Baldur’s Gate 3 Story Boss Says Thank You to BioWare. It’s one of the reasons why Baldur’s Gate 3 has become so good.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is more successful than anyone could have imagined. Neither the players, nor the critics, nor even the developers would have believed in this huge success. Still, the story boss behind Baldur’s Gate 3, Adam Smith, remains humble. He believes that “90’s BioWare” has a lot to thank for it.
Launch trailer for the role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3
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what was said In an interview with PCGamer magazine, lead writer Adam Smith spoke about the doubts Larian Studios had in the beginning. One was worried that one would not be able to cope with the big shadow and with it the responsibility of making a successor to Baldur’s Gate 2.
After all, Baldur’s Gate 2 in particular was one of the best-rated PC games of all time back then – and it still is today.
It’s easy to forget that because our game has been released now, but as we get down to work [an Baldur’s Gate 3] started, it was a gigantic task. [Baldur’s Gate] was such a big shadow. We asked ourselves: can we even look okay in this shade? There was a lot of concern about that.
There was still a lot of criticism, especially at the beginning of the early access phase of Baldur’s Gate 3. People kept saying it was just “Divinity: Original Sin 3 and not really Baldur’s Gate 3.”
The criticism was taken to heart and worked on:
We were like, ‘No, we love Baldur’s Gate. We want to create Baldur’s Gate 3.’ And there was a reason for that, because so many of us grew up with it.
Why do you owe something to BioWare? Even if BioWare has fallen a little out of favor with players in recent years – especially with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem – the studio has historically been considered an absolute exception in the field of RPGs.
In particular, the first two Baldur’s Gate games and their expansions are from the old BioWare and that’s what Smith is referring to.
The character Jaheira, who veterans might already know from the previous games, was particularly important to Smith. He always wanted the character to appear in Baldur’s Gate 3 because the story takes place around 100 years later and it’s exciting to have a character who has gone through so much suffering and loss and then comes back after a century to make it happen prepare the next heroes.
This is exactly what Smith is particularly proud of when he receives praise:
It means a lot to me when I see someone who is somehow related to the original [Baldur’s Gate]-Playing and is happy because we owe them a lot and I hope we made them proud.
If you look at the ratings of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the current seasons on Steam, then you should be able to say: Yes, it worked.