[Review] Nostalgia Gate 3

Where do I even start with this one...

Larian began their work on BG3 back in 2017, after the commercial success of Divinity: Original Sin 2. They gathered a large amount of hype with various teasers and were on track to release the game in a couple years. And then COVID happened. Well, that and the fact that they realized they've bit off more than they could chew. Creating a fully functional D&D game, with all of its classes, races, skills, combat actions, etc. is a daunting task, not to mention designing a captivating story, lovable characters, enough quests to keep the players entertained, environments that don't get boring, a plethora of magical items and spells, and the list goes on. As the game's scope bloated beyond everything they imagined, the game release kept being delayed, despite Larian's employee roster doubling over the span of a few years.

Personally, I didn't have high hopes for the game. I was of the opinion that Baldur's Gate didn't need another sequel. I still am. Although BG3 is technically a direct sequel to the original saga, the story stands entirely on its own and I think the only reason they called it Baldur's Gate 3 was to get more attention. In fact, all the references to the original games feel shoehorned in and were clearly an afterthought or a knee-jerk reaction to the fans' whims during early access. Putting all that aside, however, Baldur's Gate 3 was one of those very rare cases where something exceeded my expectations. I was ready to be disappointed, but I was positively surprised by how much I enjoyed the game instead.

Let's break things down in my usual manner.

Story

The story of BG3 unfolds about a century after the events of the original saga. You and a number of other people get infected by mind flayer tadpoles and, from there on, it's a race against time to try and cure yourself of this ailment. You spend about half the game just trying to figure out what is happening and why and then the other half chasing after the villains behind everything. It's an interesting premise, but I don't really like the direction they took with it. They tried so hard to cram everything into the story, that it ends up feeling bland and forced. Compared to iconic villains like Sarevok and Irenicus, the villains behind the events of BG3 are almost sure to be forgotten just as soon as you finish the game.

Although the central plot ended up being a bit of a disappointment for me, the side quests and the exploration of the world around you (even if it is the godsdamned Sword Coast again) more than make up for that. There are numerous places for you to discover, filled with people, secrets, and quests. The game is massive, as one would expect from a 6-year development process, and it's not just big for the sake of being big. Most of it is fun and feels very much alive.

Replay Value

If you're a completionist like me, then a "good"-aligned run will probably cover about 90% of the game. Evil options are... limited. It's clear that you're supposed to be the hero of the story, and though you can take plenty of evil actions during the course of the game, you usually get punished for it. Playing an evil character will result in missed quests, rewards, merchants, companions, etc. making it very much a subpar choice. Larian did work on that a bit in recent patches, so whether or not that's worth another run is up to how much you enjoy playing the game, and after the clear drop in quality in the game's third-and-final act, I imagine a lot of people would be too fatigued for it.

Companions

I have never seen a more horny bunch of adventurers than the game's companion roster and I joined an all-bard group once. Most of the companions are romancable and it doesn't really take much to gain their approval. Romantic escapades aside, most of the companions are memorable and fun to keep around the camp. Their voice acting is top notch and they're all unique in their own ways. That's not to say that some aren't more interesting than others, but even the more bland ones are worth engaging with.

Gameplay

One of the biggest draws of the game is its very detailed character creator. Usually, you don't see your character much in RPGs, other than when you're looking at them in the inventory, but in the case of BG3, you actually spent quite a lot of time starting at your character's mug during conversations, so being able to customize them to such an extent pays off.

The game system itself is a decently faithful implementation of 5e rules. Combat is turn-based and tactical, requiring a decent amount of system mastery on higher difficulties. The game also makes good use of verticality and hazardous terrain features, allowing you to push enemies off cliffs or into lava, or toss a bottle of water on them to give them lightning vulnerability before you cast a chain lightning spell at them. Exploration also makes good use of character skills, rewarding parties with a wide array of trained skills and abilities.

Without mods, you can level your characters up to level 12, after which the system starts to unravel anyway, so I think they hit the sweet spot pretty well. Different classes and subclasses are also fairly well-balanced, allowing you to have a fun experience regardless of what you pick.

Art

The game's visuals are impressive. Not quite on the level of something like RDR2, but still good enough that you don't miss the beautiful painted graphics of its predecessors. It does take a toll on the game's performance though. It's worth playing the game on a decent computer (or maybe a console?).

The music is fairly good but sadly not as iconic as in the Infinity Engine games. I liked the couple of songs with actual vocals, and I found myself singing along every once in a while, but after almost 400 hours, I couldn't hum the title song if you put a gun to my head.

The voice acting in the game is great. I'm especially fond of the narrator, although I'm usually more partial to male narrators. I think it could be even better for immersion if the player's lines were also spoken, but given the amount of different voices you can pick, that would be a waste of resources.

Modding

The modding scene is currently flourishing. There is some contention between the major modders and the game developers, but we now have a lot of tools to work with and there are some amazing mods out there already. As long as Larian continues to cooperate with the modding community, I can see this game thrive for many years to come.

My last run had about 80 mods and it would be hard to pick the "essential" ones as I do in some of my other reviews. Some of my favorite ones are the Better UI series of mods by Caites, a Bag of Holding mod (since there isn't one in the game), inspiration cap remover (so that you don't feel like save scumming so much), Mystra's Spells (for more cool spells), the polyamory mod (to get the most out of your horny companions), and the Scratch Dog Training mod (so that you can have your goodest boy with you all the time).

Conclusion

I would say that Baldur's Gate 3 is the sequel we didn't know we needed. It took the entire gaming community by storm and set new standards for the quality of games, both within the genre and without. It's not a perfect game, despite all the 10-star reviews, but we could do so much worse in terms of Baldur's Gate sequels. I'm glad this wasn't just a cash grab by exploiting the name recognition but a labor of love that revitalized a somewhat stale genre. It's a 9/10 in my eyes.