Baldur’s Gate 3 spent six years in development and three years in early access which made many fans doubt if it would ever be released. However, the game was eventually launched on 3 August 2023 for PC. The PS5 version will not come until 6 September 2023, while no date has been set for its launch on Xbox.
According to reports, Baldur’s Gate 3 has 174 hours of cutscenes and more than 17,000 possible endings. The Guardian described Baldur’s Gate 3 as “the video game where you can do (almost) anything”.
An extensive review of the entire game may take a long time to surface on the Internet—and such a post will be really long. Nevertheless, the sheer size of the game has not stopped publishers from offering tricks and tips that will help beginners to kickstart their long ride.
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“Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship, betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power,” was the game’s official blurb.
Developed and published by Larian Studio, Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of those games where you have to think your decisions through because they affect the outcome of the game. Talking about thinking things through, make sure you look at the recommended system requirement.
Take note of Baldur’s Gate 3 system requirement
The first thing that gamers that plan to play Baldur’s Gate 3 should know is the recommended system requirement of the game. Firstly, the game will consume 120 GB SSD of storage space on your PC—which is understandable for a game this large. The developers recommend that you have at least 150 GB of free space and 16 GB of RAM.
The recommended processor is the 8th generation Intel Core i7 or AMD r5 3600. Baldur’s Gate 3 is seemingly not huge on graphics requirements. You can easily run the game with NVIDIA GTX 970 or RX 480 (with 4 GB of VRAM). However, the recommended graphics card is an NVIDIA 2060 Super or RX 5700 XT (with 8GB of VRAM).
Unlike Diablo IV which was unplayable on macOS leading to a row with Whoopi Goldberg, Baldur’s Gate 3 is playable on macOS. The storage and RAM size requirements are identical to those of Windows. However, for the processor, you will need a 2.3GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB graphics card.
For context, Larian mentioned that “You’ll meet recommended specs if you have a MacBook Pro 15 inch or 16 inch from 2019 and upward with the mentioned GPU. An iMac from 2017 or newer will also pull it off.”
Besides the system requirements, Larian has made a couple of recommendations to ensure a smooth gaming experience. Firstly, the developer recommends that players delete their early access saves to prevent the possible corruption of new saves.
“We’ve taken measures to ensure a smooth transition into the launch version of Baldur’s Gate 3, but we still recommend deleting your in-game Early Access save files if you still have access to an Early Access version of the game”, said Baldur’s Gate 3 Steam page blog.
In addition to that, the developer recommends that players should uninstall the early access version of the game, delete any mods, and reinstall the game now that it is live.
What players should do early on in Baldur’s Gate 3
Most games will use the first two hours or so to onboard players by challenging them with weak enemies that will do no more than a scratch to the player. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons and Dragons where players move from one fight to another in quick succession.
Worse still, the autosaves are not too frequent and death comes easily. That can lead to frustration early on in the game. Also, unlike other games where the game restarts at the beginning of the encounter after you die, Baldur’s Gate 3 will restart from the last save point which could be many minutes behind.
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So, to avoid the frustration of being thrown 10 or more minutes back when you die, it is recommended that you save the game as frequently as possible. Also, players should try to save every now and then, even if they are not in combat because surprises spring up every once in a while. Interestingly, you can even save mid-combat.
Baldur’s Gate 3 allows you to do almost anything you want
Most video games are mostly restrictive. For example, you may come across a locked door and be forced to take a detour just to find the key before coming back to complete the mission. In Baldur’s Gate 3, players can smash locks instead of hunting for keys.
Also, you don’t always have to settle every encounter with a battle. Sometimes, you can talk your way through and avoid a bloody fight. Every choice you make will send your party down divergent story branches. Although the possibilities in Baldur’s Gate 3 are not endless, the game offers a flexibility that many other games can’t come close to.
For example, playing as a druid, the player can transform into a bear and communicate with animals and learn clues from them. Another player that is not playing as a druid will not get this opportunity. On the other hand, players that choose to play as a wizard can transform into a cloud of gas and pass through the bars of a prison cell.
Consequently, a Wizard will not need to go through the stress of breaking out of prison and mowing down the guards—which will be another obstacle that players using other characters would have to face.
The extensive work put into Baldur’s Gate 3 is receiving massive accolades
Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 can feel like next-level wizardry because, depending on the decisions you have made through the story, your class, gender, and race, characters will talk to you in different ways. That effect and experience were created by 400 developers working across studios scattered all over the world.
“The scope of what needed to be done was just massive,” said Nick Pechenin, lead systems designer at Larian Studios.
Although Larian developed a tool that auto-generated a first draft of conversation cinematics, each of the conversations had to be manually tweaked by a cinematic director. Also, the 3 years that the game was in early access allowed the developers to gather thousands of feedback from players regarding what they would like to do in a scene. This allowed the developers to add more possibilities.
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On Steam, the over 18,000 reviews of the game were “Overwhelmingly Positive”. One reviewer that goes by the name MTZ said, “60 dollars for a microtransaction free, battle pass free, subscription-free, non-live service game in the year of our lord 2023… Wild.”
The sheer size of Baldur’s Gate 3 is intimidating. It is not the type of game that you will breeze through and be done with in a few days—even if you ignore the side quests. This game will likely take a few weeks or months if you immerse yourself in the story. The discussions about Baldur’s Gate 3 will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
Have you tried your hands on Baldur’s Gate 3? Feel free to share your early experiences with us in the comment box below.
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