Playing Dragon Age Origins, I thought I'd played the apex RPG, and for a long time, it was. Now it's Baldurs Gate 3. Very enjoyable, runs well on my low to mid-range PC, the characters stories are very interesting and graphics look great.
This game is a cracking actioner, even if you're not familiar with the source material. What elevates this from your standard run of the mill shooter is a couple of gameplay additions: Firstly, you don't pick up enemy weapons or ammo, you have to manufacture it, using salvage that is scattered about. You have a variety of ammo options, including grenades, so it is a balancing act between which item you make with a limited resource -do you go for a grenade, or a couple of ammo clips? Secondly, you have access to a few tools like holographic decoy which tricks your enemies and free-standing mode for your rifle, whereby it can autonomously fire at targets and give you covering fire. The gameplay is satisfying shoot-em-up fare, but a special mention must go out to the sound design - your weapon sounds absolutely bad-ass. The only fly in this delicious soup is the graphics. They looked basic when the game was released and they look really, really basic now. I get that Rebellion wanted to make it look comic book, but I honestly think they would have been better off going for a more authentic Dave Gibbons art style, rather than whatever they've gone for here. The characters look clunky and are very, very low poly. A shame, because I do believe that if they had tried a less stylised look, it would have achieved a greater market penetration with gamers. Highly recommended.
