My Baldur's Gate 3 Review – GOTY for 2023

The story of Baldur's Gate is basically as old as the pen and paper / D&D universe itself. Since the first Baldur's Gate was released, it has almost single-handedly transported the pen and paper feeling into the digital world. BG2 has made it even more extensive and a bit more interesting. Since then, many games have tried to put this feeling into their own projects. We basically all know them. Skyrim, Witcher, etc. One studio that discovered the feature of consequences for itself was the young studio Quantic Dream. With Fahrenheit, the sequels Heavy Rain, beyond two souls and finally Detroit Become Human. So many different ways to tell your own story where certain people can die right at the beginning. With Skyrim, it was the variety and design of the avatar. And of course to some extent the story too. The world feels tangible and comprehensible. And now, over 20 years later, after 3 years of Early Access, the long-awaited Baldur's Gate 3 is coming out. What I (we) had hoped for was actually the same as in BG2, only with more story and interesting characters and, of course, enormous freedom of choice. What we didn't think, however, was that Larian Studios had overdone it in every phase of what was humanly possible, to the point that it leaves you speechless after the first 10 hours. Wow, even the Early Access phase doesn't even come close to doing the finished product justice. I can't find the words to describe how deeply grateful I am personally to be able to consume something like this. In times of spectacular disasters and the worst games ever released, BG3 stands out so much from the crowd that you can't ignore it. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Metacritic, every platform agrees. BG3 The Best F… Game of The Year. And I for one am glad that there are people out there like Naughty Dog, From Software and Larian Studios who still dare to do something and produce games for gamers and not primarily for the shareholders. And what have we learned from games like BG3? Well, that you just need a leader in steel armor who runs around the studio the whole time and motivates his employees to do the same. Please Larian, don't lose your fire like Blizzard or Activision. Because then you'll quickly end up in the top 10 worst games on Steam and who wants that? I'm happy to be able to consume content like this and I'm excited to see what else Larian will conjure up. Fill me with magic and take me with you wherever it may lead. Love lots of love and a 12/10 for the best adventure in my gaming history. 180 hours for one RUN btw.

im a mega lotr fiend and this is the first game that is on par lore wise with lotr. i want to live in this world, so badass.

Good thing witcher 3 and baldurs gate 3 got released in different decade, because imagne if they did.

I don't think I have made it out of act 1……….I keep trying stuff and making new characters lol. Different ideal in those characters. The game is absolutely amazing.

You can feel the love, attention to detail, and creativity the devs put into the game. It's palpable.

I agree BG3 is awesome… So awesome that I want to buy a new PC to enjoy it even more 🎊🎊🎊🎊

I hate single player games. To me, games are social. Ive spent most of my time in WoW or other MMOs.

BG3 is the first game I’ve ever skipped raid to play, not just once, but several times. I’m hooked. The story, the choices. My goodness. I can’t wait for my 2nd play through.

The Witcher Wild Hunt for me still have the best original soundtrack

My 1 couple of play trough is to play all the original characters stories then I will create my Tav.

Agreed, i finally quit WoW for this 😂 i dont think ill be going back for a long time, if at all

So long as you’re giving the game, a fair chance, posting a review after 100+ hours of playtime is more than reasonable.

“Best“ is hard for me to define. But BG one and two set a high bar for CRPGs for me, and BG three is the first ever to pass that.

There are plenty of other games I love, and not every game is trying to do the same thing. Morrowind was a fantasy world simulator, and I don’t think anyone ever did it better. But BG one and two were the perfect fantasy campaign simulators. And now here comes BJ three, and it gets even closer to that feeling of spending years around a table with your friends. Just an amazing experience.

I like how connected everything in the game world feels. Each act reminds me a little bit of Clock Town from Majora's Mask and then the process of playing through one act leads to a new world state in the next act. Like Zevlor is tied to the Teiflings, so his fate in Act 1 is tied to whether you side with the grove or the goblin camp as well as the Silvanus or shadow druids and then he's tucked away in Act 2 but he'll be accounted for in Act 3 if you did find him. And that's just one of many minor side characters.

I still think that witcher 3 and dragon age origins are far superior. Characters, gameplay, story… bg3 is woke, characters apart of Karlah are poorly written. Astarion and Gale are gay AF. We have strong women fighters and gay mage and rogue guys… sorry its shouting woke. To me in RPG most important are characters, exploration and story. Duncan, morigan, leliana, zevran… even tho leliana and zevran were bisexual, it wasnt in your face and blunty presented as gale or astarion are. All characters in witcher 3 were masterpiece. And im surpriced because dos2 had well written characters. If witcher 3 is 10, than dao is 7 than bg3 has to be 4.5

This game is up there with my top childhood memorable games.

The thing I haven't heard people talk about is how Larian might have shot themselves in the foot, because their next game has to follow baldur's gate 3. A tall order.