It doesn’t matter if you’re passionate about RPGs, fantasy or dice and paper games: Baldur’s Gate 3 is an obsession and its success (quantified in figures) is there to prove it. The question, at this point, is how it ranks among the best role-playing video games of all time. There, everyone has their own opinion, it would be missing, but that of the creators of Skyrim or Mass Effect is even more interesting. The short version: everyone is freaking out about Larian’s game and some are already declaring it a Masterpiece.
PC Gamer met in the same article to the creatives behind several of the greatest exponents of western RPG to speak openly about their experience in the Forgotten Realms of Baldur’s Gate 3. Both in regards to science fiction and those specialized in high fantasy. From Fallout to Pillars of Eternity, passing through The Elder Scrolls saga and even the first Icewind Dalea saga practically twinned this.
And be careful, we are talking about proper names: from Brian Fargo, founder of InXile, to Josh Sawyer who in addition to having been lead designer of Black Isle Studios, is a key part of the current Obsidian. All opinions count, of course, starting with those of Steam. But theirs give a fuller perspective of what has been achieved by Baldur’s Gate 3.
input, Brian Fargo (InXile) responsible for Bard’s Tale, Wasteland or Fallout, admits that both he and the CEO of Obsidian wanted to make the third installment and now he is afraid that Larian’s game will steal weeks of his life.
“My thought on the release was that I was jealous since I (and Feargus (Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment)) chased that license for over a decade and Larian finally got it and made it an even bigger hit than imagined. And seeing the focus and success of Divinity: (Original Sin) 2, Larian was a very smart choice.
I also admit that I’m scared to start when I hear stories about people wandering mountains for 60 hours while barely getting through the main story. It reminds me of when Red Dead 2 stole weeks of my life, although it was a very good moment.”
what you think mike laylaw(Yellow Brick Games, formerly BioWare’s creative director), who worked on Jade Empire, Mass Effect or the series Dragon Age It boils down to its first two words: It’s a triumph.
“If you ask me, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a triumph. The solid way of delivering large-scale interaction threads and fun turn-based combat says it comes from the creators of the Divinity: Original Sin games. note the way the team managed to weave the themes, and even some of the characters, into a whole new story is absolutely stunning.
I’m not actively playing (D&D) 5th edition, but this interpretation of the rules feels solid and allows me to pull off some cool stunts, mix up jumps, etc. going into combat, that makes the space feel very alive. That and I never get tired of Karlach throwing half the furniture in the room right in the boss’s face.”
On a side note, Laidlaw admits that he would like the characters to wash their faces before going to sleep, since facial care is such an important thing.
For his part, Josh Sawyer (Obsidian), who worked on the first Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegasboth Pillars of Eternity and Pentiment, has at least two aspects that it would like to improve, but celebrates the freedom and fun that Baldur’s Gate offers from its opening bars.
“I’m still working my way through the Act I content, but I think I’ve seen enough to form some basic thoughts. The production values are incredibly high, especially for a party-based D&D CRPG of this scope. I can see their character trees.” dialogue in my mind’s eye and even if much of the cinematic setup for those conversations is automated, it’s a huge amount of work to organize them.”
In essence, it still feels like an evolution of Divinity: Original Sin 2 using the 5E (From D&D) ruleset. The tone of the story and companions feels pretty on point for a Baldur’s Gate game: mostly light and fun with dark elements thrown in for a gleefully evil edge. As with D:OS2, the level of interactivity in the world is extremely high and being able to get out (or into) tight corners by playing with the rules is a lot of fun.
Sawyer admits that there are two things that could be better as far as he’s played: the user interface, which is sometimes clunky and sometimes overloaded, and the way multiplayer integration affects the solo experience. so it’s not possible to easily pause the game (and the world) with a single button or how the team is managed when the heroes are not close to each other.
PC Gamer collected several more statements, but there is one in particular that has a special value: that of Jeff Gardiner. The producer of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 who recently founded Something Wicked Games. For him, Baldur’s Gate 3 it is a masterpiece.
“My expectations for Balder’s Gate 3 couldn’t have been higher. I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons, doing DM campaigns in musty basements for most of my education. After getting my college degree instead of looking for a job, I obsessively played Baldur’s Gate 2. I’d wake up in the morning, stock up on Domino’s pizza and a gallon of Diet Coke, and play for 16 hours straight…for eight straight days.An hour into starting BG3, Larian not only fulfilled my unrealistic expectations, but far exceeded them.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece. I am constantly in awe of the level of detail, the choices, the tactical decisions in combat, the attention to character models, the visual effects, and the way it all fits together. It’s a wonderful, magical masterpiece that immediately suspends my disbelief every second I’m playing it. I’m just as obsessed with it as I was with Baldur’s Gate 2.
I’m running a solo campaign as well as a separate campaign playing co-op with my wife. In both campaigns, we’re mostly playing as characters trying to do the right thing, and despite that, because of the way the persuasion system works and the amount of subtlety in the decisions you make, we’re experiencing very different gameplay. These aren’t just “tipping points” that are common in most RPGs, they are big differences that add up over time.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 It broke the curse of bland side quests and flat characters that plagued RPG players for years. And it does so in an extraordinary year for the genre, by the way: Diablo IV, Final Fantasy XVI or Starfield They make us live a golden age for role lovers.
Is Larian’s game a fad, the start of a phenomenon, or a new classic? The final opinion, the one he tells, is in the hands of the players but, for now, the bar when it comes to offering adventure and fantasy games has been raised after Baldur’s Gate 3. And that’s something that doesn’t happen every year.
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