Adapted from a reddit post
I knew very little about Baldur’s Gate 3 going in, but I liked some of the characters I saw fanart of and it came highly recommended, so I picked it up the first time it was discounted way back at the end of 2023… and then it just sat in my library for over a year before I finally tried it.
Wow.
Within a few sessions it had became one of my favourite games ever, and it will probably be my personal game of the decade. For various reasons, it took me nearly a year to finish, a year for which it became my persistent obsession.
I am not going through any sort of withdrawl after being immersed in that world for a year.
Some thoughts, in a vague semblance of order:
- As mentioned, I came into the game almost blind, with only a limited understanding of D&D or CRPGs in general, let alone Baldur’s Gate specifically. And I absolutely bumbled my way through the first part of the game. I chose Rogue purely because stealth archer defaultism, completely missed Gale, and stumbled through the Goblin Camp way too early, on top of silly gamer mistakes like stealing things in front of their owners and hitting myself with my own AoE attacks. Objectively, I was doing terribly, but it was truly amazing to explore and learn the characters, world, and mechanics from zero through exploring the game itself, making decisions based on intuition and wild mass guesses. More than any other, I wish I could wipe my memory of this game so I could experience it for the first time all over again.
- I knew so little about the Forgotten Realms that I genuinely thought Sharrans were just misunderstood and had to look up whether Karlach was always a tiefling. I went “this guy is fucking Satan” pretty much immediately when Raphael showed up, and I was actually really close with that one!
- Starting in Act 2, I did start picking up spoilers and looking things up in guides. That put me in an awkward spot where I was often metagaming, but still couldn’t get a perfect ending. It got even worse in Act 3 where several twists were spoiled for me ahead of time, the worst being learning a certain character’s identity an hour before I would have seen the reveal, because I’d looked up the lyrics to a song. I really, really wish I’d had more willpower, but it’s tough when you’ve been obsessed with a game for months and still haven’t actually completed it.
- The Act 3 dip is real. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, and it has some incredible moments, but it’s step down from the first two acts in general. I also found it overwhelming- you go in with a list of stuff to do, and it’s pretty much a boss rush. Between that and just not wanting it to be over, I dragged my feet on Act 3 a lot.
- I know it’s been revised from the original, and there’s a couple points that are understandably divisive, but I loved the end run and ending I got. A few things I wish were done better, but it played the emotional notes perfectly, and I haven’t had a game finale hit me this hard since Halo 3. I cried when it faded out to the epilogue, and again when the credits rolled.
- In general, that sums up how I feel about the game as a whole. I won’t pretend it’s perfect, there are many valid criticisms and I have some of my own, but very few games have pulled me in so deep or hit so hard on so many levels. There are a few messy brushstrokes, but it’s still a masterpiece.
- I’m still struggling to line up all the events that led up to the beginning of the game. It kinda feels like a bunch of disparate pieces that don’t quite fit together, with a lot of events that feel like they happened yesterday that were actually 100 years ago or vice versa. That being said, taking a year to finish the game, and doing parts of it out of the intended order, probably didn’t help.
- I romanced Shadowheart, which kinda feels like picking the default (first encountered and conventionally attractive), but there was so much more to her story than I expected, and it was told so well. No regrets, she’s my favourite (with Karlach a very close second).
- All the voice actors deserve massive kudos for their work here, and it’s wild to me that most of them were relative nobodies and this was their star-making role.
- Similarly, can we take a moment to appreciate Borislav Slavov’s wonderful soundtrack? I never got tired of that leitmotif, and it is forever etched into my brain.
- Favourite supporting character: Cool Grandma Jaheira if she counts, otherwise Dame Aylin, she’s just so damn extra.
- Favourite region: Shadow-Cursed Lands was my first impulse, but it’s the Underdark I keep thinking about, especially if you count Grymforge as part of it.
- Favourite dungeon: Gauntlet of Shar. I’ve heard it loses its lustre on subsequent playthroughs, but going through it the first time… just wow. Amazing ambience, so many corners with neat stuff to explore, varied puzzles and ties into both the zone quest and Shadowheart’s quest.
- Favourite battle: It’s a cop-out, but the final battle atop the Netherbrain. Defending Halsin’s portal was a definite sleeper hit, very tense. Cazador and Viconia were the ones that really kicked my ass, though.
- Only as I was writing this did I realize that I kept Shadowheart’s Divine Intervention in reserve for the final fight and never used it.
I really wish I’d played this game sooner, riding the hype train, seeing all the fan creations in real time, and getting excited for updates and side content. I console myself that I got to play the best version of the game from day one, and that Baldur’s Gate 3 has had such a huge impact that it will echo through geekdom for years to come.
I don’t replay games often anymore, and for two thirds of my run I didn’t think this one would be an exception- I’d felt that even though I’d missed a few things, there wasn’t enough left over for a rerun to be worth it. I’ve completely changed my mind on that. I don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I’m already planning out an evil durge run and a Shart origin run. Difficulty is not for me, so I’ll probably never do an Honour Mode run, but someday I’d like to get a golden run on a more sane difficulty.
And, of course, mods.