Occasionally there is a game that achieves new heights and sets the bar for innovation and inspiration high. Games like Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, The Last of US, GTA 5, and Elden Ring are important games to gamers and the industry. Game changers and breakers of the mould that shaped the very landscape. Yet, there are far fewer games which truly push the idea of what gaming can do, even to unnerve the core of elite designers, and make them sweat in their boots. I’m talking about a game so ambitious, so monumental in scope and scale that it’s phenomenal, and especially so coming out at the right time, when gamers need that reassurance from corporate greed and seeing an underdog rise above so many gaming elitists.
I’m talking about Baldur’s Gate 3.
What is Baldur’s Gate 3? 
Larian Studios had a tough job on their hands, bringing to us a sequel to a beloved franchise, which hasn’t seen a mainline entry in over 20 years. With 3 years in early access, tons of feedback, and plenty of love and care in the craft, this AA studio has done what most AAA can’t, or simply won’t. Create a bold, refreshing, and immense role-playing experience that fans of D&D, and outsiders can grasp, love and enjoy for many, many years to come.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long await sequel of the immensely famous D7D series, that has taken both tabletop and video game form. The original two mainline games and their expansions were developed by legendary studio Bioware, but since 2000, there hasn’t been a sequel, and just a handful of rather good side games including the Dark Alliance duo. Larian Studios, the developers of the Divinity and Divinity: Original Sin titles have taken on the mantle of bringing a sequel of one of the most famous CRPG series ever made, in an era that is filled with remakes, reboots, online services and the 9th release of GTA 5.
It is an immense RPG, deeply rooted in the lore of the tabletop games, one that brings forth a compelling and vast fantasy world, an epic story of an invasion by cosmic horror beasts, complex and meaningful gameplay mechanics and role-playing systems, and a game which allows you to romance a bear in a passionate lovemaking session that will leave even the most profound furry blush.
Breathing in that fantasy air 
The most powerful thing about gaming is its ability to seamlessly transition us to other worlds within a blink of an eye, and unlike any book or film, we are in that world and the masters of what occurs. It’s something to be in another world, but to feel part of a living, breathing, and highly reactive world is another.
Baldur’s Gate 3 does not hold back in its presentation and delivers one of the best-looking fantasy worlds in gaming since The Witcher 3. Every blade of grass, every stone brick wall, every slim cover tentacle wall inside a cosmic spaceship, is crafted with such love and care, that you won’t be able to help yourself from just having your eyes melt at the sheer beauty of the world. The jaw-dropping landscapes, the hustling and bustling towns, the dense forests with every shade of green possible, and the inner twisted workings of the alien environments are so captivating and truly memorable. Aside from this, characters, creatures, and critters all look highly polished, detailed, and beautiful. From the vibrant red skins of an Asmodeus Tiefling or the scaley, textured flesh of a Dragonborn, or the striking features of a Rock Ghome or Githyanki, everything each of the main, supporting, and random characters you come across, all look wonderful in their own way.
And the little touches of the world, all the critters that live in it, the organic matter of the weird cosmic worlds, the decaying ruins covered in bone dust and cold embers, and the organic substances such as water and fire all look fantastic. There is of course a little bit of jank here and there, particularly with your own character in certain key scenes, and events, and Act 3’s massive and dense city scenery did cause a drop in performance. But mostly everything else ran incredibly smoothly and without any weird bumps in the road, as we’ve seen countless times with older RPGs.
And this sheer magnificence in presentation doesn’t stop there, as sound design and voice work is particularly top-notch tier stuff as well. With every voice actor gives 110% of their profession to deliver some of the best voice work in video games, since the likes of GTA 5. I really can’t put down a bad thing on the sheer depth and detail the world of Baldur’s Gate exhibits, nor can I fault the smooth, beautiful animations, sleek presentation, loving craft behind each character and critter in the world and just the immense variety, that ends up creating one of the most brilliant gaming worlds ever.
And I haven’t even mentioned the level of interaction you can have with this world, holy god! At the writing of this review, there are dozens of videos of people goofing off in Baldur’s Gate 3 and doing insane, hilarious s***. Like people stacking numerous creates on top of each other to scale and climb over a castle wall. Or just the number of people who throw other people off cliffs (I’ve done that a few times). And just the little things you can find, break, smash and throw is great.
And if you can play with friends, you will find so many wonderful, hilarious things to do as well. I expect within no time at all, there will be more things discovered by players, just making the world of Baldur’s Gate even more interactable and pure enjoyment to roam in.
You can be whatever you want to be in Baldur’s Gate 3 
So, after using the highly extensive character customisation tool, where you can pick a class, sub-class, race and sub-race, then edit the littlest details of your character from skin tone, hair colour and body art, I created my character. She is a beautiful 7ft tall demonic Asmodeus Tiefling, with silver hair, piercing red eyes, a cheeky smile and a little bit of a mommy who lives wine and toy boys. Yeah, you could make your very own Lady D, if you really wanted to, and you should. The point is, the character customisation is great, allowing you to make whoever you want. Although for the perverts reading this review (I mean, who isn’t?), you can’t adjust the size of your junk or boobage (I am sorry to report this).
Things start off with a bang for the main plot, as your character awakens in a strange vessel which has abducted, tortured, and implanted you with a parasitic worm-like creature straight from the cosmos. After a painful procedure, the clock counts down towards you turning into a literal monster. As the corruption inside you slowly grows, so does your power to connect with others with the same parasite in their brains, plus so much more. That power may help you to survive, but it all comes at a cost. You are now caught in a conflict between devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces within a fractured and beaten Forgotten Realms.
Soon enough the vessel crashes, allowing you to escape the confines of your prison and band together with others trapped on board the ship. After much fighting with the species that abducted you have known as Mind Flayers, and their brainwashed followers, you and your party find yourselves in the rural landscapes of the Forgotten Realms and about a 7-day walk from the infamous city of Baldur’s Gate, where there might be someone who can aid you with your parasite problem. And the strangely soothing voice in your head doesn’t help matters too much either.
It's an immense beginning to an epic journey that expands with numerous smaller, tension-filled stories where you have control of the outcome, be it for the greater good, or for darker contentment.
Baldur's Gate 3 takes players into a much darker adventure that revolves around the undying horror of the cosmos with elements of body horror and internal conflict. Being forced parasites into your head is surely bleak, but there are plenty of instances which are far less gruesome, but all the while gut-wrenching and politically heated.
Now I did quite enjoy the overall plot of Baldur’s Gate 3, with its dark fantasy/ Sci-fi vibes, but it was something I found a little familiar, especially with certain plot beats we’ve seen ever since the days of old 90’s PC adventure quests. But the grim shift of body horror, and alien-like cosmic creatures all blend for some very cool thematic elements. There are plenty of great set pieces, boss encounters and characters you will love and despise.
One of my favourite encounters was with a sinister and pretty disgusting dude known as Dr malus Thorm, and not to reveal too much, but this guy is hilarious and downright nasty, making him someone you genuinely love to hate (or love in a perverse way). And what makes his encounter even better is how you can choose to end it, with several options, some more creatively creepy than others, but all great payoffs for such an engaging character. There are moments which are bleak, depraved and downright disturbing, with many of them catching you off guard. Not has a game left me so cold at times since Telltale Game’s original The Walking Dead from 2012.
But what makes Baldur’s Gate 3’s writing and world even more compelling are all the smaller narratives that add numerous layers to the world. Be the self-contained tragedies or the bigger flames in the world which see factions bitterly fighting for a cause that is much bigger than yourself, yet you feel compelled to do something, or maybe nothing at all. Some of the most engaging would be helping a gathering of Druids watching over clusters of refugees deep within the rural areas of the Forgotten Realms.
The writers have managed to inject some interesting ideology and thinking behind all these important side quests and stories, leaving much of the subject to be quite grey. There was always a seemingly positive result waiting to happen, but usually with some form of consequence. At times there is no real clear-cut answer, whether it be "Should you kill an Owl-Bear, simply because it attacked some passersby, only as an act to defending its young" or whether you should aid the Druids to move along with the refugees, despite them having a darker side to their nature and the same goes for some of the Refugees who will very easily murder out of anger and revenge.
There's so much conflict in Baldur's Gate 3, immense world-building, and compelling character development that it can be a little overwhelming, but the sheer amount of choice and discovery is phenomenal. There is such a raw, emotional power to Baldur’s Gate 3’s world and many stories, that I felt fully invested from the very beginning. Again, I’ve not really come across a game, where my decisions felt so heavy and the outcomes so varied and wild to me, was in The Witcher 3. The writers really have done a fantastic job at delivering some of the best fantasy storytelling in recent memory, with great character, brilliant and varied interactions, side quests which make you really think about your choices, and thoroughly engaging dialogues which see a range of emotions and reactions, that bests most real-life dramas.
It’s an incredible narrative overall that’s immensely enjoyable and highly dynamic due to its massive variety of choices. And this is what makes it so superior to many others in recent years. The many paths you can take in a story is just bewildering that replaying this several times over is a must. The depth of character interactions is so rich and enthralling that even your worse enemies have an eye-gripping allure to them. And the cleaver exchanges, romance options and more make this truly a remarkable written RPG.
You can do whatever you bloody want in Baldur’s Gate 3! 
Now whenever I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons, I’m the guy who’s the loose cannon and just the general knob. I throw rocks at everything, I drink excessively until I die, I sit on guys as I’m usually a big mommy demon lady (yes…. I’m that depraved), and just in general love to do what I like. And I like that about Dungeons and Dragons, even if I make 95% bad choices, it still allows me to make those choices.
Now a video game, not in my lifetime certainly, will never have that same reactionary depth and openness for my stupidity, but Baldur’s Gate 3 does come pretty darn close. I genuinely felt my sense of wonder and curiosity lead to a meaningful discovery that could go somewhere, or I could just leave be. Each encounter had enough choices to bring on a wide range of entertaining outcomes. Be it insulting a group of bandits, befriending a large wild animal (not the bear romance) and having it side with you, talking a powerful enemy into a drinking contest where it ends up exploding from all the alcohol it consumes and much more!
The level of choice be it from exploring the wilds, or many towns and cities, to raiding goblin camps, scavenging long lost dungeons or simply chilling out at the pub, listening to the locals talk about things of interest. It’s immensely gratifying and satisfying just to be part of this rich world and never do things such as invisible ways, locked doors, or required levels become an issue.
You can break down all standard doors so long as you have the right tool for the job, you can set fire to anything that looks flammable to you, and yes of course, you can store a whole bunch of wooden crates, use them to block doors thus stopping enemies, or make a massive makeshift ladder to jump over a castle wall. It’s mental to think of the things you can do, and it’s bloody brilliant.
If you think you can do it, then chances are that Baldur’s Gate 3 will allow you to do it, or something close enough.
And that’s not touching upon the combat itself, which again leaves me breathless and bewildered thinking how much planning and design Larian Studios had to do. Every encounter, be it a small scuffle or monumental dance of death, feels significant and well thought out in so many ways. Most large encounters always had some engaging twist that would catch me off guard. Be it with new enemies that would have devastating effects on me and my party, or some weird turn in the environment that would add a countdown to certain death for everyone in the vicinity. Combat is generally engrossing and calculated, making you feel so triumphant when a fight is over, or even to find a clever way out of certain situations.
There is a great range of spells, weapons, and buffs that when fine-tuned, will leave you tearing up the battlefield in so many unique and visceral ways. But engaging in a fight doesn’t have to be a straightforward turn base affair as you can use items in the environment to cause massive damage to your foes, or end a fight entirely, with just the flicker of your fingers or a well-placed arrow.
Now Baldur’s Gate 3 is immensely brutal in the first few hours, and I can see many eager players feeling a little pushed back. While not a massive player in the tabletop scene, I did understand that most campaigns will be brutal at first, and the idea is to think outside the box. You may want to fight a giant Owlbear creature yet are so underpowered compared to it. So, you may have to leave it for another day, and that’s totally fine. The idea is for you to think outside the box, trial and error and plan your moves carefully. And at the end of the day, there are three different difficulty modes, and the Story lead campaign is most likely best for newcomers to the CRPG genre.
Yet, I will admit there were some fights which totally turned the course in the favour of the game and screwed me immensely over. And this is down to the RNG component of the game, as much of your success in fights and confrontations, is down to a dice roll. Now I’m not a big lover of dice rolls in video games, as the virtual roll of a die could never be fully in my control. I get rolling a die in real life is just a moment of chance, yet I always feel like I can trust myself and my role more than a computer. I did note this in my preview as I felt the die rolls were usually against me, even when I was completely levelled up enough to deal with a situation.
It appears this time round, Larian has taken the feedback to heart and made sure the rolls are much more organic and your high level for a certain perk or skill is taken more seriously. But in any case, the game will kick you in the nuts for the first act at least, even though it’s still quite fun due to the pacing and variety from act to act.
Overall
How can I sum up my review for Baldur’s Gate 3, other than “It’s phenomenal, please go and support these artists right now and enjoy one of the best CRPGs of all time!”. Well, there has been plenty of talk about gaming and scope, and how we gamers should look at BG3 and the rest of the industry. No matter how big a game is, no matter its scale and scope, that will never take away from smaller titles and lesser-known artists. But games like BG3 need to come occasionally to remind us that passion, creativity, and dedication will produce wonderful works of art, that inspire gamers, and designers alike to elevate the medium.
I’ve been around long enough to see people fear “new standards” with the likes of Assassin’s Creed, Half-Life 2, Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us, and so forth. BG3 pushes the idea that a high-level RPG can deliver all the things we want and be immensely successful right out of the gate. And yes, while not every game can be like this I know and shouldn’t be. So many have missed what else BG3 does so beautifully well. It’s immensely consumer friendly, has no Battle-Passes, no online store, no massive patches that fix 80% of the game and is just a fantastic, finished game from start to finish.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is something outstanding, from its beautiful, dense and rich open world, the level of freedom and immense decision-making, the brutal and engaging nature of combat, that rewards, teach and keep you on edge, all with so many small, quality of life choices making it highly accessible and customisable. It is a success story that’s worthy of our love, attention, and respect.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is simply outstanding in every single molecule of its existence, an actual achievement in gaming and a beautiful reminder of how fantastic video games can really be.
+++ Phenomenal storytelling, decision-making, and character development.
+++ Gives us a rich, dense and beautiful world filled with adventure.
+++ Highly customisable, and immense level of freedom in active combat and exploration.
++ Looks and sounds absolutely fantastic.
++ Highly replayable and gigantic in scale and scope, plus you can play with friends.
- Some minor bugs are present, both visual and sound.
- The first few hours can be brutal in combat on normal and hard difficulty.
- Some performance issues when in Act 3 and some heavily dense areas.
A PC review code for Baldur’s Gate 3 was kindly provided by Larian Studios for the purpose of this review.
