So the premiere was on the 27th of February at a PAX convention and I needed a lot of time to think about it. After all its Baldur’s Gate we are talking about.
Baldur’s Gate was published on the 23rd of December 1998, Baldur’s Gate: Shadows of Am was published in 2000 and a year later came Throne of Baal. This game is still loved by generations – for me it represents some of the happiest months of my childhood (this and Icewind Dale), and the main reason why I value Isometric Games above any other game ever created. Also probably why the Durlag’s Tower will always leave a scar on my psychics.
What I’m trying to say is that the legacy of these games is huge. Number of fans of this game is extraordinary, and so are the expectations people had for it. The responsibility for creation of the third part of the Baldur’s Gate trilogy is so huge that no one was able to produce the game. Hopefully the Larian Studios will deliver the game in 2021, but that would still be 20 years after the previous installment of the game. That’s how big it is.
Along with thousands of others I watched the BG Gameplay Reveal on live stream. I was not happy when I saw Jesse Cox entering the stage – he annoys me, but I was happy to see how much Swen Vincke was nervous. Not because I don’t like the guy, but because it meant that he knew what was at stake there.
I would say that overall the presentation went well. Watching Sven playing – and getting killed – was fun. I got somewhat annoyed when he didn’t loot all the corpses. But that’s just my corks. Then again it was fun to watch how the game epically crushed at the end of the presentation. While the presentation did go well the opinions of the shown gameplay are very divided, and it does not surprise me.
My first thought of it was „This is Divinity 2 combined with Skyrim and DnD”. Visually the game looks great, there is no denying that. The nature, the textures everything is extremely pretty. Mechanics are round based so this is something we’d be used to. And in general the mechanics are just taken from DnD 5.0. Without a doubt the new cool thing is the ability to operate in new ways with the landscape. like pushing people off things and creating a staircase to climb higher places. So this is something I look very forward to.
My main concern and most for people primary concern is that this game visuals look too much like Divinity: Original Sin II. And it’s a valid concern from many points of views. For me the most important thing is that Baldur’s Gate is its haunting story. The original story was relating to Faerun’s most dramatic events when the gods fell on earth and dispersed their essence to mortals. This resulted in god’s own children walking the earth. And our heroes being someone like that and fighting with other children for the Throne of Baal – the god of murder. This was concluded in Baldur’s Gate: Throne of Baal. So where will the story take us this time? Are we still children of Baal?
How in all of this play the long lasting conflict between Illithids and Githyanki? Will we witness the end of Illithid race? If that’s so, will the Larian Studios get ready for more than one installment of Baldur’s Gate?
And the visuals. From what we have seen they resemble Rivellon extremely. The same with the music. And we will all expect to see something more like all Baldur’s Gate visuals. Darker, harsher and a little scary maybe. These are all valid questions.
However regardless of any concerns I still suspect we will have an amazing game to enjoy – since its Larian Studios. But will it truly be Baldurs Gate 3 we’ve been waiting for? Or some new hybrid?
