Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound Was Meant to Start New Trilogy. Iconic RPG Series Could Have Looked Very Differently
The Baldur's Gate brand has gained a second life with the megahit from Larian Studios. However, not everyone remembers that in the early 2000s, the Black Isle Studios team worked on their version of Baldur's Gate 3.
The first two installments of the Baldur's Gate series have left their mark on the history of video games in golden letters. After years, the fans' patience has been rewarded in the form of Baldur's Gate 3 developed by Larian Studios. However, the brand could have suffered a completely different fate, as on the first version of the third "Baldur's Gate" once worked Black Isle Studios - the developer of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and the Icewind Dale saga.
Minsc and Boo aren't ready
The game created by Black Isle Studios was to be titled Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound. We wouldn't be dealing with a storyline continuation of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, so it would be futile to look for well-known and popular characters in it. As if to wipe away the tears, the devs would allow us to meet some NPCs from their other title – Icewind Dale. We're talking about the gnome Maralie Fiddlebender and the druid Iselor. Besides, the devs intended to at least "wink" at fans of the originally console-only Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2; however, it isn't known exactly what the connections between the two titles would look like.
Enigmatic Black Hound
Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound was supposed to tell a new, fully independent story that would also be more "down-to-earth" than the saga of the Child of Bhaal. Our main antagonist would be May Farrow, who would manage to kill the titular Black Hound, which is an embodiment of her guilt and selfish actions. As a result, the hound's spirit would become attached to us and start appearing to us at different times, representing the guilt of the characters we meet. All of this would make the spirit the axis of the story and the bond connecting its various threads.
Diverse landscape
The adventure in Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound would take place in the Dalelands area. During the gameplay, we would visit regions such as North Sembia, Archendale, Battledale, and Deepingdale. They would be diversified in terms of geography, threats lurking, shaking factions, or opportunities unfolding before us.
Since I mentioned factions, the main groups that were to appear in the discussed game are the Archenriders and the Church of Lathander. Besides, during the game we would get to know better, among others, the Red Wizards of Thay, the People of the Black Blood, or the Elves from Deepingdale. It was up to us to decide which of the factions we would choose to support.
Classic Baldur's Gate
While a storyline without references to the two previous "Baldurs" would be somewhat revolutionary, the devs intended to rely on proven solutions in terms of gameplay. The game would have followed the rules of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and unlike Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian Studios, Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound was to bet on real-time combat with an active pause option.
The adventure in the described title was supposed to be fully non-linear, in this respect, the Black Hound would probably not be inferior to Larian's Baldur’s Gate 3. The developers painted a vision of great freedom, allowing us to do whatever we would like. Of course, each of our actions would carry certain consequences. Abandoning or not taking on quests was also meant to have noticeable consequences in the later stages of the game. How would all this be related to the character of our protagonist? The devs intended to enable us to switch between different characters based on the decisions we make.
It is worth noting that, according to the creators' intention, during the game, we would take on the role of rather low-level characters (it's enough to say that the upper limit of their development was to be the eighth level). All of this is to engage our brains as much as possible and to demonstrate tactical sense on the battlefield.
Reputation and companions
Coming back to the consequences of our actions – the choices we make and the steps we take would be reflected in our reputation. The devs wanted to implement several types of reputation. We are discussing regional and factional reputation, fame (or infamy, depending on our actions), and epithets (which would describe our character).
Our doings would also influence who decides to join us and accompany us to the very end of the story, and who prefers to avoid us from the beginning or leave our party if things take an inappropriate turn from their point of view. Having a companion leave the party would be a mild form of rebellion – if we treated a given character particularly badly, we would even risk being attacked by that character.
While our protagonist would take the lead in the dialogues, other party members could occasionally interject into the conversations, for instance, when the situation requires it or when they can make use of their skills.
Baldur's Gate in three dimensions
Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound would be the first main installment of the series to be made in three dimensions. The title was supposed to work based on a new graphics engine - Jefferson - modeled on Aurora from BioWare. Unfortunately, no gameplay remains, not even from the early version of the game. All we have from it are microscopic models of characters and enemies, some concept arts, and a photo of the desktop with a supposed screenshot from this game.
End of the project and its devs
Work on Baldur’s Gate 3: The Black Hound took place between 2001-2003. Black Isle Studios had big plans for this title, suffice it to say it was to kick off an entire new trilogy. Unfortunately, along the way, the parent company of the studio, Interplay Entertainment, ran into financial troubles and lost the rights to develop PC games based on the Dungeons & Dragons brand. Ultimately, it was decided to cancel the project, even though, according to unofficial reports, it was supposed to be about 80 percent finished.
Cutting off the power to the Black Hound didn't mean the end of Black Isle Studios. However, the developers managed to finalize only one more project before the closure, which was the aforementioned Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2. Unfortunately, the studio's next item, Fallout 3 with the code name Van Buren (which was also supposed to run on the Jefferson engine), was also canceled. But that's a topic for another story...
What happened next?
Baldur's Gate brand lived on in the players' memories, as evidenced by the spectacular success of Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios. Meanwhile, Black Isle Studios saw its spiritual successor in the form of Obsidian Entertainment, founded back in 2003. Although over the years the team (which included the creators of The Black Hound, led by Josh Sawyer) returned to the Forgotten Realms to make Neverwinter Nights 2, over time they focused on their own worlds, developed for the Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds series, among others.
