As A Fan Of RPGs, Baldur’s Gate 3 Has Me Hooked For All The Good Reasons

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a welcome surprise for the entire gaming industry, as well as for the players. It is a complete game that has no additional microtransactions, is free from any major game-breaking bugs, and features lots of new and interesting innovations. The game successfully garnered the attention of many gamers, alongside fans of the famous tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons, as Baldur’s Gate 3 is heavily based on DnD’s 5th edition.

However, I, as a fan of mostly eastern RPGs, had my doubts about starting the franchise since I hadn’t played any of the earlier installments and had no prior experience with Dungeons & Dragons. And I’m sure there might’ve been many people who have been hesitating to try the game out due to their lack of familiarity with the franchise or simply because they don’t like turn-based combat.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The game also surprised me, and it is not because of how well-made it is. It was because of how welcoming it was for someone like me who was completely unfamiliar with the franchise or the DnD-inspired gameplay. If you haven’t already tried this game because of how different it is from most RPGs or simply because you’re not a fan of the genre, you should, and perhaps it might change your mind about many things.

A Welcoming Start

Baldur’s Gate 3 starts off with a heavily DnD-inspired character creation. You might see a lot of different races, classes, and subclasses there, and at first, it might be a little overwhelming to figure out what you should do. However, whatever you decide to go with, the game gradually teaches you things, and you learn a lot by yourself, too, if you’re curious enough.

The game gives you many options and ways to deal with things. Whichever class you choose to go with, you’ll find that there is always a way to deal with a situation this game throws at you. And, if there is something your created character can’t do, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you several highly useful companions or, let’s say, friends with different and unique skill sets early on that can help you deal with different situations in your stead.

The fact that you’re not only limited to your main character to do all the stuff, even the story-related bits, adds a lot of flavor to the game. Additionally, these side characters are all highly unique and have a lot of depth to them. If you’re getting along with these side characters well, you’ll be able to get to know more about them in a lot of ways.

Turn-Based Gameplay

As an old fan of JRPGs, the first thought that came to my mind as I experienced Baldur’s Gate 3’s turn-based combat was about Final Fantasy Tactics, an old and beloved classic. Yes, tons of options available to you can make the combat look slightly overwhelming at the beginning, but that’s exactly where the charm lies. You grow with the characters, and you learn to use more options as you go on, making the overall journey a pleasant one.

Another interesting bit was how the game merges the turn-based and non-turn-based gameplay. You might have three of your characters doing a battle in the turn-based mode, while the fourth character could be sneaking around the map in the default non-turn-based game mode, ready to strike whenever the opportunity presents itself.

These types of mechanics make the game more interesting than an entirely turn-based RPG, and even for the players who aren’t that much of a fan of turn-based games, Baldur’s Gate 3 can be an experience worth trying out with all the spice that it brings to the turn-based gameplay. Other than that, the gameplay also allows you to understand DnD and its mechanics in a better way than any tutorial or guide could.

An Engaging Standalone Story

One of the best things about Baldur’s Gate 3 is that you don’t have to play any previous games in the franchise to figure out what’s going on in the story. However, it is set in the same world as Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2. The game’s story is divided into three acts, with each act containing loads of content. The game also offers you plenty of choices on how you want the story to progress.

In July, a Fextralife video on YouTube revealed that the game will have 17,000 ending variations. Now that the game is finally out, we’ve seen multiple main endings. Each ending is influenced by your decisions throughout the entire game, which is very interesting in Baldur’s Gate 3’s case because, sometimes, you can’t get the desired choice because of a bad roll. 

The variety and different choices add lots of replayability to the game, allowing players to do different runs with different builds, each time taking a path that they have yet to explore. The world is fairly vast, too, and full of massive detail. You might still find something you’ve missed even after completing several playthroughs.

Takeaway

Larian Studio has done an exceptional job on Baldur’s Gate 3. It might look a bit difficult to get into at first, judging from its DnD roots and turn-based gameplay. However, it is not. The game innovatively introduces these mechanics without making them appear as a burden or too overwhelming. Eventually, you start figuring out how things work, and then the game gets more rewarding than it was ever before.

To be fair, many people just don’t like the game or the way it’s played, and it’s totally okay. Everyone has their own unique taste, after all, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But, if you’re a player who has been hesitating due to unfamiliarity with the franchise or because of how different it is, then you should definitely give Baldur’s Gate 3 a chance to see and judge for yourself.

If you’re not a fan of the game’s turn-based combat, the Explorer difficulty setting ensures that the battles are easy and not as tiring, allowing you to experience the story fully. The story also has incredible depth to it. Each act features hours of gameplay content, and the different difficulty options ensure that the player is able to have the most fun out of this game in their own way.

That’s exactly the thing about Baldur’s Gate 3. There are always many ways to do a thing, and whichever way you choose, it ends up being an interesting experience. Even if you’re not a fan of RPGs or haven’t played anything like Baldur’s Gate 3, trying it out will definitely change your mind as you slowly grasp the mechanics and unleash the full potential of your party.