Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) [PC] first impressions

Despite having almost the whole series of games, I actually hadn’t played any Baldur’s Gate before. I played a bit of Neverwinter Nights a long time ago, before there was an MMO. A few runs of Chronicles of Mystara. Nothing beyond that. You all know I’m The Pixel’s Resident Indie Lover. I’m here for short games you can finish in a few hours. It’s hard to convince myself to sit down and play something fifty hours or more. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Fallouts and Borderlands and Elder Scrolls, but they just don’t tempt me like shorter games do. So why am I here now giving my thoughts on Baldur’s Gate 3?

To tell the truth, I have a rather long history with Dungeons & Dragons. It began just before I started college, entering a busy gaming store with a free evening. A table with a new campaign and an open space guided me through creating a half-elf rogue I named Ranel and the game began. I was hooked. Once I went off to school, I quickly found an on-campus group, ready for more. The Dungeon Master (DM) helped me convert Ranel for his own game and I became the “only girl at the table” trope. That campaign and Ranel ended up lasting beyond college, beyond level 20, until everyone eventually went their own ways and the story petered out, tragically incomplete. Now, almost 20 years since her creation, my little half-elf rogue rides again on a new, different adventure.

The difference between video and tabletop

The main thing you have to acknowledge when playing a video game based on a tabletop game is, it’s not going to be quite the same game. The names are there, yes. The characters and cities and classes and races, they’re all in place. It has the vibe of the setting, familiar elements, but the missing component is the freedom of imagination and versatility of a DM. In a real tabletop game, there is no limit to how to solve a problem. Fail one way, try another. You only quit when either you’ve achieved your goal or everyone’s dead. What I see in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a development team that understands that missing component and has built a game to the best of their ability to let you stretch the limits of creativity and the freedom to get stupid.

Want to stack a bunch of boxes to carefully climb and infiltrate a castle from the top? You can do it. Belly flop onto an enemy as an enlarged owlbear like a wrestler off the top rope? We’ve seen the videos. With some creative character building, a clever minmaxer can one-shot a dragon with a bare fist. These are very strange, very real things players in tabletop campaigns try to do. Sure, the dice don’t always work in your favor, but you sure as heck try. Baldur’s Gate 3 says, “Okay, give it a shot” instead of “No, not like that.” Therein lies the joy of D&D, and therein lies the evidence that Larian understands not only D&D, but the players as well.

What kind of adventurer are you?

I’ve talked a lot about how other people have been playing Baldur’s Gate 3. How about how I’m playing it? What kind of D&D gamer am I? I hate to disappoint, but when it comes to tabletops, I’m far from a minmaxer. I have occasionally pinned a dragon with a few well-cast spells, but generally, I’m the one playing the game straight. What can I say, I’m a writer at heart. I prefer to support the intended stories over ignoring the DM’s carefully placed breadcrumbs to go explore something else.

As a video gamer, though, I’m an “explore every nook and cranny, talk to every person, loot every box and body” player. Pockets filled with useless mugs and plates and broken weapons purely because they’re there for the taking. There’s a reason I tend towards Rogue. Ranel may only have a 10 strength, but she’s making use of every pound she can carry, and then every pound her pack mules new best friends can carry too. Baldur’s Gate 3 is indulging my addiction most splendidly.

For all the hours I’ve played so far, I’ve barely touched the story. There are at least two party characters I haven’t met yet and the main plot is nothing more than a shiny gleam in the distance. The eponymous city of Baldur’s Gate is a long way away. I’ve barely left the beach where the Illithid ship I was imprisoned on crashed. You can still see the wreckage from the hilltops. Yet I feel as if I’ve already done so much. I’ve thwarted a group of bandits in an old church, woken a lich from his rest, helped a bard find her song, and saved a child from harpies. There’s still a woman to save from a hag, a missing druid, and some tiefling kids would love if I’d snatch a religious idol for them. The world feels full, vibrant and real, filled with people with secrets, wants, and needs. Who knows what quest and dungeon and monster and loot awaits around the next corner? The world of Faerun and the team at Larian has such sights to show you.

Final Thoughts

It seems like literally everyone is talking about Baldur’s Gate 3, and with good reason. It’s a game that, like Mass Effect and the Fallouts lets you play the way that makes you happy. If you want to be a goody-two-shoes and avoid combat at all times, you can give peace your best shot. Want to be an antihero that causes chaos in your wake? Go for it. Save scum for the best results or play it straight and let the dice fall as they will. You do you, with whichever classes, races, weapons, and companions you like. Play it straight or break the game over your knee. Baldur’s Gate 3 lets you define your own style of fun. I for one can’t wait to see what I find, and loot, next. Now if you’ll excuse me, my sword and I have a date with a hag in a swamp.

Thank you to Larian Studios for providing us with a copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 for review.

Maggie Maxwell spends most of her days buried in her fiction writing, only coming up for air to dive into the escapism of video games, cartoons, or movies. She can usually be found on Twitter as @wanderingquille and @MaxNChachi or streaming on Twitch with her husband, also as MaxNChachi.