Baldur's Gate 3 first impressions scratches my D&D tabletop itch

It’s been a long road for Baldur’s Gate 3 to become a released product. This is one of the good Early Access success stories as being in Early Access for so long has helped shape and solidify the final release of the game. That doesn’t mean it didn’t get a few quick patches here and there post launch, but it’s been mostly positive from the public on how this game has run and how it’s performing.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a huge game and while this isn’t a review, I’m going to go over my first impressions as I take my Half-Elf monk through the story. As a long time Dungeons & Dragons player, I was really interested to see how Larian Studios would incorporate the rules in the game besides providing the classes, races, monsters, and items that we’re all familiar with.

Larian Studio’s use of a narrator to simulate a Dungeon Master describing the events taking place was a great move. If you play the tabletop game, you know the DM sets the stage and delivers the outcome for the game and having the game’s various scenarios voiced by an actress really helps you get into the D&D mood. You feel like you’re at a table and hearing someone describe a scene or the result of an action to you and it’s a great way Larian has simulated that experience with Baldur’s Gate 3.

Dice rolls are a staple of tabletop RPG and much of the D&D centers around dice checks and saving throws. When presented with a situation that tests one of your skills or abilities, you’ll be asked at the table to roll a 20-sided dice to determine if you succeed or fail. Baldur’s Gate 3 does something that not many other RPGs do and that is show you the dice roll and result. Neverwinter Nights did this back in the day and it’s another great design choice to mimic a D&D tabletop experience by allowing you to initiate and see a dice roll. No joke, I got natural 1s on three of my first four dice checks and even though I was annoyed at my multiple failures, it was still fun to see the dice roll and land on those natural 1s.

Dice rolls are also featured prominently when you’re in combat. Almost everything needs to have its outcome determined by a D20 and seeing the numbers appear to let you know if you do get to hit is also another fun design of Baldur’s Gate 3. Before combat begins, you’ll see everyone’s initiative roll showing what order they’ll be going in. And with every attack, the numbers appear to show you how close or far away your miss is or if you succeed or critically succeed.

Along the lines of dice checks, there’s a rule called passive checks where your character will always have a minimum of this certain number for say something like a perception check and no roll is needed should you run into something that called for a perception check and it’s a number equal to or lower than your passive score. Baldur’s Gate 3 shows when this takes place and it’s really informative and fun to see how often these get used and how your character is affected by these things when they pass.

Each character so far is unique and fun to have around. I’m actually rather sad I only have three slots to round out my party. I’d love to have one or two more, but I can see how it could get unwieldy to try and control them all. There’s also so much dialogue even in the first few hours of the game that I haven’t gotten bored talking to people.

And the amount of choices. D&D is a lot about the consequences of your choices whether it’s good or bad and you’re given these situations plenty of times at the beginning to let those who have never played D&D see that what you say or do will affect the game immensely.

Graphically, the game does have some amazing visuals at times. All the characters so far have some great detail and each race is depicted accurately. The first camp I ran into had a bunch of tieflings and seeing their demonic form on the screen was really fun. Characters and your interactions drive D&D and it does so here in Baldur’s Gate 3 where you make a ton of choices and interact with not only the NPCs of the world, but your own party and try to keep a good relationship with those you travel with.

It’s amazing to see so many people playing this game and I bet for Larian Studios, one that almost didn’t make it and have now found huge success in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s such a joy to see and validation for all their hard work they’ve done in the past few years to bring a much beloved IP back for a new generation of gamers to enjoy.