It's ight.

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

TL;DR? Amazing game. Highly Recommend. For newcomers or veterans of the genre. Worth the money I promise you. 10/10.

Actual Review Below:

A damn fine game! I'd argue a 10/10! In the age where the quality of video games can vary, Baldur's Gate 3 has surpassed with flying colors. My first playthrough was over 140 hours of non-stop amazing story, combat and dialogue. Mind you, I'm personally a major D&D fan and have played the TTRPG for years, so there is a bit of a bias here. That being said this game is outstanding with its presentation of story, game mechanics and choices presented before the player. To be fair I encountered a few bugs/glitches within my first playthrough, missing textures and dialogue skipping cutscenes, not to mention the allied AI will glitch and not act within combat in large battles but I believe these minor problems can be easily fixed with future patches and updates. But I cannot stress enough how amazing this game is.

Let's start with the story. Without giving anything away I can certainly tell you that both for new faces to D&D/Strategy RPGs as well as veterans of the gaming genre/D&D TTRPG, this game is a breath of fresh air story wise. There is a common stereotype within D&D and other TTRPG stories which is the common plot line of: You and the party meet in a dark candle lit tavern and are eventually sent on a quest to deal with a dragon on top of a mountain or an evil Lich who raises armies of the undead or perhaps for the veterans of D&D, the countless runs of Curse of Strahd rings a bell? It certainly does for me. I can positively assure you, at least personally for me, the story presented here is a breath of fresh air that I haven’t experienced personally within single-player strategy RPGs or in my IRL TTRPG 5e/3.5e sessions. Hell, the companion side missions alone could be run as one-shots because their stories alone hold up enough that I’d buy them as DLC if marketed that way. I will admit, there is the occasional plot hole here and there such as: “Why can’t this be solved with a revive scroll? I have eight of them.” But I grant some leniency to certain plot devices/explanations as is customary to all D&D campaigns. Hell, before this game I simply thought Mind Flayers were a simple hivemind that lurked in the underdark that feasted off the occasional drow brain. I was certainly wrong.

Moving on to game mechanics. The combat is simple and easy to understand. For veterans of the D&D genre the combat mechanics/movement/buffs and magic will come to you without issue. For newcomers I’d recommend citing experiences such as XCOM for combat and Mass Effect for dialogue but WIDELY expanded on with the freedom to act as you please to an extent. To some, these examples might seem like a stretch or perhaps downright incorrect but hear me out in the case of presenting this game’s mechanics to newcomers to the genre. Hey, do you like turn based strategy combat with movement limitations, action/bonus action combat? All those percentages to hit and buffs/debuffs? This ♥♥♥♥ is for you! Oi! Do you like the karma system/dialogue of Mass Effect? You ever wish it was made better? More in-depth? More choices? This ♥♥♥♥ is for you. And hey! Guess what? Unlike XCOM, when the game says there’s an 80% chance to hit an enemy? There’s an actual 80% chance. When the game presents you with six dialogue options to say to a character grieving/angry? Guess what? You say those actual things rather than the game presenting you one dialogue option then your character saying a completely different thing. A rather famous example of this is Mass Effect. I'm sure those who’ve played it remember encountering a dialogue option to respectfully disagree or refuse an offer to which Shepard would proceed to tell the NPC that they hope they die in a house fire. Now aside from the basics, this game is in DEPTH with it’s abilities to let the player do as they wish. I plan on doing a future playthrough as an improvised weapon fighter because the game makes it viable to fight only with bottles of bacon grease and wooden chairs.

In my first playthrough I played a Human Paladin, Oath of Devotion with the goal of being a “good karma” character (original I know right?). In my playthrough I had a myriad of ethical options presented before me as well as dialogue options that directly tied into the fact that I was a religious, almost zealot like knight for Tyr, the God of Justice. I was granted the ability to settle disputes of law and order to which the characters regarded my character’s judgment as the word of law since he was a devoted knight to Justice. What I enjoyed, which perhaps may seem strange, was the fact that I was held to a standard as a Paladin. I recall a moment where I was getting greedy, I saw this NPC had a jewelry stash which, if “confiscated” and sold, could buy my crusader better gear to be prepared for the battles to come. So my Paladin’s fingers got sticky and moments after I skillfully collected the funds to provide protection for the war to come everything weirdly stopped….The narrator alerted me that I felt my divine connection severed, the world felt nothing but cold to me before a literal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ demon of vengeance came out of the ground and branded me an “Oathbreaker” warning me that he would come for me later that night when my character attempted to rest after the hard fought battles. There was an actual punishment for acting outside of my oath rather than a simple NPC wagging their finger at me.

This is the point where you might go: “Well of course your custom character and their interactions seem great to you! It’s a stand-in for you! What about the companions?”. Well I’m happy to say that the companions are actually good well-rounded characters with motivations/aspects that make me want to invest time into their personal stories. Hell, each one of their personal side stories from what I’ve witnessed have at least three different endings you can walk down. Perhaps if you’re really into the fantasy genre there might be a few companion stories that feel “common”? The classic “Well I have X and my time isn’t long for this world. I may collapse any day, only if I could get Y then my situation would be so much better” but even in the more commonly placed situations presented before the player they’re handled with dialogue and jaw dropping moments. For me personally, even in that classic situation where a character basically has magic cancer, there was a wonderfully written moment where they talk about their fear yet acceptance of death. That they felt terrified of what may come after yet found serenity in knowing that there is an end.

Needless to say this review has gone on for way too long, some small side notes I’d like to point out quickly is the comical amount of accidental romance I seemingly tripped my way into. As I stated my original playthrough was as a Human Paladin so I tried to treat everyone with kindness and help them work through their problems….I did not know doing this was a sure-fire way to have the proposition of sleeping with your companions. I did say this is a spoiler free review but for those who have played the game and made it past the first act, I’m sure you know what I mean. I was kind to a certain Fighter but left them at camp in place for the Cleric, Barbarian and Wizard. After I had finished the main plotline for the first act and returned to camp the Fighter practically demanded to sleep together in a moment that made me audibly go “What the ♥♥♥♥? Why?”. This comically happened to me again in Act 3 where my “guardian” spoke to me shirtless and offered romance when all I showed them was basic kindness and understanding.

All in all, 10/10, the game has some minor issues but they can be easily ironed out with patches/updates. But I will say, if they made DLC for this game? I’d buy it in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ heartbeat. Thank you Larian Studios for providing us a wonderful experience.