Baldur’s Gate III patch adds two new modes and an epilogue – Games – News

I’ve intentionally ignored the hype surrounding this game because I’ve been working on a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign that takes place (almost) directly before that in terms of timeline. Overall, I was surprised at how good it looked and got the same positive feeling from the intro scene as I did with Diablo 2 and The Witcher 2, both of which I found to be very strong in this area.

I first noticed that they copied many of the 1-on-1 assets and textures from their previous title, Divinity: Original Sin 2 (DOS), (or used them in the enhanced version). You’ll only notice that if you play both and that realization fades for me over time. I was initially afraid that both games would be too similar, but fortunately that fear turned out to be unfounded. The fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 has managed to build its own identity, even with some similarities, I consider a positive point.

The game is based on the rules of 5th edition D&D with some homebrew additions. This makes battles very different in terms of the tactics required (no armor or magic shield to exhaust first) compared to the previous game. Additionally, the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 is rich in lore and backstory, adding to the game’s overall depth as it can build on everything that has already been written for D&D. It might be worth delving into the history of the world and the different factions and powers within it to get more out of the game, but I personally don’t think it’s necessary. Thanks to the numerous skill checks (which are done automatically), you can also get a lot of information and lore directly from the game itself, which in my opinion works very well.

The dialogue system is now much higher quality, with full voice, and there are also cutscenes.

The world has become more vertical, which adds a lot to exploration and combat. For example, there are multiple entry methods to suit different playstyles, such as stealth/heist, magic, through dialogue and even brute force.

There are real classes in the game now. Whereas DOS was great because you just chose skills and abilities and dealt with them, which could be confusing at times, BG3 is more based on well-known classes from D&D. Classes and subclasses even affect dialogue. This gives me a more solid base to experiment with and increases replayability.

Overall, an RPG should suit your taste, especially one that relies on turn-based combat and the ability to also use it to solve puzzles or actions. It’s important to accept the fact that dice determine whether you get attacked during combat, and sometimes how much damage you do. A common frustration with the combat system from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (which also used a dice system in the background) seems less annoying here within a turn-based D&D system than in a real-time first-person RPG.