Baldur’s Gate 3 is hands-down the new pinnacle of RPGs, the game that all other games will be measured by from now on. Larian Studios is the new BioWare, the new Bethesda, the new CDProjekt, but if the comparisons may sound like a bit of a stretch, let’s simply say that it has now achieved the status of most exciting developer in recent years. The potential shown with the Divinity series was confirmed with this display of confidence, ambition, and a fair share of madness to deliver a game that branches out in so many paths that it will keep you busy for months, if you are willing to explore and experiment it to its fullest.

Sorcery and Romance

I could go over all the mechanics and the intricate workings of Baldur’s Gate 3, but that would turn this review into a technical datasheet of nightmarish and endless proportions, something that doesn’t make for very interesting reading. The truth is that you can find all that information anywhere, but the fact is that this is a game that blows minds and drops jaws at every turn, every beat of the story. Or stories, as I should put it.

This is a game that screams for repeat runs, the work of people clearly too obsessed and passionate about the topic, obvious fans of the genre who decided to go for something that could have ended in tragedy. Instead of a few branching narratives to offer an illusion of freedom, Larian went wild with options to stray from a direct path, confusing you at every turn with companions, regions, dialogues, and everything that makes each playthrough significantly different from the prior, each experience a very different one from your friends’. There are so many paths, so many stories that I haven’t discovered yet, that the touted 200 hours to see everything sound like a complete understatement.

But this isn’t an easy game to jump straight into, especially if you are not used to deep and rich RPGs with almost infinite layers to lore and combat. It’s the kind of game that grows on you after a slow start, one where you will be impressed by the visuals and the decidedly fantastic cinematics, perfect homages to the Dungeons and Dragons legacy and the Baldur’s Gate games that came before. Even the in-game cutscenes are gorgeous and extremely well crafted, and you can be sure there will be plenty of those.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t the kind of RPG that is released with a handful of races, with further ones planned for a subsequent DLC launch. You get to pick from 11 starting races, an amazing selection filled with complicated choices that will have a direct effect in your performance. They come complete with impressive character customization, with sliders for perfect maturity wrinkles and freckles, pigmentation, and the different types of genitals. This is a mature game with no concerns about being morally correct to appease some players, going all the way to be brutally sincere and direct about everything that the best games should never be afraid to imply.

In a sense, Baldur’s Gate 3 brings a side offer of dating sim, with several coatings that admittedly don’t go too deep into graphical territory to the point of no return, but many of them are surely suggestive and crush any boundaries between races that may have felt like zones where any developer shouldn’t even attempt to go, for the sake of sparing the controversial word of mouth. Romancing companions certainly gave the game a lot of free publicity and is an extremely appealing prospect that will keep many players experimenting with the dialogue paths, until they reach their intended conclusion.

A Roll of the Dice

You begin the adventure with another important selection, the playstyle you are going for. Naturally, the balanced field is the one to offer the best of both worlds, but you can also choose to favor story or the tactical battles.

The game’s first steps are surprisingly grim, as you attempt an escape from a Nautiloid, the horrifying Mind Flayer vessel. There’s a heavy focus on the gloomy and the horror, both looks and voices, including a notoriously bleak scene involving a brain, certainly not for the squeamish. However, the darkness dials down a bit when you reach the land and the more traditional Dungeons and Dragons fantasy elements start to take over, and they do so beautifully.

Your avatar may not be voiced throughout the adventure, but our journey is recited by a soothing and pleasant narrator that never outstays her welcome. This is a terrific addition that really tells the details of the story in a perspective that you might not fully grasp otherwise and serves to provide context in some situations. The voice work overall is fantastic, same for the often-discreet soundtrack, but when you are exploring the nature or some settlements and pay close attention, you realize just how suited and charming the music is to this universe, including the battle segments.

It wouldn’t be a true Dungeons and Dragons game without a certain dose of RNG, provided by a clever implementation of dice rolls for many actions. From dialogue to environmental puzzles or battle events, a roll of the dice may signify the difference between success and failure, with each character bringing in some sort of effect to the result, mostly bonuses that are added and may change the original outcome. This could have been a frustrating aspect for players who aren’t that much into tabletop gaming, but the way it is handled is both satisfying and quick, and you can even pick difference dice just for cosmetic sake.

Relationships are flimsy in Baldur’s Gate 3, with your companions constantly showcasing their true goals and affinities, with many choices affecting their direct connection to you. Approval or disapproval of your actions may lead to serious consequences in the future, from romancing possibilities up to the point where they abandon the party, potentially drawing the curtain in some of the quests that you might be able to complete with them. You must handle each choice with care, as this affinity system isn’t purely binary; instead, it’s a frequent case of ups and downs where you must understand morals and guide your decisions based on what you are attempting to achieve in the game. Or… maybe you just want to get intimate with Halsin for very big reasons, but that’s a subject we are not to discuss here.

Drums of War

Every step of the way, your party will get involved into a fight. The whole world may not be against you, but some factions will turn their backs on you based on your past actions, and chance encounters are far from rare, so you must sharpen the blades, learn those spells, and become acquainted with the countless battle options.

The more you explore your combat options, the more you realize that it brings some incredible depth other games may only dream of. It’s not just about your characters and their crazily different builds that you achieve after many hours playing; it’s how you can scrutinize the environment and use it to maximize your tactics, from taking the higher ground to destroying objects such as war drums, preventing the goblins to call for reinforcements. Will you set free those giant, menacing spiders from their prison and eventually risk death if things go awry? But what if there’s an upside to this, such as seeing them join in a battle against their captors and make it a lot easier for you?

But when you discover the amount of buffs, debuffs, damage types, resistances, how a character is negatively affected by certain gear types to the point of becoming unable to use spells, and so much, much more, this is a whole new game. It’s dynamic, it’s challenging, and it’s nail-biting, but you will die a lot. This may take you to explore different avenues, both story and combat-wise, trying to come up with new approaches and ingenious character and spell combos in ways that will make you go “why didn’t I think of this before?” Well, because the offer is just too daunting to fully comprehend in just a few hours.

Apart from story, combat, and a healthy dose of dice rolling, Baldur’s Gate 3 also delivers on the puzzle side of things – reading clues, trying to come up with the solution to some obscure challenges. There’s not a lot of handholding and it requires some thought to progress here and there, a welcome return to the times when we had to do more than press a couple of buttons to solve a riddle.

As a single-player game, this is a brilliant achievement; however, Larian decided to include 2-4 player cooperative online play, changing some of the most common rules. This isn’t a drop-in, drop-out type of game, but a full-fledged experience where the host invites the rest of the players and go on adventures together, as if a party from the actual tabletop game having to reunite and resume the campaign whenever possible. There’s the option to invite a new player to an existing campaign as well, with the corresponding leveling up to the host’s level. You have just enough freedom to go wandering about, far from your teammates, but also have the option to suggest dialogue choices and the like, making for a very distinct, perhaps more troublesome but also more entertaining experience compared to solo play.

Personality Galore

Baldur’s Gate 3 looks fantastic, with textures to die for and character detail that is leagues beyond what could be seen in recent ambitious RPG efforts — Starfield included. The facial expressions, the smirking, the way the eyes move and squint, sometimes one independently of the other in a way that is barely discernible but looks all the better for it. The details are remarkable, true eye-candy, and somewhat surprisingly not overly demanding in terms of system requirements.

Obviously, you are going to need a good PC to run the game to its fullest potential, especially since the world is so beautiful, so detailed, completely disregarding any logic or rules in terms of terrain restrictions and verticality, going wild in design and layout. On the other hand, this makes it the more complicated to effectively manage the camera, although the game does its best regarding transparencies and control, including a tactical top-down view for combat. You may also find some animation chaining glitches that are but a small niggle in what is an impressive creation.

Game of the Decade?

Baldur’s Gate 3 is designed as a true love letter to gamers everywhere, ditching all the controversial practices from videogames, showing the middle finger to microtransactions, battle passes, and any other business opportunities that would be trying to reach into your wallet and taking your hard-earned money. This is a full game like in bygone times, a product that feels complete, polished, rewarding, without any added cost peeking around the corner. It’s an exception to the rule, a madmen’s dream that has paid off and then some, but it’s doubtful that other bigger studios will learn anything from this; instead, they may just shake their fists at the audacity of delivering a fully-fledged game and making everyone remember that this is how it used to be many years ago.

If you can only purchase a single game for a couple of years because budget is tight, Baldur’s Gate 3 should be the one. The amount of content and the sheer quality in display almost makes it feel like a steal, a game that grows on you and eats the hours away, invading your dreams and making you count the time until you return to it. This is the game of the year, maybe more than that.

Score: 9.5/10

Pros:

• The sheer number of options it offers is mesmerizing, from starting classes to story paths
• A deep and extremely complete battle system
• Everything looks amazing, from characters to the world
• Online cooperative play in a game that really didn’t need that extra
• It’s a full game, one without microtransactions and other shenanigans
• It will devour hours of your life without warning, and invite repeat runs

Cons:

• Some animation glitches

Baldur’s Gate 3 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.