Is Baldur’s Gate 3 Really That Good?

The recently released game Baldur’s Gate 3 by the critically acclaimed developer and publisher Larian Studios is getting a lot of praise on the internet and is breaking various records only days after its full PC release. In this article we will go deeper into what all the fuss is about and see if it’s actually as good as they present it as. Now without further ado let’s jump straight into the article, enjoy!

What is Baldur’s Gate?

First of all, let’s break down what this game actually is. Even though it is the third game in the series by the title, it is much more a sequel to their previous game Divinity: Original Sin II than a sequel to the Baldur's Gate games from over 20 years ago. It is a tactical turn-based classic RPG with lots of freedom, but the combat model is the dealbreaker here. The two original Baldur’s Gate games did not have a turn-based combat system, which means some fans of the first games might feel betrayed or at the very least not happy with the changes.

It is important to understand that the main thing it takes from Baldur’s Gate is its universe and the story aspects. It has a lot of DnD mechanics with dice rolls that are based on luck. It is fair to compare it to a live dealer casino with crypto, because you give everything to luck. You cannot be sure that the dice rolls what you actually want or need, but that’s the fun of it. You are able to fail the roll and still get an outcome. You don’t need to succeed in every role to tell the story. The game does it for you, and even though you failed, it might make for a much more interesting story later on.

Gameplaywise it is a different game. Not completely different, because it is still a classic isometric RPG, but with many distinctions. The best way to describe the game is that it is your typical Larian Studios game that they made for the past few years but set in another universe.

You are playing a video game experience of playing a role-playing game. It’s like the game itself is the gamemaster and you are just playing, portraying a character. Your main hero doesn’t have a dialogue voice most of the time, but there is a narrator that narrates everything that you do. There are also a few original characters that have their own stories, side stories, relationships, personalities, etc. It is up to you to choose who you will be playing as. In the game you will either way control a party of four characters so if you create your own you will still be able to choose up to three origin characters later on at the beginning of your journey.

Why is it Getting so Much PraiseAt the time of writing this article, Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC has a stunning 97 Metascore on Metacritic, and a 9.3 User Score with over 2600 reviews. It is sitting at number two spot of the best PC games of all time according to Metacritic, and the only game ahead of it is also a global hit of Disco Elysium. However, Disco Elysium only has 11 reviews from official websites, and Baldur’s Gate 3 has 14, but there are over 20 still to be posted, that are currently work-in-progress.

The game is getting praise for its combat system, the world created, decent optimization, stunning graphics, and overall, the whole package, a complete game. Basically, this is one of the most finished games that was released in a long time, and the numbers support it. Even though the game was released on both Steam and GOG platforms, which means it doesn’t have anti-piracy protection like some other games it got into the top 10 most-played games of all time on Steam. It had a peak of over 800 000 players, falling short only to the giant games like PUBG, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, Lost Ark, New World, or Cyberpunk 2077.

For a game that is in such a unique genre of strategy, tactical turn-based games it is a huge success. It’s not like it is popular sports game. Even the developers were predicting about 100 000 player peaks, so it is over 8 times that number. It also shows how many people actually purchased the game from the official source, instead of just going and downloading their copy of the game from the internet not so legally.

It seems that all it took was a finished and working product with diligence to gather that kind of support and praise. Finally, a finished game with good story, audio-visual presentation and without a ton of bugs at the release. It is amazing how the standards of the industry can shift in a matter of years. However, is Baldur’s Gate 3 actually that good?

Does it Actually Deserve All the Praise?

The short answer is yes. It is actually an impressive game that gives you so much freedom that no other game gives you. As a quick example, you can drink your health potion, that’s usual. But you can also throw the potion at your allies to heal them from the distance, or you can just place the potion on the ground and attack it manually. Then it will heal surrounding targets in an area, instead of a single target.

The possibilities are endless and are for you to discover. After playing the title, we can safely say that it is definitely worth the praise and more companies should take note of how to release games, like in the good old days of shipping finished products at launch. The game did not have a lot of hype going into its release, even though it’s been in early access for nearly three years now. However, the quality of the product defends itself. The game will also be released on the PS5 in September 2023 and on Xbox Series X/S at a later date, so even if you are a console player you will be able to enjoy this game sooner rather than later!