Story and Characters
-Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best written open world games I have ever played. Your party consists of many different characters that you can interact with and they all have their own stories that you can help them with while working towards the main story. The characters are all engaging and believable, no one stood out as being too annoying or had poor voice acting.
-The main story is fairly simple, you are infected with a mind tadpole and you are trying to find out how to get rid of it, while discovering new secrets along the way. The simpleness of the story really works here though and the game does an excellent job raising the stakes over the course of the three main acts in the game.
-The voice acting is incredible across the board. Your party members' individual stories are all interesting and they all have real stakes. Your custom character does not have much dialogue, but the customization is great and your character really feels like they belong in this world.
-The villains in the game are also incredibly voice acted and they seem threatening, but also entertaining and they are not always one note characters. Everyone has their own agendas and stories and they are all interesting.
-Choices have genuine stakes and certain choices can have consequences that will alter the entire game. I have had characters die well before they were even important to the story and that changed major events that could have happened. There are a drastic amount of endings you can get and they all change the game significantly.
Gameplay
-The turn-based gameplay is incredible and it would take me forever to go into every detail of what you can do, but it is rare to see a game that lets you interact with the world in so many unique ways.
-The combat is extremely fun and very customizable, the moves you make and the characters you have in your party can drastically change how combat scenarios play out.
-The D&D gameplay works very well in video game format and you really feel like you can approach a situation in dozens of ways, it just depends on how clever you are. For example, there was a moment when someone was being burned alive and you have a limited amount of turns to save them. Instead of trying to get to them, I was able to just throw a jug of water and put out the fire. The game doesn’t tell you to do that, but the fact that it allows you to is awesome.
-They are able to make the gameplay very diverse with what you are doing and there are plenty of puzzles to solve, bosses to fight and monsters to clear. The diversity in the gameplay keeps the game fresh for the well over 100 hours I put into the game.
Side Content
-The side content in the game is some of the best in any open world game that I have played. All of the missions are well written and occasionally I was reminded of The Witcher 3 and some of the great quests in that game. You really care about the side characters and so I felt compelled to do the quests. The leveling system is also quite addictive as you really feel like you are getting stronger so you want to do the side stuff more.
-Again, I have to praise the voice acting as even all of the NPCs in the world sounded great and no one took me out of the game as can sometimes happen.
World/Level Design
-The game is broken up into three distinct acts and each one felt incredibly different from the previous one. The environments never felt too similar and they were even able to make many different dungeons and caves feel unique and diverse.
-The game made you interact with the world in unique and fun ways and traversal was no exception. Getting around certain areas could feel like a puzzle and you are constantly exploring new regions trying to find any and all secrets.
Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The graphics, especially for a game like this and this size, look really good. The top down view makes graphics less of a focus, but they still look great and all of the character models are very good. There were some awesome cutscenes and character movements always looked good.
-The music in the game is fantastic, the battle music was epic, but the exploration music is almost just as good and really helps make walking around soothing and fun.
-Glitches and performance are unfortunately the game’s weakest point, but I will say that things improved throughout my time playing. At launch, I played with a friend doing split screen and it became very lagging and would be frustrating to play as it would freeze up for 5-10 seconds after almost every action. When I went back and played by myself, performance was much better for a long time, but it struggled a bit in Act 3 and I had a point where it would crash on me consistently. After another patch though, the game works far better and while I still had some occasional freezes, by the time I finished, the game ran very well.
Main Positives of the Game
-Incredible characters with great interactions. Every member of your party was interesting and I wanted to do what I could to solve all of their problems.
-I really didn’t think the gameplay would be for me, but I was quickly proven wrong as the combat in the game is awesome and addictive. The amount of customization at your disposal is absolutely insane and the fact that there are so many classes blows me away. Every class is unique and plays completely differently than the others and they are all fun to use.
-The music is awesome and really makes the game feel alive and like a fantasy world.
-The missions are all fun and they did a great job making them feel diverse.
-You are able to interact with the game’s systems in ways I have really never seen before and the game encourages creativity and rewards you for it.
-The story is quite good and the side missions are all very well written as well.
Main Negatives of the Game
-I do wish there were a few more tutorials as the game can be extremely overwhelming at first. I definitely had to look up a lot to make sure I was utilizing my characters to their full potential.
-Performance issues were definitely an issue and while they seem to have mostly been fixed, they did impact a large part of my experience with the game so I feel it is necessary to mention them.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
-Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best written open world games I have ever played. Your party consists of many different characters that you can interact with and they all have their own stories that you can help them with while working towards the main story. The characters are all engaging and believable, no one stood out as being too annoying or had poor voice acting.
-The main story is fairly simple, you are infected with a mind tadpole and you are trying to find out how to get rid of it, while discovering new secrets along the way. The simpleness of the story really works here though and the game does an excellent job raising the stakes over the course of the three main acts in the game.
-The voice acting is incredible across the board. Your party members' individual stories are all interesting and they all have real stakes. Your custom character does not have much dialogue, but the customization is great and your character really feels like they belong in this world.
-The villains in the game are also incredibly voice acted and they seem threatening, but also entertaining and they are not always one note characters. Everyone has their own agendas and stories and they are all interesting.
-Choices have genuine stakes and certain choices can have consequences that will alter the entire game. I have had characters die well before they were even important to the story and that changed major events that could have happened. There are a drastic amount of endings you can get and they all change the game significantly.
Gameplay
-The turn-based gameplay is incredible and it would take me forever to go into every detail of what you can do, but it is rare to see a game that lets you interact with the world in so many unique ways.
-The combat is extremely fun and very customizable, the moves you make and the characters you have in your party can drastically change how combat scenarios play out.
-The D&D gameplay works very well in video game format and you really feel like you can approach a situation in dozens of ways, it just depends on how clever you are. For example, there was a moment when someone was being burned alive and you have a limited amount of turns to save them. Instead of trying to get to them, I was able to just throw a jug of water and put out the fire. The game doesn’t tell you to do that, but the fact that it allows you to is awesome.
-They are able to make the gameplay very diverse with what you are doing and there are plenty of puzzles to solve, bosses to fight and monsters to clear. The diversity in the gameplay keeps the game fresh for the well over 100 hours I put into the game.
Side Content
-The side content in the game is some of the best in any open world game that I have played. All of the missions are well written and occasionally I was reminded of The Witcher 3 and some of the great quests in that game. You really care about the side characters and so I felt compelled to do the quests. The leveling system is also quite addictive as you really feel like you are getting stronger so you want to do the side stuff more.
-Again, I have to praise the voice acting as even all of the NPCs in the world sounded great and no one took me out of the game as can sometimes happen.
World/Level Design
-The game is broken up into three distinct acts and each one felt incredibly different from the previous one. The environments never felt too similar and they were even able to make many different dungeons and caves feel unique and diverse.
-The game made you interact with the world in unique and fun ways and traversal was no exception. Getting around certain areas could feel like a puzzle and you are constantly exploring new regions trying to find any and all secrets.
Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The graphics, especially for a game like this and this size, look really good. The top down view makes graphics less of a focus, but they still look great and all of the character models are very good. There were some awesome cutscenes and character movements always looked good.
-The music in the game is fantastic, the battle music was epic, but the exploration music is almost just as good and really helps make walking around soothing and fun.
-Glitches and performance are unfortunately the game’s weakest point, but I will say that things improved throughout my time playing. At launch, I played with a friend doing split screen and it became very lagging and would be frustrating to play as it would freeze up for 5-10 seconds after almost every action. When I went back and played by myself, performance was much better for a long time, but it struggled a bit in Act 3 and I had a point where it would crash on me consistently. After another patch though, the game works far better and while I still had some occasional freezes, by the time I finished, the game ran very well.
Main Positives of the Game
-Incredible characters with great interactions. Every member of your party was interesting and I wanted to do what I could to solve all of their problems.
-I really didn’t think the gameplay would be for me, but I was quickly proven wrong as the combat in the game is awesome and addictive. The amount of customization at your disposal is absolutely insane and the fact that there are so many classes blows me away. Every class is unique and plays completely differently than the others and they are all fun to use.
-The music is awesome and really makes the game feel alive and like a fantasy world.
-The missions are all fun and they did a great job making them feel diverse.
-You are able to interact with the game’s systems in ways I have really never seen before and the game encourages creativity and rewards you for it.
-The story is quite good and the side missions are all very well written as well.
Main Negatives of the Game
-I do wish there were a few more tutorials as the game can be extremely overwhelming at first. I definitely had to look up a lot to make sure I was utilizing my characters to their full potential.
-Performance issues were definitely an issue and while they seem to have mostly been fixed, they did impact a large part of my experience with the game so I feel it is necessary to mention them.
Overall Score: 9.5/10