One of the greatest RPGs of all time
By Ameer Ammar
Baldur's Gate 3 has done a lot for me, in the hundred hours I've played it but one thing that stands out above everything else is this: It has finally opened my eyes to turn-based video games and their appeal.
RPGs are my favorite genre so when I tweeted that last year it was mainly because I knew BG3 was the perfect game for me in every way. However, at the time, I found the control through radial menus and the lack of tutorials cumbersome and too slow while I adored virtually every other aspect of the game.
I played as a criminal Rogue named Irina who robbed every place we went to, As I slowly learned how to play the Rogue class. the depth and fun of the combat system began to show. The turn-based gameplay allows for strategic plays unlike anything I've ever experienced before where positioning, abilities, timing, and creativity prevail every time.
In one fight, I had stumbled into what was pretty much an unbeatable boss fight with a ton of enemies. After a few attempts and having to reload my save it felt like there was no way we could get through this fight until I remembered I had an equivalent to an actual nuke in my inventory, a "Runepowder bomb." I ran into the middle of all the enemies, threw it, and my friend whose playing a sorcerer/warlock cast a globe of invincibility. We all just ran in there and I shot one fire arrow that exploded the bomb and literally everything died instantly including the boss. It was cathartic and I geuninely felt like a genius. There are many more stories like this one in my playthrough; the turn-based combat system makes each fight a story, an actual tale I can tell to my friends, many of these fights I'll never forget and will be telling about for a long time.
For exploration, I wish BG3 was open world just so I could explore post-story. However, BG3 is a region-based game, so you head into places because the story pushes you there. The exploration in these regions is off the charts. There's something to find in every corner, a ton of secrets, massive hidden caverns, and areas that are major parts of the game that took me 20+ hours to get through are entirely optional! Larian places an insane amount of trust and agency in your hands to tailor the experience to yourself. I explored everything, so I was over-leveled for a lot of it, but that was the reward for putting in the effort, and I loved it.
The story in BG3 is fantastic. A lot happens in the 3 acts that I don't want to spoil, The standout is how much you can affect the story with your choices, You can kill anyone at any point, with no protected NPCs, and the story will react accordingly to each choice. One thing I found genius about the dialogue options is how often I'd think of the response before I saw the exact option that used almost my exact words, For example: there was an NPC who said something and I audibly said "what the fuck did he just say," and the first dialogue option was literally "what in the hells did you just say to me?" This kept happening; the choices I had were literally what I would say in that situation. Expert writing throughout.
Companions are incredible. I wish we could have more people in our party to experience their dialogue more. With 2 players, I had two companions, Karlach and Shadowheart, While I did every single companion quest, those two were by far the closest to my heart. Both had amazing stories, dialogue, and some of the best acting I've seen, and yes I romanced Shadowheart. Larian somehow managed to motion capture every single conversation in this game so Instead of using a library of generic animations as most RPGs do for efficiency, Larian went the extra mile and delivered the best animations I've ever seen in an RPG of this scale, putting every other game to shame.
Of the three acts, Act 3 was my absolute favorite by the end, by far the longest and most important act in this game. There's an insane amount of content in just that part of the game, where most stories also come to a head and their conclusion, taking me 50 hours which is almost half of my experience to get through. It also ran perfectly for me and my friend, who's on a far weaker GTX1050 PC.
One last note on the story worth mentioning is that the Epilogues added post-launch felt like a very natural part of my experience, I adored how this story wrapped up so perfectly and how much my choices were reflected. I'm very glad they were added.
Also I cannot go on without mentioning that the soundtrack in BG3 is a banger, I already have "The Power" and "Down by the River" stuck in my head and added to my Spotify playlists, The themes are just forever stuck in my head at this point, It is so catchy.
If I could add one thing to this game and Larian's future games it would be a proper day/night cycle, I really do wish that you could explore these locales at different times of the day like lurking through Baldur's Gate at night to commit some devious acts would've been incredible. The scenery does get repetitive due to the static time of day but overall this is a very tiny flaw compared to the mountain of perfection that is this game.
It says a lot that after 111 hours I currently want nothing more than to start another playthrough as one of the origin characters and try some of the other choices like the Dark Urge. Oh, did I mention this game allows you to start off playing as one of the companions instead of creating your own character, and they have entirely unique dialogue trees and reactions that are totally separate from what you get as your created character? Because it does and it adds another layer to the experience that I am genuinely scared to find out just how much playtime this adds.
FINAL VERDICT
If you're still on the fence about BG3 and don't like turn-based games, I really think this is one worth going into with an open mind. Get a friend with you, some drinks and snacks, and dive into it. I promise it will draw you in just as it did to me.
Baldur's Gate 3 - 10/10 - MUST-PLAY
