Baldur’s Gate fans waited over fifteen years for any hint of information on a third game, but finally, E3 2019 brought news. Developed by Larian, the studio behind the critically-acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin, Baldur’s Gate 3 had a terrifying trailer featuring plenty of body horror and mind flayers. Larian is bringing everything they’ve learned over the years to Baldur’s Gate 3, and they’ve been vocal about how the series inspired them.
While Baldur’s Gate 3 does split off from the original games, Larian is trying to be faithful to both the game series and the D&D series. The jump in technology since the last game allows the studio to capture the series like never before, especially when it comes to horror.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s big gameplay reveal happened at PAX East 2020, and since then there have been plenty of details to dig into on the CRPG.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Release Date
Baldur’s Gate 3 was officially revealed at E3 2019, during Google’s Stadia premiere event. Developed by Larian, the game is based on the 5th edition of D&D. Baldur’s Gate 3 had its big reveal at PAX East 2020, where Larian confirmed that it would be coming to early access sometime in 2020.
At the event in February, Larian Studios Founder Swen Vincke said the game would be hitting “early access in a couple of months,” most likely pointing to a Summer date. The full game, however, still doesn’t have a firm release date, although it’ll be 2021 at the earliest. Baldur’s Gate 3 is also currently only planned for PC, as Larian believe PS4 and Xbox One simply wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Story
Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place years after the events of the first two games, with scars still remaining on the world from the previous events. With that in mind, Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t directly follow up on the first two games but rather wants to tell a brand new story within the same world. Lead Writer Adam Smith still believe it’s a true sequel, however, stating,
There were scars left by these events. But there’s a new conflict with new adversaries. There are new movements in the world, or in the worlds, that will create new adventures and opportunities, new threats.
Baldur’s Gate 3 starts with a group of Mindflayers assaulting human settlements and capturing subjects, one of which is the player character. The Mindflayers inserts “tadpoles” into a human’s brain that burrow in through the eye, slowly turning the subject into another Mindflayer. After the ship the main character is on crashes, it’s up to players to find someone that can remove the tadpole and stop the transformation.
The creature does give players one advantage, however, and that’s to “mind-meld” with other characters that have been implanted with tadpoles. This ability will tie directly into the story and gameplay, giving the player additional options in conversation. Of course, just like the past games Baldur’s Gate 3 will be heavy on choice and morality.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Gameplay
Baldur’s Gate 3 uses the same isometric viewpoint as the rest of the series, however, the viewpoint can also be changed for a more modern third-person view. The game uses a turn-based combat system, with meter popping up for character’s moves and a number of stats and percentages for attacks. It’s a Larian-style combat system built upon the rules of D&D. As you might expect from that everything is based on dice rolls, and even conversations will force you to do checks for options you pick.
Unlike the past two games, the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 is fully 3D, and players can take advantage of that. The world has verticality to it, and characters can climb and jump to move to new positions. Environmental hazards will also appear, like being able to splatter oil on the ground, then light it on fire with a spell. A spell called feather fall allows characters to jump from great heights without being damaged, and Larian says spells like this will play into combat more and more as players progress.
Exploration takes place in real-time, but at any point, the player can slow things down and enter a turn-based mode, which comes in handy when trying to split the party up and maneuver around groups of enemies.
Interestingly, Baldur’s Gate 3’s dialogue tries to switch things up a bit by putting everything in the past tense. Occasionally player characters will speak out loud, but more often the dialogue choices are themed around something a player or Dungeon Master might say in a game of D&D.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is trying to expand on player choice more than ever before and in every way possible; equipment, character customization, combat approach, etc.
Next: Baldur’s Gate III Preview: D&D Lore Meets Divinity: Original Sin’s Pedigree
