Baldur’s Gate 3 will release in early access later this year and it looks pretty fantastic. Over an hour of gameplay footage was revealed at PAX East 2020 along with plenty of new information and a delightful cinematic opening cinematic.
Gather your party for a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Abducted, infected, lost… You are turning into a monster, drawn from a Mind Flayer parasite planted in your brain, but as the corruption inside you grows, so too does your power. That power may help you to survive, but there will be a price to pay. More than any ability, the bonds of trust that you build within your party could be your greatest strength. Caught in a conflict between devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces, you will determine the fate of the Forgotten Realms together. Resist and tu”rn darkness against itself — or embrace corruption and become the ultimate evil.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 is being developed by Larian Studios, the makers of Divinity: Original Sin II, alongside the owner of Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast. Founder and CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, showed off around 90 minutes of gameplay.
We are not gonna show you a video, we’re gonna just play. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Furthermore to make it even more exciting, the save game system is broken so that means that if I die, it is a party wipe so I’ll just have to restart. So we’ll try not to have that happen.”
https://youtu.be/7bRyG5WpIMY
The game is set in the city of Baldur’s Gate in the world of the Forgotten Realms and surrounds mind flayers, alien creatures with physic abilities. Players will be able to choose from several character classes and races featured in D&D.
Tiefling, drow, human, gith, dwarf, elf, half-elf, half-drow, and halflings are all the playable races Vincke included in the footage. There will be more in the final game, but he did not go into detail on what they would be. Here’s hoping for duergar.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature multiplayer as well, where a party of four can team up and travel the world as a party of four. Each character can choose to play together or go off on their own and explore side quests only to catch back up with everyone later. It’s a concept that sounds exactly like a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
No two adventures will ever be the same. The Forgotten Realms are a vast, detailed and diverse world, and there are secrets to be discovered all around you — even verticality is a vital part of exploration. Adventure, loot, battle, romance… how you survive, and the mark you leave on the world, is up to you.”
One of the most interesting mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3 is when it comes to fighting. It will feature a turn-based combat mode similar to one featured in D&D 5E. Players and enemies will roll for initiative with turns lasting six seconds. In that time, everyone will get to act on their own until the fight is over. The game will even use dice to add to ability checks, saving throws, and attacks.
Player-initiated turn-based mode allows you to pause the world around you at any time even outside of combat. See an opportunity for a tactical advantage before combat begins? Want to pull off a heist with pin-point precision? Need to escape a fiendish trap? Split your party, prepare ambushes, sneak in the darkness — and create your own luck!”
The game will be available on Steam Early Access in a few months, but Vincke did not announce exactly when that date is.
It was announced it was going to go in early access, but we actually wanted to announce it today, but people were very excited about announcing it for us. It’s going to be in early access in a couple of months. We don’t know exactly when it’s ready for early access.”