Larian\u2019s Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/a> is one of the most immersive fantasy RPGs of all time, with a story and world you\u2019ll get lost in for countless hours.<\/p>\n The freedom of choice has been translated beautifully from the Dungeons & Dragons<\/a> tabletop universe, adapting very nicely to a desktop PC experience, and it really does feel like you\u2019re sitting down for an epic adventure where anything can happen with your friends \u2013 much in the same way Will and the gang do in the first season of Stranger Things<\/a>.<\/p>\n Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 opens with an exquisitely detailed CGI cinematic, depicting a Mind Flayer ship aboard a Nautiloid ship putting tadpoles into people\u2019s heads by exceedingly uncomfortable means (we don\u2019t want to suffer alone, so we\u2019ll leave it for you to find out for yourself).<\/p>\n The ship descends upon the titular town and begins to wreak havoc, but it comes under attack from assailants mounted upon dragons. It tries to escape through multiple realms, but begins to crash as it is picked apart by the dragons, causing you to be ejected from your pod.<\/p>\n From here, you enter the character creator that allows you to change everything from your race, appearance, class\u2026 and even your private bits!<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve made them, the game begins with the central plot surrounding the Mind Flayer invasion, the tadpole in yours and others\u2019 heads, the powers it grants you and whether you will choose to get rid of it or embrace it.<\/p>\n While the opening prologue does a good job of introducing you to the mechanics, make no mistake \u2013 this game can be brutally difficult, especially for newcomers who have never played a game like Baldur\u2019s Gate or other classic RPGs.<\/p>\n You will die and fail dice rolls \u2013 a lot. This isn\u2019t a critique per se, as much of the difficulty stems from how open-ended the gameplay is. There are a dizzying amount of choices to consider and making the wrong one is often fatal.<\/p>\n This requires a great deal of trial and error in the opening stages, but as you progress, you get a much better sense of how you like to approach quests and encounters \u2013 and the initial difficulty wall lessens into a curve.<\/p>\n As an example, we quickly realise during our playthrough that the innumerable bottomless chasms around the map don\u2019t just exist as set-dressing, but as an excellent way to dispatch high-level enemies who would otherwise prove too difficult to tackle head-on.<\/p>\n We let out a cheer as we shove one such boss from party member to party member like a supermarket checkout belt of doom, until they finally met their unceremonious end at the bottom of a cavern. Job done.<\/p> Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 continues to surprise us and the game really rewards you for experimentation. Every problem has multiple solutions and paths to take, making it a game we would happily replay.<\/p>\n While making your way through the world of Faer\u00fbn, your party will talk with one another, making it truly feel like you\u2019re all in it together \u2013 though not always by choice.<\/p>\n Characters that are suspicious of one another, such as Lae\u2019zel and Shadowheart, will openly goad each other \u2013 and you frequently have to come between the two in dialogue to keep the group\u2019s uneasy peace from descending into a fight. This all serves to make for a very compelling and real-feeling world.<\/p>\n You need to keep everyone in your party happy, or \u2014 at the very least \u2013 not openly wanting to kill you, which absolutely can happen. In one quest, we pretend to side with a goblin boss and agree to launch a raid on a grove that we had sworn to protect so that we could lure the boss into a trap. This prompts a party member to question just what we were up to and warn us that they will kill us if it went wrong.<\/p>\n Giving each party member this level of agency, allowing them to have their own ambitions, motivations and stakes in the game, helps elevate them from lowly NPCs to fully fledged characters who are interesting, multi-faceted and ultimately flawed in a very human (or humanoid) way.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not all serious, though, as Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 takes immense pleasure in being silly \u2013 and it\u2019s all the better for it. There are plenty of moments that get a good laugh out of us along the way, including being tricked into rubbing poo on our faces to gain entry into a goblin camp.<\/p>\n Other than when we\u2019re pushing people into pits, the turn-based combat is immensely deep and requires a great deal of planning and management. It is unbelievably satisfying, though, as you progress from barely getting through by the skin of your teeth to taking on mighty owlbats and warlocks \u2013 though failure is never far away.<\/p>\n Visually, Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 is quite attractive, and the level of detail is impressive given how big the world is. It\u2019s clearly been a labour of love over the six years of development. In the starting area alone, there is an impressive variety of locales, from ravaged towns to gloriously spooky caverns with otherworldly flora and fauna.<\/p>\n Despite this, during our review period, it would be fair to say that Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 does feel a little rough in some areas. A game this large in scope does mean that the level of polish expected from a more focused and linear game would be an unreasonable ask, but it\u2019s worth noting as it does crop up from time to time.<\/p>\n While cutscenes are generally well-directed, conversations between characters are a bit stiffer, with repeated animations and some odd facial performances \u2013 especially from your own character \u2013 that feel quite awkward.<\/p>\n Performance is a little patchy at times, too, and we run into a few crashes every now and then, so it\u2019s advisable to save often \u2013 especially during combat.<\/p>\n We get stuck in a couple of places, as well, requiring us to fast-travel and retrace our steps, but this is fortunately a very rare occurrence.<\/p>\n This is made up in spades by a compelling plot and most of the writing.<\/p> ![\"Radio](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/08\/Radio-Times-Baldurs-Gate-3-Review-character-creator-04df538.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Radio")
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