Baldur’s Gate 3 is the best game I've played in years (review)

I've put about 56 hours of my life into Baldur's Gate 3 at the time of writing this and I've only played about an hour of Early Access I also didn't start playing until the day after release thanks to my rural England internet speed so with six full days since I first launched the game that's an average of nine hours a day it's safe to say I'm a little bit addicted [Music] please I have never enjoyed a game at launch more than I have Baldur's Gate 3 and the most I've enjoyed any game period since I started Mass Effect legendary edition and Fallout 4 and Skyrim before that it's already up there as one of my favorite games of all time and I've not even finished the main storyline yet how I haven't even made it out of active 3 yet I feel comfortable making this video now though because even if the rest of the game sucks I have had so much fun already it doesn't matter also I am confident the rest of the game will be just as good if not even better I see what's to come realize there's magic at work I'm just hoping I can finish most of it before Starfield there are so many things to love about this game and very few things I want to change so let's talk about it starting with the things I like my favorite thing so far about bg3 is the companions or origin characters as they are known as in bg3 the companions are well written interesting characters and I find myself constantly stopping what I'm doing to check if my companions have some new dialogue they all have deep interesting backstories and thanks to the ridiculous build Variety in bg3 they all have very unique and interesting combat Styles the companions I've got with me in my first playthrough are the not so evil ones and even if I don't agree with some of the companions opinions or actions they all have redeeming qualities and their respective stories are just so interesting I want to interact with them and complete all of their personal quest lines as for my other quirks well we can figure those out in time I am also very much looking forward to my second playthrough so I can role play a more brutal character that allies with the more Sinister Companions and indulges the more brutal sides of the companions that I have allied with in my first playthrough there is also a mechanic for how much each companion likes or respects your main playable character it's similar to Fallout 4's companion relationship system where getting high regard will unlock more content for them and potential romance again this creature doesn't realize you can see its true form some of my decisions have been genuinely impacted by the companions I have with me and whether or not they would like the decision I'm about to make it's a mechanic I very much enjoy and I love the feeling I get when one of my favorite companions approves of a decision I just made I haven't been this invested in video game companions since Mass Effect and these companions are on the same level of quality as the Mass Effect Court mates if you've played Mass Effect you know that's High Praise combat is probably going to be the main barrier to entry for most people when it comes to Baldur's Gate 3 whether you just don't like turn-based combat or don't want to go through the learning curve to get better at it I personally totally understand that I'm not a fan of turn-based combat I have always found it to be slow and immersion breaking I much prefer fast-paced action in video games however Baldur's Gate 3 is doing something to me that I never thought possible it's making me actually like turn-based combat for whatever reason I couldn't get the hang of the combat in Divinity 2 when I played it a few years ago and their story wasn't engaging enough for me to push through the learning curve I'm not sure if it's because the rest of the game is so good that I've managed to stick with and learn the combat in BG G3 or if the combat is just better than it was in Divinity 2. I think the answer is probably a combination of those two things I am playing the game on standard difficulty Mode called balanced and I haven't yet reached a combat situation that I didn't think I could beat except for one high level enemy I encountered early on that I went back for after I did some leveling up the game gives you the freedom to flee an encounter if you are not quite ready for it the dice roll mechanics also allow for battles to be completely different if you end up party wiping and have to try again because the first time the dice may have just not rolled in your favor but the second time around you might be hitting constant critical hits with high dice rolls some may find this annoying and would prefer straight consistent combat but it works for me Landing a critical hit feels special and having to adapt your plans when you miss a hit on an enemy that would have died if you had been successful is a fun challenge it's also quite immersive because yeah not every blow is going to hit the same in combat and sometimes the enemy might get a lucky powery or Dodge so I think it works well sure there have been encounters I found quite difficult and had to redo a few times due to my party being wiped but for whatever reason this time around I am enjoying the challenge as long as you carefully consider your build and your companions build do enough exploring to find strong weapons and increase your level the balance difficulty should not be a problem for most people even if you are mostly new to turn-based combat the early encounters are forgiving enough for you to learn the basics if you do find the combat becomes too challenging you can turn down or just start with the Explorer mode which dials down combat difficulty so you can just enjoy the story and exploration I encourage anyone that does try this game to at least try and learn the combat on balance difficulty if they can when you get it right and you make some smart tactical choices in a battle to earn the victory it's incredibly satisfying there is also a harder difficulty called tactician however I can't speak on that because I'm certainly not ready for that level of challenge quite yet for veterans of larion games however I'm sure it's a great time I touched on the companion's combat variety earlier but I want to expand on that point the companions are so varied thanks to the class and subclass and spells and everything else in bg3 that everyone feels unique and you can create some really nice Synergy in combat with all of the different styles you can also level up equip and mold these characters just like you would your main playable character this allows you to personalize their builds within the predetermined class and race they are this level of customization for companion characters is not something I've seen in any video game that wasn't made by larion Studios the developers of Baldur's Gate 3. it goes beyond the level of customizing you can do with Squad mates in a game like Mass Effect I haven't played many crpgs like Baldur's Gate I've only played disco Elysium and the First Act of divinity original sin 2 so there may well be other games with this level of companion customization within the crpg genre but this is my first time experiencing it and it's amazing a game based on the rules of and the fictional world of Dungeons and Dragons should have good role-playing and boy have larion just smashed it out of the park there are so many backstory options skill proficiencies traits and more that not only help you mold your character for combat but also mold their personality and role-playing the sheer amounts of Freedom you have and how you interact with the story and the world is quite frankly insane there are always a large range of options to respond to people and dialogue which is expanded on with your class race background and skills allowing every single playthrough to have completely different dialogue and role-playing choices if you want to be a folk hero who sympathizes with the weak poor and marginalized going through and helping the people you can do that if you want to be a power hungry egotistical charlatan only trying to save themselves and grow stronger you can do that if you want to be a city Bard who turns everything into an opportunity to perform you can do that I could keep going you could play through this game 20 times and have a different experience each time it gives you that much freedom and so many choices to act upon that freedom it's mind-boggling how larion was able to pull this off the Cinematic elements larion added to Baldur's Gate 3 make it so much more immersive and Visually appealing than Divinity 2. I I know cinematics do not make a game good however great cinematics enhance good games and make them even better I'm personally a sucker for good video game cinematics and it certainly adds to the enjoyment of games for me the added dialogue camera the opening cinematics the cinematics you get when you reach certain areas are all fantastic additions that add a bit of that AAA video game polish Baldur's Gate 3 is a graphically beautiful game I know Divinity 2 is a much older game but I went back and played it so I could compare the graphics with Baldur's Gate 3 and the difference in graphical Fidelity is astonishing I know as technology gets better you would obviously expect that however larion has managed to make a game that is so heavily focused on themes story freedom and characters still look graphically impressive as well as everything else they've achieved I think that should be commended the world design is stunning and I often find myself pausing to take in this lights and sounds [Music] the music created by borislav slavoth is masterful not really much else to say about it just listen [Music] the camp system is another fantastic addition to Baldur's Gate 3 allowing you to take a moment of respite from the dangerous world to relax and chat with your companions conveniently in one place it also allows for some great story moments that I won't spoil it reminds me of the Red Dead Redemption 2 camp or even walking around the Normandy between missions in Mass Effect I wonder if those games are what inspired it it's a much needed addition as it allows you to actually spend time getting to know your companions it's something that you may not think would be so important but I honestly really don't think I would enjoy this game nearly as much as I do without the count Baldur's Gate 3 is designed to essentially be a simulation of the tabletop Dungeons and Dragons game one aspect of that is the dice rolls whenever you need to do something that requires significant effort or skill or you need to persuade someone in dialogue you have to pass a dice roll to be successful most other games that have similar mechanics might have you do this very rarely having so many pass and fail moments that affect the outcome of certain stories must get incredibly complicated to bring together for this reason in the tabletop game you would have a dungeon master a person that essentially tells the story and referees the game they are able to adapt to what's happening to keep the game running smoothly somehow in bg3 larion have managed to make these dice roll skill checks almost constant in every single piece of dialogue and story beat in the game how they've managed to give you so much freedom and tie it all together into a story that makes sense and continues based on those outcomes is a Marvel that no other game I've played comes close to the UI or user interface in bg3 is in my opinion a massive step up from Divinity 2. there is a lot of information that gets thrown at you in Boulder's Gate 3. it is a very in-depth quite hardcore RPG in that sense and being good in combat requires that you have a good understanding of your parties and your enemies strengths and weaknesses larion to be fair have made it as easy as they possibly could to get all of this information with detailed and informative descriptions of all items and enemies the inspect tool allows you to delve further into definitions of certain things like what spells specifically do do and you can examine enemies to see what their resistances are as complicated as Dungeons and Dragons is larion makes it as easy as it could be by doing most of the Maths for you and giving you all of the tools to get all of the information you need this allows people completely new to Dungeons and Dragons like myself to learn how everything works it can seem overwhelming at first but you just have to remember to use the inspector and you'll be all good an example of why larion is such a great developer to support is their stance on microtransactions in an FAQ about the game larion said no there are no in-game purchases in our game we believe in providing a complete and immersive experience without the need for additional purchases enjoy the game to its fullest without any additional costs or micro transactions it's so refreshing to see this corporate greed seemingly hasn't infiltrated larion yet and let's hope it stays that way as big corporations inevitably look at the success of Baldur's Gate 3 with envy and dollar signs in their eyes there are some things that I don't like about Baldur's Gate 3 but I'm going to keep this section brief because they are really small nitpicks sometimes the amount of Freedom you have can work against the game I missed some content early on that I would like to have experienced an example of this would be when I missed some important background information and story that would have made a quest I completed before discovering this location better I'm sure I missed out on content from this location because I completed another Quest before discovering it so when I got there I found a conversation between two characters that didn't make any sense to me I believe it was intended to happen after I had already discovered that location left to do the quest I had done and go back to get that conversation station that is partly my fault in a way for missing that location when exploring but I do feel a little bit sad that I missed out I also miss one of the origin characters you are meant to find very early on because I didn't fully explore a location I would have completely missed them if I didn't know from trailers and such that you are meant to meet that person early on and checked online to see how I managed to miss them without having them with me from the start I missed out on a decent chunk of their content and may have missed all of it which would have been a shame one positive from that I think is that it motivates me to do a second playthrough to see that content and I think larion's intention with this game is even with multiple playthroughs you are just not going to see everything I need to just accept that so that is possibly a me problem more than it is a game problem sometimes I forget to save for long periods and in an open world like this is easy to explore for a long time without a save and then end up dying and having to reload a save from a few hours previous this has happened to me once so far and it didn't feel good I think more consistent Auto saving and maybe even a time to auto save every 30 minutes or something like that would be nice like I said earlier these are small nitpicks I think the game would benefit a lot from some kind of mechanic where you can look in a mirror and update some minor cosmetic aspects of your character like your hair there are so many great ways to customize your character and not everyone will do multiple playthroughs so please Larry and let us change our hair Baldur's Gate 3 is a masterpiece and a Marvel of game design it manages to stand out in a year packed with Incredible video games it would currently be my pick for Game of the Year marginally beating out tears of the Kingdom we still have Starfield coming out in early September and with cyberpunk Phantom Liberty also coming in September this is an incredible time to be a fan of AAA RPGs foreign [Music]

Channel: Nathlaaar

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Id: 6btGbnGH6os

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023