“Baldur’s Gate 3” is possibly one of the greatest RPGs on the market and recently got recognized as the Game Awards Game of the Year. The video game is the latest installment of a line of RPGs created by Larian Studios, a Belgian game studio known for the “Divinity” series. The “Baldur’s Gate” series is deeply rooted in the “Dungeons & Dragons” universe, featuring a plethora of characters and lore from the books.
In the game, you can either play as a premade “origin” character or make your own. You then embark on a journey, finding party members along the way, to explore the world of Faerun.
I am a “Dungeons & Dragons” nerd. I grew up playing it with friends, but I’ve never gotten to experience a long-term campaign before, and that’s something that drew me to play the game.
In a message put out after the release of the game, Swen Vincke, Larian founder and creative director, explained the development process.
“It’s hard to express how much love went into creating ‘Baldur’s Gate 3,’” Vincke said. “For over six years, more than 400 of us poured our hearts and souls into making this, helped by over 2.5 million Early Access players who spent countless hours giving us feedback.”
Outside of what the game is about, it is a wonder in modern game creation. The level of detail is insane and the capabilities of the software are incredible. It does an amazing job of making the world feel connected and change as you progress to it.
One of the biggest things I appreciate about the game is how much Larian Studios responds to community feedback. On Nov. 30, the company released Patch 5, which introduced an epilogue, two new play modes and many performance improvements. Larian has made a big point that there will not be any DLC or other connected content outside of what is added to the game, which is a refreshing stance in a market full of games unfinished on release and later finished with updates and DLC.
Even if you’re not into “D&D,” the game has a little bit for everyone — romance, combat, meaningful choices, amazing storytelling and a party of characters.
Although the rules of “D&D” can be intimidating, the way “Baldur’s Gate 3” presents the information is very intuitive. As someone who has most of the books and is pretty familiar with the rules, it helped me solidify the knowledge I already had and made it easier for me to visualize it.
Playing it invokes memories of playing “Skyrim” for the first time in middle school, knowing that I would replay it over and over again. While I’ve yet to finish “Baldur’s Gate 3,” I’ve managed to accrue almost 150 hours split between three different saves. Playing the game like a normal person should take between 40-100 hours, depending on your pacing.
While I love the adaptation of the “D&D” rules into a game, veterans may notice that some things are much less powerful/impactful on tabletop than in the game because they require the flexibility of playing with other people. Going into the game, I decided to embrace and expect these differences, and I’ve only found it made me appreciate the freedom of tabletop gaming and how the game adapted to the screen.
If you’re even a little bit interested, I would suggest getting “Baldur’s Gate 3” or even playing it at a friend’s house (even if you just spend two hours in character creation). It’s worth the $60 and will inspire the next generation of gaming.
