Introduction
I figured with all of the hype and acclaim that Baldur’s Gate 3 has garnered since its official release from Early Access that I also add to the noise in my own small way because unlike a lot of people, I’ve never played Divinity: Original Sin nor did I ever really get into tabletop Dungeons and Dragons with friends or acquaintances mostly because I never had the chance to. I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 quite heavily and it actually gave me some anxiety when I had to review Starfield before its early access because I was so overwhelmed by the prospect of somehow playing both Baldur’s Gate and Starfield with only 24 hours in a day which I have to say is humanly impossible.
In probably one of the best years for gaming ever that is incredibly saturated with more top quality games than bad games, Baldur’s Gate 3 still stands out for a variety of reasons even compared to Starfield and the other games I’ve played recently which we will cover a bit in this video.
Music and Audio
Let’s start off with audio and music because that’s one of the game’s strongest points. The audio for abilities, actions, cutscenes, ambience and basically everything is so well done. I have to give a lot of praise here to the voice actors and audio engineers for Baldur’s Gate 3 because even with what seems to be the same theme song playing over and over in different note variants the game never feels monotonous. The non-theme music is also actually perfectly chosen for special moments when in certain encounters or boss fights, different music is played which definitely gives a lot more hype and weight to what you are playing through, some of it has even given me goosebumps. And speaking more to the voice acting, it’s just phenomenal no matter which character you end up talking to. If you end up not liking a character or loving a character, that just means the voice actors did a superb job and everyone literally did their job that well.
Settings & Accessibility
For what it is on the surface, Baldur’s Gate 3 actually offers a nice set of options for how you want to tweak the game and your experience in it and it of course helps greatly that you can actually mod the game assuming you play on PC. Accessibility options such as
Character Customization
The character customization while possessing the usual RPG features such as pronouns, physical appearance, etc also offers a, uh, surprising range of genitalia. The numerous colors and customizations that Baldur’s Gate 3 offers to you especially in the face department as a player is such a nice breath of fresh air in my opinion although I feel like the overall body customization could have offered a little more. Yet the real meat of the character customization beyond aesthetics lies in your class customization that intertwines with your racial choice which was really nice to see.
User Interface and User Experience
Initially a few parts of the User Interface can be a little bit confusing at first to new players but as time goes by due to the smooth User Experience aspect of Baldur’s Gate 3 when it comes to tooltips, highlights and such, it becomes a lot more intuitive. The only one complaint I have is that some of the tutorial tips aren’t prominent or go over certain things such as even numbered ability stats. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a perfect example in my opinion of how UI and UX design for games can greatly assist each others weaknesses while boosting each others strengths.
Graphics, Art and Environment
In regards to the graphics, you wouldn’t expect it from a turn based game but the graphics are incredibly well done. You can tell a lot of passion and time were put into basically every little piece of artistic detail in the plants, lighting, characters, buildings, objects and more. The game also doesn’t hold back on graphic violence when it needs to show it nor romantic lovemaking which I think is a big plus for Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s definitely a game that does not shy away from those two things and more as you explore environments that at least to me make sense in terms of their layouts and loot.
Story and Gameplay
I don’t know exactly where to start with the story and universe of Baldur’s Gate 3 but I feel like the story is so tightly glued to the gameplay I have to talk about the gameplay at the same time as well. It’s basically a Dungeons and Dragon setting which again I’m not familiar with at all as mentioned but the environmental storytelling and your interactions with the characters within this world are more than enough to draw you in almost immediately. You want to learn more, you want to continue checking in with characters and locations you’ve visited already, you want to go back, you want to fight, you want to sneak around and so much more.
There is no sense of “oh I just picked this up, I might as well do it just to do it.” No you’re doing it because you’re invested in it, you’re reading that book because you want to know more not because you need to know more and the only other games where I felt like I wanted to put in a similar level of investment recently at least story content-wise is Starfield, Elden Ring, Diablo IV and Dying Light 2 which just speaks to how good Baldur’s Gate 3’s story-writing and presentation is.
I think probably the biggest thing I feared going into Baldur’s Gate 3 and one thing I’m sure will initially put a lot of people off is the turn-based combat and what the game presents as essentially a video game visual of how Dungeons and Dragons is played at the table with the dice rolls and such with the caveat here being that a lot of those dice-rolls and gamemaster talking are under the hood of the game. I’m personally not a fan of turn-based combat and there are instances in Baldur’s Gate 3 itself with especially the bigger fights that speak to why I’m not a fan of turn-based combat. There are instances where the AI takes too long or they bug out for a minute or two while figuring things out but overall somehow surprisingly, I was actually super engaged in the turn-based combat of Baldur’s Gate 3.
I’m not sure why but I think it was the little moments in between turns where I genuinely laugh when characters slip on ice or grease or something else crazier happens. I think it’s the potential for friendly fire, I think it’s the fact that you can think and have so much room for creativity when it comes to how you approach fights or how you start fights. There’s a lot of player freedom within the confines of this turn based combat system in my opinion and I think that’s what made it bearable for me as opposed to other turn-based games because in Baldur’s Gate 3, if you can think of it, you can probably do it. Additionally, I also think that the ability to free-roam the environment outside of combat is a big thing that made the turn-based combat bearable and I do like the option of turn-based movement for said open environments especially when traps and such are concerned.
Last thing I want to talk about in terms of gameplay and story is something I feel like a lot of other RPGs, open-world games or even MMORPGs have forgotten about and that’s player impact. When we players make choices, we expect there to be consequences and it feels like in recent years there aren’t too many games out there that acknowledge that player desire of wanting to affect the world we’ve immersed in. Baldur’s Gate 3 through the choices and actions you take goes crazy unrestricted with player impact and I am absolutely loving it.
Length
Length-wise, I would say it took me about 55 hours to finish a 2-player playthrough on the normal difficulty for the main story but that was in my opinion a bit rushed and somewhat evil to the point many recruitable characters uh died. However, this game isn’t something you should rush. It has a huge replayability factor with supposedly over 17,000 ending variations the developers of Baldur’s Gate 3 have boasted of. There are characters you may have missed in recruiting, there are stories you still have yet to discover or at least do that end in other ways. This is no doubt a RPG that will captivate millions of players for years and years to come until the next Baldur’s Gate or something similar.
Co-Op
I’ve noticed a lot of people playing Baldur’s Gate 3 by themselves which is fine considering there’s a lot to explore and do with at minimum 3 other companions in your party. However I feel like I enjoy Baldur’s Gate 3 more with at least one other person and recently I’ve b een doing a full 4 player co-op which has been what I feel like the Dungeons and Dragons experience that I’ve been probably missing out on all these years. The only complaint I would have
Performance and Bugs
In regards to performance and bugs this is something a lot of people curiously aren’t talking about as there have been performance and bug issues just like any other game especially with the co-op split screen on console. For me, most of the issues I’ve found at least on PC was with loss of FPS, stuttering and NPC interactions outside or during combat occurred during Act 3 for the most part. But just like with other awesome games I and probably many others can overlook most of these issues simply because Baldur’s Gate 3 gives enough of a stellar delivery as a game.
And it’s also not like the developers are abandoning Baldur’s Gate 3 after they pushed it out. There’s been a lot of hotfixes and significant patches as of the uploading of this video that not only addresses the issues within the game but actually adds more systems and content to the game which is nice to see especially given that the game has absolutely no microtransactions whatsoever which in itself is a big breath of fresh air in a landscape of live-service games that are filled to the brim with microtransactions of all types and sizes.
At the end of it all, I have to give Baldur’s Gate 3 a 10/10. It’s basically all you want from a RPG whether you’re playing by yourself, with a partner or in a full group of friends. Should you buy and play it? I think absolutely yes you should consider doing so whether it’s now or a few years from now even, Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be a unique joyride to go on even if you may not like the turn-based combat system.