Recent Playing: Baldur's Gate 3
Jun. 20th, 2025 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rocky41_7 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gamingI've fallen into the trap of being so busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't had the time to say anything about Baldur's Gate 3 (a problem I've experienced before - which is why I've never yet reviewed My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist). There's also the fact that anyone on the farthest verge of the gaming sphere is aware of this game and has probably already read a least one review of it. Still, I'll throw my thoughts out, for whatever they're worth.
2025 has been a strange gaming year for me. Far and away my most anticipated game was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a game I've waited almost a decade for with baited breath. Baldur's Gate 3 was barely even on my radar—I played a few meager hours of one of Larian's earlier RPGs, Divinity Original Sin 2, which cemented my hatred of turn-based combat and dislike of isometric games. (Which is not a knock on DOS2—it was a very well-done game! Just not for me.) I was not willing to shell out BG3's price for the significant chance that its gameplay would be too frustrating for me to get into the story. Fortunately, my sister handled that issue by gifting it to me for Christmas—a free experiment.
In January, as usual, I plunged into my holiday cache of new games, starting with DATV—for more on my disappointment with that, see this review. When I'd quickly burned out on DATV, I turned to BG3, the unknown factor. Admittedly, this game is not optimized for console. Even after its eighth patch, it frequently crashes, particularly in battles with a high number of participants. Its menus and maps are difficult to read at a distance, such as from couch to TV. Its controls can be obtuse as the game tries to cram the huge number of functions onto a controller's limited button scheme.
However, in spite of these flaws, I've been reflecting the last few weeks on how BG3 has nevertheless been so much more fun than DATV, the game I was predisposed to like. What was it, I wondered, that made BG3 more fun? (And sorry--there will be more DA comparisons below.)
First, the thing that's most important to me in my RPGs - the vast roleplaying potential. Some games are "roleplaying" games in that you build up a character's skills and customize their fighting style. Others are "roleplaying" games in that you craft a character's personality and control their decisions in ways that (hopefully!) shape the narrative. Some are both - BG3 is both. The battle tactics of gaming has never interested me much, so I will leave that discussion to many reviewers more equipped to have it than I. What I can say is that BG3 gives you incredible potential to create your character--their backstory, their personality, their choices.
I've played three games of BG3, start to finish, and my three player characters (hereinafter referred to as "Tav," the default name for the PC) could not have been more different. And not just in my head, in the way I imagined them when I created and played them, but in the ways they were able to move through the world of BG3 and the choices they made.
BG3 eschews the clean and convenient dialogue wheel in favor of a long list of unvoiced dialogue options reminiscent of Dragon Age Origins (or DOS2, which uses the same style). This gave Larian the freedom to give the player far more response options than are available to a fully-voiced protagonist. Tav can be kind, curious, guarded, funny, caustic, and/or downright cruel. The long, branching conversations available with even minor NPCs gives the player ample opportunity to discover and display what kind of person Tav is to them.
Growing out of this same attitude are the many choices Tav can make throughout the game. I complained in my DATV review that it felt like the PC never made any real choices—they were all surface-level decisions that never once put the player in a real bind or had any notable consequences for the world. BG3 excels perhaps more than anywhere else in allowing the player to shape the world. The decision tree shaping the final two choices of the game itself spans at least half a dozen different outcomes (some with more significant differences than others—in my first playthrough, Tav became a mind flayer by the end!)
This freedom is perhaps most on display in the way your companion quests can play out. In some cases, I was reminded of Dragon Age II, where you at times had the choice to indulge your companion's worst instincts, the ones they really wanted to exercise, or to push them forcefully in a healthier direction. For instance, Shadowheart dreams of becoming a Dark Justiciar, a militant devotee of the goddess of darkness, Shar, almost universally reviled by the rest of Faerun for her petty cruelty. As this path demands more and more sacrifice from Shadowheart, you can either encourage her and bolster her resolve to follow her goddess' will—or you can ask her if Shar is really worth it, and push her to buck these divine demands. The outcomes for Shadowheart put her in a very different place, with even more, smaller differences in just how you pursue either route. Given, this is still a game trying to appeal to its audience, so few of your companions will openly regret the path you nudged them towards, although the hints may be there if things haven't turned out like they imagined.
I can also say at this point, having played through the character origin "The Dark Urge," that this was a fantastic addition to the game. While I enjoy making my own little guy as much as anyone, "Durge" is a great option to shake things up and it really made me see various facets of the game in a new way, given this unique context. Durge is not going to be to everyone's taste—it demands even more violence than you usually get from BG3—but I was fascinated watching this story play out (with plenty of room left for my own decisions, including ultimately rejecting my ordained destiny)
The last thing I'll mention is how the freedom of storytelling and choice in BG3 mean that you aren't forced onto a particular moral path. Your companions alone present you with a dizzying variety of moral codes, from Wyll who has devoted his life to defending the common people, to Minthara raised on the brutal drow code of conduct which prizes personal gain above all.
You can play Tav as dark or as light or as in-between as you want. You can lie to avoid fights, you can lie to start fights, you can make jokes about the harm you've caused, you can devote Tav to overthrowing oppressive powers, you can go out of your way to help people, you can remain laser-focused on your goal of curing yourself with no time to spare for other people's problems.
Your companions will react to these things—for instance, cheesing aside, Wyll and Minthara are mutually-exclusive companions, because the route you must take to recruit Minthara is so objectionable to Wyll that he'll simply leave the party. In general, they do not seek to spare the player's feelings—your companions can be angry, disappointed, betrayed, and more with Tav, as much as they can feel supported and loved. And it makes sense--it makes sense that Lae'zel is angry when she feels you're wasting time from finding the githyanki creche, where she believes there is a surefire cure to your problem. It makes sense that Shadowheart lashes out defensively if you question her devotion to Shar (even when she herself may be questioning it!) It makes sense that Gale is disgusted by the person he's become alongside Tav if you choose to raid the Emerald Grove rather than protect its residents. The characters as Larian has established them would have these reactions, and it wouldn't be reasonable if they continued to cheerlead Tav in the face of blatant violations of their moral codes and worldviews.
All of these things combine to make for a beautifully rich, layered game world which is just a joy to explore, one which I'm eager to return to yet again. Turn-based combat and isometric views are still not my favorite way to experience a game—but on the whole the story has been such a fun experience that I'm willing to brave a more complicated, more time-consuming fighting method. I may even seek out another copy of DOS2 to give that one another try, now that I have more understanding of the knack of Larian games. I may even go after the first two Baldur's Gate games!
BG3 is in no way a "hidden gem," but it was a surprise for me how much I've enjoyed it. A sleeper hit in my personal experience, perhaps. Anyway, I can't say more—I have another Tav to design.
First, the thing that's most important to me in my RPGs - the vast roleplaying potential. Some games are "roleplaying" games in that you build up a character's skills and customize their fighting style. Others are "roleplaying" games in that you craft a character's personality and control their decisions in ways that (hopefully!) shape the narrative. Some are both - BG3 is both. The battle tactics of gaming has never interested me much, so I will leave that discussion to many reviewers more equipped to have it than I. What I can say is that BG3 gives you incredible potential to create your character--their backstory, their personality, their choices.
I've played three games of BG3, start to finish, and my three player characters (hereinafter referred to as "Tav," the default name for the PC) could not have been more different. And not just in my head, in the way I imagined them when I created and played them, but in the ways they were able to move through the world of BG3 and the choices they made.
BG3 eschews the clean and convenient dialogue wheel in favor of a long list of unvoiced dialogue options reminiscent of Dragon Age Origins (or DOS2, which uses the same style). This gave Larian the freedom to give the player far more response options than are available to a fully-voiced protagonist. Tav can be kind, curious, guarded, funny, caustic, and/or downright cruel. The long, branching conversations available with even minor NPCs gives the player ample opportunity to discover and display what kind of person Tav is to them.
Growing out of this same attitude are the many choices Tav can make throughout the game. I complained in my DATV review that it felt like the PC never made any real choices—they were all surface-level decisions that never once put the player in a real bind or had any notable consequences for the world. BG3 excels perhaps more than anywhere else in allowing the player to shape the world. The decision tree shaping the final two choices of the game itself spans at least half a dozen different outcomes (some with more significant differences than others—in my first playthrough, Tav became a mind flayer by the end!)
This freedom is perhaps most on display in the way your companion quests can play out. In some cases, I was reminded of Dragon Age II, where you at times had the choice to indulge your companion's worst instincts, the ones they really wanted to exercise, or to push them forcefully in a healthier direction. For instance, Shadowheart dreams of becoming a Dark Justiciar, a militant devotee of the goddess of darkness, Shar, almost universally reviled by the rest of Faerun for her petty cruelty. As this path demands more and more sacrifice from Shadowheart, you can either encourage her and bolster her resolve to follow her goddess' will—or you can ask her if Shar is really worth it, and push her to buck these divine demands. The outcomes for Shadowheart put her in a very different place, with even more, smaller differences in just how you pursue either route. Given, this is still a game trying to appeal to its audience, so few of your companions will openly regret the path you nudged them towards, although the hints may be there if things haven't turned out like they imagined.
I can also say at this point, having played through the character origin "The Dark Urge," that this was a fantastic addition to the game. While I enjoy making my own little guy as much as anyone, "Durge" is a great option to shake things up and it really made me see various facets of the game in a new way, given this unique context. Durge is not going to be to everyone's taste—it demands even more violence than you usually get from BG3—but I was fascinated watching this story play out (with plenty of room left for my own decisions, including ultimately rejecting my ordained destiny)
The last thing I'll mention is how the freedom of storytelling and choice in BG3 mean that you aren't forced onto a particular moral path. Your companions alone present you with a dizzying variety of moral codes, from Wyll who has devoted his life to defending the common people, to Minthara raised on the brutal drow code of conduct which prizes personal gain above all.
You can play Tav as dark or as light or as in-between as you want. You can lie to avoid fights, you can lie to start fights, you can make jokes about the harm you've caused, you can devote Tav to overthrowing oppressive powers, you can go out of your way to help people, you can remain laser-focused on your goal of curing yourself with no time to spare for other people's problems.
Your companions will react to these things—for instance, cheesing aside, Wyll and Minthara are mutually-exclusive companions, because the route you must take to recruit Minthara is so objectionable to Wyll that he'll simply leave the party. In general, they do not seek to spare the player's feelings—your companions can be angry, disappointed, betrayed, and more with Tav, as much as they can feel supported and loved. And it makes sense--it makes sense that Lae'zel is angry when she feels you're wasting time from finding the githyanki creche, where she believes there is a surefire cure to your problem. It makes sense that Shadowheart lashes out defensively if you question her devotion to Shar (even when she herself may be questioning it!) It makes sense that Gale is disgusted by the person he's become alongside Tav if you choose to raid the Emerald Grove rather than protect its residents. The characters as Larian has established them would have these reactions, and it wouldn't be reasonable if they continued to cheerlead Tav in the face of blatant violations of their moral codes and worldviews.
All of these things combine to make for a beautifully rich, layered game world which is just a joy to explore, one which I'm eager to return to yet again. Turn-based combat and isometric views are still not my favorite way to experience a game—but on the whole the story has been such a fun experience that I'm willing to brave a more complicated, more time-consuming fighting method. I may even seek out another copy of DOS2 to give that one another try, now that I have more understanding of the knack of Larian games. I may even go after the first two Baldur's Gate games!
BG3 is in no way a "hidden gem," but it was a surprise for me how much I've enjoyed it. A sleeper hit in my personal experience, perhaps. Anyway, I can't say more—I have another Tav to design.