It's weird to be that person who could never get into turn-based combat, bounced off most other CRPGs they've tried, never played DnD, and rarely ever replays games (and never back to back), but then Baldur's Gate 3 comes along and not only smashes each one of those barriers down, but becomes unequivocally their favourite game ever. It's just that good.

The appeal here for me was the similarities I saw to Bioware RPGs, which were the games that made you feel like you weren't just a lone hero with a bunch of stragglers tagging along to help, but like you were a group of adventurers (or space soldiers) coming together to take down the Big Bad because there was something in it for all of you. They had developed personalities, their own goals and values, opinions about one another, fun banter, and most importantly, they had agency.

That's exactly what BG3 delivers, but on top of that, there's also amazing mechanics that enable creative thinking (both in and out of combat), an interesting and dense world to explore, fantastic music, great characters (Auntie Ethel and Raphael are the best), and incredibly talented voice work and writers to breathe life into it all. No game is flawless, sure, but to me, BG3 is damn near close. It's top-notch in every possible way and I'm glad I took a gamble on it, because it absolutely paid dividends.

I remember attempting to play Baldur’s Gate II years ago and absolutely hating the experience. I have the sense that I wasn’t the brightest of kids, or if I was just super confused by the obtuse mechanics of the game (according to my kid mind). Years later (and well into my 20s) I saw that Baldur’s Gate III had released and had no idea that the game had been even been in open beta for a bit. I decided to try it and I have to say that i felt just like the little confused kid that couldn’t quite understand what was going on. It’s funny because RPGs are my favorite type of games, but having the game be based on a lot of DND mechanics was kind of off putting for me - until a couple of hours in the game clicked incredibly hard and filled my brain with so much dopamine that I almost passed out. A totally insane experience that made me feel many feelings and reinforce my relationship with my inner child.

Mentiram pra mim
Ouvi muito dizer sobre o quanto esse jogo era "quase perfeito", mas na verdade ele é perfeito, sem o quase.

Esse de fato é o melhor jogo que joguei até então e simplesmente valeu cada centavo e cada segundo das minhas 210 horas jogadas.
Tantas possibilidades, tantas escolhas, tantas formas de lidar com um problema torna esse jogo quase infinito e com muito fator replay, antes mesmo das minhas 60h no jogo já tava pensando em o que fazer na minha segunda jogatina, mas acredito que ainda vá levar um bom tempo até eu voltar nesse jogo e jogar novamente pela segunda vez.

Os gráficos são lindos, os personagens são bem construídos com personalidades únicas além da forma como eles se encaixam no enredo principal, cada um do seu jeito e cada um tendo de fato muito peso pra história é impressionante, o design das fases, das roupas, dos personagens e dos bosses é de abrir a boca, tudo nesse jogo funciona de forma orgânica, é tudo sempre muito complexo, extenso mas nunca maçante, sempre é divertido e cada vez se supera mais em quanta coisa tem escondida no jogo.

A trilha sonora é daquelas de baixar uma playlist no spotify e levar pro resto da vida, tudo é sempre marcante e memorável, me senti muito imerso nesse jogo e vivi uma outra vida, quando não tava jogando, tava pensando no que fazer quando ia jogar.

Nunca vi um cenário tão bem detalhado e vivo, tudo importa, cada NPC ta ali não atoa, mas com nome, família e histórias pra desenvolver, a linha de quests não são do tipo inúteis por mais fútil que ela possa parecer, tudo vira uma bola de neve no fim com muito desenvolvimento e muita descoberta por trás. As cidades então são tão complexas que leva horas só pra olhar e contemplar elas, nunca vi um jogo tão denso quanto esse.

Apesar do jogo em si ser perfeito, eu admito que a minha primeira experiência em si não foi perfeita, tive alguns bugs que dificultaram e infelizmente estragaram parte da minha experiência, uns em escala menor e inúteis/engraçados, mas outros simplesmente acabaram anulando uma linha de quest inteira (a Minthara bugou), apesar de tudo isso, ainda não tiro mérito nenhum do jogo pq os bugs não são frequentes e eles não acabam com tudo que o restante do jogo é.

I originally wrote a review, praising this game and giving it a 10/10, but in just 30 more hours it waned so far down to about a 7/10, this game is legendary!!! The writing and amount of options are just stunning, everything is so immaculately done! And yet, at the center of it all, there's this rat poison of a battle system, in which starting at the normal difficulty, every fight in the first act felt like it might as well have been the final boss, lowering the difficulty 20 hours in did little to improve the sickly feeling I was getting every fight. At the easiest difficulty, Baldurs Gate forces me to watch my party die and spend turns reviving them multiple times, even at my most prepared, I had to set up cheese strategies to have a chance at winning most fights in the game, and even with those strategies, it'd take me 5-10 tries. Not to mention it seems like no matter what I did, hit % chances were always below 70 for ANYTHING RANGED, including all magic and arrows. It's absolutely infuriating to have a run of bad luck and have to redo an entire fight 30 minutes in. And yet, this game is still amazing!!!! I don't get it, however i do know that i still can't get into most CRPGS, even when probably the best one of all time is staring me in the face.

Back in the 2000s some people were imagining how good things would be in the future. Some people hoped we would get robot servants, flying cars, but we didn't get those.

Some other people hoped that we would get a PERFECT Dungeons & Dragons video game where you could control your characters exactly how you would want them to like you would in your head in a perfectly meshed environment where characters and monsters come to life and you're able to interact with all of this in any way your wildest dreams can imagine. Whoever those people are, you need to dream me getting a million dollars.

The Ultimate Videogame Experience.
It's a miracle how this game exists, the amount of freedom of choice the game gives to the player, the depth of the writing, the very enjoyable turn based gameplay and all the hidden details and side stories make this game an absolute masterpiece like no other.

This is honestly the best and deepest Role Playing Game I've played to date, the amount of content is staggering, it's a huge journey full of surprises, and every quest has multiple outcomes, which is genuinely insane.

The overarching plot is actually somewhat simple and even predictable, but what makes it even better is how there are tons of optional quests that are connected to it and retroactively affect the events that are happening in the main storyline, which is divided into 3 Acts.
Act 1 is the most polished and fresh part of the game, it's huge and almost feels like an actual Open World game, Act 2 is shorter and more linear, but also emphasizes on the main plot way more and has some interesting twists and turns along the way, and then Act 3 is similar to the first Act, it's full of content, and concludes the story based on the player's choices throughout their entire journey.
The best way to experience it is by interacting with the world and doing as many quests as you can, you can change the story massively because almost every choice counts.

As for the characters, they are so well written and interesting, every character in the game has their own story to tell, their own struggles and motivations, this game is honestly full of side stories that you don't want to miss.

It's worth playing through at least two or three times, because there is just so much content that you can easily miss on your first playthrough, and the different classes make the game even more replayable.

Baldur's Gate 3 truly is one of the best videogames I've ever played, it's a beautiful piece of art that managed to blow my mind multiple times, it made me think about my actions, laugh, or even cry, but ultimately, it made me fall in love with it.

Final Rating: "Masterpiece" ~ 10/10.