Baldur's Gate 3. August 2020 – Best Video Game Releases
Table of Contents
Release date: August (Early Access)
INFORMATION
- Genre: cRPG
- Platforms: PC
- Estimated price: TBD
What is Baldur's Gate 3?
It's the third installment of one of the most iconic series of classic role-playing games. The first two installments of the series debuted in 1998 and 2000, respectively, both developed by the legendary studio BioWare. This game is developed by Larian Studios, the team that gave us the excellent Divinity: Original Sin II. The release date of the final version of the game is unknown, but fans will be able to play a beta version as early as August as part of the Early Access program.
What's the storyline in Baldur's Gate 3?
The game's action takes place approximately one hundred years after the events depicted in Baldur's Gate 2: The Throne of Bhaala. The eponymous city is invaded by a race of Illithids, who manage to kidnap some of the inhabitants and infect them with the so-called Mind Flayers. As a result of the infection, the host's brain is gradually eaten away and completely replaced by the Flayer, turning the host into one of the Illithids. In the game, we become one of the infected. While attempting to rescue the kidnapped inhabitants of Baldur's Gate and discover a cure for the progressing disease, the protagonist discovers that, with the negative effects of the transformation, they also gain extraordinary powers, and the temptation to preserve them becomes ever stronger.
What's gameplay like in Baldur's Gate 3?
Traditionally, for the series, the game begins with extensive character creation – determining gender, race, class, initial skill set or character. The game is viewed from isometric perspective and consists mainly of exploration, character development, plot, side quests, and turn-based combat based on the rules of the fifth edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons system. The production is intended to be even more non-linear than its predecessors, and we'll be able to go through the story in a co-op mode.
OUR EXPECTATIONS
Baldur, Baldur, Baldur... Wow. I can't believe that after years and years of waiting we will finally see the next game in the series. Baldur's Gate is back. And that part three will be different? Well, that's kind of the point. The series has always pushed the genre forward. And I hope it will with this installment. And Larian has the tools, the know-how and the respect that other creators could only dream of. It's obviously going to be a slightly different experience than the beloved Baldur's Gate 2, but what I'm sure of from all the materials published so far is that Baldur's is very much present. There's that craziness and variety of colour that Black Isle and Bioware's hits could boast. And I will remind you that BG2 was very, very similar in tone to Divinity: Original Sin 2 – a lot of humor, epicness, and fairy-tale setting, hiding dirty and heavy themes. And Larian proved they can mix such ingredients in the right proportions. That's why I'm rather confident about the upcoming Early Access.
Hubert Sosnowski
Baldur's Gate is an important part of my gaming history. There are few games I've spent as much time with as BG2, few series have been able to draw me so firmly into the depicted world. Therefore, I had hoped for years that the series would receive another sequel, and last year I finally got some positive news. BG3 will be something completely both in terms of the plot and gameplay. It fills me with hope and fear in equal measure, but I hope that the Belgian developer Larian Studios – known for the fantastic Divinity: Original Sin series – can rise up to the challenge. The first opportunity to see how the creators fared should come in August when the title debuts in Early Access. I'm holding my breath.
Barth "Aquma” Swiatek
