Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s probably my favorite RPG, now forming the holy trinity of Might and Magic 3, The Witcher 3, and it… Is there something about the third installment of RPG series that just speak to me?

I think all three of these have a solid story, massive quantities of gameplay as well as good reasons to replay the game. Like MM3 the player controls a party with different classes, and picking which characters to play through the game with, as well as how to go about equipping and improving them, creates an incredible amount of replay value.

The story in Baldur’s Gate goes an extra mile. It transcends what I would expect in a computer game. Much of this is done in epic cutscenes. Some of it is accomplished in dialogue between the characters. And some is in the incredible detail they’ve built into the world. In all of these aspects the game creators have done a remarkable job at making these pieces feel important. There’s no cut scene that feels like it’s only in the game because the game needed a cut scene, they’re all there because the cut scenes enhance the story.

Also in BG3, each individual character has their own unique story arcs to explore while the main plot unfolds. These story arcs aren’t just filler either. They create conflict within the party providing for more tension and drama and a more compelling story.

But as great as the story is, it’s the gameplay that earns the cut scenes and makes the game fun to experience, and oh wow those encounters. The combats are rarely easy. Sometimes they have to be fought several times to succeed, but this gives the player a great sense of accomplishment, and they are often so unique that I want to tell people about them afterward.

I’m not going to give away the story elements or where these occurred, but here are my three favorite encounters from my first play through:

3. Fighting a significant battle, in the first round my barbarian sorceress’s wild magic got triggered and all combatants on both sides got transmogrified into cats and dogs!

2. Another huge battle, this one key to one of my character’s story arc: every character in my party got knocked down at least once. I think the rogue died four times! We only survived because both the fighter and my barbarian sorceress drank potions of gigantism and went and stomped the enemies one by one.

1. We had just fought a battle that defined one of my party members story line, enjoyed an awesome cut scene story, and I thought well, I’ll just see what’s next. I stumbled into the creepiest scene I’ve ever seen in a game and one of the toughest fights. At one point the enemy charmed the fighter into attacking her own party, which she was adept at. In two strikes she whacked the cleric and the rogue. We only survived because the barbarian sorceress chose to  endure an opportunity attack to help aid the cleric. This left both her and the cleric at single digit hit points, but allowed the cleric the chance to start healing everyone.

And those three are just from my first play through. I’m already replaying the game with a slightly different party make up, and discovering all sorts of things that I missed the first time.

Amazing stuff. I don’t know how many more times I’ll play it, but I deeply wonder if I’ll see another roleplaying game with this much depth again. Who knows. If I do it will probably be the third installment of a series.