Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

Developed and published by Larian Studios, the long-awaited sequel to the epic Baldur’s Gate series is finally here. Although slightly late to our side of the console party, it has made it to the Xbox consoles, and boy, was it worth the wait. With the original two games in the series released in 1998 and 2000, it has been a long old road to 2023 and thankfully a lot of technological advancements have catapulted the game to the top of its field, winning multiple game of the year awards. After committing a large chunk of time (which as it stands is about 60 hours and I am only in the second act of a 3-act game) I would say it has my attention and is insane value for money and would have easily taken my game of the year too.

                To give you a summary of the story would be doing the game an injustice. Baldur’s Gate is known for its story and lore and if you dove into the lore and know all of it then that is an impressive feat. I have played and completed the first two games and as epic as they were and still are, to try and retain all of the information from them in the 20-year-plus gap is unlikely. But don’t worry it is not needed, there is plenty of information about to immerse yourself deep into the lore or you can just play it for what it is also and still have a great time.

But back to the original point. You play as either a pre-created character or one you create for yourself who is imprisoned on a Mindflayer ship. Those squeamish around the eyes will be tested as a special worm-like parasite is released to go behind your eye and bore its way to your brain. You discover this is how Mindflayers breed and create more of their species by having these parasites infect humanoid creatures. But this time something is different, you don’t suffer and start growing tentacles like a Mindflayer; instead, it is being kept at bay and it is allowing you a telepathic connection with others who, like you, also have the parasite in their heads. This leads to many different events for those sensing you have a parasite in your head with numerous positive and negative outcomes. You have a desire to get this parasite out of your head and many are in the same predicament that you are in. But in doing so you find out there is more to the parasite and it all boils down to greater power and control and you have to adventure and find out.

                The first thing you will notice when playing Baldur’s Gate 3 is just the sheer level of detail in everything. You are welcomed to a cinematic intro which is stunning to watch and sets the scene for the game nicely. The level of graphical detail of everything in the game is at the highest level and voice acting is incredible. Even the smallest of NPCs usually have a line or two to say to you. Even some of the dead NPCs can be spoken to with certain spells and they can reveal some information or secrets. If that wasn’t enough there is also the chance to talk to animals and even some of the animals have some voice acting. You can select or create your character and this is an experience in itself as the amount of choice and detail is to some level overwhelming, but in a good way. With 11 different races to choose from and then up to 12 classes for some of the races you can already see the variations you can choose from. Then depending on what you select from the first 2 sections you either have a subclass, background, cantrips, spells, deities, abilities, passives or skills that you need to select from.

It is very easy to get bogged down here but as arduous as it all seems this is a character you will be playing for hours so to make it feel personal to you and decide exactly how you want them to be is important. Do all of these options make a difference? Yes, in many different ways. You have the options that will affect your combat and that is a big part of the game so it’s important to set the options that you think you would enjoy playing. Then you have the options that will affect conversations with persuasion, intimidation, charismatic performing and intelligence. Lastly, you have your interactions with objects, people and the environment. Depending on your race, knowledge of religion, history or nature and sometimes your class you have some special interactions that you can trigger which means it invites you to replay the game as something different and you could get a vastly different experience. Just for those dirty halflings, you do get to customise the genitalia should you so wish and explore your grotesque curiosity of what an Orc or tiefling looks like with no clothes on.

              Once you have your character created or selected – which is almost a game in itself – how does it play? Well in short it plays exactly as I would expect a Baldur’s Gate game to play. It has an isometric view which translates perfectly for those playing with a mouse and keyboard and slightly less for those playing on a console with a controller. It is fine to use a controller to play this game but there will be times when you think “Hmm this would be much easier to do with a mouse”. But that is a testament to how much detail and content is in the game and my desperation to make sure I scour every inch of the area for those hidden goodies. There is a minor grumble in the pace that your character and companions walk but I guess that it was done because the maps although pretty large are still smaller than some games. Plus a slower pace is needed to be able to take in all the details and make sure you fully explore the area. The combat when an encounter is triggered changes the game from real-time to turn-based. Then based on the speed, initiative and a variety of other checks the game determines the order of turns.

                This is where your character creation focus comes into play as the options you have to use are based on your selection. From a rogue hiding for a sneak attack, a sorcerer lobbing some spells or a ranger summoning a pet to distract the enemy whilst you fire off some arrows in their direction. There are so many choices depending on what you choose to use against the enemy and the combination of your equipment, the type of enemy and even the scenery have an impact on the outcome. Firing an arrow at someone higher than you in a dark area is going to make your shot less likely to hit. But flying to a higher location and putting light magic on your bow to brighten up the area will greatly increase those chances to hit. That is just one of thousands of different scenarios that can play out.

As you progress through the game you can have up to 4 characters in your party including yourself and they each are different so you usually build a balanced team. There is so much equipment to be looted from containers, defeated enemies or even traders. You can also complete quests to create new equipment or receive them as rewards from quest givers. There is so much variety in the equipment you find that there will always be something that will enhance the character build you chose. Then as you win battles and complete quests you can level up which will allow you to select other features connected to your class and subclass etc. Sadly if you play on the lower difficulty like I did you cannot become a multiclass character. But if that’s your desire then you will just need to step up the difficulty to be able to mix things up.

Alternatively, if you have someone at home willing to join you then you can have a second player hop into your game and they can create their custom character who becomes a member of your party and takes one of the 4 spaces. The screen splits and they can move independently allowing you both to scour areas for items. It does become slightly clunkier when engaging in conversation or combat.  If player 2 wanders off and gets stuck into combat and they have bitten off more than they can chew,  then they have to wait for player 1 to catch up with them to balance the fight as player 2 will always be by themselves unless they can summon a minion. You can also invite 3 of your online friends to join you although I haven’t tried this, I can only imagine it being awkward as it’s the main player’s story and you would have to stick mostly together to risk not being caught out in combat. You can also open your game up to allow strangers to join you but you have to allow them in before they can join your game so hopefully that stops people trolling.

                The other reason I am so apprehensive about multiplayer is this game has an insane amount of choices which have a variety of outcomes with some being much bigger than others. But should you decide that you are not very happy with then you can always reload an older save to try it again. This game offers some quicksave and quickload features for this kind of scenario. I don’t know how fun it would be for others to keep reloading the game. There are also accidents which happen similar to all RPGs. Accidentally stealing something you didn’t mean to click on or attacking someone you didn’t mean to can all but lead to an outcome you would rather didn’t happen so saving and reloading can be a common thing. I liken it to the adventure books by Ian Livingstone where at the end of a page depending on the choice you have a different outcome. You always keep your finger on the previous page in case it leads you to your death or an unfavourable outcome.

                As for content, the game is brimming to overspilling with the stuff. As I mentioned I am 60 hours deep and I still haven’t even finished Act 2. There are 3 acts altogether and I have no doubt I will be breaching the 100-hour mark and then some. But with so many character choices, differing outcomes and trying to play it as a multiplayer the replay value of the game is pretty high. Even if you save certain checkpoints in the game you could even replay the game from those checkpoints to make different choices.

                The minor gripes I have with the game which I mentioned before are the pacing, the selection of items in an area, the loading times and a setting that I recommend console players to do. The characters move in a leisurely place and I think that is deliberate as some discoveries can only be made if your initiative or skill roll in the particular skill is high enough. Some waypoints can be found to help get around much quicker but I know some people might be annoyed at the slow pace. The selection of items is just a minor gripe as aiming at a particular chest or box with an analogue stick when there are 5 other things nearby is a pain. They did try to get around this by holding the button to create a search field so you can select the thing you want within the search circle but you just know with a mouse it would make much more sense. The loading times are the tiniest grump as I know how big the game is and solid-state drives have all but removed loading times. But the game can take 45 seconds give or take to load a game to play from the main menu. For old-school gamers that’s a mere blink of an eye but to the spoilt new generation that’s almost a lifetime. The last thing can be solved with a setting. When you finish your turn in battle you press the Y button. But turn on the setting to hold the Y button to finish your turn. The amount of times I accidentally ended my turn drove me crazy. This setting saved my sanity as the game can get tricky really fast if you don’t make the most of your turn.

Conclusion

Baldur’s Gate 3 Is everything I expected from the game and more. I can totally see why it won awards as just for pure content alone it’s top tier. For storytelling, it is top tier and the gameplay is as complex as you want to make it to appease the long-term fans and the newcomers. It is very involved and not some you can play in short bursts. You need to clear your schedule to lose yourself in the game properly.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.