Game Information
Game Title: Baldur’s Gate 3
Platforms:
- PC (Aug 3, 2023)
- PlayStation 5 (Sep 6, 2023)
Trailers:
- Baldur’s Gate 3 Opening Cinematic
- Baldur’s Gate 3 World Gameplay Reveal Announcement
- Baldur’s Gate 3 - Official Announcement Trailer
Developer: Larian Studios
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 95 average - 100% recommended - 26 reviews
Critic Reviews
ACG - Jeremy Penter - Unscored
Attack of the Fanboy - Noah Nelson - Unscored
Checkpoint Gaming - Edie W-K - Unscored
Entertainment Geekly - Luis Alvaro - 5 / 5
GGRecon - Ava Thompson-Powell - Unscored
Game Rant - Shane Robert Moyer - 4.5 / 5
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith - 100 / 100
GamesRadar+ - Ali Jones - Unscored
GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 10 / 10
GamingTrend - David Flynn, Ron Burke - Unscored
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser - Unscored
Hobby Consolas - Alberto Lloret - Spanish - 96 / 100
IGN - Leana Hafer - Unscored
IGN Spain - Guillermo Proupín - Spanish - 10 / 10
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - Unscored
Niche Gamer - Brandon Lyttle - 9 / 10
NoobFeed - Jay Claassen - 95 / 100
PCGamesN - Paul Kelly - Unscored
Screen Rant - Cody Gravelle - Unscored
Try Hard Guides - Erik Hodges - 10 / 10
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo - Unscored
We Got This Covered - Ash Martinez - 4.5 / 5
Worth Playing - Chris “Atom” DeAngelus - 9 / 10
ZTGD - Terrence Johnson - 9.5 / 10
eXputer - Huzaifah Durrani - 5 / 5
I can finally play D&D instead of always being the default GM! Yay!
It’s a fantastic game and I am having a blast with it. It’d be neat if they found a way to incorporate a little more of the utility stuff (scrying etc.) but I can imagine how difficult that would be. The scope of what you can do in the game is definitely much farther than I thought they’d go!
Forever GM’s unite! (But like, once we get the schedule finalized /s)
Yeah, this is probably the best D&D game in existence now. It definitely has some pretty fun mechanics and a lot of depth that other D&D vidya games just lack.
Agreed. It’s the most direct translation of the actual mechanics and gameplay of D&D to a game ever made and somehow also the most fun.
Hm, now I want a mod for NWN 2 that makes it actually play like a turn-based game to see if that’s fun. 5e is probably still more fun than 3.5, but with all the math automated away it could be close.
I forget, do the pathfinder games use v1 or v2? V1 was basically D&D 3.5 in most ways.
Either way, if you haven’t played it, you should put Pathfinder Kingmaker on deck for after BG3
They’re both based on PF 1e. Looking at the wiki page, I didn’t realize they were optionally played in turn-based mode.
Guess I’ll have to play em.
I used to GM PF 1e without opening the rulebook because I had those rules down cold from all the years of playing 3.5 before Pathfinder came out.
How does scrying work in the game actually? I’m kinda curious and I don’t have the game yet :<
Scrying type spells are not in the game as far as I know. There are a lot of non-combat spells in D&D that are not present, likely because they are based on creative liberties, and difficult to replicate on a computer.
Yesterday I was playing with some buddies in chat. Another buddy that isn’t playing with us asked if we were doing the main quest line or side quests. I responded, “There aren’t any main or side quests. You just kinda play”. At that moment it finally clicked. BG3 is a game where you just enjoy yourself without a conception of what you’re doing mattering or not. You put your own weight into your experiences.
That’s true of D&D in general. Like yes, technically there’s a main quest, but honestly they all kinda intertwine in a big plot soup.
No wonder there’s 17,000 endings.
I’m absolutely loving it. I love that I can pace the game myself thanks to the turn based design, that my actions have consequences, that it’s a proper role playing game.
I’m about 30 hours in and it’s fantastic.
Copying my previous comment from Sunday:
Played it all day yesterday. It still has some bugs and if you play co-op you should do it in a separate save file because you can’t ever remove your offline friends’ characters from your party, but at a mechanical level, the game is a masterpiece.
It’s D&D 5e translated with extreme loving detail into a video game. Conversation is nearly as engaging as combat and many of the NPCs have massive dialogue trees, all fully voiced. You can switch between using a controller to directly control your character or using the traditional keyboard and mouse controls like the older Baldurs Gate games.
Hells, the character creator is probably worthy of an award by itself
I’m now 38 hours in and my opinions are basically the same, though I will add that I love how fast they’ve been patching it. If Larian ever release DLC or expansions for this game I’d expect them to be the best goddamned expansions I’ve seen in at least the last 10 years.
I’m really hoping it’s reasonably moddable because I’ve little doubt the community would love to mod entire custom campaigns into this engine.
Been having good fun with Baldur’s gate 3. Combat is taking me a bit of getting used to but it’s overall pretty nice. The plenty of character cutscenes really are nice. One suggestion for improvement is that I need all of the characters to have the Scottish accent, not just some.
This game is everything I wanted Divinity Original Sin 2 to be. I’m so happy that Larian knocked it out of the park with this one.
This game is everything I wanted Divinity Original Sin 2 to be.
This is kinda exactly why I haven’t played it, haha. I’m a grumpy old fart who played the first two, and misses RTwP. I did enjoy D:OS I+II though, so I guess I’ll just shut up, play Pathfinder if I feel like RTwP, and be happy good RPGs are being made.
I’ve been playing through it with a few of my pf2e group.
Larian did such an amazing job with this, and I am enjoying it, but I find myself wishing this game had the action economy from Div : OS2 or pf2e.
That said, I’m glad to see that they’ve continued the trend of their prior crpgs, and made something approaching the flexibility of a GM behind a screen.
It’s great!! At first I wasn’t too into it, but I leaned in to my chaotic stupid bard shenanigans and I am having a blast. The dialogue and VAs are fantastic, especially Astarion’s (who doesn’t!?). This is my first cRPg and it’s good introduction to beginners new to the genre. Choices are remembered by characters so be careful. Combat can be confusing at times because I’m dumb and don’t play DnD.
Is thee anyone here who hates turn-based RPGs, tried this game and actually liked it?
yep, here! and its awesome!!!
Can concur! I absolutely despise turn based combat but I’ve been enjoying this game through and through for 30 hours.
I usually despise cRPGs (turn-based, party-based tactical, can’t grind to be OP, decisions matter TOO much) but love JRPGs. But I cannot put this game down. It’s just too well-made and there’s too much flexibility and interactivity not to be intrigued at every turn.
It’s too bad the review copies were delayed, but I’m glad reviewers are taking their time with it. If this level of positivity continues I feel like BG3 will be a serious GOTY contender
Eh I didn’t really enjoy it but i haven’t played it.
Thank you for your input :)
I played it after making the comment and it’s pretty good. I’m only an hour in though
Awesome game so far and remarkably well-polished due to the early access. My only real gripe is that the camera control is a little fiddly. It may be that I’m just not used to it, but a click and drag to rotate the camera would be chef’s kiss
Press and hold middle mouse to pan camera
I find isometric top down games really difficult to enjoy personally.
But man I am enjoying TF out of BG3.
I don’t really have anyone to play it with. Is it playable solo or with randoms?
I’d say it plays best solo. It’s story heavy so you’re going to want to go at your own speed and explore what interests you, which works better solo.
FWIW I got it as well 2-3 of my friends, but we’re all running it solo first before grouping up.
Cannot speak for randoms, only the Solo Aspect: You can take control of any additional party members (also works in Multiplayer) so playing alone is technically definitely possible. What I can tell you from my brief experience though is that managing the extra characters is somewhat tedious so I don’t think you’ll get the maximum out of the party solo. Playing with only one character is not really something I’d do, there does not seem to be any mechanic balancing out all of the disadvantages there from what I can tell.
Looks like the top GOTY contender so far.
