Baldur's Gate III — Illithid Metaphysics

Review

Aug 09, 2023

I took the plunge into the Early Access version of Baldur’s Gate III back in 2021, breaking my promise to avoid Early Access titles. The exception was worth it, even though I decided to stop playing after about 50 hours, having seen most of the content available. This review is based on the time I have spent with the release version, judging its long-term play value rather than passing a final verdict on the game.

Larian Studios made a lot of promises. Divinity: Original Sin 2 was also promising, but the latter half was less compelling than the first three acts, not to mention all the frustrations with the shield mechanic. Can Baldur’s Gate III sustain the momentum towards its “17,000 ending variations”? Will these multiple possible endings pay off for the choices of each player? This is where a traditional review is virtually worthless, and we can only comment on our respective experiences in the game.

Initiative Roll

Baldur’s Gate III has possibly one of the most compelling hooks in RPGs of recent years. There is no chosen one; you are not Gorion’s Ward; you are not a special snowflake. You are just one of many beings and creatures targeted by the Illithid, commonly known as mind flayers. They put a tadpole in your eye, but you managed to escape their Nautiloid ship as dragon-riders chase them. However, you soon find that the tadpole gives you special psychic abilities, and that is where you can connect with the other characters through dialogue checks and options.

The initial set of companions includes Lae’zel, an arrogant gith fighter; Shadowheart, a secretive half-elf cleric; Astarion, a high elf rogue vampire; Gale, a human wizard addicted to magic artifacts; Wyll, a human warlock with a secret past; and Karlach, a tiefling barbarian hunted by devils. Your party is limited to four members, but you can invite others to hang out at your camp. Companion engagement is stellar; it takes me back to Planescape: Torment. The Forgotten Realms setting doesn’t feel stale but reinvigorated by a fresh perspective.

The quality in character development carries from Divinity: Original Sin 2, but I would say it is much better overall in terms of momentum and keeping the player interested in the companion questlines. Shadowheart’s quest is probably a fan favourite, and it leads players deep into the underground worlds of the Underdark, where we meet the Duergar, or underdwarves. It is a joy to explore the crumbling architecture, using spells to teleport or fly to the spaces that are difficult to reach.

An in-game screenshot of the game Baldur's Gate III, showing the character or companion Lae'zel in her tent at camp, with a practice dummy shaped like an Illithid with roots for tentacles. — Lae’zel’s mind flayer training dummy at camp.

Saving Throws

I’ve never enjoyed pausable real-time combat, even in the original Baldur’s Gate titles, or in Dragon Age and the pre-enhanced version of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. This is a matter of taste, but I find that it lacks tactical depth and it is not satisfying to play. The player is forced to micromanage all characters at the same time, buffing them up, setting up spells. And then passively watching them miss many times. Real-time with pause as such only exists because the gaming industry has always been prejudiced against turn-based, as Swen Vincke noted in an interview in 2019.

The implementation of turn-based combat in Baldur’s Gate III and other CRPGs of recent years allows the player to be more methodical with each attack and special ability. You feel that you are using the character’s actions and abilities to their full potential every turn, whereas in real-time you often neglect some actions or strategies in your party because you forgot something. When you are allowed to focus on each character at a time, you get more engaged with the way they play individually.

The battle with Grym, a hulking construct deep down in the lava bowels of the Underdark Grymforge, is one of those moments where improvisation and environment are part of the combat as much as the weapons and skills. In real-time combat, this kind of battle would probably be a hacking mess, cheesing overpowered weapons and easy attack routes. In turn-based mode, it becomes a layered, living board game, where every move has consequences and the player matters.

An in-game screenshot of the game Baldur's Gate III, showing a combat instance where a rogue character prepares a Sneak Attack aiming at a minotaur with the highlighted interface. The scene takes place in an underground temple exiting into a cave environment. — Tricking minotaurs into the range of a Selûne sniper statue.

Rule of Cool

This open-ended, nonlinear design also extends to gameplay solutions in dialogue and environment. All the different possibilities and variations based on your character’s race and class are only the surface. The dialogue choices for attributes and skills are especially compelling and often lead to interesting if not always rewarding outcomes, and failure itself can lead to something worthwhile. Only recently have CRPGs been able to make failure meaningful, more notably Disco Elysium.

That said, the game does in a way encourage you to save-scum your way to a desired outcome. You can save before a saving throw, at any stage of combat, and you can set dozens of autosave and quicksave slots in the settings. That way you will never run out of options if you dislike a particular consequence or final outcome. There is a lot of value in allowing the player to make those decisions about the way they want to play, as any DM will agree, but it might make the game less challenging for some players.

This is not the game for you if you seek a challenging old-school CRPG. For that, you might want to turn to the Pathfinder titles by Owlcat Games, which come with their own set of issues, but lack of challenge is not one of them. There are plenty of tough moments and wake-up call bosses, but Baldur’s Gate III encourages players to use the D&D system to support the main cast of companions and keep them alive with many Scrolls of Revivify. There is also your very own personal undead necromancer, Withers.

An in-game screenshot of the game Baldur's Gate III, showing an underground environment with lava waterfalls in the cavernous background, and at the centre a crumbling stairway leading to the Underdark Grymforge. — Not deep enough for me.

Critical Hit

I just know that I will spend another hundred hours on my first playthrough alone, and hundreds of hours more on subsequent playthroughs over the years. This is the kind of RPG that I could play for the rest of my life—like Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Disco Elysium. Baldur’s Gate III has an overwhelming depth of replay value in the amount of content and variations, along with the attention to detail in environment, atmosphere, dialogue, and companion engagement.

Some will complain that the combat gameplay is not exceptionally difficult, but these are usually CRPG veterans who know RPG systems inside and out and can exploit them easily. For the average player, there is more than enough challenge to match the fun as they discover what works for them, each class having its own challenges and special powers. The beauty of D&D and Baldur’s Gate III is that there are no wrong choices. If the player really wants to have sex as a bear, it’s their choice.

I am already hankering to go back and explore the nooks and corners that eluded me so far. I know there will be so much more to see and do as the game progresses; that there is a whole Illithid metaphysics of the Absolute to unravel and understand, but there will be time for that. For now, I could spend many hours crawling deeper and deeper into the caverns of the Underdark. The mind flayers and dragons and all the sun-scum can wait; just let me explore these dungeons as much as I can.

“Like buried gems, cities lie scattered throughout the Underdark of the Forgotten Realms.” (Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark)

Disclosure: Baldur's Gate III was reviewed on PC with a Steam copy purchased by the reviewer in Early Access over the course of a hundred hours of play time. All screenshots attached were captured during the review process.

Rating: 10 / Masterpiece.

The Good