Baldur's Gate 3

I grew up playing the original Baldur's Gate and Fallout series. I've played a lot of RPGs, and I'm getting on a bit now. In my opinion, there isn't another game that comes close to this level of nuanced character relationships, especially coupled with the astounding variance of voice acting tone/delivery. It blows my mind with each and every playthrough. This is but one of the many highlights that I'd like to bring up, but it is so exceptionally well done I believe it transcends all expectations of the genre. It's an EA game, and I knew that coming into it, so the occasional animation and sound jank gets a forgiving pass, but with the last few patches released, it feels like the engine's rough edges are finally starting to look smooth. Larian aren't treating this game with neglect, by no means. If you've read the other reviews commenting on how this is Divinity: D&D edition, then I strongly urge you to take those comments with a grain of salt. Baldur's Gate 3 takes place 100 years after the events in Baldur’s Gate 2 and shortly after the events of descent into Avernus. With the EA you are only teased about the Gate, but, and without spoiling anything, all the stories in BG3 are tangibly connected to this central point. We are also only able to experience a small portion of the first act, with another two to follow after that. It does feature many new creations by Larian, and they are all brilliant. Those of you expecting some kind of "On the last episode of Baldur's Gate" direct continuation of the second game may feel slightly misled, so please head into this with an open mind. I've played through twice solo, and once with the family. My wife also has two solo playthroughs, and each time we are discovering something new, hilarious and always thought provoking. Do not hesitate to take the plunge into this jaw droppingly beautiful game. I highly encourage you to take your time whilst exploring, and make sure you engage with all the fantastic characters.

I spent 30 minutes just thinking about what to write to give an impression how great this game is, can't find the right words. Seeing other game devs speaking out that we should not expect games to be this monumental(I don't agree with them :D), that it's the anomaly, etc... kinda give it away. Thank you Larian. I will throw my money on you with passion next time you decide to make a game(Hope it's DOS3 :P). Excellent game, worth every single $. 40 hours in and I can already see the massive replayability and the sheer amount of choices that can lead you down the different path.

As a long-time lover of cRPGs, this one has to take the cake. It may be the greatest game of the genre created in the last 20+ years, no cap. If you liked the Divinity: OS series (also by Larian), it's definitely for you; all the detail and depth, but more streamlined and with better onboarding. Veterans of the cRPG genre know what they're in for, but if that confuses you, here's a comparison: it's like the fantasy story, setting, and characters of the first Dragon Age, but with a deep and challenging turn-based combat sort of like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, all of course with D&D flair. It's the first time in a long time I can say with total honesty: this is a game worth paying full price for. BUY IT! Then: save early, & save often! You won't regret it.

It's a great RPG, with a lot of replayability. The world feels reactive and combat is fun. It's not without fault however. There's a number of bugs still being patched, at least at the time of wrting, but I haven't experienced anything game breaking. And some of the combat challenges are a little iffy. Otherwise, I think this is easily my personaly game of 2023.

I was told the game is Dragon Age Origins (my favourite RPG of all time) but better. That's something I just cannot agree with because of its story and characters. The problem isn't that I just don't care, but I am actively annoyed. Almost everybody is racist, including your companions, and not just kinda racist, or casually racist, but racist in the way that if this was actually following how real people act, the main event of the game would be full on race war. Dragon Age racism looks like utopia next to this one. I have read Drizzt Do'Urden's books years ago, which takes place in the same world and I don't remember that amount of racism, even though overcoming racism was one of the main themes of later books. The story keeps hitting you over your head that you have to hurry to do X and you will die if you won't do X, but it also doesn't let you solve the X because I guess it wants the X to be unsolvable for now and from what I have seen online, it doesn't get solved until the end of the game. At least in games like DA:O, DA:I, ME3, or even Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, the problem X of the story can be reasonably postponed without being told that you die if you stay still for more than a minute, so you don't feel like the story fights against you. Maybe this game gets better. Maybe characters get better. From what I have seen on the internet the Act 3 and endings are considered a hot mess even to the people who like this game, so I'm not sure it would get better for me. Either way, I'm done and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather play Dragon Age II than this, because even that game has more story, real characters and relatable conflicts in the first 1 hour than this game has in all the 7 hours I have managed to get through.