With the new school year upon us, I decided to start a series of game reviews. Every month I will review and share a new game as I have a lot of opinions about video games.
This month, I review “Baldur’s Gate 3.”
“Baldur’s Gate 3” was first announced in Feb. 2023, 23 years after the second one, and was in development for six years before its release. When I finally heard of its existence around a year ago, I immediately had it on my wishlist.
My anticipation and expectations for all this game had to offer were through the roof. I was hooked from the moment the first cutscene played. The scenes were movie-like, and if not for the weird tentacle people called mind flayers, I would have thought it was live-action.
After the first cutscene, players are tasked with character creation, which has a lot to offer. This includes the 11 main races and 12 main classes, which would result in 132 different combinations of characters, and that is all without accounting for the different subraces, subclasses, and backgrounds.
Even with all of those options, there are still more ways to customize your character. “Baldur’s Gate 3” has one of the most in-depth character creation screens I have ever seen. From face structure, eye color, hairstyles, and tattoo designs, there is room for a lot of personalization. There are probably millions of different characters you could create, it would be unlikely two people could create identical characters.
After spending a little while longer than I should have creating my character, I was ready to start playing.
The scope of what you can do is beyond any other game I’ve ever played. The amount of dialogue and interactions that can change even by seemingly inconsequential actions is astounding. The game rewards exploration and creative thinking. At one point, the player will run into a goblin encampment, and be given the choice to run head in and fight them. If you decide instead to try and circle around the back, you are given an opportunity to go through without a fight.
The combat in this game is also highly strategy-oriented. Chances are, you will not survive encounters if you are not prepared. Even with the attacks being decided by a literal roll of a dice, no challenge in this game feels insurmountable. Given enough prep, tactics, and a healthy dose of luck, you can win any battle.
Karmic Dice, an automatic setting that I would recommend turning off, makes it so that if players have a high number of bad consecutive rolls, they start rolling higher. At first this sounds good, but it works in the reverse as well, where players will start to roll badly if they keep having good rolls.
The game has its frustrations and bugs, but they didn’t diminish my opinion in the slightest. The camera controls and placement are off at times, but that might be a Playstation exclusive problem.
I can’t properly put into words how much I have enjoyed this game so far. I absolutely love Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) and this game is probably the closest we will ever get to a true DnD video game. Between the skill checks and the dialogue options, it feels like you could do whatever you want.
There is no doubt in my mind that “Baldur’s Gate 3” will win the game of the year title.
Hello my name is Ryker Stevenson and this is my second year on 42fifty. I am a senior and currently participate in chess club, speech and co-captain for scholastic bowl. I am happy to be back and to serve the publication again as the Arts and Entertainment Section Editor.
