In this review we will tell you in detail about Baldur’s Gate 3, the new CRPG developed and published by Larian Studios
If you are a lover of classic role-playing gamesthen you will surely have your eyes on it Baldur’s Gate 3. This new CRPG from Larian Studios was published at the beginning of August on PC and recently finally arrived on PS5. From day one to today we have had the opportunity to extensively try Baldur’s Gate 3 e in this review we will tell you about it in detail.
Birth of a Hero | Baldur’s Gate 3 review
Obviously every self-respecting RPG begins with the character creation. During this phase you can bring your protagonist to life by choosing between a large number of customization options. First you will have to decide which of the many Stingray your character belongs to Faerûn (the continent where the story takes place). In total they are well present 11 playable races and many of them even present numerous sub-races. Each race will affect your character’s aesthetic in some way and each one has its own unique characteristics and abilities which you can exploit during the adventure.
In addition to the race, obviously, you can also choose one of the 12 playable classes featured in Baldur’s Gate 3. These classes are taken from some of the most famous of D&D and each of them has some unique mechanics and particularities that will significantly influence the way you interact with the game world both in the midst of combat and outside. Plus you can further customize your gaming style by choosing one of many sub-classes available at character creation or upon reaching a given level.
As if that wasn’t enough, if you want you can make your character even more unique thanks to the multiclasse. Multiclassing is a feature that allows you to Select a different class each time you level upthus creating a PC capable of using skills and spells from different classes at the same time.
In addition to class and race, during character creation you can also decide how to distribute yours characteristic points and choose a background. The selected background will give you competence (we will talk more about competence later) in some specific skills, but not only. The chosen background will also serve as guideline for how to play your character. Do some actions in line with your background in fact it will allow you to get points inspiration that you can spend in some situations for try a dice roll again.
Finally, obviously during the creation of the PG you will also be able to change the appearance of your character. The PG editor, however, overall did not satisfy us very much given that, for the standards of an RPG of this type, it offers too many few customization options.
The fifth edition | Baldur’s Gate 3 review
Being a video game, Baldur’s Gate 3 differs a lot from the classic Dungeons & Dragons but, despite this, the game is still based on the fifth edition rules. This means that the characteristics of each character are the six classic D&D ones (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma) and which the game exploits numerous mechanics typical of the board game. For example, it is present the initiative to decide the order of turns in battle (established by a dice roll added to the dexterity value), the actions divided into bonus and normali step in become to hit enemies and so on.
Furthermore, the main ones are obviously also present passive skills present in D&D fifth edition. All characters have access to these eighteen skills and each of them is influenced by a specific characteristic. For example, skills that require agility such as acrobatics or stealth are related to dexterity, while those dedicated to interacting with people such as persuasion or intimidation are based on charisma. The value of each skill is therefore usually based on the modifier of the characteristic to which it is linked, a bonus automatically calculated based on its score.
However, even if the characters have access to all the abilities, not everyone will be able to exploit them in the same way. Based on factors such as class, race, background and so on you can in fact obtain competence in a given skill. Competence doubles the ability bonus that is applied to the skill, thus allowing you to use it much more effectively.
Skills will be fundamental during your adventure as you will have to use them for practically everything. For example, every time you try to pick a lock, persuade someone or investigate something you will have to make a relative skill test. In these cases you will have to roll a twenty-sided die, add the skill bonus (and any situational modifiers) and check if the result exceeds the value required by the test.
Your story | Baldur’s Gate 3 review
The history Baldur’s Gate 3 has a spectacular start to say the least. In fact, your adventure will begin on board a mindflayer vessela living vehicle controlled by a race of creature extraplanari who dream of subjugating and enslaving all other living beings. These terrible monsters have kidnapped many innocent people including your protagonist and as if that wasn’t enough they have inserted a parasite into your brain that will turn you into one of them.
The situation seemed desperate, but fortunately at a certain point the ship was attacked by an army of Githyanki, warriors sworn to hunt the mind flayers. Thanks to the chaos generated by the battle you will finally be able to free yourself from your imprisonment and, with the help of other prisoners like you, you will finally manage to escape by crashing the vessel.
Once free, however, you will find yourself in the middle of nowhere and with a potentially lethal parasite in your head, so you will have to get there as quickly as possible looking for someone who can help you. Unfortunately, however, you will soon discover that the situation you find yourself in is much more complicated than expected and To find a cure you will have to take part in a journey that will change the fate of Faerûn.
Overall from here on the story will continue in the same way very classic, but despite this it still manages to make itself interesting thanks to good storytellingto gods well characterized characters and the insertion of some quite original elements. The greatest strength of Baldur’s Gate 3, however, is not so much the story itself, but the way the player influences her through his actions. In fact, from the end of the introduction you will be constantly faced with a myriad of choices that will concretely influence the continuation of the adventure. As if that wasn’t enough, you will almost never find yourself faced with simple crossroads and you will often have the opportunity to act in many different ways to achieve your goal.
The title also offers players a great freedom in the interpretation of your character. In fact, many choices and dialogue options will be available only based on elements such as class, race, background and past actions of your PC.
Adventure companions | Baldur’s Gate 3 review
As in any self-respecting RPG, there are many in this title too side missions which are alongside the main one. In Baldur’s Gate 3, however, there are also side missions extremely accurate, profound and interesting. Furthermore, although they may not always have a direct impact on the main quest, they often complete these missions you can still leave your mark on the game world in some way. Of course, there are still some NPCs who will give you trivial requests such as eliminating a dangerous monster or finding a lost object, but overall these forgettable missions are very few.
Furthermore, there are also the normal secondary missions of the game quests related to your companions. In fact, during the course of the story you will have the opportunity to bring various characters into your group who will accompany you during the adventure and each of them will have its own story. To bond more with them you will have the opportunity to help them with their personal missions that often they will far surpass other secondaries in variety and complexity.
However, if on the one hand we greatly appreciated the companions’ missions, on the other we appreciated less the way they interact with your PC. In fact, the way in which these characters approach the protagonist often seemed a little too strange to us forced. In fact, many times it happened to us that companions with whom we had barely spoken a couple of times declared themselves madly in love with us. Furthermore, romantic relationships or friendships with these characters unfortunately they didn’t seem very deep to us even once developed.
Tactical combat | Baldur’s Gate 3 review
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Strategic RPG and like many titles of this type it is based on turn-based battles. As a rule, you can travel with a party of up to 4 members and once you encounter a group of enemies the battle will begin and the order of all characters’ turns will be established thanks to an initiative roll. Once it’s one of your party members’ turn you can take control of it directly and give him various commands.
In fact, during his turn a character is able to move, interact with objects present in the environment and perform two types of different actions. In fact, just as happens in classic tabletop D&D, even in Baldur’s Gate 3 there is the possibility of perform a standard action and a bonus action each turn. Actions standard are for example weapon attacks, spells and offensive abilities, while those bonus they are simpler and more immediate actions such as jumping, pushing and some support spells. There are also reactionsthat is, particular skills that can be used automatically during an enemy’s turn if certain conditions occur.
As you can see, the main mechanics that govern the battles are not particularly complicated, but that’s not to say the battles aren’t complex. The simplicity of the mechanics is in fact balanced thanks to the enormousness variety offered by your party members. In fact, every class in the game can count on an avalanche of unique abilities and spells which you can use in many different ways to gain the upper hand in battle.
Things like the conformation of the land and environmental dangers. In fact, the places that form the backdrop to your battles are always full of elements that can simplify or complicate combat, such as hills, traps, chasms, covers, flammable barrels, and so on. All these elements contribute to making each battle different from the previous one e…