Baldur’s Gate 3 is if nothing else a roller coaster ride. After almost 60 hours of playtime now it does still hold up in many ways, but some of the writing is just terrible, and then I mean the focus on everything having to be sexual. Also, one or two of the companion characters seems to be written in the school of Joss Whedon – constantly ironic and pixie-esque stooped in post-modernism with a modern way of talking (swearing included), which has a way of taking you out of the setting.
The narrative after all these hours is still interesting, but it’s grand on a way bigger scale than compared to both Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2. This doesn’t have to be bad in a sense, but the whole “chosen one” storyline is upped by ten in this title. Personally, I’m a bit tired of being the chosen one, especially considering how it’s formed in the game – as you, the lonesome savior is clearing the world from evil by yourself when that is far from the truth. The party in itself doesn’t get enough recognition. Honestly, it’s not even clear who and what made you the leader in the first place which has the effect of it all being a bit random without ever finding its true place in the tale. It’s just you, with a bunch of ragtag followers, that for some reason listen to what you say and do, even going so far as having you decide life-changing decisions for them. The agency for your companions is lacking.
Why so horny?
On sexuality, it’s just too much. Every companion is horny for no other reason than apparently a majority of RPG players want this (which I doubt, just check out the Steam forums). I had to turn down Gale 3 times now (here comes spoilers) and he supposedly had an affair with one of the gods that takes the form of a woman. So, what gives here, Gale? Why does he want to sleep with me so badly? Also, by having every single companion be “gay”, as in player sexual, you can’t form a brotherhood or just a simple friendship with any of the male ones without it starting from a perspective of lust. Imagine if it was so in real life…
I don’t have any problems with characters being gay in general, but then make them so exclusively. Making them player sexual is such a cop-out, and it makes no sense in the storyline. It’s confusing, and I got to wonder how new people even get born into this world when everyone seems to desire people of their own sex. Also, the classic “subversion of one’s expectations” gets old really fast, as every role you expect a man would have is now handled by the fairer sex instead. The brute melee type of characters of the companions (so far) are women, and the soft-spoken meek ones are men. This is mostly fine and can be tolerated since it’s fantasy after all, but not even having one single male character that is typically strong, or stoic just feels off to me when it comes to this setting. This can also be applied to the rest of the characters (for the most part) of the game. The only ones that feel typical fantasy that fit their “gender roles” are the bad guys, ironically enough. The different factions are filled with diversity quotas, from all races and sexes. I’m not saying this to start a political rant, however, where do all the foreigners come from in this setting? Was there a mass exodus between the original series and Baldur’s Gate 3? I know about the Avernus incident, but that shouldn’t affect normal humans and their society. It just makes it hard to get a grasp on the setting, is it still based on medieval Europe? It feels more like something like Los Angeles, than Europe a couple of thousand years ago.
Arriving in Baldur’s Gate
I have just reached chapter 3, so I don’t know about much of this location yet, but it looks splendid at least. However, having the city in the final act seems to be like a major missed opportunity. My problem with this is that this is the first real city/town that you get to visit, and it took all the way up to chapter 3 – the final chapter to do so. Now that I’m here, already decked out and weary of adventures, I don’t feel like exploring at all, especially when I know what is at stake, and ransacking houses for a couple of gold pieces doesn’t feel that enticing at this point. The city of Baldur’s Gate came late in Baldur’s Gate too, so it’s faithful to that game with one main difference; you got to visit a real town long before that in Baldur’s Gate – and it’s also one of those things that I didn’t think had to be copied to cement that fact that it’s a sequel to the classic titles. I would have loved to play a low-level rogue in the city, making my way through the houses Thief -style for money and fame – now? It feels way too late for that.
It does have things going for it, though. For example, it’s the first location that I don’t feel like it’s a place out of an MMO, as the outdoor forested areas. I wished the game would have gone the way of the older games in the series, or Dragon Age: Origins – featuring hub areas instead of this semi-opened world crap that feels very artificial and confined. I mentioned this in the first impression article I wrote, but it’s such a prominent aspect of the game that it has to be mentioned again. There is no real sense of traveling or distance since the representation of these areas is a bit confusing. Are you supposed to take it as it, as these locations are represented to scale, or are supposed to scale them somehow in your brain? I don’t know, but if it’s the first, then I got to say the world seems tiny indeed.
Regardless of my attitude to some parts of the game that I find questionable, I still enjoy it. Otherwise, I would have stopped playing long ago. But these issues with the game really drag down the score for me. It has too many eye-rolling moments to be excused lightly. Luckily, it balances out with having a lot of reactivity and alternative paths you can take through the narrative. And with that, these further impressions end here. Now, I just have to finish the game and write a review sometime in the future, so make sure to return for that!
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Blog 