Baulder’s Gate 3 Review After 120 Hours
If I am anything, timely is not one of those things. Now, two months after the PC release and a month after I got my copy on PS5, I am here to deliver my spoiler-lite review of the behemoth of a game that is Baulder's Gate 3. Why am I doing it so late? I wanted to give this massive endeavor in gaming a fair shake and try to see it from all angles. As such, I have played for over 120 hours, finished a good-aligned playthrough, and am in the final conflict for my Dark Urge game while starting a more stealth-focused, morally grey adventure. I finally believe I am ready to deliver a fully fleshed-out overview of the game, and will be breaking it down below!
What I PLayed
First and foremost, what classes did I play, and what was my party comp? For the first blind playthrough, I played a Zariel Tiefling Ancients Paladin with a good alignment. My main party consisted of Shadowheart (Respecced to a Life Domain Cleric after certain story events), Karlach as a Wild Magic Barbaian, and Daddy Halsin as a Moon Druid post act 2. My Dark Urge game is as a Githyanki Storm Sorcerer, accompanied by Shadowheart, Astarion (Respecced as a bard because it fits him too well), and the Drow Minthara.
The Problem With Day One Graphics
Baulder's Gate 3 is a beautiful game, with some areas being so striking they took my breath away. However, playing on PS5 on day one posed a considerable problem. While you cannot expect such a massive game to be delivered without bugs, one of the most striking ones was the utterly destroyed HDR support, making the game nearly unplayable without disabling the highest graphics setting.
In performance mode, it played smoothly and without any hiccups. Still, it ruined the textures, making faces look muddy, hair patchy, and spell effects appear like blotched drops of color with no impact or refinement. Larian Studios has since patched these issues, and it runs fantastically, with textures fixed and appearing as intended; however, it did sully my experience for the first week. Thankfully, the rest of the game was so well done, even with broken textures and sub-par graphics, I was still driven to play it to completion.
Story
Prelude: The story of Baulder's Gate 3 builds off the first two games and the story of the incredible adventure module Descent Into Avernus. Larian and their team of writers did a spectacular job integrating these previous stories into the narrative, but they do not require you to have any prior knowledge going into the game. Sure, there are easter eggs and nods throughout that make veterans of DND lore smile with glee, but BG3 is, at its core, a unique story using that inspiration as a set dressing rather than relying on the knowledge of twenty+ years of gaming and tabletop history.
Act 1: By and large, Act 1 is my favorite. I love low-level gameplay, and going from level two after the prologue and up to about five or six is some of the best storytelling and most grounded I felt in the game. The entire conflict centering around the Druid Grove and the Goblins is so well done, and with several choices that can shape the rest of the game, it builds a solid foundation.
Act 2: Story-wise, Act 2 is lovely and carries on your sense of choice as a player. However, while Acts 1 and 3 are replete with content around every corner, the zone in which Act 2 takes place is far less densely packed, leaving me feeling dissatisfaction with exploration that I did not experience with the other zones. Yet, with density problems aside, the rising tensions and establishment of stakes presented in the second act make it a nail-biter with several hard choices that can make or break a playthrough. Finally, with the addition of my favorite character from the first two games right at the start of the act, I was tickled pink with nostalgia for my Baulder's Gate 1 playthrough from nearly fifteen years ago.
Act 3: The final act of the game does a lot of things right, but a few that I just can't get on board with. Firstly, having played through twice now, I was surprised by the amount of story beats and potential outcomes from previous acts, which informed the NPCs and the overall tone of the final act. Additionally, wrapping up specific characters' storylines is excellent, save for one, which I believe was written into a corner that leaves a great companion with a wholly unsatisfying ending. Yet, despite bringing the game to a close in bombastic fashion, Act 3 feels a bit flat. The zone is fun to explore, but the sheer volume of NPCs and lack of iconic monsters made me feel more like an investigator than a true adventurer until the closing hours, which I think after the mysterious and magical places in the first two zones, the third misses the mark for high-level play.
Characters And Companions
Baulder's Gate 3's story puts much of the narrative tone and expression into the companions, their interactions, and how their arcs resolve. For the most part, the game does this wonderfully. With the bevy of choices for who you party up with and the varying, flawed, and well-acted characters, there is bound to be a group you fall in love with. None of the companions fall flat, and each brings a unique story element to the narrative, which feels very DND. At the tabletop, the game isn't about the DM or the overarching story; it's about the players and their characters, and each companion feels like a genuine person with flaws who makes mistakes is behind them. This feeling expands even to the main character. Despite being a blank slate, not choosing an origin character and creating your own doesn't hinder the experience. As you go, you fill in your story and are immediately taken into the world and accepted, with a backstory and everything. The feeling of narrative tension of the player character is also just as good, if not better when playing as the Dark Urge, which I won't go into any detail for the hope that you will experience this unique story for yourself.
The villains, on the other hand, are less inspired. From the evil general to the corrupt politician and the immoral cultist, they all feel unique and pay homage to DND villains of the past, but they are also not sympathetic in the slightest. Even when one villain just wanted his daughter back from death, something I could understand as a father, his methods and sheer lunacy in his plan were so outlandish it felt more like the justification for a Saturday morning cartoon villain than anyone with any authentic nuance. While having one-dimensional villains isn't bad, as it makes them easy to hate, I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed and not the least bit hesitant to go against them unless I was trying to be a chaotic evil menace.
The Best Kind Of Turn-Based Gameplay
Recently, there has been a shift in the RPG genre, moving away from its turn-based roots for a more action-oriented style of play. I do not think that fast and flashy gameplay takes away from what makes an RPG great; having just played through Final Fantasy 16 and loving it, I prefer turn-based tactical combat. I played through BG3 on the balanced game difficulty and found it a bit easy, with my later tactician runs being far more gratifying, but what really stood out was just how much fun combat and roleplaying in the game was.
With the fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons rules as a base, the game was easy to pick up, and combat felt like I was playing at the tabletop with my friends. Random dice rolls, ability modifiers, and spells for days were all great fun to experiment with. The best part of the gameplay for me was the sheer number of interactions that various elements had throughout. From the high ground giving advantages to explosive barrels, crumbling bridges, and collapsable statuary, it was all great fun mixing environmental effects with what I could do as a player. I could play with these gameplay elements for years and hope that one day, the dev toolkit is given to players in an official capacity so we can design our own encounters and games like we could in Larain's previous Divinity series.
Sound Design
As this article has already gone a bit long in the tooth, the final point I want to look at is the overall sound design of the game. Baulder's Gate 3 has some great music and incredible sound effects for things like spells, and the English voice acting is some of the best I have ever experienced. Even the lesser-seen NPCs that may just have a single scene of dialog it is all perfectly executed, and vicious mockery stays as one of my favorite cantrips due to the sheer volume of one-liners my characters used to insult goblins and monsters to death.
My Final Thoughts
In case it wasn't clear, I am a massive fan of this game. While I am not so blinded by its greatness to ignore its flaws, Baulder's Gate 3 is by far one of the greatest video games my nerdy eyes have ever been graced to see. I am thankful to have been alive during its development and release, and I cannot recommend the game enough. If you love RPGs, tabletop DND, or video games in general, I strongly recommend you buy this title and show your support for the developers in the hope they will make another landmark title in the future.
