this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Baldur's Gate 3
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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)
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Similar but dissimilar....
You can pick up 500tons of plates and forks like Skyrim. That's partly a joke, but partly to say that it's kinda similar environmentally. The world/environment has that sort of feel to it, but keep in mind that isn't really open world environment, it feels like it, but it's on rails like diablo is, so to speak. It's kinda a cool balance between linear path and open IMHO. Similar environment to the diablo franchise, but with a bunch of Skyrim openness tossed in.
It's a party based game... that parts ways entirely from both Skyrim and Diablo. You aren't player one, you're players 1-4... Do you go back far enough for might and magic? It's got a lot of that to it. 4 person party, limited skills per member so you gotta manage the balance among the party, gotta consider how your party is physically arranged in a fight so the cleric doesn't get squooshed... party mechanics that are absent in most of the genre. I love that it brought that back :)
The focus on loot is less... a lot less... one of the earliest party members you can pick up is an item sink that wants to be fed a high end magic item every couple days, so your best loot is subject to being little more than food. A little annoying but a neat dynamic. Your uberness is going to be determined more by attributes, skills, and spells than by what your gear looks like. It ain't a loot fest at all :)
It's got "romance" dialogue in camp, where you can affect the interpersonal relationships between party members, and you can have more than 4 in camp, on standby, so this gets to be kinda involved, I'm not a fan so I skip the camp stuff and just rest, can't speak much to it tbh but they'll get it on if you put the time in camp to do the relationship stuff.
There are a lot of choices in interactions, and they affect your reputation, and they can really affect quests and quest outcomes, and so far all I've seen is really good work by devs on not having different or odd mixes of choices result in any major borking of quests... you can take a quest from someone, slaughter the entire area they are in, and the quest will still complete (I didn't do that... what? I don't know what you're talking about... how do you even know anything about it if nobody lived to say anything anyway...). You can be very whimsical and even deceptive with the quest entities, I dig it.
No real time combat. Walk through a door somewhere hostile and you get an immediate roll for initiative. That's not terribly cool in terms of a diablo-skyrim-esque game, but it's very faithful to its D&D roots :) it annoyed me at first, but it grew on me pretty quick when I realized that the game is actually trying to DM, and doing a pretty good job at it in my opinion.
It's not really like anything, but it's got some endearing qualities that are similar to a whole slew of other great games. Little bit of a whole bunch of stuff :) kinda worth a try for just about anybody I think.
When you're done with this game, if you haven't yet played the Divinity Original Sin games then I highly recommend them. I'd start with the newest, Divinity Original Sin 2, and then work backwards as desired.
This should tell you if you should get this game. Great review.
You can also stealth into encounters instead of just walking into them.
Casting minor illusion out of sight or beginning combat with a fireball is a great way to start a fight. You can also use the environment to your advantage. On a narrow walkway over a chasm? Misty step behind a group of enemies and use Thunder Wave to push them off the ledge. Or that giant chandelier hanging above multiple enemies will fall with one good crossbow shot. Just know if you're a paladin, you can't kill in a fight you started unless you're an oathbreaker. You'll need to use your big boy words first.
There's also other environmental things you can use to your advantage. Some of the bridges and wooden platforms are rickety and can be collapsed by attacking the support. You can also set up your own "traps" by smashing water on the ground and electrifying or freezing it when enemies are on it. Same goes for greasing the floor, makes creatures slip but it's also flammable. Sometimes I'll try to set up potential traps in strategic locations by leaving wine/alcohol/alchemist fire on the floor so I can hit it with a fireball later on for a big boom... So much fun