For the last two years, I've anxiously awaited a "perfect moment" to play Baldur's Gate 3, the hit RPG that made D&D converts of non-believers and absolute freaks out of my diehard RPG friends and family. I missed its early-access period, and lacked a capable PC when it was launched, meaning my best bet at getting in on the fun was on console. When it eventually landed there, I was dismayed by its controls, as well as the fact that I overcame a tremendous hurdle only to find a crucial party character had met an unfortunate and grisly end, and was put off at the thought of continuing--or worse, restarting--my journey.
At last though, Baldur's Gate 3's final major patch is out. The last bit of content that players are going to get out of Larian is officially in the game, rather than a rogue test branch. That means there are now a metric ton of new subclasses to play with, as if the game needed any more mechanical depth than was already present. There's (finally) a photo mode for folks who might want to scrapbook their way through the Forgotten Realms or get the perfect shot of Astarion to print out, hang in their room, and thirstily pant at. Cross-play finally allows me and numerous others to bridge the divide between consoles and PC, and modding tools have been fully surrendered to the community. The game's future is now firmly in the hands of its most stalwart and fire-forged adventurers. It seems that if there were ever a moment to jump into Baldur's Gate 3, it's now.
Which got me thinking about how much Baldur's Gate 3 has outright changed--a previously abnormal quality for a largely single-player RPG, that is become more common in recent years--over the course of its lifetime, and how glad I am that the story of the game's development has finally come to a close.
I don't resent Baldur's Gate 3 or Larian for the game's lengthy post-launch support. In fact, I'm sure most are happy about it. When the game did arrive, it appeared to come in hot, and its various segments showed that. Anecdotally, the last act in particular seemed to sag under the weight of a lot of technical debt and deadlines that truncated the amount of care the studio could show it before shipping, and I'm glad for the players who have had this experience fine-tuned and fixed since. Every game that makes it to launch is a miracle and for all its shimmer, Baldur's Gate 3's no different. But among these much-needed fixes, as well as the additions of quality-of-life features, it also became a different game than the one many might've first heard about back in 2023 and it's done my head in trying to keep up with it after all this time.
That's because month after month, and indeed patch after patch, Baldur's Gate 3 took slightly different shapes than the one it'd first assumed at launch.
It first began in the most ridiculous way possible. Within a month of the game's release, Larian admitted that the cast of heartthrobs were never supposed to be so randy, announcing that their rampant thirst would actually be toned down. For a game whose massive breakthrough with mainstream audiences seemed to be a stream where a player slept with a druid in their bear form, this was a particularly funny, if fundamental, change to a consequential aspect of the game. Forget the endless choices to be made or the tactical nature of trying to fight in a game that's essentially 5e D&D, what ever were we supposed to do if Gale didn't lust after us upon arriving at our camp?
With everyone's libidos back in check, the studio soon moved onto bigger patches and before long, the very nature of Baldur's Gate 3 was constantly in flux. It seemed like anytime I came close to finally picking it up and playing (whether it was on console or my increasingly dysfunctional laptop), I was consistently counseled to wait. "Minthara will be easier to recruit after Patch X." Okay. "Your Durge playthrough will feel better once Larian patches in the new evil endings." Sure, why not? "I refuse to play until I can mod big naturals onto Withers?" Alright man, whatever you say.
For a while, there were weeks where I heard word of some new bit of cut content (cutscenes and dialogue) that was being restored to the game, retroactively altering the text I thought was immutable. Patch 6 made the game steamier by altering and expanding on romantic scenes and Patch 7 introduced more endings for players who completed evil playthroughs. In an almost Mass Effect 3-like move, Patch 5 actually just shipped a whole new epilogue that had never been in the game to provide more payoff for fans disgruntled by one of the game's abrupt endings, of which there are thousands of permutations. In the interest of being economical about my dwindling time, and coincidentally getting the most out of the game, it seemed impossible to jump into Baldur's Gate 3 anytime but now.
Despite being billed as the definitive RPG for experiencing D&D 5e mechanics, the simple fact is that Baldur's Gate 3, which has contorted in several different ways since its August 2023 release (and indeed its early-access launch back in 2020), hasn't really felt definitive until just now. At some point along the way, I became wholly convinced that, like other games with a tremendously outsized impact, Baldur's Gate 3 might never stop. That its post-launch-support-turned-live-servicification would unendingly toil until the game was indistinguishable from its former self. After all, as a masochistic enjoyer of many a live-service title, I've seen games I love cannibalize themselves via similar processes.
Fortunately the same doesn't seem to be occurring to Baldur's Gate 3. With its final patch out now, the story is done. All the edits are in and it is now largely ours to do with what we will. There is a part of me undoubtedly sad that I missed out on Baldur's Gate 3's super-horny era. There is even some nagging voice deeper down that's a little regretful I didn't get to be in on the ground floor and watch this obviously beloved thing continuously morph before achieving its final, momentous shape. But there is a greater part of me just glad that it's no longer something to keep up with and continually put off for a later and better time. Now if you don't mind, I've got a long-delayed date with Shadowheart in my near-future.
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At last though, Baldur's Gate 3's final major patch is out. The last bit of content that players are going to get out of Larian is officially in the game, rather than a rogue test branch. That means there are now a metric ton of new subclasses to play with, as if the game needed any more mechanical depth than was already present. There's (finally) a photo mode for folks who might want to scrapbook their way through the Forgotten Realms or get the perfect shot of Astarion to print out, hang in their room, and thirstily pant at. Cross-play finally allows me and numerous others to bridge the divide between consoles and PC, and modding tools have been fully surrendered to the community. The game's future is now firmly in the hands of its most stalwart and fire-forged adventurers. It seems that if there were ever a moment to jump into Baldur's Gate 3, it's now.
Which got me thinking about how much Baldur's Gate 3 has outright changed--a previously abnormal quality for a largely single-player RPG, that is become more common in recent years--over the course of its lifetime, and how glad I am that the story of the game's development has finally come to a close.
I don't resent Baldur's Gate 3 or Larian for the game's lengthy post-launch support. In fact, I'm sure most are happy about it. When the game did arrive, it appeared to come in hot, and its various segments showed that. Anecdotally, the last act in particular seemed to sag under the weight of a lot of technical debt and deadlines that truncated the amount of care the studio could show it before shipping, and I'm glad for the players who have had this experience fine-tuned and fixed since. Every game that makes it to launch is a miracle and for all its shimmer, Baldur's Gate 3's no different. But among these much-needed fixes, as well as the additions of quality-of-life features, it also became a different game than the one many might've first heard about back in 2023 and it's done my head in trying to keep up with it after all this time.
That's because month after month, and indeed patch after patch, Baldur's Gate 3 took slightly different shapes than the one it'd first assumed at launch.
It first began in the most ridiculous way possible. Within a month of the game's release, Larian admitted that the cast of heartthrobs were never supposed to be so randy, announcing that their rampant thirst would actually be toned down. For a game whose massive breakthrough with mainstream audiences seemed to be a stream where a player slept with a druid in their bear form, this was a particularly funny, if fundamental, change to a consequential aspect of the game. Forget the endless choices to be made or the tactical nature of trying to fight in a game that's essentially 5e D&D, what ever were we supposed to do if Gale didn't lust after us upon arriving at our camp?
With everyone's libidos back in check, the studio soon moved onto bigger patches and before long, the very nature of Baldur's Gate 3 was constantly in flux. It seemed like anytime I came close to finally picking it up and playing (whether it was on console or my increasingly dysfunctional laptop), I was consistently counseled to wait. "Minthara will be easier to recruit after Patch X." Okay. "Your Durge playthrough will feel better once Larian patches in the new evil endings." Sure, why not? "I refuse to play until I can mod big naturals onto Withers?" Alright man, whatever you say.
For a while, there were weeks where I heard word of some new bit of cut content (cutscenes and dialogue) that was being restored to the game, retroactively altering the text I thought was immutable. Patch 6 made the game steamier by altering and expanding on romantic scenes and Patch 7 introduced more endings for players who completed evil playthroughs. In an almost Mass Effect 3-like move, Patch 5 actually just shipped a whole new epilogue that had never been in the game to provide more payoff for fans disgruntled by one of the game's abrupt endings, of which there are thousands of permutations. In the interest of being economical about my dwindling time, and coincidentally getting the most out of the game, it seemed impossible to jump into Baldur's Gate 3 anytime but now.
Despite being billed as the definitive RPG for experiencing D&D 5e mechanics, the simple fact is that Baldur's Gate 3, which has contorted in several different ways since its August 2023 release (and indeed its early-access launch back in 2020), hasn't really felt definitive until just now. At some point along the way, I became wholly convinced that, like other games with a tremendously outsized impact, Baldur's Gate 3 might never stop. That its post-launch-support-turned-live-servicification would unendingly toil until the game was indistinguishable from its former self. After all, as a masochistic enjoyer of many a live-service title, I've seen games I love cannibalize themselves via similar processes.
Fortunately the same doesn't seem to be occurring to Baldur's Gate 3. With its final patch out now, the story is done. All the edits are in and it is now largely ours to do with what we will. There is a part of me undoubtedly sad that I missed out on Baldur's Gate 3's super-horny era. There is even some nagging voice deeper down that's a little regretful I didn't get to be in on the ground floor and watch this obviously beloved thing continuously morph before achieving its final, momentous shape. But there is a greater part of me just glad that it's no longer something to keep up with and continually put off for a later and better time. Now if you don't mind, I've got a long-delayed date with Shadowheart in my near-future.
Source