As a kid, I often would falsely believe that anything and everything was possible in a given game. That maybe, if I approached something differently, the story would play out differently. Later in life, while playing games from companies like Telltale, I believed this again. Ultimately, I learned that a lot of my "choices" in games did not really matter and would always lead to the same conclusion. I had believed all games to be this way, even those that focused a lot on roleplaying or player choice. I was proven wrong by Baldur's Gate 3.

CRPGs are not my usual genre of choice. Sure, I love Disco Elysium to absolute death, but that game feels more like a piece of interactive art than a more traditional CRPG. Baldur's Gate 3 wasn't really on my radar until I saw the stellar reviews. Seeing how it was getting Tears of the Kingdom type scores, I knew I had to check this game out.

What immediately strikes you in Baldur's Gate 3 is the game's ability to immediately suck you into its world. The opening is an intense and intriguing one, introducing you to some of the characters and what conflict afflicts this world. Right from the get go, your choices affect everything about how this story will play out. This isn't just about the small details either. We're talking about major plot points and elements that will determine every bit of your adventure. The amount of detail and different paths that you can encounter is staggering, maybe even overwhelming at times. But it all culminates into a very satisfying narrative that you shape throughout your entire experience.

The characters are also a major highlight of the game, in particular your party members. All of the major players have interesting storylines. Not only that, but they are just incredibly interesting to learn more about, as well as see their arcs unfold as the story goes along. They're not all perfect, but you will absolutely have your favorites that you want to follow until the end, or of course romance.

The combat is incredibly intricate. Its probably pretty standard for those of you that are more used to CRPGS, but I found it to be a system that's easy to learn but difficult to master. You absolutely have to strategize and plan out your moves if you want to hope to survive encounters. The game provides a pretty good difficulty incline (at least on Balanced difficulty). I never felt like the game ever had any difficulty spikes, nor did it ever feel too easy.

Customization is also insane. First of all, you could spend hours on the character creator alone. Its so detailed and deep that you can easily get lost in it. Second is the class customization. There are a ton of classes in BG3, and each have three separate subclasses once you get to a certain level. You can also reclass and respec at any point (granted you have the NPC that allows you to do so at your camp), so the game encourages you to experiment and try out new things with your character(s). This allows you to really strategize for combat and roleplay to the best of your ability.

Now is the game perfect? No, but no game is. But here are a few things that I did feel like could have been done better. For starters, the game does still have a fair amount of glitches, especially the farther you go into the campaign. The game's story is pretty solid throughout, but there is a decline in the narrative in Act 3, particularly during the falling action after the final boss.

Other than these few complaints though, I really don't have anything negative to say about BG3. This game simply blew me away. I feel weird having beat it. Even though it took me 90+ hours, I already feel ready to start a new playthrough as a different character both in class and personality. This isn't just one of the best games of the year. This is one of, if not the best CRPGs ever created. As the creators said in a recent advertisement for the game: even if you think this game isn't for you, give it a shot. You may be surprised by how much you'll enjoy it.

Can a game hit the uncanny valley?

No, seriously, I feel like this game isn't "real." The graphics are pretty and engaging yet it never moves past "Twitter proof of concept that gets 90k likes" for me in any way that really feels like it has its own identity. This game in general lacks an identity. It feels like a hodgepodge of eight different cyberpunk games/shows including Katana Zero, Cyberpunk 2077, and Blade Runner in a way that makes me feel like this game isn't ever really being genuine? The story feels formless and any interesting identity it has is dropped quickly, the cyberpunk stuff isn't unique at all and there's not really any designs I can think of being memorable aside from the robot stripper of all things, the gameplay is a mush of games like Katana Zero and Dust: An Elysian Tail without literally anything to make itself distinct, and not helping at all is how strange the English dub sounds. It's a dub that borders good and the actors are trying but nothing really comes across well. The direction of the game also feels really strange an amateur, it's like a web video series like RWBY but boosted with really pretty graphics.

Is it a good game? Is it a bad game? I have no idea. I have no idea what to possibly think of this game. It's too generic to have its own identity yet not generic enough to pass off as disposable. There's a lot of talent in this game but there isn't any ambition in the game to truly be unique and embrace an identity that isn't what every other cyberpunk story is doing. If the studio decides to make another game, I hope they really have an idea they stick to that's their own rather than trend-chasing.

tl;dr The game has soul but the soul is a patchwork of other properties that decays the further into the game you play.

There's also a Vergil-like and I swear his sudden appearance is the funniest thing in the game.