Baldur’s Gate 3 A Modern RPG Masterpiece and Instant Classic

This tadpole parasite is inserted into your eye socket by a Mindflayer, a lanky, pale-faced abomination who looks like he took a particularly greedy mouthful of spaghetti. Once it’s squirming around happily in your grey matter, a disembodied voice fills your consciousness. Who are you?, they ask. It’s a prompt for the character creation screen, but also it’s the question that’ll stick with you during your many, many hours wandering Faerûn.

Who are you?

Baldur’s Gate 3 generally gives you the freedom to be who you want to be. And do what you want to do. All in all, my playthrough hovered around the 70-hour mark & in that time I went toe to toe with a god wandered the astral plane.

My character, my creation, is Fitch. He’s a dashing rogue who grew up on the streets of Baldur’s Gate. He learned to get by on his quick wit and even quicker fingers & I can’t stress this enough he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He’s the de-facto leader of a world-saving party of weirdos & somehow keeps them together. We’ve got a range of companions including a wizard who, in a Jason Statham, Crank-like situation, has to consume magical artifacts periodically. Something bad will happen, a goody-two-shoes warlock who has a pretty intense ex-girlfriend, and a sweary Tiefling with a heart made of infernal machinery who just really, really wants a hug (who is of course my favorite).

Each of your party members fills a niche both in and out of combat. You can take three of these ragamuffins with you at any one time. And you’ll want a fairly balanced team in order to bash as many heads in as possible but it’s also important to take people with you that you get on with. The road is long, the dialogue is plentiful, and if someone (Gale, I’m looking at you) really does your head in, it’s probably best to leave them at your camp.

The camp acts as your gang’s home base; it’s where you’ll retreat to rest and heal, but it also serves as a hub for the interesting folk you meet. Your companions set up their little tents, decorated in a fashion to show off their own personality. Vicious warrior Lae’zel has a target dummy, dandy rogue Astarion has a bunch of fluffy pillows, and I expect druid Halsin has more than one copy of Bear Monthly laying about.

When you’re on the road you’ll find the combat is a fairly standard turn-based affair. Based on the official D&D ruleset as is everything in Baldur’s Gate 3. This dictates their number in line & when it’s your turn you can move use actions & cast spells. The sheer number of abilities at your disposal could be a little intimidating for those not familiar with D&D. With an increasingly elaborate set of fancy lights streaking the battlefield the deeper you get.

But beyond the turn-based system combat is also dynamic with surfaces & objects playing as much of a part in the proceedings as your own explosive arsenal which should be familiar to anyone who played Lariat’s Divinity Original Sin games. You can set oil slicks alight, create makeshift weapons using whatever’s in reaching distance.

And freeze the ground beneath your enemy’s feet – all of which I achieved mostly on purpose. I struggled with an early fight until experimentation revealed I could move an explosive barrel to a chokepoint, sneak my rogue up to lead the bandits on a merry chase. And get Gale the wizard to evaporate them with a firebolt aimed at the barrel when they got near a simple solution. And as it turns out a really effective one.

I did find that once the battles get larger in scale. The subtlety of your own tactics can get a little lost in the mass migrations of the enemy. The area will quickly turn into an absolute mess of fire ethereal tendrils & blood. A lot of the time you have to react to your enemy, rather than force your own will on your foes. Once my band of weirdos reached the max level cap their massive suite of abilities barely fit into the standard UI, with spells & actions becoming lost in a sea of colorful icons.

I found myself leaning on the same two or three spells just so I didn’t get overwhelmed. And even though you can create your own hot bar of favorites. This meant that I was only making use of a fraction of a character’s abilities. I sometimes felt like I was missing out on some of the more spectacular aspects of combat but hurling fireballs. Also thankfully never really goes out of style.

While I did tend to stay on the safe side when it came to combat. The freedom of choice I was afforded when it came to my own character. Also how I interacted with the world makes Baldur’s Gate 3. Friends have regaled me with stories of how they toppled a boss or met up with a character. Also they nearly always differ from my experience in some way. Like the time I convinced a rather mean looking foe to off his minions.

The setting for these misadventures is Fearon & eventually the city of Baldur’s Gate with the former acting as an extended tutorial. Also a place where you can figure out who you are & forge relationships that will hopefully serve you well for the next 100 hours.

There are times you’ll wander from the beaten path meet somebody. Wonder just how easily you could’ve missed out on that experience like the time. I held a drinking competition with someone. They didn’t appreciate my intrusion.

It’s impressive how natural my story felt when I know there were hundreds of plates spinning in the background. A chance meeting here & failed dice roll there. Suddenly I’m in the depths of hell with George Clooney performing the heist of the century. It felt like a crafted experience from start to finish, the game took my actions & bent the story around them. It truly felt like my story for better or for worse.

I’ll tell you, I’ve seen some things in my time with Baldur’s Gate 3. The first act had a bit of everything from dusty old crypt keepers to meeting the cutest dog. It’s a great setup for the cacophonous city that comes after. The freedom you’re awarded when you finally reach Baldur’s Gate is dizzying every shopfront. Also sidestreet could be the source of your next jaunt. It takes a while to get your bearings. But after roaming for a few hours I could navigate the labyrinthian streets with little hassle. While I do think the last act leaned a little too heavily on large-scale combat. I’m not entirely convinced I couldn’t have approached it from another angle or simply avoided it altogether. Obviously, no spoilers here, but I got the ending I deserved.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s world is beautiful, layered, and complex, and challenges you to attack it how you want. And though this is what makes it a little daunting. It’s also what makes me eager to roll a new character and go on that journey again.