Baldur's Gate 3

Finished this game about a week ago and there is a "baldur" sized hole in my heart. Will absolutely go back to do a dark urge playthrough and explore playing with friends. I have so much fomo over the characters I didn't recruit or whose storylines I didn't finish and the game does an amazing job at creating that feeling of adventuring with a band of friends. I MISS IT SO MUCH.

yeah it's good

+5 purely for the existence of karlach and astarion <3

Personalmente entró en mi top 5 sin duda, hay 4-3 juegos que significaron más para mi que BG3, pero tratando de ser objetivo ( que al final no se puede porque cada quien tiene su objetividad y termina siendo subjetivo también) es el mejor juego que he jugado en mi vida.

Yo siempre supe de esta saga pero nunca me animé a probarla ya que en su momento rechazaba mucho el crpg clásico, solo sabía de lo bueno que fue el 2 y de que por fin iban a sacar la tan atrasada y esperada tercera parte, lo puse en mi lista pero siempre fue un “no creo jugar el 1 ni el 2 tal vez juegue el 3 tiempo después de que salga” pero hasta ahí, un tal vez ya que no me llamaba tanto la atención, y no me esperaba la sorpresa que llegó a ser para la industria y todos los videojugadores.

Este juego es un anomalía, es tan bueno que no debió existir, un nuevo “antes y un después” para la industria y un alivio para la misma por el estado en el que se encontraba. Para mi los videojuegos son el 8vo arte y esta obra es claramente amor al arte, Larian Studios se la sacó y puso la vara muy alta para lo que viene, cualquier cosa que salga de hoy en adelante la voy a sentir muy inferior a esta obra maestra, la pasión con la que lo hicieron, el cuidado y la atención a los feedbacks recibidos de la comunidad en los early access fueron factores para que llegara un juego casi perfecto.

Desde finales de la séptima generación de consolas y principios de la octava la industria empezó a tener el problema del cine y la música de las últimas décadas: cantidad sobre calidad, juegos free to play con microtransacciones, gatchas, pases de batalla, early access y lanzamientos finales con problemas de rendimiento, no hay duda que hubo por ahí obras maestras que marcaron historia como The last of us, Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls, The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, Red Dead 2, etc. Pero no se compara con lo importantes que fueron las maravillas de la sexta generación para atrás. Por eso que en hoy en día saliera un juego tan completo, largo, complejo, con una atención al detalle, una historia y personajes tan bien escritos con la de posibilidades y ramificaciones que tiene, un apartado gráfico muy bueno, la banda sonora, un juego tan inmersivo y muy interactivo. Es tan fiel a D&D que me atrevo a decir es el rpg más puro jamás hecho y aun con eso rompió el nicho.

Un juego que no es perfecto porque nada en la vida lo es la verdad, tiene problemas en el apartado de menús y el acto 3 está lleno de bugs pero a comparación de sus virtudes esto está muy opacado.
Ganó el GOTY pero en mi opinión es muy poco, hasta juego de la década se me hace poco, Larian lo hizo con tanto cariño, una compañía que cuando buscó los derechos para hacerlo era indie y el juego se financió de juegos anteriores y lo que iban cobrando de los early access, lo que ganaban lo invertían en el juego, así se hace coño. Esto y todo lo que he dicho anteriormente lo hacen para mi el pináculo del Gaming, el nuevo rey, el mejor juego de la historia.

La historia de los videojuegos la habían escrito MGS1, Ocarina, Final 6 y 7, Tetris, Half Life 1 y 2, Doom, Super Mario 64, etc. Pero a partir de 2023 Baldur’s Gate 3 se va a tener que incluir con esos títulos.



I dont usually write reviews, i find myself lacking the ability to write engaging or thought provocative material, my sense of humor isn't there and my English vocabulary is kind of limited. Instead of writing an abstract review, I will simply write why i loved this game.

Larian Studios have taken the gaming world by storm with the release of Baldur's Gate 3! a high budget, crowd funded late sequel to the amazing and influential Bioware's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. Baldur's Gate 3 is a turn-based role-playing game based on the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition).
As someone who has played many of the popular RPGs and CRPGs i was very excited to play the new Baldur's Gate game especially after i highly enjoyed Larian's previous game Divinity Original Sin 2 and after two full playthroughs i must say its one of the best games i have ever played.

**Gameplay**

Gameplay is based on the ruleset of the DnD 5th edition which is the most popular one and my personal 3rd favorite, its simplified the rules and makes them accessible to new players, while keeping a fair amount of depth and mechanics.
The game is very interactive, the player is allowed and encouraged to experiment with the systems given to them, problems often have multiple solutions, skills have a use in combat and outside of combat, they can be used to interact with the environment (e.g breaking walls) or in dialogue (e.g pass checks, talking to animals) it goes even further than that when you realize that certain spells can produce a synergy giving a unique interaction within the gameplay, like for example using Silence with Eldritch Blast, which makes a powerful explosion muted, allowing you to bypass situations, or using a shapeshifter spell then casting speak with the dead to get information that wouldn't be available to you in your normal form, or using the environmental objects to open new paths and deal with obstacles and enemies.
The highly interactive game mechanics make for a dense gameplay system that i can fill this entire review with examples about it, this also applies to its turnbased combat which is one of the best systems ever crafted, the game offers a lot of cool and interesting spells and skills to use, ranging from Wizard/Sorcerer damage spells, to utility spells, crowd control spells, dialogue manipulation, bending physics and even Illithid powers that can give you various advantages.
Enemy variety is a massive improvement over DOS2, BG3 offers a good amount of varied and handcrafted encounters that all feel meaningful and well designed, from various range of enemies to interesting bosses to fight, you will not feel you are having the same fights throughout the game, this design choices makes replaying the game much more fun, as in your next run you will be experimenting a different way of dealing with those enemies.
Each enemy has its own design, mechanics, stats and i must say they are all interesting and will keep the combat fresh and sustain for long hours.

Managing inventory can get messy, you get to sort the items based on their type, easily get rid of extra weight by sending items straight to camp storage with a single click which saves the tedious management and doesn't waste your time, you can find various types of crafting materials by exploring the world which allows you to craft many interesting potions and elixir that will help you during combat and in your adventure, the materials that you can fetch from the world are limited so there is no grinding, ofcourse if you find yourself running out of materials you have to option to buy them from vendors. (Or stealing them :P) stealing is fun in this game and is very rewarding, i'd advice building a thief because its super fun and rewarding.

Controlling is done either via Keyboard+Mouse or using a Controller, surprisingly the game controls pretty well with a controller, but i always felt this type of games is best controller with a K&M, the UI is clean and instructive, everything is well explained, and you can click "T" to read about abilities that may not be clear, one common issue i had is with party members walling into traps, so if you are walking into a densely trapped area make sure to ungroup and click carefully.
The game presents you with basic abilities to traverse the world, jump is the basic one, you can also throw stuff from your inventory, this mechanics is interesting because it can be super efficient, for example instead of consuming one health potion you can group all your party and throw a potion to the middle making use of the potion for all of them, this will heal all your party with the cost of 1 potion.
Another ability is dipping weapons which you can use to give the weapon certain element, you can dip it in fire so that the weapon will catch fire.

-RPG Mechanics-

If you are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition there is not much to say here, the game adapts the ruleset and changes few things about it so that it can suit video games better, Larian did a near perfect job of fixing most of the common issues with the 5th edition.
The RPG mechanics here are rich and deep, from the combat spells and abilities, to dialogue choice, to itemization, to character creator which offers 12 classes and 46 subclasses, many different races and looks to choose from.
Leveling and progression is simplified compared to older editions yet is still interesting because every level feels like a meaningful power up, with new feats and skills to choose from.

To keep things short, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Baldur's Gate 3 gameplay, its rich, its dense and its highly interactive, all of this makes for a very engaging gameplay experience that keeps bumping fun for long hours and it sustains itself pretty well, its one of the most polished and fun gameplay systems in any RPG i played.

**Writing**

As usual from Larian Studios, the goofy element is there in writing, and this time it was done greatly, characters like Astarion, Minthara, Karlach and Shadowheart will often poke funny lines at the player and none of it felt cringe or offensive to me, thanks to the strong performance of the voice actors and the good work of the cinematic motion capture.
The main story starts with a premise of you getting infected by a tadpole and you and the whole party will venture on a long adventure trying to seek out a cure for it.
This creates the perfect excuse for the player to explore regions and do side quests, the premise is basic and good to allow branching paths, which works in favor of the game, by keeping the main story simple the game can focus on side quests, characters and fleshing out the world more, the dialogue becomes more flexible because now you won't have to worry too much about creating plot holes and plot paradox, the story follows the party going from looking for a cure to dealing with the cult of the Absolute to saving Baldur's Gate from the return of the Illthid Empire.

Dialogue is highly engaging thanks to the cinematics storytelling and the top tier presentation for its genre, the scenes are well animated and the performance by the actors is outstanding! the player is always given the choice to engage with the dialogue with multiple lines to say, each is reactive to your choices. You will get to make a lot of different choices that will take you to different paths, suffice to say there is always something new to be found, a new interaction, a new dialogue line, a new check to pass, depending on your class or race or proficiency. And i cannot stress enough the fantastic work by the narrator.

Side Quests are a huge improvement over DOS2, offering interesting storylines to the game's world, further developing side characters, having choice and consequences that can carry from Act 1 to Act 3 (50 hours later), side quests present choices that can alter paths forward, so you will find yourself making different choices in another playthrough which in turn takes you to a different path. The quests can be solved with multiple ways, from combat, to talking your way out, to unique interactions, every quests is given the same care, presentation and production quality of the main game, that it becomes hard to separate the main quests from the side quests, the lines are quite blurred between them.
Rewards are worthwhile with unique items and lore bits that can be found.

Characters are definitely the highlight of the game, each character is presented with a distinct design that reflects on their character and is further comes to life by a talented cast, each character comes from a different background with different struggles and its up to you to build an understanding between them and help shape their character in each of their arcs until you flesh them out by the ending.
The characters are divided into two categories; first the origin character cast which goes through struggles and development until the end, and a returning crew from BG2 which has basically no character development and is there to flesh out the worldbuilding and connect the dots, then you have two optional recruitments between Halsin and Minthara depending on your choices, characters that you can interact with and romance and learn more about as the game goes.
I'd give the nod to Astarion, Laezel, Shadowheart and Karlach for their amazing characterization arc, and i personally feel Gale is underrated given how much of a key figure he is in the story, i found myself constantly listening to what Gale has to say, he is a pretty good character all things considered and goes through a lot of ups and downs in the story.
Each character is given tons of memorable lines that are stuck with me, has a decent amount of depth into them, i think its highly unlikely that you won't find at least one character you can relate to in the game.

Overall the writing of the game is great, while its not some deep philosophical or abstractly written game, it does more than enough for what it sets out to do, within the DnD setting and given its interactive and highly expressive gameplay, the narrative is flexible and engaging and highly reactive of the player which is exactly what it should be doing, coming from DOS2 which had many poorly written aspects, Larian definitely stepped up their game here and improved the writing massively.

**World Design**

Baldur's Gate 3 follows the formula of a semi-open world, a hub based world design that mixes things between linear and giving the player the freedom to explore around, in my opinion this is the best approach to world design because it combines the best of both worlds, its not aimless and bloated open world with lots of empty spaces and repetitive content, and its not strictly linear on-rails level design which can become boring on multiple playthroughs. In contrast the hub based (semi-openworld) design gives you a smaller condensed region filled with hand-crafted content that doesnt feel repetitive at all..
Exploration is very worth it as you will be rewarded with unique items, quests, encounters and pieces of lore.
The game is divided into 3 main acts each one has a different tone in its themes and design.
Act 1 is the Wilderness, an area that combines the Goblin camp and the Druid's Grove and everything in between, its an act about building relationship with characters, meeting key characters and setting up for the adventure, from the green landscapes to the beautiful rivers to the hills it serves as a great introduction into the game, everything is open ended and you have plenty of space to sort and separate things, few mini-dungeons are presented by exploring and it contains hidden paths.
Act 1 eventually continues in the UnderDark one of my favorite areas in the game, The UnderDark is one of two options the player is giving to transition to the second Act, its a very atmospheric and beautifully designed area, full of glowing colors, deadly traps, secrets to unlock and unique enemies, i love the exploration music there, the visuals are breathtaking, the area contains a major conflict and optional areas filled with bosses and puzzles.
Right after the Underdark, act 1 final destination is the Grymforge which is an ancient forge where you meet Deep Gnomes enslaved by the Dwarfes, its the deepest point in the world, which is home to the Ancient Adamantine forge that makes some of the best equipment in the game, there is a lot of crazy good optional content here including one of the coolest boss fights in the game, the visual theme of Lava and Rock shapes this section.

Act 2 is the Creche and the Shadow-Cursed Lands, the creche is an optional transition section of Act 1 to Act 2, its a core part of Laezel's storyline but its also home to one of the most visually appealing areas in the game, it serves as a Githyanki base in Rosymorn Monastery, the music here is fantastic and there is a lot to unpack, the area is way smaller compared to UnderDark+Grymforge but its dense with high stakes content regarding one of the side characters, and has incredible rewards and fights.

Shadowlands is where Act 2 officially starts, right from the get go, its presents a whole different atmosphere, the tone is darker, the colors are ranging from dark blue, dark green, to grey and black, signifying the cursed and dark past of the region, a lot of death, a lot of rot, a lot of loss, the region has a contrast of conflict between Selune (moon goddess) and Shaar (darkness goddess), the player is challenged by encountering a traversal problem which is the shadow-curse, making a source of light a nesscity to traverse the area, either by having a light source or a blessing the player can explore the region freely, unless its deeper where a moonlantern is needed, a special light source produced by a pixie.

I want to say, this is my favorite act in the game, what i love about it is how dense it is, there is no filler, every piece of land offers unique encounter that can be played in many different ways, which makes replaying it even better, in my both runs i had a refreshing experience with it thanks to the amount of choices you can make, the different paths you can take, i love the environmental design, the use of colors, the music, the enemies and the bosses, the dungeon (Gauntlet of Shaar) is by far my favorite dungeon in the game, it houses good variety of content, from puzzles to boss fights, to challenges, it spices things up pretty well and is paced perfectly, moreover the choice at the end of highly significant and completely changes the fate of the region.
Aside from the great side content you can do in this region, the climax of the game reaches its heights here with the epic battle at Moonrise Towers, where General Ketheric Thorm is located, and the heart of the Absolute afterwards.
Act 2 may be less freedom focused, smaller than the rest but its by far the most dense, epic and highly presented act in the game, also the combat opens up more so now you are at this perfect spot where you have decent amount of abilities but at the same time you are still experiencing progression and build up to your character.

Act 3 is Baldur's Gate 3, which contains WyrmsRock and the Lower City a very dense area filled with content, i was overwhelmed when i reached this area because its huge, filled with tons of NPCs to talk to, lots of quests to tackle, the City is massive and is one of the most well designed cities in any RPG, its a huge sandbox for the player to play with, there is a lot of mini-dungeons to play with and explore, a lot of secret areas to uncover, then beneath all that you find the sewers which is another layer to the city.
Larian pretty much nailed the design of the city, from its building, to its sewers and temples every area on the city feels distinct and rich. Cazador Palace has to be one of my favorites, but also House of Hope as well.
Act 3 may get a bit buggy and laggy due to the culmination of all your choices from the previous acts + the huge amount of NPCs and rendering it requires because of its density, but after the patches its now in a good state and its a great act to play, Act 3 is closer to Act 1 in the sense of it being a sandbox with a focus on freedom, but contrary to Act 1 its more condensed on top of each other, which can create a messy situations if you start to do things out of order.

After finishing Act 3 the ending takes part in the Upper City, a massive epic battle that concludes the story.

Overall the world design of Baldur's Gate 3 is intricate, visually beautiful, meaningful and rewarding!


**Presentation**

Massive improvement from DOS2, Baldur's Gate 3 sets itself apart from many CRPGs before it by having high production cutscenes, the game is fully voiced, every line has a voice-over except for the protagonist who is silent, every dialogue interaction has a cutscene, the cinematics are fairly decent and well directed, as a CRPG player this is easily the one with the highest presentation and production values which is a huge factor of its popularity.
Presentation adds a lot of engagement to the game, facial animations help flesh out characters and makes us relate to them even more, there is a difference between reading a static line or seeing the character on screen having facial animations which tells us a lot about how they are feeling.
Baldur's Gate 3 presentation is nothing special compared to the AAA gaming standard, but when you compare it to CRPGs it sets a new standard, and is top tier, its already hard to account for all the possible interaction and outcomes in a game like this but to do this cinematically is even more impressive.

**Music**

Borislav Slavov has outdone himself here, i loved the tracks of Divinity Original Sin series, but here it hits different, right from the character creation screen i was fascinated by the vocals of the song "Down by the River" a beautiful voice.
The ambient sounds and the soundtrack are all fantastic, there is a lot of memorable tracks that stuck with me, but perhaps the most memorable of them are: Last Light Inn music, Battle music, and Raphael's music.

The musical work done here was fantastic, Mr.Slavov deserves more credit!

**Minor Nitpicks**
Before ending this extremely positive review, i must say some critical pieces, issues that i had with it.

-One of the issues i had with the game is party a.i controlling, in the sense that when i click to circle around traps, my party members would step on traps and triggered them, which was infuriating.
-Some bugs and performance issues in Act 3 (granted the majority got patched)
-Romance writing is a bit rushed, characters quickly assume im in love with them, or quickly offer themselves to me for romance, while this is not a big deal since you will choose what you want anyway and can easily decline them, i'd still appreciate it more if the build up for the relationship was more serious and properly paced, it makes the relationship more rewarding and sincere.
-I'd love the option to skip dice rolling for disarming traps, it makes traversing dungeons tedious sometimes.
-Hotbars for Controllers
-For a CRPG veteran the game can be quite on the easier side, granted it still offers plenty of challenging encounters provided you are not abusing the meta to 100%
-While the Evil path is fun, its not as fun as the good/neutral path, the rewards are less worthwhile and you lose significant content, this is made much better if you play Dark Urge, but if you are playing a non DUrge then i'd appreciate more balancing and content.
-Minor disconnection from BG2 established lore.


**Verdict**

Finally here we are, if you are still reading, my conclusion is that Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best modern CRPGs on the market, and is an essential game to play if you like Role-Playing games, its a culmination of everything Larian has learned from their first game to their last, the overall package here is insane and provides an immense value.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a masterful work of RPG game design, it has one of the best turnbased combat system of all time, great engaging story, memorable cast of characters, impressive world design, highly interactive and fun gameplay, gorgeous visual design, fantastic music and is a testament to what passion and hard work can achieve.
Hats off to Swen Vincke and the team at Larian Studios for this marvelous achievement.
I have completed two full playthroughs and i will be coming back for more!


This marks the end of my first review, i know its not that good, but if you gave me your attention, i sincerely thank you for reading.

Of all the obviously brilliant video games I've ever played, this is undeniably the shittiest, and the one I hated the most by a considerable distance.

I would imagine that it's probably possible to have an experience with this game that isn't the most relentlessly frustrating, infuriating, bloated, annoyingly cryptic, bug-ridden thing you'll ever spend 90 hours on - there are glimpses of something truly wonderful in all the parts of this game that don't involve railroading the player into its janky core gameplay in a way that feels completely antithetical to tabletop D&D - but I certainly didn't manage it. Best of luck to you if you go looking for it.