In my traditional fashion, I beat the incredible game of Baldur's Gate 3 last night (or very early this morning). I have a habit of beating games around 1-4am. I recall finishing Final Fantasy VIII with my brother and sister in a teenage summer somewhere around 4-5am. My middle-school-aged brother then wanted to stay up the rest of the night, but my sister and I said no, let's go to bed. I'm not sure if he ever stayed up without us.
Anyway, this is a blog to laud Baldur's Gate 3, an immense undertaking as far as scripting. There's just a million choices that can be made in this game. I could talk nicely to this person, I could talk meanly to them, I could kill them, I could just never talk to them. I missed out on a series of side quests because I came to a village in the first act, decided not to enter there at the time, and when I came back, everyone was dead! The same thing later on, I missed talking to an important character when I saw her. Later on, it resulted in a duke being dead. I suppose it's a life lesson on "deal with what's in front of you?"
There's choices for conversational responses you can give based on your race and class as well. Just imagine all the coding that goes into that. There's multiple ways the party characters' stories can go, including them leaving the party or dying. And the character creation screen for your own character is wonderfully full of options, even down to the shape of your vulva or penis. Plus the fact that the developer, Larian Studios, is so open to players creating mods to make the game as they want, like with different races or allowing more than four party members - it's welcoming and a game made to be enjoyed forever.
And of course, being an actor, I focus on the stories and performances most. Not only are the characters the kind that grow on you, but each one is well-written, fleshed out, down to having little fears and hobbies. The acting performances in some emotional parts, especially for Astarion and Karlach, made me cry. The combination of writing and performance really stands out. I look forward to journeying with these people again in my second play-through. In case you're wondering, I was a high elf ranger for this go-around, bringing my very first Dungeons and Dragons character "to life." I'm planning on playing a githyanki next, probably a cleric.
As a musician, I also focus on the music of anything. I don't think this had the same memorable quality as Skyrim's music, but I like the themes. It was appropriately "fantasy," and I liked the atmospheric aspect as well as the theming. But again, I judge a lot of things by Skyrim, and the music of The Witcher 3 stands out as well as a worthy pedestal, and I'm just saying this was not as memorable. It's definitely good, just missing something.
I'm less an expert on graphics and level design, but as a long-time gamer, I loved the sharp resolution of the characters' faces, the beautiful settings and their variety (showcasing the wondrous places of Faerun), and the lighting. The strategy required in difficult fights (and as a DnD player, I love that the initiative and other rolling is done for you, all the calculation and such), the lockpicking in real time (people still could walk in on you, where Skyrim stops outside time), so many things of which to sing praises. I had to get used to the point and click style of it (I'd been expecting a Skyrim or Witcher-like experience of just moving), but in places with lots of traps, it added to the "strategy" of just moving in the space.
If we end this like a little kid's book report, we'll end with "who should play this game?" If you like adventure, characters that you will care about, strategy games, games that offer reasons to play them again (besides loving the characters and story) because of their choices, and if you've always wanted to pet a dog in a fantasy game, then this game is for you! I was so happy to learn from my brother-in-law that I could play this on my MacBook Pro (I had been waiting to buy a PlayStation 5, and I still haven't). So many friends spoke highly of this, so I'm glad I didn't have to wait until I bought the PlayStation. This experience will likely turn me from console into PC gamer too.
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