A videogames series inspired in the Dungeons & Dragons world, The Forgotten Realms, a story on the Sword Coast in the continent of Faerun. The characteristic feature in this adventure is the freedom given to the player to write and live his own story, based on his choices and ethic of the main character and his companions.
The first Baldur’s Gate had a great reception from the critics and fans, establishing the base for the new games coming after, acknowledged as one of the best RPGs in the history.
After the incredible success was not surprise the game received an expansion, a sequel with its own expansion and 2 remastered versions a decade after.
The new entry in the series entered on early access phase since 2020, when the players helped to test the base game with a new development team. Larian Studios took the chance to work with this great saga and publish it as well.
After a few years passed in stealth development phase and surprisingly had a release date confirmed just a month prior to other behemoth release in September for 2023.
An amazing teaser trailer was showing its great visuals and detailed characteristics about party members recruitment and interactions, specially the wide romanceable and controversial options available.
The early access save was not compatible with the final version of the game, so the progress was lost due to the big changes, also the content on this phase was above 20 hours of the first act.
Larian Studios and its philosophy to give a polished and finished product without charging extra for its update or DLCs was not seen as good idea for other studios. With this said the mythic saga had an overwhelming reception and positive reviews from the fans.
The criticized turn battle system in the last years has been forgotten for some developers moving to action combat system to attract new players due to the stunning visuals and packed action videos more CGI than the game itself. Larian Studios gave a lesson to the industry with the last tittle and put life in the CRPG genre, Winning absolutely all the Game of the Year awards possible in 2023.
Highlights for Baldur’s Gate 3
Story
Enter into the Forgotten Realms world, gather your party and live an epic adventure full of partnership, treason, power thirst, survival and sacrifice to reach your goals.
Pick one between twelve classes and eleven races to create your own character or choose one of the main characters to forge your legend.
After waking up from an airship accident, you feel some kind of power beyond human capacities, then you learn that some parasite was sown in your brain. Embrace your new power or reject it and get freedom to the terrible fate imposed to you, only you can choose.
As you progress trough the adventure the influence of the parasite is growing too, trying to survive in the middle of the conflict between devils, deities and sinister forces from another world, only the bonds with your companions will help you to face your destiny.
Gameplay
The acclaimed CRPG or computer role play game genre is based on statistics and its pulls value, with a main focus on probabilities, bonus points, equipped gear and skills.
Basically, the board game is being replicated on the computer, luck is a key factor to move forward the story and the player interactions, combat against foes and party recruitment.
Social abilities can save a good amount of time to intimidate a guard, bribe a mercenary or to persuade a merchant. Anything that is your goal can be accessed by surpassing the pull values.
A classic characteristic in the kind of genre is the use of a few clicks, the whole map moving and great number of options available on the keyboard, just as any other game from the same developer.
Exploring through the whole map consists in clicking the place where you want to move your main character then the party follows the lead, however, there are going to be inaccessible places where you can’t go if you don’t reach or if it’s a closed space, usually you can’t reach higher places for example.
The battle system is similar to exploring, put the marker over the enemy designated as the target and select the skill to use from the big list available in the lower screen, furthermore the different weapons or magics to use depend on your class, but another way to use magic are the scrolls, they let you use magic that you even don’t learn before.
The strategy to use in battle depend on your ideas, there are plenty of crazy ideas to beat powerful enemies without moving a finger, even though there are bosses that will start the battle a soon as possible you can plan on a combat filling the field with gunpowder or explosives and send fire to the whole place exterminating everything within it.
Imagination and learning how to use the menu are key to use properly the limited resource. The game offers a full multiplayer experience online or solo campaign.
Teambuilding
Adding the overwhelming freedom on what to do, the same goes for what to be with 12 classes and 11 races, everyone has strong points of some sort.
There is always someone who wonders which one is the best class or race? But there is not a correct answer for that question. It’s a subjective topic so it’s up to the player pick whatever he likes.
The vast variety of races and subraces makes the party interaction very different for each adventure, remember that everyone has their own background and prejudging culture giving interesting moments to every party member.
A full list with every race and their strong points:
- Elf: High elf, wood elf
Recommended classes: Paladin, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue.
2. Tiefling: Asmodeus Tiefling, Mephistopheles Tiefling, Zariel Tiefling.
Recommended classes: Paladin, Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer.
3. Drow: Lolth Sworn drow, Seldarine drow
Recommended classes: Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer.
4. Human: nonexistent subraces.
Recommended classes: Well-balanced for anything.
5. Gythyanki: nonexistent subraces.
Recommended classes: Wizard, Barbarian, Fighter, Cleric.
6. Dwarf: Gold dwarf, Shield dwarf, Duergar.
Recommended classes: Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Fighter.
7. Half-elf: High half-elf, Wood half-elf, Drow half-elf.
Recommended classes: Warlock, Druid, Wizard, Fighter, Ranger, Cleric.
8. Halfling: Lightfeet halfling, Strongheart halfling.
Recommended classes: Bard, Wizard, Rogue.
9. Gnome: Forest gnome, Deep gnome, Rock gnome.
Recommended classes: Fighter, Druid, Rogue, Sorcerer.
10. Dragonborn: Black, Blue, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Green, Red, Silver, White.
Recommended classes: Paladin, Fighter, Barbarian.
11. Half-orc: nonexistent subraces.
Recommended classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Monk.
Despite all the recommendations mentioned above, there is no rule t o do it like that, the player can choose whatever he feels like playing, most of players do it by appearance oriented.
There are some characters that may have a negative attitude towards another party members based on their culture and interaction, put attention who is able to work with.
To simplify how to create a main character or change classes by races:
- For close combat: Dragonborn and half-orcs.
- For distance combat: Drows and elfs.
- For Tank: Dwarf.
- For Magic Attack: Half-elves.
- For beginners and balanced players: Human.
There is not a correct or incorrect way to create the team, these advices are using the strong points for each class and race to get a better usage of their skills for the high difficulty and hardcore players and exploit all their points to the utmost.
The armor and acquired skills must be on point aligned with the classes to maximize the use of the ability points, be sure to split them properly between the party members to cover all weaknesses.
Try to get at least one character with a couple of social skills to cover any situation possible, the great number of quests, side quests and characters quests may present different ways to approach them and is almost sure that you will need it.
I spent a great amount of time sorting and ordering the inventory for each party member and selling the useless gear and items that we loot around any map. Also be sure to read the conversation previous to any important battle it’s a strategy game, and this one will make you fight more than once a battle to defeat it the way you want to resolve it.
Graphics
The visual improvement compared to previous titles of the series has been due to the Divinity Engine 4.0 owned by the developer Larian Studios, an evolved version from the one used for the Divinity Original Sin 2, a I.P from Larian as well.
The great textures of the characters and detailed maps are like eye drops that don’t let you take off your sight from the screen, personally I didn’t think was possible to see such image quality for the gigantic maps that usually you find in these games.
The shaders and dark colors palette make a good combination for the visual description of the fantasy world. Contrast and light reflect are easy identify mainly crimson red of the dragon in the first time we encounter it or in the big messy and colorful area on the climax of the final act.
Sound
The original soundtrack is on Borislav Slavov, a radical change compared to the previous entries. However, that didn’t make the artist to stop believing in his own talent to offer something different.
The sound effects are different from place to place or closed and open areas, it means a well detailed work in every step. Even the fire in the campfire is different from the caves, personally I liked that little difference.
There is not much to tell, the music hit the spot to match the medieval fantasy with those tentacles added to the plot.
Performance
Tested on the Steam deck, which has the “Steam Verified tag”, also mixed with the desktop PC experience. Maximized settings for the configuration on desktop looks incredible and detailed.
On the handheld experience needed to configurate to find the proper performance and battery life balance, furthermore after the last update that added the FSR 2.2 the performance and textures even in low and mid settings improved vastly in Steam Deck.
The framerate oscillates between 20 and 40 at the resolution 1280p, it may overheat the console playing online lasting for 2 hours or less. Configurating properly between low and mid quality settings and playing offline easily surpasses the 3 hours on battery length.
Although the battle system and such long encounters mainly in the final act are usually facing a great number of enemies and objects on the screen usually drops to 20 and 25 fps, sure is totally playable but not recommended for long sessions online.
Conclusions
- Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece filling all the checks, story, battle system, teambuilding, exploration, interactions, music, graphics, even romance.
- The Steam deck suffers overheating and short battery life playing online, its preferred to use for offline progress.
- The overwhelming and absolute freedom for the player is such that is recommended to investigate and keep permanent research over guides to resolve puzzles and choose the answers desired to progress on the main campaign.
- There is no need to play the previous games to enjoy this entry, however the hardcore players will know some characters and dialogues here and there.
