In case you didn’t see it, yesterday, Larian Studios (Divinity franchise) revealed our first look at Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay. One thing franchise fans might have noticed is how the Baldur’s Gate 3 combat looked different from how it was in series past — namely, it was entirely turn-based rather than in real-time.
In an interview, Executive Producer David Walgrave explained the studio’s decision to go with turn-based gameplay when it comes to Baldur’s Gate 3 combat, rather than sticking what the franchise is known for.
The choices that we made are ours. Why did we go for turn-based instead of real-time with pause? Because D&D to us is a turn-based game and we’re really good – or we have become really good – with turn-based combat. So that, I think, is one of our strengths, and trying out real-time with pause for now, just because the originals were that? It’s a big risk. Because the team would have to think completely differently, our combat would be completely different. And we didn’t really feel good about that. Normally we do try out a lot. Normally we try out a lot before we make a decision, but with real-time with pause and turn-based we didn’t, we just said “Okay it’s just gonna be turn-based.” – David Walgrave, Executive Producer Larian Studios
Important to note, Larian Studios’ most successful game — Divinity: Original Sin II — is also a turn-based game when it comes to combat. So this is a case of the studio implementing what it does best.
Will old-school Baldur’s Gate fans embrace this combat change or will they cry out for a more real-time experience when it comes to skirmishes? We’ll know soon enough when Baldur’s Gate 3 hits early access on PC later this year.
Source: Eurogamer
Baldur’s Gate is being turn-based !? Outrageous!!! It’s gotta be like Final Fantasy, which betrayed it’s gameplay roots ! Outrageous, how dares it be itself !? The gall of it !
I find turn-based a turn-off. If I wanted a turn-based game, I’d play the best-selling masterpiece, and unforgettable Temple of Elemental Evil.
As a huge fan of the series, I’ve been playing these types of games since the 80s and I’ve played all the gold box games and all the infinity engine games and the games that they inspired.
Having said that, I’m glad it’s going turn based. I always wished the infinity engine games had that option as I was also a huge tabletop rpg player and I wanted that translated better. Those games were fantastic, but I was always wanting true turn based. The pause option got close but it wasn’t the same.
Nah, its sucks. Turn based takes away realism, immersion and takes too long. Lazy. They got the rights to BG and got lazy. Likely to be, like divinity much more linear than they are promising as well. I was happy, no I probably wont bother with it.
“Why did we go for turn-based instead of real-time with pause? Because D&D to us is a turn-based game and we’re really good – or we have become really good – with turn-based combat. So that, I think, is one of our strengths, and trying out real-time with pause for now, just because the originals were that? It’s a big risk.”
– so what I got from that was, “we chose to do turn-based, because it’s all we’ve ever done and we’re a one-trick-pony and would probably fail miserably attempting rtwp.”
So they made a game for themselves in other words without considering what people want. I just tried it, got to the very first fight, paused to settings, quit and refunded!
Slapping a BMW decal on the back of a Lada doesn’t make it a BMW, nor does slapping Baldur’s gate on this title. And to be fair, Pillars of eternity have the choice of real time or turn base modes. This is just sheer laziness in my opinion and the developer has also released full of bugs and unfinished parts of the game. Why have we accepted this culture of games being released at full price unfinished? I know of nothing else people would buy unfinished. I see no one driving cars waiting for a 4th wheel or engine. I do not see anyone walking around in half woven clothing waiting for them to be finished and just think how much you likely earn compared to the takings this developer has had from their past titles…. They can shove it I wasn’t hopeful and the steam ran out on this being worthwhile last year for me. Trying it has just reaffirmed that which I already knew.
Than don’t buy it. You said it yourself ”
I see no one driving cars waiting for a 4th whee”. But you bought that car with the info, that it has only 3 wheels (early access) and are now complaining about the missing 4th wheel. Makes no sense
I tried DoS many times and everytime i deleted it only bcs that combat style sucks and it is for braindead players. So fck you Larian, i will never buy it and you should do games for people not for you. . .
The state of video games just remains universally sad these days, with this being another great example. It’s fine to like ONLY turn-based combat, if that’s your thing, but of course many of us absolutely hate it. I freaking hate it with a passion. It’s why I never made it through Fallout 1 or 2, but loved BG1, IWD etc. I’ll never buy BG3 and never play BG3 (unless some wiz releases a RTWP combat mod), because Larian didn’t take into consideration the fantastic concept that the original games had: You could *gasp* choose how much you wanted them to pause! Now it’s obvious from the comments that many people never found these options, but BG1, BG2, IWD, all those games could be made just as turn-based as the Larian titles IF YOU WANTED THEM THAT WAY. They had a very flexible system where YOU got to choose when and under what circumstances the games auto-paused. Want to pause every round? Every attack? Or maybe only when a weapon is out of ammo? So if you didn’t want to be a slave to pushing button after button after button after button after click after click after click after click, which I find exactly as entertaining shopping for milk, repeatedly; just milk, over and over and over, then you could *gasp* CHANGE those pausing preferences! What an incredible concept! Personally, I find it so much for fulfilling to give my party their scripts/behaviors, figure out how those will interact with each other, and then enjoy pausing only when I wish to do so. I LIKE party AI, not ‘click click click click click click’ micromanagement of every tiny little thing (that also makes combat take a VERY, VERY long time, which I might not like if I’m in the game for the story.) Larian could easily provide these tools, and they should. If they refuse to do if for their own IP, they should at least respect the history of the Baldur’s Gate series.