Even after two playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3, over a hundred hours already in that world, I just can't find myself putting the thing down for any extended period of time. It's like my curse to suffer the brunt of Baldur's Gate content for the rest of my days, ever checking to make sure I'm not missing some hot new additive to the narrative experience. The extra Karlach scene they patched into the ending was evidence enough that Larian weren't quite done with the keep-up of this game, but I don't think anyone could have predicted what Patch 5 would bring to us. A whole new gamemode and a gigantic playable epilogue catch-up set 6 months after the events of the game with, according to the team, some of the most extensive reactivity throughout the entire game. I mean, who puts in this much effort to keep their game feeling fresh without attaching a price point at the end of each addition? How is Larian still putting the rest of the Industry to absolute shame?
Although in all honesty it was something so much more simple that blew me away with Larian's post-release support. I mean sure, the Karlach ending was impressive- but the team already conveyed how this was actually a recycled piece of content they removed for fear it cluttered the finale scenes. (And I'd imagine at least part of this coming epilogue comes from a similar place.) It was the whole Sussar Bark weapon renewal that blew me away. For context, back in the early access for BG3, one of the more involved side quests involved gathering a smattering of materials across the Underdark in order to forge a special weapon which- did a little bit extra damage and looked identical to the base model of the weapon. This was how the side quest existed through the launch, but the ever watching eye of the BG team would dictate that would not be how the quest would die.
There are so many Elder Scrolls missions with the exact same shortcomings. Extensive lore stories for mythical weapons that were once wielded by famous kings or rebel leaders, that are unimpressive once you get hand on them. The Sussar weapons weren't even a significant point of contention in a game receiving a universal outpouring of love, but rather just a small grumbling you'd find on rogue subreddits here and there. And yet, without any significant prompting, Larian threw in a genuinely high quality retexture for all the Sussar weapons, instantly transforming them into one of the most sought-after early game vanity weapons around! They're still not really viable for late game builds- but that isn't really why we seek out unique looking tools in RPGs, now is it? We want to look like the coolest around- that's the biggest draw. And that simple model update told me just how on-the-ball this team is. Which is why I think we're never going to have enough of Baldur's Gate 3.
I mean this game has somehow slipped into the annals of fandom where people, nay other game developers, are begging Larian for a Masquerade Ball DLC. Why? Because they want to spend more time around the game's cast in a more formal party setting, preferably with the opportunity to have a spin with their romanced favourite. Similar to the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, although even that came with the pretence of an actual mission behind it- what fans want here is a literal vanity DLC. And people are for this concept. Larian have built a game so appealing fans don't even want to complete quests in it, they just want to live surrounded by the BG crew forever more. And... I'm adverse to the idea. Hell, I would slap down money for any extra content because I genuinely can't get enough of this game- hence why I jumped aboard the Honour-mode train as soon as I heard it had been added.
You see, I could load up my nearly finished save, quickly beat the final boss and experience the post game epilogue in all it's glory- but such a reward feels like it needs to be earned, you know? And how do I earn my epilogue? Through self flagellation, it would seem. The recently added 'Honour Mode' of Baldur's Gate unlocks a new one-life mode for the game where players have to live off a single save game that they cannot reload on a whim. Choices are final, save scumming is illegal, and a party-wipe ends the entire run. True hardcore insanity. And as if all that wasn't enough- the mode even throw in Legendary Actions into boss creatures- special abilities that break the turn order and are pretty much the worst thing that 5e ever added. And the Legendary Actions are unique to Honour Mode, so you can't even prepare for each fight in Tactician like I would usually do in such modes. True pain.
My first run of Honour Mode has actually already reached it's conclusion, I'm on my second. Do you want to know how the first one went? So I started off strong, with thirty minutes in the character creator like a proper degenerate, and from there I treated it pretty much casually. I dibbed my hand in the brine pool at the beginning, knowing it would blow up, I marvelled at the fact that they made the tutorial section healing pods one time use- I forgot tactician mode did that. And I even rocked up to the fight against Commander Zhalk with a brand new tactic up my sleeve! Instead of save scumming until my Mindflayer bro could knock him silly (because obviously that's not an option) I spotted some great advice online I put into play. Turns out Shadowheart starts the game with Command in her spell book, but not prepared. And because in BG3 you can prepare spells without having to rest, that meant I could roll the 55% chance to make Zhalk drop his lovely burning greatsword into my waiting arms. Bliss!
And that's when it all went wrong. See, I landed on the beach and never entered the mind set of 'play it safe'. In fact, I immediately wanted to try out a cool special cutscene which I was told only happened if you go to camp as Dirge before recruiting anyone else. Turns out just visiting camp wasn't enough, you also have to stay the night- and I didn't want the time to pass because I still had to go back to wake up Shadowhea- oh, she wasn't there when I returned to the beach. Right, I heard that she goes to the locked ruin door if you leave it too long, I just didn't think merely 'visiting' the camp was enough to trigger that. Oh well, I thought- might as well drop back to the camp to pick up my deluxe edition items. Whoops again, because when I returned I found the door in front of the ruins similarly abandoned. This one I had to look up. Turns out that with two 'rests', (as the game believes they were) old Shade-Organs has moved to the Grotto. Yes, the Grotto almost an hour of gameplay away. Which meant I had to take on the first Intellect Devourer fight by myself. And because I never met Shadowybae- I was still Level 1. As a Sorcerer with 8 health.
So yeah, that run ended there. But you know what? I started my next run the very next day. Because Baldur's Gate 3 is just one of those games that like any good book, you can't put down. Even when it bites at you, slaps at you, kick you in the nuts- and you always show up seconds the next day. Baldur's Gate truly will never be enough. Not for me and not for the dozens of fans out there who want it to literally take over the lives and become their everything. Baldur's Gate 3 is just so darn overwhelming that honestly I get a bit sad everytime I hear Larian talk about their impending triumphant return to- bleargh, 'Divinity'. Urgh, why can't they just stay in much more interesting universes, like the ones they didn't make? At least Larian aren't deciding they've reached their zenith with the industries craziest gamble. Still, I hope they feed our ravenous DnD maws a little more before going back to slumming it.
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