Baldur’s Gate 3 Is Basically Game of the Year Already

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in production for a long time. A long time. The early access was released way back in 2020 and apparently, there was still a lot to get done. However, the game was fully released on August 3rd 2023 and has become something of an overnight success, and rightly so. This turn based RPG has revolutionized this style of gameplay and brought the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition to life.

With so much variety of what players can actually do in the game, it’s little wonder that it took so long to release. Larian confirmed in a stats tweet that by the end of the first week, thousands of players had spent over an hour on character creation alone. Such variety often leads to one thing: replayability. If you’re not sure whether the $60 price tag is worth it, we can confirm one thing. It is.

Source: Larian Studios

Baldur’s Gate 3 Classes – Spoiled for Choice

Classes are arguably the most important aspect of character customizability. They dictate how your character interacts with the world through how their skills are built. And there’s quite literally something for every kind of play style.

Big weapon damage? Fighters, Barbarians and Paladins
Spellcaster? Wizards, Sorcerers and Warlocks
Healer? Cleric and Druid
Sneaky sneaky? Rogue

One of the most enticing aspects of DnD is the freedom to do whatever you want with your character. The Baldur’s Gate 3 classes have done an impressive job of keeping this freedom within the relatively restricted world of video games.

It can be complicated and newcomers to this style of game may find themselves on a steep learning curve. There are a lot of nuances when it comes to proficiencies and how to build a perfectly balanced party that aren’t made abundantly clear in the tutorials. If this is your first time on this kind of game, it’s worth keeping your eye out for guides. If that’s not your style, you can simply roll the dice and enjoy the ensuing chaos.

Changing Baldur’s Gate 3 Class

Committing to a 150 hour campaign with a badly designed character would absolutely ruin the game. But the devs at Larian have thought of everything. Should you find you’re not happy with your choice of class, there’s something to be done about it but the game will make you work for it. Almost as soon as the ship crashes at the beginning of the game, you can take one of three paths to meet Withers. You can find him in the Overgrown Ruins to the north east of the Act 1 map. Once you encounter him by prying open his coffin in the crypt, he’ll join your camp.

Withers is there to resurrect dead party members and, importantly, reskin and rebuff them into classes that you want to play with. The game might punish you for a lack of class variety in your party but there’s really nothing stopping you from becoming a meandering team of Oath Breaker paladins if that’s what you want. And when you die a hideous, painful death, good guy Withers will be there to bring them back.

Source: Larian Studios

It’s All About Baldur’s Gate 3 Companions

As soon as the game was released on early access, it was all about the Baldur’s Gate 3 companions. Your motley crue of followers change huge aspects of the game with an almost unfathomable amount of paths you can choose to go down, or be forced to.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a multiplayer game where up to 4 can play in a party. Those looking to campaign alone can build a party with 3 of the available companions. There’s a nice range of skill sets from Githyanki fighter Lae’zel, Half Elf Cleric Shadowheart and Vampire Rogue Astarion. The beauty of the companions though is that if you can’t balance the party well with your chosen Tav, you can alter them with the help of Withers.

The relationships with the companions has developed a lot since the days of Divinity: Original Sin. While it’s not a new concept, Larian has clearly put a lot of effort into building diverse relationships that can alter dramatically between playthroughs.

Love Is In the Air

It probably goes without saying that most players are leaning heavily into the romance aspects of the game too. Ever wanted to watch a Vampire sleep with a bear? You can in Baldur’s Gate 3! That being said, it’s not easy. According to Larian’s data, over 100,000 players had been rejected by Astarion in the opening weekend. This largely seems to be because of how high your approval rating needs to be with him when you reach the first romantic opportunity. And as Astarion says, he “has standards”.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Ultimate RPG Experience

It seems like Baldur’s Gate 3 has taken over the world of gaming in the last couple of weeks. You can hardly move on Twitter without running into a spoiler. And let’s face it, that is pretty impressive for a game that hasn’t even been released on consoles yet. Between DnD One announcements and the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film, RPGs have been at the forefront of media for some time now. Baldur’s Gate is the perfect addition.

Divinity: Original Sin walked so Baldur’s Gate 3 could run. Honestly, we can’t wait to see where Larian Studios takes this franchise. Come awards season, we’d be very surprised not to see this game topping the lists and taking home multiple awards for the game design, voice acting and sound engineering.