Venture to the Forgotten Realms

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the third sequel to the fantasy role-playing game series, Baldur’s Gate. Developed by Laarni Studios — the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 — this long-awaited 3D adventure game allows you to take control of a party of heroes and venture into the Forgotten Realms.

In there, you will delve into the myth of fellowship, betrayal, sacrifice, and survival. Each hero has a background and a motive unique to their own, giving an air of intrigue to the game. You can also play solo or join multiplayer parties of up to four people, available on Steam.

Beat them or join them

The setting of Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place after the scarring events from its first two main games — Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II — although this doesn’t necessarily mean that it directly follows the story of the previous games as this new sequel aims to tell a brand new story within the same game world. 

The game starts with a gang of Mind Flayer parasites implanting tadpoles into human brains, which later on turns the human subjects into one of them. Your player character is one of the humans, who got devoured by parasites, and it’s up to you how you will fight the evil inside you, resist corruption, and turn darkness against itself to prevent your character from being extremely evil. 

Real-time exploration, turn-based combat battles

Baldur’s Gate 3’s exploration gameplay takes place in real-time. However, you have the option to pause the world and slow things down at any point. You can use this option as a tactical advantage, especially if you see an opportunity to do a precise break-in or escape an atrocious trap. This ability makes the game handy to play as it allows you to multitask the activities of your party and split up your team for efficient execution of attack plans. You can expect to see other actions happening in real-time at the same time other events occurring turn-by-turn on the other hand.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s turn-based combat is based on the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. You will see a status bar for the character’s movements, the number of stats, and percentages for attacks. Combat fights for this sequel are more interactive. You’ll be able to do more during your action time, like throwing off your boots towards your enemy, knocking off buckets, and destroying the ground to get underneath your enemies. 

Play alone or team up with your friends

Baldur’s Gate 3 supports both single-player and multiplayer modes. Both game modes give you the freedom to choose from a wide range of D&D races and classes. You can also portray an original character that has a hand-crafted background. All characters are tied up to classes. This massive role-playing game offers six classes, namely Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric, and Warlock.

The game features a number of Origin characters—unique heroes with distinct stories and perspectives. You can engage with their narratives or recruit them as companions, shaping their outcomes through your decisions. Their experiences affect their opinions of your choices and behavior when accompanying you. Available characters include Astarion, Gale, Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Karlach, Wyll, and the fully customizable The Dark Urge. You can change their classes, but bear in mind that some connections to their stories remain unchanged.

When you opt to play in single-player mode, you’ll be able to select or create one or more characters that you plan to form a party along with other computer-generated characters. On the other hand, multiplayer mode requires up to four players to team up and organize a group together.

The Paladin Class

In the realm of Baldur’s Gate 3, the Paladin class has emerged as an undisputed favorite, as evidenced by a recent poll on the Baldur’s Gate subreddit. Initiated by the user Fable_Nova, the poll received an impressive 5,000 votes within a mere week, propelling the Paladin to the pinnacle of popularity. Following closely behind were three other Charisma-based classes, namely the Bard, Sorcerer, and Warlock.

The Paladin’s rise to dominance is well-deserved, and its appeal is evident even in the tabletop version of the 5th edition. One of the standout features is the awe-inspiring Divine Smite. This ability allows Paladins to channel radiant damage into their foes by expending spell slots after striking with a melee weapon. The sheer might s exemplified when a critical hit triggers, doubling all the damage dice from a high-level smite. 

Is Baldur’s Gate 3 out now?

Currently, Baldur’s Gate 3 has only been released for PC so players can access it through the Steam, GOG, and Nvidia GeForce NOW platforms. It also has planned releases for Mac and PS5 consoles at a later date. Availability for other platforms, however, has not yet been announced so make sure to stay tuned for future updates.

One for the books

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive role-playing game that can be played for hours, although the content is quite limited as it’s still in the early access stage. It offers an original and expansive story with tons of exciting game modes as well as challenging turn-based combat battles that will test your strategic skills. This is a must-try for every gamer who seeks a sophisticated adventure.