Baldur's Gate 3 has finally come out after more than two decades since Baldur's Gate 2 came out back in 2000. But is this Dungeons and Dragons-style game worth buying? Read our review of the game to find out more about its gameplay, plot and more!
Baldur's Gate 3 Review and Score Explanation
Baldur's Gate 3 Review Video
Baldur's Gate 3 Score Explanation
| Overall | Hands down the best CRPG to have come out since Disco Elysium. By skillfully blending the essence of Dungeons and Dragons with modern CRPG elements, such as stunning graphics, captivating music, and immersive presentation, Baldur’s Gate 3 is perhaps the closest you can get to a D&D experience in video game form. With a game of this quality, Larian Studios has exceeded all expectations. |
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| Story | Baldur’s Gate 3’s story is a deep narrative with so many possibilities in how it could unfold. One moment, you could decide to help a bunch of outcasts defend themselves from a goblin horde, and another moment you could fuel a dwarven rebellion against those who wronged you. You’re free to play as a good character, an evil character, or a morally ambiguous character, and your decisions leading to those outcomes will have real consequences for you in-game. |
| Gameplay | The combat and non-combat gameplay is a near-perfect adaptation of D&D Fifth Edition, with some adjustments made by virtue of Baldur’s Gate 3 being a video game. Dicerolls determine the outcome of anything major in BG3, from fights to conversations to noticing potential traps or ambushes. But this game also gives importance to free actions like jumping or running, which gives the game a more interactive feel overall. |
| Visuals | Baldur’s Gate 3’s graphics are remarkably detailed. You will see each engraving on a Githyanki coat of armor or the grooves of an adamantine longsword. The locations in-game also have varying aesthetics, all rendered in stunning fashion. Imagine ruined villages full of blood and rotting vegetables, underground caverns festooned with mushrooms, and shadow-engulfed no man’s lands full of dead trees and even deader foes. Whatever you just imagined, it probably looks just as good. |
| Audio | The voice acting in this game is top-notch, perhaps one of the best in the genre so far. Most of the voice actors give exceptional performances, bringing your companions, NPCs, and enemies to life. The soundtrack is also quite well done, with the main theme and other songs driving home the sense of an epic adventure against a great evil. |
| Value for Money | Though priced at around $60, Baldur’s Gate 3 is filled to the brim with content that will leave you playing for hours on end. Even playing this game for a week straight probably wouldn’t reveal everything it has in store for you, as some things are in places you wouldn’t even think of looking. BG3 is definitely a game you’ll be playing for a long, long time. Even if you’re not a total completionist, a single playthrough will easily take (x) hours. |
Baldur's Gate 3 Review: Fantastic Fun in Faerûn
It is, without a doubt, the best Computer Role-Playing Game (CRPG) of the early 2020s. Baldur’s Gate 3 is everything it’s cracked up to be and more: a massive story, an engrossing adventure, dozens of hours of content. There’s just so many things to do and so many characters to do them with. If you thought Disco Elysium was the best CRPG to have come out in recent years, then rethink things through because Baldur’s Gate 3 has definitely topped it.
Even if you’re not a CRPG fan,the sheer interactiveness in BG3 makes it such a fun game to play. There’s just something about tossing your enemy down a ravine or killing an enemy with a wooden crate to the face. If you’re planning to buy just one RPG this year, Baldur’s Gate 3 is definitely it.
Baldur's Gate 3 Full Game Review
Pros of Baldur's Gate 3
| Things Baldur's Gate 3 Got Right |
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 An Almost Perfect Translation of D&D Gameplay Vast Amount of Content & Gameplay Options Great Soundtrack and Voice Acting Detailed Graphics, Huge Variety in Environments |
An Almost Perfect Translation of D&D Gameplay
In the precious few times I’ve actually played a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, the thing that I liked the most about it was how you had the opportunity to do absolutely anything. So long as you pray to the RNG gods and pass the Dungeon Master’s skill check with your dice roll, you can talk your way out of being arrested, outsmart the devil in their own contract, and even romance a fierce silver dragon. Those are all great adventures, but the real amazing thing is the fact that you have the freedom to attempt to do any of those things at all in the first place. As long as you can imagine it, then it could happen.
That’s what it was like playing Baldur’s Gate 3. You are faced with a myriad of situations and challenges, and you are offered many ways to solve them. Escaping a ship full of weird-looking aliens? Then it’s up to you whether you want to escape with a group of allies… or by yourself. Or let’s say a group of refugees is about to be kicked out of a druidic grove, putting them all at risk of getting killed by a goblin horde. You can decide to either kill the druid leader, defend the grove from the goblins, or help the goblins kill the refugees instead. Or maybe you found out that one of your teammates is a daywalking vampire. Let them live, banish them, or drive the wooden stake through their heart yourself. There’s nothing stopping you from choosing anything and nothing encouraging you to go one way or the other. Just do what you want.
When it comes to combat, your success is determined by your stats and the dice rolls you get (just like in Dungeons and Dragons). Baldur’s Gate 3 properly captures the unpredictability of dice-based D&D combat. Successful hits and damage output are dependent on a number of things - whether you’re proficient with the weapon you’re using, whether the weapon has any effects, what kind of attributes and equipment you have, etc. But top of that, of course, is whether your dice roll is successful or not. This makes every engagement feel unpredictable and dangerous no matter what level and how prepared you are.
While some older fans of the Baldur’s Gate series consider it controversial for the game to have shifted to a turn-based system instead of the "real-time with pause" combat system, I think it was a good decision on Larian Studios’ part. Not only does it allow BG3 to follow traditional D&D more closely, but it also gives the player the mental space necessary to take advantage of all the features available to them during combat (something I’ll talk about in the next section). It’s not an exact 1 to 1 copy of the 5e rule set, but any concessions they’ve made does not take away from the experience at all. It’s unpredictable, it’s complex, and it’s fun as heck.
If you’re looking for a D&D campaign video game, Baldur’s Gate 3 is your best bet.
Vast Amount of Content & Gameplay Options
I want to expand a bit on just how much you can get up to in Baldur’s Gate 3. Each situation in the game has multiple outcomes, and these outcomes can have very real consequences for the rest of your playthrough. If you do good deeds, new members may join your party, you might get help crossing into new areas, or get good items. But at the same time, your heroic antics might inspire others to take too many risks and get them killed or worse. If you’re evil, some teammates may leave, others may stay, and you might see more than a few people hunt you down for all the bad stuff you've done.
Anyone can die in this game, and the demise of major and even some minor characters will vastly affect the outcome of many quests, maybe even the main story itself. The most mind-blowing thing about it is that each one of these outcomes has its own unique cutscene, with recorded voice lines and everything. If it can realistically happen, chances are, there’s a cutscene for it, and it will probably affect the rest of the story somehow. The sheer number of possibilities really goes to show how much thought and effort Larian Studios put toward making this game.
The freedom of options extends to combat as well. Aside from melee attacks and spells, your characters all have a few abilities at their disposal that take advantage of my favorite part of BG3’s battles - the environment. Push enemies off cliffs so they can fall to their deaths, or jump behind them to put a sword into their back. Use a control switch to crush them with a piston that’s been conveniently placed above the battlefield. If you're desperate, throw a box, a barrel, or even a pair of shoes at your enemies. You can probably throw a bone at them too. There’s probably nothing more badass than killing an ogre with someone else’s skull.
Great Soundtrack and Voice Acting
There are a hell of a lot of characters to talk to in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s a good thing they all have great voice actors. Neil Newbon as Astarion, Devora Wilde as Lae’zel, and Jennifer English as Shadowheart brought a great deal of quality to their performances, and the rest of the crew you’ll be gathering throughout your adventure are no slouches either. Gale is full of wisecracks and banter, while you can hear the slyness that Wyll channels whenever he’s trying to woo the ladies.
As for the music, I like how it always changes depending on how the battle is going. If the battle’s just started, it’s tense and thrilling, with horns and drums and ominous chanting. If you’ve killed a powerful enemy, you can feel the battle turning in your favor just by hearing the brighter, more triumphant tempo the battle music has taken.
The game’s music really immerses you in the heat of battle, and the tracks it uses to do that range from standard fantasy lutes and drums to the truly epic piece that is BG3’s main menu theme. It perfectly captures the essence of a team of adventurers who may have not traveled with each other under normal circumstances, but will now have to work together to defeat an ancient evil. Good stuff.
Detailed Graphics, Huge Variety in Environments
Baldur’s Gate 3’s graphics are very nice to look at. Each character has little intricate details - from their facial features, to the armor they wear, to the weapons they wield. Each model was crafted carefully, especially the clothing, which ranges from renaissance-style garbs to dark-age medieval gambesons, to shining silver armor with ornate jewels and carvings. It's incredible that this game has so much detail, yet you can only truly appreciate it when you zoom in to see the characters up close.
The environments also look wonderful. Whether it's the visceral insides of a crashing octopus ship, the serene sanctum of a druid grove, the desecrated ruins of a goblin-occupied temple, or the shadow-ruined lands surrounding a malevolent tower, each area in the game is adorned with intricate decorations and interactive objects that bring them to life.
And let's not forget about the sheer variety of places to go to. Without spoiling anything, each location is designed convincingly well, and has its own well-hidden secrets. The game has the graphical fidelity needed to show you these secrets even without relying on your Perception rolls to kick in, which adds to the realism.
Cons of Baldur's Gate 3
| Things That Baldur's Gate 3 Can Improve |
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Bugs Still Prevalent in Release Version Autosave Does Not Save Often Enough You Can Ruin Your Saves Easily |
Bugs Still Prevalent in Release Version
Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in early access since 2020, and Larian Studios has worked with the wider BG3 community to polish the game and stamp out any potential bugs. Looking at how the release version got out, it’s safe to say that the game came out in the best form it could’ve possibly been in. Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs here and there. For example, certain scenarios may play out differently from what you expected just because you did something out of order. While things may happen unpredictably in BG3 as part of the story, these situations were just clearly due to the game misunderstanding your intentions.
Sometimes, the game can get stuck just before a cutscene plays. This happens especially when you get to your camp and a cutscene is supposed to happen. Your characters will simply stand there and do nothing until you reload your save. This also happens after certain cutscenes that are supposed to transition into battles. Your characters will just stand around, and the user interface won’t even show up. So, you’ll have to reload your save. There are also some areas I’ve explored where the frame rate suddenly drops for some reason.
Hopefully by now, Larian Studios already has an idea of what issues to fix and will roll out a patch soon. Until then, all we can do is wait.
Autosave Does Not Save Often Enough
Relating to the previous point, sometimes cutscenes can bug out at the worst of times, like when you’ve made a good amount of progress in the game but you haven’t saved in quite a while. Baldur’s Gate 3’s autosave feature does not kick in nearly as much as it should, and you will have to remember to save early and often or else risk losing hours of progress just because the game crashed unexpectedly or a cutscene wouldn’t run.
You Can Ruin Your Saves Easily
Another thing that can frustrate players, especially those playing blind or without guides, is that they can end up locking themselves out of certain quest rewards or situations because of something that they weren’t made aware of. While this tracks with the sense of realism that players might appreciate, it might annoy those who would’ve liked to have had some kind of a warning beforehand, either in the form of a failed skill check notification or some other way.
For example, there is a quest where you’ll have to get the head of someone for the quest-giver. What the game doesn’t tell you, however, is that the quest-giver wants the target to not be killed by fire, acids, or anything that would damage the body. This fails the quest. So even though you did exactly the quest that was given to you, you still might fail because of a hidden, unmentioned caveat..
We can only hope that there are other ways to fulfill this quest and other quests similar to it in the future.
Baldur's Gate 3 Story Plot
Baldur's Gate 3's story takes place over 120 years after the events of its predecessor, Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. Here, the main protagonist and several other unfortunate souls are captured by psionic monsters called mind flayers in their invasion of Faerûn. As part of their treatment under their captivity, the Mind Flayers implant Illithid tadpoles into them. These parasites can enthrall (in the subjugation sense) and transform those they infect into other mind flayers.
However, before the protagonist is transformed, the captor’s ship is attacked by Githyanki warriors and their red dragons. The mind flayers flee, leaving the captives free to steer the broken ship back to Faerûn where it crashes. Now, the protagonist must find a way to get rid of the parasite in their heads and take up arms against the invading mind flayers. Freeing themselves from these mind flayers is the only thing they should be worried about... right?
Who Should Play Baldur's Gate 3?
Baldur's Gate 3 is Recommended if You Enjoy:
• Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2
• Divinity Original Sin
• Disco Elysium, Planescape: Torment, and other CRPGs
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a must-play for anyone craving an immersive point-and-click RPG experience. For those familiar with the original Baldur’s Gate games, it will feel like coming home after two decades. And if you've dabbled in Larian Studios' other RPG series, Divinity: Original Sin, you'll also find yourself right at home again due to the similarities between the two games. If CRPGs like Disco Elysium and Planescape: Torment are your cup of tea, then brace yourself for the wild and unbridled shenanigans that await you in Baldur’s Gate 3. This game offers unparalleled freedom to explore and indulge in some of your wildest fantasies. Yes, even those fantasies. Really.
Is Baldur's Gate 3 Worth It?
$60 Well Spent
With dozens of hours of content and no microtransactions, Baldur’s Gate 3 is definitely worth the $60 price tag at release. Here is a game you’ll be spending a good portion of your life playing with, experimenting with, and venturing in with your friends through co-op mode. In a time where games are perceived as expensive while giving back little value, Baldur’s Gate 3 shows that there are still games that give you exactly what you deserve at a price the developers exactly deserve as well.
How Baldur's Gate 3 Matches Up to Recently-Released Games
| Games That Came Out Recently | Why Get Baldur's Gate 3? | Why Get the Other Game? |
|---|---|---|
 Remnant 2 |
While Remnant 2 is cheaper than Baldur’s Gate 3, BG3 is filled with a lot more content and customizability. It’s also a more conventional fantasy game that more players may enjoy, compared to Remnant 2’s mishmash of genres. | But Remnant 2’s real-time third-person shooting gameplay might be more enjoyable to players compared to BG3’s more traditional turn-based RPG gameplay. There’s also still a solid fanbase for Remnant 2’s sci-fi trappings. |
 Jagged Alliance 3 |
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a deeper narrative and more quests than Jagged Alliance 3. Plus, its world is a lot more interactive compared to JA3’s Grand Chien. | But JA3’s strategic combat system may be more attractive to some players. The game also has its own host of zany characters, as well as a business management aspect that’s not present in Baldur’s Gate 3. |
 Pikmin 4 |
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a much more complex RPG compared to Pikmin 4, on top of being a higher fidelity game. | But Pikmin 4’s simple controls and strategy will definitely reel in Switch owners. Pikmin 4 is also a more relaxed and cuter game that would attract casual fans more than BG3 can. |
How Baldur's Gate 3 Matches Up to Similar Games
| Games Similar to Baldur's Gate 3 | Why Get Baldur's Gate 3? | Why Get the Other Game? |
|---|---|---|
 Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 |
BG3 is just as rich as its predecessors in story but improves on the formula in almost all aspects, from graphics to voice acting to gameplay. It would be perfect to have a remaster of BG1 and 2 that uses BG3 as a blueprint. | But, as some older fans may argue, BG3’s transition to a turn-based combat system may be considered a step back for a series that initially had real-time combat. |
 Disco Elysium |
Baldur’s Gate 3 is just as deep as Disco Elysium in terms of how much your character can interact with the world and how those interactions can impact the wider story. But BG3 comes with the added bonus of having good combat mechanics, which does not exist at all in Disco Elysium. | But Disco Elysium’s setting, as well as its story of a down-and-out detective solving a murder mystery, has its own appeal. So we wouldn’t say players should buy BG3 over DE, but rather get both games so they can see the best that the CRPG genre has to offer. |
 Divinity: Original Sin |
It seems that Larian Studios has taken many of the lessons it learned from its past games, and put them into practice while developing Baldur’s Gate 3. If you want to see the culmination of the developer’s decades of experience, BG3 is the best way to check it out. | But if you’re a big fan of CRPGs, Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 are worth checking out and playing just to see how Larian Studios handles its other IPs. |
Baldur's Gate 3 Trailer
Baldur's Gate 3 Product Information
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| Title | BALDUR'S GATE 3 |
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| Release Date | August 3, 2023 |
| Developer | Larian Studios |
| Publisher | Larian Studios |
| Supported Platforms | PC, PS5 |
| Genre | RPG, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1-4 |
| ESRB Rating | Mature |
| Official Website | Baldur's Gate 3 Website |
