Rating of
4.5/5
“Larian’s Unfinished Magnum Opus”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/29/25
Larian, the Belgian Indie RPG developer, has been around for over 20 years. And for the first 13 years of their existence, starting with the release of a ‘Diablo’-like Hack ‘n Slash known as “Divine Divinity” in 2002, wallowed in obscurity as they toiled away, releasing mediocre Action/RPGs in their signature ‘Divinity’ IP that never drew any appreciable critical or fan attention. It wasn’t until 2014 that the studio decided to pivot and address the rabid – and unmet – desire for new, modern, turn-based RPGs with party dynamics, choices that matter, and the almost-tabletop-like flexibility provided by modern hardware. In a world where “RPG” was typically used to refer to games like ‘Borderlands,’ “Divinity: Original Sin” was a thoroughly modern throwback that stormed into the public eye with the brash and bold confidence to tell the rest of the industry, “Hey, you’re all doing it wrong. THIS is an RPG!”
Thus it was barely a decade ago that Larian became THE face of cRPGs in the modern age. While other has-been studios-turned-Indies tried, none of them managed to release (or Kickstart) any games that received as much critical and player acclaim as Larian did with their resuscitated ‘Divinity’ series, which they had successfully shepherded from a mediocre flop in the ‘barely’ an RPG Hack ‘n Slash subgenre to the archetype of what a turn-based, party-based cRPG could and SHOULD be in the 21st Century.
It was shortly after I first had the privilege of experiencing “Divinity: Original Sin” that I declared, “THESE people at Larian are the ones who should be in charge of Dungeons & Dragon’s videogames!” And in one of those rare cosmic confluences, my wish came true, as, thanks to Larian’s reputation after releasing both “Divinity: Original Sin” and “Divinity: Original Sin 2” to impossibly positive reviews AND their own expressed desire to create a sequel to the best D&D cRPG series of all time, ‘Baldur’s Gate,’ Wizards of the Coast agreed to the proposal and allowed Larian to pay THEM a licensing fee for the privilege of developing an official D&D game set in the Forgotten Realms, with something to do with the titular city of Baldur’s Gate. Of course, Wizards of the Coast has not, is not, and perhaps never will be a particularly pleasant corporation to work with, and thus exerted enough influence and meddling in the development process of “Baldur’s Gate 3” (“BG3”) that shortly after the game’s release from Early Access, Larian declared it was ‘done,’ there would be no DLC or expansions, and that their next game would not be a D&D game, but a return to their own original settings and mechanics.
While the news that Larian was cutting ties with Wizards of the Coast and D&D was disheartening, after experiencing “BG3” in all its glory, it has become DEVESTATING, knowing that the game’s teases and cliffhangers will never be resolved, a second story bringing the characters to the level cap will never happen, and, with a single decision from Larian, the future of D&D cRPGs flipped from ‘impossibly bright’ to ‘unfathomably bleak.’
Presentation
“BG3” is, like Larian’s immediately prior works, built in their proprietary Divinity Engine, but with an even shinier coat of the latest digital paint. Character models and environments are just polished-up versions of those found in “Divinity: Original Sin 2,” but for the fact that they’re all original and new rather than recycled asset flips. Character models look incredibly detailed, and the same models are used for top-down birds-eye-view gameplay as in up-close cutscenes, making it obvious that a lot of effort went into things like motion capture and facial capture from the voice actors. But while character models are incredibly detailed, there aren’t actually all that many characters in the game who look particularly ‘good.’ From bottom to top, the DEI-focused meddling from Wizards of the Coast is apparent in the game, ranging from the “Body Type A/Body Type B” character creation options instead of something as normal as “gender,” to the lack of boob sliders, to the overly-diverse dwarves, elves, and halflings who suddenly come in colors previously exclusive to humans. Next to none of the new characters or NPCs is allowed to be “conventionally attractive,” and copious attention has been paid to ensuring that traditionally masculine character classes (martials) and traditionally feminine character classes (casters) are inverted whenever possible.
Still, the game’s environments are huge, detailed, and loaded with secrets, while simultaneously populated by authentic-looking beasties ripped straight from the pages of the “Monster Manual,” so the fact that the Sword Coast looks a little bit too much like Southern California is at least somewhat excusable. That said, the game camera – whether using a controller like a civilized person or a typewriter and clicker like... Nick – leaves a lot to be desired, frequently getting stuck and becoming difficult to work with when attempting to pan-around multi-level environments during turn-based combats.
Audio in “BG3” is universally great, with a solid soundtrack that doesn’t quite reach earworm status at any point, plus full voice-acting, including a somewhat snarky-sounding female narrator. The performances from the vocal cast are excellent, and up to the standard expected after the previous two ‘Original Sin’ games, right down to memorable passive dialog loops the player can overhear while walking past groups of NPCs.
Technically, “BG3” is incredibly solid and lives up to the standards Larian themselves set with their ‘Original Sin’ games. We’ve got a complex menu system that dynamically switches from typewriter mode to controller mode when it detects input from the corresponding device, with the typewriter mode looking more like what we oldsters might remember from the first two ‘Baldur’s Gate’ games from BioWare and Interplay, while the controller interface features ring-shaped menus that can be freely customized with shortcuts to abilities and inventory items (and auto-populate fairly competently on their own), and automatically expand to additional rings (which can be cycled through with the shoulder buttons) as needed. Controller support just works. Multi-player just works, with extra players automatically assuming control of ‘their’ character when they join. All of the modern QoL features are there, and they all just work seamlessly.
Unfortunately, I did experience a couple of small, insignificant glitches with “BG3” that I was never able to resolve with Larian tech support: First, when the UI is in controller mode, it hides the mouse behind a light-colored transparent square and leaves it in the center of the screen instead of moving it to the bottom right corner of the screen. As a result, during certain bright cutscenes with full HDR enabled, I would see a white or light green square sitting right there in the center of the action, forcing me to grab the mouse and try to swish it out of the way. Second, in controller mode, I discovered that context menus in the inventory that happen to overlap with the invisible-mouse-square cause tool-tips to pop-up faster that I could select the menu item I wanted. Switching to typewriter mode briefly before switching back to controller mode would make this issue go away for a while, but it still seems that the two UIs overlap a little bit instead of being completely exclusive.
Story
“BG3” isn’t particularly connected to the original two ‘Baldur’s Gate’ games, seeing as it is set roughly a century after the end of “Baldur’s Gate 2.” Aside from a tiny number of recurring characters (most of whom are long-lived races, like half-elves, and drow, but one is a human who happened to be petrified for most of the time between stories), everything that happens in “BG3” is original, with only cursory ties to the machinations of the Lord of Murder whose children drove the earlier plots.
Our heroes in “BG3” take the form of Origin characters, reminiscent of those in “Divinity: Original Sin 2,” though it’s also possible to create a generic ‘blank-slate’ type of character named “Tav” or a murderous psychopath known as “The Dark Urge.” Since the MJ Crew played this game cooperatively, we each chose one of the Origin characters, and – in spite of the fact that I was the one who wanted to play this game the most – I got the last pick. Nick chose the half-elf cleric of Shar, Shadowheart (who is one of the only attractive characters in the game); Chris followed his instincts and chose the githyanki fighter, Lae’zel; while Matt bucked his traditions and chose to be the raging half-demon barbarian, Karlach. Thus I was left to choose between the gay vampire rogue, the black warlock (who apparently can’t be in the same party as Karlach for spoilerific reasons), or the dandy human wizard, Gale. I chose Gale, and, while it was definitely different being the only man in a party of literal Strong Female Characters, I ended up loving his backstory, relating strongly to his personality, and – after respeccing him to be a WizBard, took great delight in talking enemies to death, weaseling the party out of sticky situations via stupidly good persuasion skills, and (mostly) yelling at Karlach for blundering into conversations when she had the force of will and personal presence of a brick.
All of the origin characters have fully fleshed-out backgrounds, their own motivations, and unique storylines to experience. Normally, a single-player run through the game only lets the player see one of these – the one for their chosen character. But in a multi-player game, we all got to experience each other’s storylines on the same level, seeing how their threads weave together, seeing where we needed to compromise, and ultimately getting to experience 4 times the ending from a single playthrough as normal.
Regardless of the character the player chooses, everyone goes through roughly the same overarching narrative: It turns out that every one of the playable Origin characters has been captured by – and infested with the larval offspring of – the D&D equivalent of ‘Star Trek’s’ Borg, the Illithids, or Mind Flayers as they were originally known. Illithids are tall, purple, alien-looking humanoids whose parasitic life cycle involves the implantation of a tadpole into the head of a living humanoid. The tadpole will quickly begin to devour its host’s brain, taking up the newly freed-up space in the skull with its own increasing mass. Upon finishing the brain – a process that takes roughly a week – the tadpole attaches itself to the brain stem, causing the body to undergo a process known as ceremorphosis, as it becomes a new Illithid, the fully-gorged tadpole becoming the new brain.
After awakening as captives onboard an Illithid nautiloid ship – a flying fleshy construct that’s part ship, part Illithid, and capable of acting as both an airship and a spaceship – our heroes break free and cause the vessel to crash in the woods outside the titular city of Baldur’s Gate. Knowing that their days are numbered, the characters band together (or, alternatively, murder each other) in order to search for a cure for the Illithid larvae infecting them. As they come across a circle of druids, who are in the midst of dealing with a refugee crisis, it becomes obvious to the party that all sorts of terrible things are afoot in the Sword Coast, and they may-or-may-not all involve Illithids.
As the party desperately seeks a way to purge their parasites, they’ll come across all manner of potential friends and potential foes who may (but probably not) be able to render aid, in exchange for help with their own problems. Before long, though, it becomes obvious that the Illithids are wrapped up in a mysterious scheme involving a new god known only as the Absolute. Every tugged thread, every suspicious influence: It all ties back to the Absolute and the mysterious fact that the god seems to be using Illithid larvae to control its faithful.
Just when it seems that the party is doomed and that their brains are destined to become worm poop dribbling out of their newly-Illithidic ear-holes, they catch a lucky reprieve: A mysterious artifact – shaped vaguely like one of D&D’s iconic 20-sided dice – held by one of the party members is actually the prison of a mysterious astral entity from the Plane of Dreams who is using the artifact’s unknown powers to keep the party’s parasites in a sort of stasis, ensuring they won’t transform, so long as the artifact, dubbed the Astral Prism, remains intact and in their possession. With the aid of their mysterious new ally, the party thus sets out to right all the wrongs happening on the Sword Coast, while trying to get to the bottom of the Cult of the Absolute and a conspiracy that threatens every corner of the Forgotten Realms.
“BG3’s” sprawling narrative plays out over the course of 3 Acts, with Act 1 taking place primarily in the woodland outskirts, Act 2 taking place in a cursed area completely overrun by the Cult of the Absolute, and Act 3 taking place fully within the confines of the city of Baldur’s Gate – though, sadly, only the suburbs and lower ward, leaving the most interesting parts of the city tantalizingly out-of-reach. Each Act is, like in “Divinity: Original Sin 2,” fully self-contained and separated from each other. There’s no good reason the party couldn’t return to previous areas once they’ve moved on... They just can’t. Still, each Act encompasses a MASSIVE map, with numerous sub-areas, underground sections, interior areas, etc., that provide for insane amounts of exploration, encounters with enemies and other creatures that can be brute-forced through combat or cleverly played-around through a combination of skills and judicious avoidance. “BG3” is renowned for the number of different ways players can deal with most situations, and, indeed, it has earned this reputation fairly. It’s possible to ally with the apparent ‘bad guys,’ it’s possible to talk some of the scariest bosses to death with a golden-tongued bard, and even with combat, the full depth and breadth of D&D’s various classes allow for a wide range of strategies to be brought to bear.
In spite of their isolation from each other, each of the game’s 3 Acts is positively packed with interesting things to learn, look at, talk to, and explore. As a result of our very thorough play through, which started almost exactly a YEAR ago, we spent about 120 hours with the game as a team. I, personally, as Gale the WizBard and Master of Coin, spent an additional 80 hours doing administrative tasks, like looting, selling, and buying, bringing my total time with the game to a whopping 200 hours. And in spite of its already impressive length, I’m sad to see it go, because there are numerous story threads left dangling by the game’s ending, and the level cap is only 12 (out of 20 from the tabletop game). These dangling threads and low level cap are very obvious hints – regardless of whether or not Larian denies it – that there were indeed plans to release a “Tales of the Sword Coast” or “Throne of Bhaal” style massive expansion pack for “BG3” in a couple of years that would bring the Dead Three – the evil deities responsible for the shenanigans of the original ‘Baldur’s Gate’ games – into the spotlight as the main villains and allowing the party to achieve the prowess of 20th level in order to truly take the fight to them. Sadly, that will never happen, and the fact that the fingerprints of what we could have had still remain in the game as it is makes it sting even more.
Gameplay
“BG3” is, for all intents and purposes, “Divinity: Original Sin 3.” It’s not just built in the same graphics engine, but all of the little RPG tricks and abilities – ranging from choosing to pick the lock on a chest, bash the chest open, or pick up the whole thing and bring it to the party’s dedicated lock-picker in a secluded area – are all part and parcel of the game engine, and all of them act nearly identically to the way they did in Larian’s preceding games. Even weird non-D&D things, like the way elements interact with each other in the environment and the ability to throw things around, survives the transition from ‘Divinity’ to D&D, and I think that most of the game’s flexibility and seeming responsiveness to unpredictable player actions all derive from the fact that the Divinity Engine is really just that good, under the hood.
Ultimately, the only things that have really been changed from the way the Divinity Engine worked in the ‘Original Sin’ games is re-factoring combat dice rolls to use D&D’s much smaller number ranges from the ‘Bounded Accuracy’ design methodology that underpins D&D 5th Edition. Whereas the ‘Original Sin’ games used percentile rolls with numbers typically being from 1-100 and receiving appropriate modifiers, D&D is based around rolls between 1-20, even though “BG3” still presents the chances of success as percentages.
Skills were also drastically reworked to more closely align with D&D 5th Edition, and the dice rolls have become generally less passive and turned into dramatic affairs with fully animated 3D dice and lists of the various buffs and debuffs modifying the roll. As always, natural 20s are always successes and natural 1s are always failures, and the game’s handling of these guaranteed situations is mostly in-line with what a good Dungeon Master would do at a real-world table. I was irritated, though, that I spent ALL of my Inspirations to reroll an attempt to take out the final boss before getting into a series of long, drawn-out fights, and I DID manage to roll a natural 20 against a difficulty roll of 99 (which should never be a thing), and all I got was the final boss starting with 3/4 health instead of full due to the trauma of Gale’s extra-awesome studly-manliness. Oh well.
Across the board, though, “BG3” really does feel like the ideal D&D-based cRPG. The party – sadly limited to 4 characters instead of 6 – each has their own specific roles to play and niches to fill. The world is highly interactive and reactive to the party’s actions. The combat is tactical and strategic without being frustrating – though I did think the encounters in Act 1 were a bit overtuned for weak level 1 characters and the encounters in Act 3 tended to be pushovers – and there are plenty of opportunities to bring non-combat skills to bear. It’s just tragically unfortunate that the level cap only allows the party to reach a little past the half-way point in character development, and by Act 3, Gale the Golden Tongued had amassed a hoard of nearly 100,000 gold pieces... And had nothing else interesting to spend them on.
Overall
Outside of Wizards of the Coast’s excessive DEI meddling and attempts at exerting control over the development team at Larian, there is NOTHING to dislike about “Baldur’s Gate 3.” It’s the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to playing a truly excellent tabletop D&D game with my friends under the supervision of a competent and impartial Dungeon Master (I’m almost always the Dungeon Master). And that’s exactly what I said about “Baldur’s Gate” and “Baldur’s Gate 2” after I finished them (minus the friends thing, because no broadband). “BG3” is a masterclass in how to put together an excellent story and rousing adventure under the 5th Edition ruleset, that tragically, devastatingly just gives up and moves on at what feels like it should be the half-way point in an epic, two-part story. If I could beg, plead, and wheedle Larian into making an expansion for “BG3” that wraps up the Dead Three plot and brings the characters to level 20, I would, but I can’t. Instead, I’ll just have to sit here and hope that their next game is good enough to make me forget about it – especially since I KNOW Wizards of the Coast will NEVER have the talents of a team as good as Larian at their disposal ever again.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
