Oh here is one that I have been waiting a while for. For those who aren't familiar; Baldur's Gate is the series that started it all when it comes to the progression of western RPGs. If we accept that Bioware helped shaped the archetype for dedicated RPGs in the modern day, then we have to hold the creation of 'Baldur's Gate' responsible as this was the first fantasy role-playing game that they ever made. Of course, in the years since the first two 'Baldur's Gate' games and the spin-offs, there has been a lot of shifting in the video game world. Bioware are no longer the free agents they once were, and personally I wouldn't entrust them to develop their way out of a paper bag right now, but luckily 'Wizards of the Coast' saw potential in a new contender for the Western RPG crown; Larian Studios. (And I for one couldn't be happier.)
Larian were the fellows behind the Divinity franchise, and those are games that I feel go criminally underappreciated in the modern gaming world. (Apart from Beyond Divinity, that game can burn in a pit for all I care.) The Divinity games started with Divine Divinity, a a bog-standard fantasy adventure in a bog-standard fantasy world but the quality of execution made that title stand out at the time and still stand out today. From there the games evolved as the studio learned it's footing and got to grips with their uniquely British humour. (Which I mean in the best and worst way, given the studio itself is Belgian.) What I mean to say is that there is a shade to the Monty Python with they way this team creates their world, but just like with Python a lot of their early jokes and stories fall quite flat in hindsight. But just like them, they grew better with time, and now Larian make high quality, charming games that win over folk from across the world. So for them to be in charge of Baldur's Gate 3 is certainly a wise move on the Wizards' part. (Do 'Wizards of the Coast' refer to themselves as actual Wizards? I'd imagine that'd get quite awkward in important meetings.)
This new title has turned out to be a tsunami of good news to me so far. First of all it's a continuation of a beloved series that I cannot wait to jump into; secondly, it features the talents of a studio that I'm growing quite fond of and thirdly, this story promises to focus on some of the most dangerous and interesting Dungeons and Dragon monsters of all time (In my humble opinion) The Mindflayers. These folk are the clearly Cthulhu-inspired tentacle monstrosities that are still a heavy part of D&D, despite a nasty bit of legal trouble involved with the old game literally appropriating Cthulu's name and likeness without seemingly any word given to Lovecraft's rights holders. (I assume everything is all sorted out now since Cthulhu is apparently in the latest edition of the game.) Mindflayers are this Eldritch race of dominating conquerors who seem tantalisingly mysterious in that their ultimate goals seem to be forever unknown, (Beyond their innate desire to enslave the minds of all other races and convert them into their own kind) so you can see why I'm so excited at the prospect of seeing them realised into game form.
At PAX East, which is shaping up to be the only gaming event of the year, (more on that another time) Larian decided to grace us with a full gameplay reveal of Baldur's Gate 3 as played-through by their CEO; Swen Vincke. If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend looking at this footage as not only is it particularly informative about everything that is shaping up to make this title special but it's one of the most honest presentations that I have ever seen. By that I mean this gameplay is very live, and you can see that from the way that Swen manages to wipe the team in the first fight. After watching that I feel as though I've gotten an unbiased bird's eye of where the game is at an I'm honestly ecstatic about what I'm seeing so far. I'm not even being hyperbolic, I can't accurately convey how much I'm bouncing off the walls at seeing all this gameplay, it's as though Bioware continued getting better until this very day, rather than becoming the husk they are now.
I see the potential all the way in the character selection which boasts a bevy of Races, backgrounds and classes to choose from. (And this is only what they are showing off for the demo build, the base build will have more and they'll continue to add from there.) Whatsmore than that, however, is the choice to pick an 'Origin story', wherein you can choose from a selection of pre-created characters with their own backstories, personalities and goals. (From what I can see they are all based on the companions that you will meet in the game.) I can't believe how much potential replay-ability this alone provides the title, as you can play through the game again and again as these different characters for a new experience.
And when I made that 'Bioware' comparison earlier it was for good reason, because everything I've seen so far looks to be pure Bio-gold, although it's all been translated into this turn-based, tabletop hybrid that I find fascinating. First off there are the companions who you meet along the adventure and build relationships with whilst hanging around the camp, this reminds me of that old school 'Dragon Age: Origins' bliss and the nighttime campfire chats. Then there are the turn based fights which seem to borrow the environmental interactivity of the Torment games, the dice-dependant actions from the tabletop game and a handy translation into placement and percentages that almost seems indicative of Xcom. (Another game I love, despite myself.) Visually too, I'm eating up this title as it looks just pretty enough to keep me invested. (But the skin textures do look a little plastic. Again, just like Bioware...)
Of course, as the game is still very much in active development there were a lot of issues and bugs which proved the title wasn't ready for early access yet, but personally I loved that sort of verisimilitude from the gameplay reveal. (And everytime something jarring happened there was something cool to balance it out.) The save system wasn't implemented yet meaning that when Swen wiped earlier he had to quickly restart the entire demo, but this allowed us to see the clear difference in a bumbling approach to combat from a learned one. A few systems were misimplented or unfinished, but that gave us the curious visual of a 'mage hand' succeeding at a perception check and the strategic disarming of the pre-animation skeletons. The entire game practically broke down just after he received the amulet of 'dead-speak' and escaped the dungeon, but it provided a hilarious end to the gameplay and I'm pretty sure he was just going to show off how you can talk to your dead companions anyway.
Overall, I was soundly blown away by practically everything that Larian had to show about this game and I'm positively ravenous to get my hands on it. This may even be the first time I get a Larian game during early access, because I'm that desperate to play this. (Although to be fair, Larian are well-known to actually deliver on their early access so it's not like I'll be taking too much of a gamble.) As someone who never had the friends to play D&D, I love the way this game manages to simulate all the dice rolling and dungeon master-ing aspects and I truly believe this is going to be my personal next big obsession. In conclusion I have nothing more to say but: whew, 2020 is shaping up to be one hell of a year for gamers! (Provided we all don't catch the flu and die.)
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