Baldurs Gate 3 Review: A Love Letter
I went through two playthroughs of Baldurs Gate 3. My first run, was “Let’s be the charismatic hero and do every quest” I went ahead and did everything I possibly could. I tried my best to see every little detail I could and I honestly thought I had.
However, during my dark urge (very murderous character) playthrough, I realised how wrong I was in every way and my realisation of just how big this game was really came into light. The amount of “I didn’t know you could do that!” was beyond anything I have ever experienced before.
So with that being said, what are my thoughts on the game as a whole?
Baldurs Gate 3 shines at it’s highest when we talk about gameplay as well as it’s freedom of gameplay. An RPG that grabs its series roots and turns the turn based gameplay of Dungeons and Dragons to a visual height. My first playthrough was as a multiclassed Paladin/Warlock Elf. Naturally, charisma in all RPG games is exactly what I am after. I talked my way through so many combat encounters as the D20 rolled across my screen to almost always successful persuasion checks.
However when it all went soured and that glorious natural 1 hit my dice, I knew I had to prepare for a fight.
My knowledge in Dungeons and Dragons helped immeasurably in this game (I mean, it is the same rules). I knew what a Tarsha’s Hideous Laughter was, I knew why Guiding Bolt slapped and I could not believe how Speak with Dead worked in this game.
Much like the game and rules it is all based on, the game itself can be tackled in so many ways as discussed. You move your character and 3 party members around great landscapes, running into numerous NPC’s good or bad, finding wells you can dive into, doors you can lockpick or smash open, trolls you can persuade or kill, goblins in castles, druids in groves. There is an infinite amount of possibilities and the game really does allow for all infinite options.
An alcoholic barrel in the distance, light it on fire to explode, telekinesis to pick it up and drop it, throw it to coat your enemies in alcohol, have your rouge hide behind it, pick it up in your inventory and use it destroy a boss.
I found myself at first being very simple with my logic. Fire barrel? Throw fire at it, boom. As you go through the game, you realise exactly what is possible as the game spreads across its 3 acts.
If you have played a game of Dungeons and Dragons or Dragon Age, you will feel right at home with how much variety there is in the game play and this isn’t even getting into the fact there are 12 classes, which you can multiclass and you can reset your levels to try out new classes……
So, the gameplay is vast, you can be different classes, you can kill or persuade, you can have sex with like everyone.
How are the characters, how is the narrative? What about side quests?
My friends, it has been hard for a game to defeat the Dragon Age companions for me. The OG Dragon Age companions are some of the best party members you will find in a video game and Baldurs Gate 3 has damn well topped it. All of them are missable and do not even need to join you by the way. Obviously, I would not recommend skipping past them but that is just how much option you are given in this narrative. I could probably spend a whole bible length going through each companion, why they are important and why I love them but I will just say that my party in both playthroughs consisted of Astarion, Shadowheart (My wife) and Karlach. Not having Gale in my party is still one of the hardest pains of my life but I just needed to know how they all reacted when I was being a bit of a murderous bastard in my second playthrough.
What the hell is a Shadowheart, I hear you ask. It is a question, that I just can’t answer. Uncovering these characters is what made Baldurs Gate 3 so fun for me. Seeing how they only trusted me to get what they wanted, to then becoming best friends, lovers, sometimes tense enemies. Watching their interactions in major cutscenes, seeing how your party had travelling dialogue unique to their locations and who they were with. Digging up their backstories, finding items that triggered scenes you wouldn’t expect.
This game does one thing perfect above all else, it RESPECTS what you have done even if the sequence doesn’t line up. Killed a character because you knew from your first run who it was? The game will not lock you out. The game will update and now run with your punches.
It will always keep up with you. Which leads into the narrative.
Each character has their own substory, including your own. As you go through the game, you discover more and more about yourself, the world and your companions quests. The game is littered with side quests as any RPG is and they ALL are amazing. I would never skip over any single one. I was so compelled in my second run to do them all again, seeing them in different lights or seeing them the same way. As I played on the hardest difficulty on the my second run, there were some fights I had to do differently or couldn’t cheese my way through.
There is one enemy south of the first act in a little hut. There is a lot of ways you can deal with this boss. My first run, I killed it before it could escape from me and the entire dungeon respected that. NPC’s wouldn’t attack me because the boss didn’t get the chance to make them.
My second run, however, she did escape and it became a whole different dungeon.
That is a side quest! Multiply that by hundreds and you have side quests that really don’t even feel like side quests. They affect so many main parts of the story.
One of the hardest bosses in the game is tied to an optional area of the game that requires you to not only distrust multiple important characters but also opens up a whole new damn ending for you.
The main narrative, you will hear a lot of people say loses its charm in the final act. I disagree heavily and think it is the most D&D type of finale you can get. I won’t go into spoilers but there is a lot of people out there who respectfully do not enjoy act 3. A lot of heart is found in act 1, as it is new, there is a lot to discover but I fully believe act 3 closes out every characters story perfectly and the final boss makes sense and honestly, can go so many ways due to your choices, no matter how small.
The ending I got made me so happy and it wasn’t even the ending I would have wanted but it made sense for my character.
What you need to bring to Baldurs Gate 3 is head cannon. It is easy to look at your companions and think the main character is empty compared but not if you play it like a session of D&D.
I made this choice, so WHY would my character make that choice. This game more than anything is about creating your own fun, your own enjoyment from every angle. Some characters will not get the wrap up you want them to but they do in other runs, so take the ending you got and work that in your head cannon.
Moving onto the music and voice acting because I am a sucker for both in any given media especially video games. I fully commend BG3 for having some of the best voice acting you will ever find in a video game with a cast that have mostly their first roles dedicated to this game. Shoutouts to Jennifer English as Shadowheart and Neil Newborn for Astarion being some of my favourite voice works of the year. I cannot express enough how every single actor in this game makes every character feel alive with raw emotion at that. Some lines are delivered with such intensity that I lose all words to begin how I felt (Looking at you Karlach when you confront you know who in Act 3)
The music OH MY GOD. Just give it in my veins. From bard songs to epic boss music to an opening theme that slaps to songs that make me cry. The composer Borislav Slavov of Divinity strikes again with this score and it needs it’s own special mention.
All of this barely scratches the surface. This doesn’t even go into my feelings on spoiler topics like bosses, character stories in depth and gods there are probably 50 things I haven’t even mentioned at all writing this.
I do want to give Larian Studios the biggest shoutout for making patches to this game the size of this review/discussion/ramble/love letter and then some. They have updated the game visually, fixed numerous bugs and provided much need quality of life changes all within months of it being released and still continue to patch it. The amount of dedication to the community they and the actors have shown, has been inspiring.
I love Baldurs Gate 3. I think it is one of the best video games of all time and it blends a strong narrative with a huge creative freedom that almost seems limitless.
It isn’t for everyone, a lot of people don’t get into CRPG’s or tactical games but I personally believe this is the best of its genre and the technical accomplishment of this game makes it a beautiful playground of role playing goodness.
Baldurs Gate 3 is my official 4th favourite game of all time and stands above so many that I have experienced.
Please play one of my my favourite video games.
I went through two playthroughs of Baldurs Gate 3. My first run, was “Let’s be the charismatic hero and do every quest” I went ahead and did everything I possibly could. I tried my best to see every little detail I could and I honestly thought I had.
However, during my dark urge (very murderous character) playthrough, I realised how wrong I was in every way and my realisation of just how big this game was really came into light. The amount of “I didn’t know you could do that!” was beyond anything I have ever experienced before.
So with that being said, what are my thoughts on the game as a whole?
Baldurs Gate 3 shines at it’s highest when we talk about gameplay as well as it’s freedom of gameplay. An RPG that grabs its series roots and turns the turn based gameplay of Dungeons and Dragons to a visual height. My first playthrough was as a multiclassed Paladin/Warlock Elf. Naturally, charisma in all RPG games is exactly what I am after. I talked my way through so many combat encounters as the D20 rolled across my screen to almost always successful persuasion checks.
However when it all went soured and that glorious natural 1 hit my dice, I knew I had to prepare for a fight.
My knowledge in Dungeons and Dragons helped immeasurably in this game (I mean, it is the same rules). I knew what a Tarsha’s Hideous Laughter was, I knew why Guiding Bolt slapped and I could not believe how Speak with Dead worked in this game.
Much like the game and rules it is all based on, the game itself can be tackled in so many ways as discussed. You move your character and 3 party members around great landscapes, running into numerous NPC’s good or bad, finding wells you can dive into, doors you can lockpick or smash open, trolls you can persuade or kill, goblins in castles, druids in groves. There is an infinite amount of possibilities and the game really does allow for all infinite options.
An alcoholic barrel in the distance, light it on fire to explode, telekinesis to pick it up and drop it, throw it to coat your enemies in alcohol, have your rouge hide behind it, pick it up in your inventory and use it destroy a boss.
I found myself at first being very simple with my logic. Fire barrel? Throw fire at it, boom. As you go through the game, you realise exactly what is possible as the game spreads across its 3 acts.
If you have played a game of Dungeons and Dragons or Dragon Age, you will feel right at home with how much variety there is in the game play and this isn’t even getting into the fact there are 12 classes, which you can multiclass and you can reset your levels to try out new classes……
So, the gameplay is vast, you can be different classes, you can kill or persuade, you can have sex with like everyone.
How are the characters, how is the narrative? What about side quests?
My friends, it has been hard for a game to defeat the Dragon Age companions for me. The OG Dragon Age companions are some of the best party members you will find in a video game and Baldurs Gate 3 has damn well topped it. All of them are missable and do not even need to join you by the way. Obviously, I would not recommend skipping past them but that is just how much option you are given in this narrative. I could probably spend a whole bible length going through each companion, why they are important and why I love them but I will just say that my party in both playthroughs consisted of Astarion, Shadowheart (My wife) and Karlach. Not having Gale in my party is still one of the hardest pains of my life but I just needed to know how they all reacted when I was being a bit of a murderous bastard in my second playthrough.
What the hell is a Shadowheart, I hear you ask. It is a question, that I just can’t answer. Uncovering these characters is what made Baldurs Gate 3 so fun for me. Seeing how they only trusted me to get what they wanted, to then becoming best friends, lovers, sometimes tense enemies. Watching their interactions in major cutscenes, seeing how your party had travelling dialogue unique to their locations and who they were with. Digging up their backstories, finding items that triggered scenes you wouldn’t expect.
This game does one thing perfect above all else, it RESPECTS what you have done even if the sequence doesn’t line up. Killed a character because you knew from your first run who it was? The game will not lock you out. The game will update and now run with your punches.
It will always keep up with you. Which leads into the narrative.
Each character has their own substory, including your own. As you go through the game, you discover more and more about yourself, the world and your companions quests. The game is littered with side quests as any RPG is and they ALL are amazing. I would never skip over any single one. I was so compelled in my second run to do them all again, seeing them in different lights or seeing them the same way. As I played on the hardest difficulty on the my second run, there were some fights I had to do differently or couldn’t cheese my way through.
There is one enemy south of the first act in a little hut. There is a lot of ways you can deal with this boss. My first run, I killed it before it could escape from me and the entire dungeon respected that. NPC’s wouldn’t attack me because the boss didn’t get the chance to make them.
My second run, however, she did escape and it became a whole different dungeon.
That is a side quest! Multiply that by hundreds and you have side quests that really don’t even feel like side quests. They affect so many main parts of the story.
One of the hardest bosses in the game is tied to an optional area of the game that requires you to not only distrust multiple important characters but also opens up a whole new damn ending for you.
The main narrative, you will hear a lot of people say loses its charm in the final act. I disagree heavily and think it is the most D&D type of finale you can get. I won’t go into spoilers but there is a lot of people out there who respectfully do not enjoy act 3. A lot of heart is found in act 1, as it is new, there is a lot to discover but I fully believe act 3 closes out every characters story perfectly and the final boss makes sense and honestly, can go so many ways due to your choices, no matter how small.
The ending I got made me so happy and it wasn’t even the ending I would have wanted but it made sense for my character.
What you need to bring to Baldurs Gate 3 is head cannon. It is easy to look at your companions and think the main character is empty compared but not if you play it like a session of D&D.
I made this choice, so WHY would my character make that choice. This game more than anything is about creating your own fun, your own enjoyment from every angle. Some characters will not get the wrap up you want them to but they do in other runs, so take the ending you got and work that in your head cannon.
Moving onto the music and voice acting because I am a sucker for both in any given media especially video games. I fully commend BG3 for having some of the best voice acting you will ever find in a video game with a cast that have mostly their first roles dedicated to this game. Shoutouts to Jennifer English as Shadowheart and Neil Newborn for Astarion being some of my favourite voice works of the year. I cannot express enough how every single actor in this game makes every character feel alive with raw emotion at that. Some lines are delivered with such intensity that I lose all words to begin how I felt (Looking at you Karlach when you confront you know who in Act 3)
The music OH MY GOD. Just give it in my veins. From bard songs to epic boss music to an opening theme that slaps to songs that make me cry. The composer Borislav Slavov of Divinity strikes again with this score and it needs it’s own special mention.
All of this barely scratches the surface. This doesn’t even go into my feelings on spoiler topics like bosses, character stories in depth and gods there are probably 50 things I haven’t even mentioned at all writing this.
I do want to give Larian Studios the biggest shoutout for making patches to this game the size of this review/discussion/ramble/love letter and then some. They have updated the game visually, fixed numerous bugs and provided much need quality of life changes all within months of it being released and still continue to patch it. The amount of dedication to the community they and the actors have shown, has been inspiring.
I love Baldurs Gate 3. I think it is one of the best video games of all time and it blends a strong narrative with a huge creative freedom that almost seems limitless.
It isn’t for everyone, a lot of people don’t get into CRPG’s or tactical games but I personally believe this is the best of its genre and the technical accomplishment of this game makes it a beautiful playground of role playing goodness.
Baldurs Gate 3 is my official 4th favourite game of all time and stands above so many that I have experienced.
Please play one of my my favourite video games.