Our author Schuhmann has now started Baldur’s Gate 3 (PC, later also XBox Series X, PS5) for the third time. Only when he found the right hero for himself when choosing a character did he like the role-playing game. Yet he is exactly the hero, The Dark Desire, that many warn against.
Warning: spoilers. The article contains information about the first 3, 4 hours in the game.
This is how I experienced Baldur’s Gate 3: I tried Baldur’s Gate in Early Access in 2020. The sparks didn’t fly at all.
I found the opening story to be over the top: dragons and mind flayers, epic level 1 dogfights. It was all too much and too far away for me.
I could hardly stop rolling my eyes: Oh, look at level 1 and in the background a tentacle creature and a devil fight each other while a dragon burns everything down.
Even before we went into the cave of the druids, I was out of breath, I didn’t find anything exciting about the game: Especially since I was playing a faceless, self-created character who had only silently walked through the story until then, while a warrior and a Brain with legs were the main characters.
I was also annoyed by the mock urgency that keeps yelling at you for the first few minutes of the game: “Hurry up, the larva in your head could explode at any second and turn you into a tentacle monster.”
I decided: The time for such games is long gone for me. Baldur’s Gate 3 may have fitted the way I was 25 years ago, but not the way I am now. I haven’t thought about Baldur’s Gate 3 for 3 years.
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At the 2nd attempt, a few days before the release, I tried again to warm up to Baldur’s Gate 3. I created my own character and went through the pompous story again, encountered faceless companions again and again, about before the grotto, I was out of breath.
When I pulled a mage out of a portal, I felt like I already knew everything: So in the first few minutes I meet a cold-hearted warrior, a worried cleric and a seemingly absent-minded mage and we are all telepathically connected because we are mindworms have in the brain. In addition, red dragons torch a thought airship and I am stranded in the wilderness and all this with level 1.
OK.
Baldur’s Gate 3 felt like a game from way back in the day
Why did the beginning annoy me so much? I played Baldur’s Gate 1 25 years ago and it impressed me at the time, but the game has gotten worse in my memory over the years.
I haven’t thought about Baldur’s Gate 1 in years, it was a game I had few fond memories of.
Here’s what I knew about Baldur’s Gate:
In the first few hours, Baldur’s Gate 3 reminded me a lot of the “Baldur’s Gate” from before: a pale hero in an exciting story with old-fashioned mechanics.
The only thing that was new was that it started out completely exaggerated and I was walking around with a time bomb in my head.
It wasn’t until I took a pre-made hero that the spark jumped
That has changed: In the 3rd run, for the release, I didn’t create my own hero, but chose one of the pre-made Origin heroes: “Dark Urge”, a character who constantly struggles with himself. What appealed to me here was that I could choose a class and race. After reading an article about the Oathbreaker Paladin, I was dying to try this.
“The Dark Desire” is exactly the hero that many warn about.
I played the beginning again, but something was different now.
The mage I was able to pull out of the portal suddenly had an option: fantasize about ripping his hand off. And when my hero regained consciousness, he had actually acted out the fantasy and I found a severed hand in the inventory.
And from that point on, it kind of clicked for me. I suddenly found my character exciting with his weird situation of not knowing anything about his past but having these crazy ideas in his head. I continued the story.
I don’t want to spoil things here, but it was worth it.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is not the successor to Baldur’s Gate, but to Planescape Torment
I now understand why the game grabbed me the third time: Baldur’s Gate 3 is a sham. Because the game is not the “successor in the spirit of Baldur’s Gate 1”, but of the best D&D role-playing game, from Planescape Torment. I discovered the game a few years after Baldur’s Gate and still think it’s a great game that I think back to often:
How Planescape Torment differs from Baldur’s Gate 3: Planescape started much quieter and only gradually confronted you with the “crazy side” of the universe. Baldur’s Gate 3 starts immediately with the crazy fantasies of power.
Planescape Torment is considered a milestone in roleplaying history on PC:
After an hour, Baldur’s Gate 3 changes pace
That’s why I found Baldur’s Gate 3 exciting: In Baldur’s Gate 3, too, there was suddenly a fascination: Who am I actually?
The previously so pale main character was now exciting because I not only trudged through the outer plot with her, but because she was also fighting an exciting inner conflict.
And the completely exaggerated opening sequence cools down relatively quickly and becomes a much more intimate drama in which the companions and their secrets really interest me.
The initial hysteria about getting rid of the brainworm also flattens out at some point.
In addition, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives me a freedom in the game to solve problems that is really new and innovative. And there’s just so much to discover in the game.
In hindsight, I’m glad that I gave the game a third chance, despite my initial dislike.
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