Baldur’s Gate 3 just came out and has quickly become one of the most played games on Steam within the last couple of days, and I bought into the hype because of both the media coverage and some of my friends singing its praises.
I’m going to preface this by saying that I’ve never really played much CRPGs, especially the old-school ones like the first two Baldur’s Gate games, nor am I experienced in D&D. At best, I understand some of the mechanics and lingo, but that’s about it. These are basically just my first impressions of this mammoth of a game, as I’m already around 30 hours in and I’m still in the first act!
HOPPING IN BLIND
I started the game completely blind, since people have claimed that it does a good enough job of easing players into it. Baldur’s Gate 3 starts off with a bang, as you begin the game aboard an alien ship as one of the mind flayers’ many captives. There, I quickly learned just how complex this game would get as I’m presented with various tooltips, skill checks, and other UI elements that I’ve yet to understand at this point.
Luckily, the popups teach you about all of the basics that you need to learn in order to progress through the starting area. After the ship crashed, I was thrown into the real meat of the game, where I would eventually realize that I absolutely adore Baldur’s Gate 3‘s approach to, well, everything.
Although I have little experience with CRPGs, I’ve played through titles such as the Shadowrun trilogy (cause I’m a sucker for cyberpunk) and Dragon Age: Origins countless times, and this reminds me of them in the best way possible. There are just so many ways to go through almost every quest and significant dialogue encounter, so much to the point that it can feel overwhelming at times.
A MULTITUDE OF CHOICES
The way quests are structured is phenomenal, and one of the opening questlines involving a conflict between goblins and druids is a perfect example of how much freedom the game offers in terms of decision-making.
I’m currently playing as a snarky Drow bard who would rather talk their way out of a fight whenever possible, and Baldur’s Gate 3 allows you to do so in many situations that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought possible. For example, because of my race, I was able to just walk into a village full of murderous goblins, and due to my skills in persuasion, I even managed to hire the services of three tough ogres who I can call upon for help whenever I want.
Meanwhile, I have a friend playing through the game at almost the same pace as myself, and they had to fight their way through the entire village and goblin camp. I believe they also fought the ogres that I hired in my own playthrough.
We also had different approaches to resolve the conflict with the druids. While my friend decided to try his luck killing all of the goblin leaders right in their camp, I decided to temporarily befriend them and lead one of them to the grove, where I would eventually betray and defeat them with the help of some Tiefling refugees. I then came back to the camp much later just to wipe the rest of them out for loot.
This freedom of choice extends to the combat itself, as the game heavily emphasizes environmental advantages and the varying hazards any given area can present. For instance, you can shove enemies off high cliffs, throw random objects at them, or freeze water to make it harder for your foes to move around. At one point, I even managed to save a woman from plunging to her death in the middle of a boss fight by throwing a container of water at her burning cage, which I didn’t even think would actually work as it was just a random pitcher I picked up around 20 hours ago that I forgot to sell.
SHUTTING OFF THE “GAMER BRAIN”
Another thing Baldur’s Gate 3 has done for me is force me to turn off my “gamer brain,” which tells me that every negative outcome has to be reloaded until I get what I want. Rolling with the punches in this game is honestly pretty fun, and failing skill checks or just getting screwed by my own choices early on is just a part of the experience.
For instance, I initiated one quest by reading a note about a missing chest that should not be opened under any circumstances. Unfortunately for whoever wrote it, my greedy arse snuck through a trap-ridden cave and successfully picked the lock on it before leaving the survivors of whatever group was escorting the package to their deaths at the hands of gnolls.
Later on, I stumbled into the hideout of the group those unlucky couriers were a part of, and after smooth talking my way through to meet with their leader, they gave me a quest to find a certain chest that must remain unopened. This is when I realized that “oops, I actually looted it already,” so I merely told them that I had already found it but “misplaced” it along the way. This prompted a fight with the entire hideout, which was an outcome that was both amusing and mildly frustrating as I wasn’t exactly prepared for a scuffle.
Sure, I could reload all the way back to the moment before I opened that chest, but what’s the fun in that? Whoever wanted it delivered will probably be pissed, but I suspect I won’t be meeting them for another 20-30 hours, and when I do get there, I’d probably be stuck with another unintentionally hilarious situation of my own making.
CONCLUSION
Overall, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been an amazing RPG so far, and I believe it’ll be one of, if not the best game of this year. I’m far from finishing the whole damn thing, but I’m already having a blast despite still being mostly unfamiliar with some of its mechanics.
Don’t expect a full review from me as It’d probably take me around 200 hours to even finish my first playthrough. Just take my word for it, it’s really good if you’re into these sorts of games!
