with D&D flair. It mostly follows the 5e ruleset,
except when it doesn’t. Larian made some modifications in order for
the game to work a bit better. As for me, the gameplay is my
favourite part.
Overall, this game is the closest things I’ve found to tabletop
D&D, the way idiots like me play with their friends. There are so
many things you can do, from combining spells, to interacting with
the environment, to interacting with other characters. In the
prologue, I wanted to see what happened, so I chose the “throw”
action, and threw a pair of boots from my inventory on the enemy. It
dealt 2 points of damage. It was more comical than effective. A
little later, I come up behind an enemy Halfling, standing on a crate
near the edge of a small cliff. I shoved him off the cliff, and then
threw the crate on him. He was left prone, with a height disadvantage
and 2Hp left. Sometimes buffoonery works.
Combining spell effects for great synergy can also be fun. My class
of choice is always wizard. The first companion you get outside the
prologue is a cleric. I discovered that our cantrips worked very well
together – she has an attack with a dexterity saving throw, and I
have an attack that creates difficult terrain and can make the enemy
prone, thus negating their saving throws. There are also more obvious
interactions, like things being flammable, and flames being
extinguishable. The game is very dynamic and it’s great fun to find
new and interesting strategies.
The encounters can be rather difficult, but not so much as to make it
frustrating if you have a basic mastery of the mechanics and the
rules. With some creative use of your abilities, you can overcome
some otherwise very tough fights.
Verdict
I already love this game. This might already be one of my favourite
releases of 2020. In fact, this might be one of my favourite things
of 2020 overall (which is a low bar, let’s admit it). For my
recommendation, and my score, I’ll divide it in two.
If you can put up with a few bugs, and don’t mind playing through
the content as it’s released. If you’re like me, and will
probably play through the game multiple time just to try it with
different races, classes, and overall playstyles. If you can accept
that this is an Early Access. Then, play this game.
If you don’t have patience for bugs, and would rather play the game
from start to finish without waiting a few months. If you don’t
trust that companies will fulfill their promises in Early Access, as
so many others have failed to do before. Wait. Maybe go play Divinity
2. Or go find Suikoden 2 and play it. It has nothing to do with
Baldur’s Gate, but I just always need to find a way to plug that
game.
As a game right now: 6/10 – It’s still unfinished and needs work.
Classes missing, dialogue missing, physics are wonky. As a potential
game presently in the very first version of Early Access: 9/10 – It
lost a point for aforementioned lack of story intro and coherence in
companion attitude.
Score: N/A
