I'm getting the itch, you know. No, not that one about going down another Rabbit hole, this is a different, more RPG related, itch. (I should really start looking into getting a cream for all this itching.) What I need to really satisfy this is actually something a lot more straightforward; I need to play Baldur's Gate 3. I really can't get over it, I'm head over heels for this game and I'm starting to hit that particularly antsy part of the obsession where I can't get the damn thing out of my head. It's probably just the natural reaction to someone who was such a fan of the old-school Bioware games, only for the legendary Bioware team to slowly erode itself, neatly confirming that no future title would ever live up to their old example. In my psyche, Baldur's Gate 3 neatly fits into that gap of choice-driven, party-based, character-rich gaming; and that's a salve my wounded heart could really use right now.
Now I know that in a week us folk in the wild can expect an exhaustive reveal (Okay, they never actually said 'exhaustive', but I'm crossing my fingers) around Baldur's Gate 3, but I just can't wait that long anymore. I'm desperate, okay? Desperate for a little glimpse into one of the most classic fantasy worlds that has ever existed; that of Dungeons and Dragons. (I'm sure the universe has it's own special name, but I'm that much of a Noob that I don't know it. What do you want from me; I never had the friends to play DnD; leave me alone!) Luckily for me, Larian know the value of drumming up interest before a big event, and so we have a minuscule teaser to wet our appetites on before next week's main feast. And hey- I'm desperate, why not, right?
One of the first things that hit me from this footage, apparent from the lush green environments and the eagle-view camera, is the similarities that this game holds to Larian's 'Divinity: Original Sin' Series. Now I know that's not a new comparison, folk have been joking about how this game is just 'Original Sin 3' with a repaint, but I mean that in an inherently positive manner. If you're looking for a game to help sate your hunger right this very second that lies in the same vein as BG3, then there really isn't a better choice than the Original Sin games. (Except, maybe, the first two Baldur's Gate games but do you really want to be mailing more revenue to EA-Bioware right now? I think I'll pass on that one, personally.)
Another aspect that this trailer really highlights is the way in which the actual combat goes that step further than other games of the same kin (including the few I recently mentioned) by including the environment heavily in the combat. We saw something that was hinted at in the gameplay demo, how the players could feasible strike a huge statue so that it falls on the enemies, but even more than that we even saw folks getting thrown off of cliffs with magehand and even a couple of scenes where sources of lighting seem important. I love the tactile way this brings the world back into the gameplay, even when battling, and theorise that this very much could have been where Bioware games were at if they hadn't literally sold their soul to the devil. (Sigh, I miss you guys.)
But there is just as much interesting versatility to such an approach outside of combat as there is within. This trailer calls back to one moment within the gameplay demo where one of the party members goes wondering and finds themselves setting off a dungeon trap which requires heavy planning in order to navigate themselves out of. In the trailer we just see her trapped on an island in a room covered in burning oil and fire-arrow traps everywhere, and it just sets my imagination ablaze for the sorts of puzzles we'll get later in the title; how interesting could they get? Maybe we'll get yellow-mould triggering traps; mimics; teleportation chests; built on a framework like they have the possibilities at Larian's fingertips are literally endless!
In the narration for the trailer there is an interesting point which is mentioned and I wonder about it's effect on the wider story. We hear one of the characters mention about how "new strength flows through us" and judging from what we know about the storyline for this game I can only imagine they refer to the side effects of the main cast receiving the tadpoles they get from the introductory scenes. We've already seen how one of the side effects is that the party's vampire can actually walk out in the sunlight, but this implies there'll a great many more little abilities that the characters will be imbued with as time goes on. Now I find this interesting because these tadpoles are inserted by Mindflayers with the sole intention of eating out their insides and turning them into new Mindflayers, thus is the impetus of the plot. But if, in the quest to cure themselves of this ticking timebomb in their heads, they find out that the conversion process imbues them with strange new abilities and makes them more special than they ever were, this may prove an interesting conflict of goals later into the title.
What if there comes a point wherein you have to choose whether or not to give up your amazing new abilities or go through the transformation; what sort of inter-party conflict could such a conflict cause? I know I'm speculating here, but my dream scenario would be a moment wherein all the party get to decide individually whether or not to relinquish their infection, with the secret of who choose what being kept from the others. (Maybe allow the player to make each choice based on the developed stats and relationships of each character.) That might benefit for the immediate but have a knock on for the finale wherein the transformation takes hold on the party has to go up against at least one of their former allies. That's just one of the exciting paths that Larian could take such a concept in and I'm giddy to see if they live up to it or surpass anything even I can conjure up.
I should probably wrap this up, before I create the blueprints of a whole game in my head, which is never good for expectations. The trailer itself is only a small glimpse into the promise that Baldur's Gate 3 has to offer and yet it is enough to adequately sate my growing anxieties. My only little nag comes from the fact that even if this title does launch in late 2020 like predictions say, that will just be the beta edition of the game; I'm not sure how long we'll have to wait until the full thing lands. But if everything has been on the up-and-up so far, and I trust Larian enough to assume it is, then I imagine that however long the game takes, the final product will be worth all of it.
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