Look, I loveBaldur’s Gate 3. Not just in the way everyone loves it (but also not in an annoying ‘I knew it before it was cool’ way either). It’s not just a good game this year, it has entered the hallowed list of my favourite games of all time, slotting into the top five - only the second game this decade (the other beingRed Dead Redemption 2) to make the cut. It is a truly excellent feat of writing and game design. Butthis latest updateseems, I don’t know… kind of annoying?
First and foremost, the main additions of the patch are great. Honour Mode, featuring an inability to save scum, offers a fresh challenge to the game and brings it up to speed with Larian’s other titles. Then there’s Custom Mode, where you can tweak finer details of the difficulty sliders rather than a cut and dried easy, medium, hard. It comes just days after my colleague Ben Sledge praised El Paso, Elsewhere fordoing the exact same thing, and hoping triple-A titles would soon do the same. Wish granted.
Getting into the specific details, there’s some debate overwhether Baldur’s Gate 3 is a true triple-A or an indie, andwhat those words mean. But, you know, come on. It’s a triple-A game.
The third major element added to Baldur’s Gate 3 is a playable epilogue. Part of me wants to reserve judgement on this - reloading older saves, I couldn’t get it to trigger. Having not experienced it myself, it’s hard to say how I feel about it. But also, I thought the ending was great on its own, and the debates around it -especially Karlach- stemmed fromplayers wanting a safe and happy endingfrom a game that always excelled when it asked difficult questions.
It’s a symptom of modern culture to resist challenging art in favour of comfort, and to feel alienated when characters we connect to aren’t tied up in a neat little bow. Fans may have wanted a party at the end of the world, but how Baldur’s Gate 3 ended seemed like the ideal sign off. I can understand issues that it felt a little harried and abrupt, but I fear that’s an issue in the lead up to the final confrontation where the world narrows. It needs to be abrupt after the final battle for the fate of the heroes to make sense. This is hand-waved by making the party take place six months later, but it does feel every inch of the hand-waved solution it clearly is.
I might be overthinking it, but then we get to Minthara. As Features Editor Tessa Kaur wrote earlier today,letting us recruit Minthara later in the gameavoidsthe need to make the tough choices in Act 1 that were previously necessary. It’s a move that lets you have your cake and eat it too, because for all people talk about Baldur’s Gate 3’s unbelievable depth and range of playstyles that let you be whatever kind of hero you want to be, some people don’t actually like that.
They say they do, maybe even they think they do. But when the choice comes to having to make difficult decisions that ripple through your game in ways that mark your story as unique, or doing whatever you want and suffering no consequences, too many people choose the second. Those people were loud enough that the devs listened. Recruiting Minthara used to be the mark of a morally corrupt, practical ‘hero’ driven by necessity not the plight of the weak - in turn, this made your connection with her deeper. Now it’s just ‘wow cool drow lady!’.
This listening to the loudest of the fanbase has also caused some fan service to leak into the game. These are minor incidents that ultimately don’t matter, but devs basing updates on what might get a laugh on Twitter is an irritating thing to do. It’s like when Sony putsEllieorKratosin famous memes - I’m aware my complaints on either aren’t all that legitimate, but I still find the whole thing incredibly grating.
The update adds a dialogue strand from Shadowheart about an imp from their past, clearly Bing Bong. She even flat-out mentions them by name in the epilogue. Whenthe actors played D&D together, they met Bing Bong, a chaotic and annoying little demon -we here at TheGamer can relate. It was a popular in-joke, andso fans modded it into the game, which is pretty cool.But now it’s official, and the brand has a pineapple on its head.
If this were a DLC, likethe masquerade ball Lead Features Editor Jade King pitched, I’d feel very differently. Some additional part of the story that was either non-canon or designed to be lighthearted,maybe even as a one shot, has far more room for fan service. The Citadel DLC inMass Effect 3ismy favourite DLC of all time for this reason- there’s a little bit of gameplay, and a lot of chilling with the homies. It’s pitched as an extra party you may tack on to the main game if Shepard needs to blow off steam. It’s an optional extra. But Baldur’s Gate 3 is not an addition, it’s a compromise.
That stray imp that joined us. Bing Bong, wasn’t it?
- Shadowheart
Baldur’s Gate 3 is more popular than anyone could have expected, and has garnered a huge fanbase. But, like most fanbases, the most extremely online members are incredibly annoying, and if you cater your game design ideas to the jokes they shout loudest, then your game becomes extremely annoying. We’re one patch away from everybody calling her Shart. That’s for us, not you.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is still an excellent game and my runaway Game of the Year. In fact, many of these changes make it even better, both for me and for other players. Baldur’s Gate 3 is already more approachable than the typical CRPG, and these sliders only make it better. But I just can’t shake the feeling that these small details are a very annoying way to add content to a game with a fervent fanbase, and if we’re going to get major expansions, I hope the desire for updoots is turned down just a little bit.
