After twenty years, the sequel that Baldur's Gate fans have been waiting for has finally launched, if only in its partial early access version. Baldur's Gate 3 is ready for players, and the game deserves the huge numbers that it has already drawn in. The question of whether fans should "buy" it, however, depends entirely on how many glitches they can tolerate.
The Dungeons & Dragons-based game isn't complete. Only about the first 20 hours of Baldur's Gate 3 are available to play, leaving a good chunk of it a mystery still, and those 20 hours are riddled with bugs and other issues. However, those 20 hours will also leave players wanting more, packed with fun, intriguing, and promising content that stands to blow away both new fans and old when complete.
Any that have been following the recent Early Access release know that the game has bugs - animation errors and eccentricities, for the most part, with some other glitches here and there. Hostile NPCs bug out (hilariously) upon death and cutscenes haven’t been fully implemented in a few cases. BG3 has far more bugs than games should have at launch, but some concessions can be made because this is early access, not the 1.0 version. Those who buy it now ideally know what they're getting into, and that it'll be a far cry from perfect.
For those who decide to get the game in early access (and there are certainly many reasons to do so), glitches are part of the package deal. Early Access helps the developers iron out kinks and make changes to the game based on player feedback, which can be invaluable. Those who really don’t want to deal with that many bugs shouldn't invest in Baldur’s Gate 3 just yet. Considering what a compelling game Larian already has, though, that’ll no doubt mean there are even more reasons to pick up the game when it’s truly “released.”
The roughness from Early Access aside, Baldur’s Gate 3 is gripping from its very beginning. After being treated to the exhilarating cinematic that Larian debuted a couple months ago, players jump into character creation. Hair styles are diverse and actually look good, the facial models look great, and the many color customization options are fun to toy around with. When Larian implements all of its planned race and class options, it'll surely be a character creator to rival the best of them.
The game's full tutorial level takes place in, naturally, the perfect place for beginners: the Nine Hells. Specifically the first layer, Avernus. It’s a bit of a shock for those who know the Forgotten Realms relatively well; setting the tutorial level in the Hells, of all places, is unexpected—but that's not a bad thing.
Hell isn’t for the faint of heart, but then again, neither is Baldur’s Gate 3. Almost immediately, players are thrust into a tenuous situation that involves challenging hell spawn, prying brains from skulls, and coming to grips with the protagonist’s (apparent) impending doom, setting the tone for the game. The main story thread for Baldur’s Gate 3 is a simple one: rid yourself and your companions of the mind flayer tadpole roosting inside of you before it destroys you completely.
The game begins in earnest with the player character stranded somewhere in the wilderness of the Sword Coast with a Mind Flayer tadpole embedded in their eye. Funny enough, Larian seems to have a very specific trend with its games: both Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 conclude their prologues with a crashed ship, and begin the first act of the game with the player stranded on a beach. In BG3, the player character quickly explores the first chunk of the area and recruits five companions: Lae’zel, a githyanki warrior; Shadowheart, a cleric of Shar; Gale, an ambitious Waterdhavian wizard; Astarion, a vampire spawn from the city of Baldur’s Gate; and Wyll, a folk hero on a dark mission.
The dynamics between the player character and companions is certainly an interesting one. As with previous Baldur's Gate games, this set of companions runs the whole spectrum of moral alignments. Good-aligned characters must learn to work with Lae'zel, for instance, despite the fact that they'll disagree on pretty much everything. Those following the path of evil, meanwhile, must agree to disagree with companions like Wyll and Gale. It's refreshing and thoroughly engrossing to get to know each companion, slowly uncovering their backstories and even forming deeper attachments to them.
One aspect of BG3 that nicely parallels the story of Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is the sense of anonymity that the player character begins with. It’s clear as the game goes on that the adventuring group will, at some point, achieve true notoriety; Volo (yes, that Volo) practically guarantees it. But at least the first act of the game forces players to face a grim reality: when the eyes of the world aren’t focused on you, but many lives depend on you, what choices will you make?
Larian previously stated that the true unifying factor between BG3 and the old Baldur’s Gate is both games' sense of moral duality, their “theme and philosophy." It’s clear that Larian has followed through on that statement with gusto: there are many decisions already that directly relate to the player character's morality, and the world will in turn respond to inclinations towards good, evil, or neutrality.
Another high point of the game is its reactivity to the player character: dialogue and even elements of the story change based on who the player character is. A drow character, even if they're of the good-aligned Seldarine variant, will face trouble where other characters might not—but they'll also be rewarded in some cases. BG3 offers both pros and cons in terms of story for every race and class, so there's an appeal to all of them and a clear sign of the game's replayability.
Most would agree that the version of BG3 currently on offer is not worth the full $60 price tag? But, based on what’s there so far, it seems likely that the end product will be worth the investment. Whether or not Baldur's Gate 3 will make a significant mark on the RPG genre remains to be seen, however, but if nothing else, it looks to be one fun whirlwind ride, to whatever end.
What's most telling that this will be a great game: only about 20 hours of unpolished gameplay are available to play—and yet when those hours are over, there's an immediate desire for more. If roughly one fifth of a game with limited character creation and so many bugs can do that, then the game in question is going to be something special when finished. The only real struggle will be waiting for the next chunk of Baldur's Gate 3 to hit Early Access.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available to play on PC, iOS, and Stadia.