PCPOWERPLAY

BALDUR’S GATE 3

Return to the Forgotten Realms

- By Fraser Brown

Jesus Christ,” mutters Larian CEO Swen Vincke as another arrow hits his unconsciou­s wizard. We’ve barely started our journey to Baldur’s Gate and we’re close to a second party wipe. Vincke gets creative. He takes off his boot and throws it at a bandit, dealing a very small amount of damage. Five minutes later, unrelated to his missing footwear, he slips on some stairs and dies. Baldur’s Gate III promises an epic yarn full of cosmic invaders, trap-filled dungeons and more characters with a mysterious past than an Agatha Christie mystery. And just like its tabletop progenitor, a few unlucky rolls and some interestin­g decisions can transform it into a brilliant comedy of errors.

Details were slim last time we spoke to Larian about its next big RPG, but this time the developer has opened the gate – though lamentably not to the point where I’ve been able to take it for a spin myself. The illithids, grotesque alien tyrants more commonly known as mind flayers, have rediscover­ed the secret of flying nautiloids, their weird crustacean ships, and have decided to invade the Forgotten Realms. They’ve abducted lots of people and stuck parasitic tadpoles in their heads, but before the show can really get started another alien race appears, the githyanki, on top of red dragons no less, and blows them out of the sky.

This is good news, as it turns out. As one of the unfortunat­e abductees, you’re now free. Unfortunat­ely, you still have a parasite in your head. It’s not a great thing to have stuck inside your noggin, as it’s how mind flayers procreate.

“So I have a central problem,” Vincke says. “I need to get rid of this tadpole or I’m going to become a mind flayer. So I’m looking for somebody that can help me with that, and that too turns out to be quite a problem, but I can go in many directions.”

ORIGIN STORY

Between the extremely flashy cinematics, you’ll make your character. Here you’ve got to decide what race you are and what your background is, and then pick a class. All custom characters hail from Baldur’s Gate, but you might be a dwarven noble or a crooked drow. Chances are you’ll make an origin character. Yes, Divinity: Original Sin

II’s origin system is returning, letting you pick named characters with more elaborate backstorie­s, special hooks. and unique dialogue options. Vincke chooses Astarion, a vampire spawn who now finds himself free from his master and able to walk in the light – a ‘gift’ from the tadpole. This time, they’re also locked into a class.

“The stories are very much tied to class at times,” says senior writer Adam Smith. “Class is such a part of identity in D&D, in a way that it wasn’t in DOS II.” But those initial decisions will eventually be overshadow­ed by the choices you make as you play. “A rogue is always going to be able to do certain things that other people can’t do, and an elf is going to be reacted to by some characters in a certain way. There will always be things that are specific to you because of the person you are, but the really interestin­g things are the things that are specific to you because of what you did. And then what gets even more interestin­g is how your companions remember the things that you did, and the way that you treated them and other people. And that becomes very complicate­d.”

At camp, Vincke starts feeding on one of his companions. He’s made a few friends, including one of the aforementi­oned githyanki, Lae’zel, all of whom can also be chosen as an origin character at the start of the game. They’re as complex as the player character, and in the case of the

CONFLICT IN BALDUR’S GATE III STEMS FROM CONVERSATI­ONS JUST AS MUCH AS COMBAT

multiplaye­r mode they are all player characters, the heroes or villains of their own story – but for the time being the half-elf cleric known as Shadowhear­t is a light evening snack. As Vincke drinks, he’s able to give into his craving, or he can pull back before sucking her dry, leading to a D20 being rolled at the centre of the screen. Luckily he passes the roll, as failure would have ended Shadowhear­t’s story prematurel­y. Even with the roll, however, he’s not out of the woods. The party could discover his secret, which seems pretty plausible given that tadpoles give their victims a psychic connection.

He likens the parasite to the Bhaalspawn legacy from the earlier games. It’s a power that can be tapped, but it comes from a dangerous source. “Every single time that you use it, you give into it,” Vincke warns. “And as you give into it, things start happening when you encounter other people with tadpoles, and you might not be so resistant. Eventually you’ll find mind flayers, and if you use the tadpole, you might find that it’s really hard.”

Conflict in Baldur’s Gate III stems from conversati­ons just as much as combat. The game is constantly making skill rolls and dialogue checks, pitting your arcane knowledge or religious know-how against the whims of the dice. During one chat, Vincke tries to pilfer a toe ring from a goblin, which he’s able to do by gingerly kissing the gobbo’s feet while employing some sleight of hand. Thanks to the closeup conversati­ons and mo-capped animation, you can get a real good look at the makeout session, made even steamier by the detailed descriptio­n. Vincke leaves the encounter with some new jewellery, while the goblin leaves with a smile.

TURN IT UP

Fights are bound to happen, of course, and unlike the earlier games, Baldur’s Gate III’s brawls are all turn-based. Exploratio­n happens in real-time, and players or characters not in the brawl can continue to move normally, but when the swords are unsheathed things get tactical.

“I’m critical of real-time-with-pause because I think that it looks messy. It’s like a miss, pause, give three orders, a miss, pause,” says senior designer Edouard Imbert. “Also, I don’t believe that sticking to the old system can expand to a greater audience. The thing with turn-based logic is that everybody understand­s it. It’s my turn, it’s your turn. And we have this experience with it – it worked for us with Divinity: Original Sin, it worked for us with Divinity: Original Sin II, and D&D is turn-based.

“Your characters are the tools you’ll use to solve a puzzle, and the puzzle is more messy if everything is moving at the same time.”

To tackle one of the criticisms of the turn-based model – that it’s slow or laborious – Larian’s made some tweaks. Instead of characters going in order and

getting an attack or an action, you can swap between them, using attacks and bonus actions to create a combo. Your party effectivel­y moves simultaneo­usly. If you love the turn-based combat so much you want it on even when you’re out of battle, however, you can force turn-based mode. This should make it easier to sneak, since you can more accurately manage your party’s movements.

All of the spells, abilities, and values are as they would be in a regular game of D&D, but just as important are all the open-ended roleplayin­g and combat opportunit­ies. D&D is largely fuelled by imaginatio­n, and while Baldur’s Gate III has to impose a few more limits (sorry, no Wish spell), it still promises to be more interactiv­e and experiment­al – and just as free to exploit and abuse – than the already liberating Divinity: Original Sin II.

In one fight, Vincke places some crates to give him more elevation and a combat advantage, and he could have alternativ­ely used them to create a barricade. Before another, he sneaks around removing weapons from suspicious-looking skeletons, so when the trap is sprung, they have to use their fists. The plan is to eventually make the AI find a new weapon, comparing their values to find the most effective one, but they’d still have to spend precious time looking around. In a pinch, you can fling some of your inventory at your foes, just like Vincke did with his boot. That means Larian needs to figure out how much damage, along with what kind of damage, all these objects do. Then there are the environmen­tal factors, like elemental surface effects, loose boulders, or floors that can be destroyed, splitting the battle across multiple levels.

HIGH GROUND

Original Sin II had elevated areas, but the fights really took place on an invisible 2D grid. In Baldur’s Gate III, it’s fully 3D. This means you could have your ranger hanging out in the rafters, your rogue finding an alternate route below the ground, and your fighter rushing in with their massive sword swinging. There are lots of ways to prepare for a battle to give you an advantage, but some of them will just be there to make you feel like a total badass.

“We don’t want all the fights to be complicate­d,” says Imbert. “Some of the fights have to be easy, like three goblins standing next to an explosive barrel. So we have this concept of popcorn fights, which are designed to make you feel good about yourself.”

With more complex level design comes a more flexible camera. The isometric view is helpful in combat, but as you’re wandering around, you might fancy zooming in and playing it more like a third-person affair, watching your character’s rear and, for the first time, admiring skyboxes and distant vistas.

Aesthetica­lly, it’s not that far

THERE ARE LOTS OF WAYS TO PREPARE FOR A BATTLE TO GIVE YOU AN ADVANTAGE

removed from Original Sin II, but character models, animation, magical effects, lighting – they’ve all clearly benefited from a bigger budget and more designers. And when you get up close, the difference between the two games becomes very apparent.

While mind flayers and tadpoles loom over this early part of Baldur’s Gate III, there’s also the threat of monsters and traditiona­lly ‘evil’ races teaming up. “Suddenly, all of these forces, the goblins, the drow, gnolls and all kinds of different evil are gathering together and working together,” says Smith.

“The Sword Coast is a dangerous place, but one of the things that makes it a place of opportunit­y rather than a place of incredible danger is the fact that these guys don’t work together normally. Right now they are, and they have a new god, the Absolute. It’s uniting them, and it’s saying ‘You are the future, the world is going to be yours.’”

OUT OF ALIGNMENT

There’s likely a bit more to this coalition of villains than meets the eye, particular­ly because Wizards of the Coast asked Larian not to get too hung up on the traditiona­l alignment system, which the tabletop game also leans on less these days. This matters for your character, too. You can be good, evil, lawful and chaotic, but that’s purely up to you, not an arbitrary alignment you pick at character creation.

The slimy cosmic monsters, on the other hand, seem more like cut and dry bastards. Meeting a mind flayer probably means you’re about to become dinner or a host. Even dying, they’re a menace. After the nautiloid crash, you can find the mind flayer who infected you, and just like the tadpole, he will try to make you give into him. If you have some unlucky rolls or give in, he’ll suck your brain out of your skull, which won’t bode well for the rest of the adventure.

Baldur’s Gate itself hasn’t yet had its big unveiling. The first map is massive, and from above you’re only seeing the surface details, not all the caves, dungeons and hidden places. To end the demo, Vincke jumped to a later save, around ten hours in, but it was still on the same map. Depending on the route the party takes, it could take anywhere between 10 to 20 hours to hit that point. While Larian’s keeping schtum about the city, it seems like it’s making the journey to get there meaty enough for some good anecdotes for the tavern.

Despite delving into someone else’s toy box, there’s no evidence so far that Larian has toned down its style or identity. My biggest concern was that Baldur’s Gate III would be too beholden to the old games, but while it’s shaping up to be an authentic D&D game, the same design philosophy that gave us Divinity: Original Sin II is very much at its core. Especially when everything is on fire.

 ??  ??
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 ??  ??
 ??  ?? BELOW: I failed my history roll, so all I know is that they’re statues.
BELOW: I failed my history roll, so all I know is that they’re statues.
 ??  ?? TOP: Yep, Larian still really loves fire.
ABOVE: This place isn’t welcoming, but it’s handy for making fire arrows.
TOP: Yep, Larian still really loves fire. ABOVE: This place isn’t welcoming, but it’s handy for making fire arrows.
 ??  ?? TOP: Calamari is back on the menu.
ABOVE: You probably don’t want to end up becoming a mind flayer. Bit… gross.
TOP: Calamari is back on the menu. ABOVE: You probably don’t want to end up becoming a mind flayer. Bit… gross.
 ??  ?? TOP: Any origin character you don’t play can be recruited as a companion.
ABOVE: Characters can jump, climb and hang out in the rafters.
BELOW: Meeting the tadpole for the first time is a bit harrowing.
TOP: Any origin character you don’t play can be recruited as a companion. ABOVE: Characters can jump, climb and hang out in the rafters. BELOW: Meeting the tadpole for the first time is a bit harrowing.

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