Baldur’s Gate III: early access full of promises – Video review

Newly landed in early access, Baldur’s Gate III offers players to take part in the first act of the game, for a duration of approximately 20 hours.

If you have followed the news of the game, you will know that it offers you to play as a character with a mental flayer larva in his brain and who will have to look for a healer to get rid of it. The first act takes place on a very green and frankly pretty map, albeit beset by the threat of goblins, at war with druids who themselves seek to protect various races from the threat. This act I is therefore the occasion to gauge the first stakes of the title, which already shines by its writing, darker and more serious than what Larian had accustomed us to

. Well aware of the frankness he handles, Larian has adopted a more down to earth and less burlesque tone than the Divinity: Original Sin, without forgetting to add a few small touches of humor. A first observation seems to be obvious in any case: the world is very reactive. Heavily conditioned by the success of certain dice rolls, the dialogues always know how to bounce back depending on whether you fail or whether you succeed in your roll. The same goes for your freedom of approach: it is thus quite possible to rush into the heap without asking a question, but you will then take the risk of closing many interesting avenues for your quest.

On the combat side, you know, the turn-based approach was chosen to the detriment of the active break. However, things are quite different from previous Larian productions. First of all, stocks are very compartmentalized. You can once per turn send an action linked to your weapon, a spell, and take advantage of movement actions. Some spells can only be cast if you have enough suitable slots, which only recharge after the party is rested. This limitation in the casting of spells reinforces the strategic aspect and gives a certain nervousness to the fights., which however lack a bit of pep, in particular due to an AI which still has difficulty in triggering its turn. In addition, according to the rules of D&D, everything is conditioned by your dice rolls too, a certain frustration can arise from certain fights which sometimes resemble a succession of failures, making their progress frankly sometimes difficult. However, you will be able to take advantage of the verticality of the game, which also allows you to separate your characters in order to position them discreetly before the start of a fight. This offers frankly exhilarating tactical prospects even if for the moment, there are still too many camera concerns, especially when battles take place on multiple levels indoors.

So, if diving into a universe that already holds the road, but which is still very buggy and that losing your saves at the option of updates does not bother you for the purchase, the full price of Baldur’s Gate III does not bother you. is definitely not a bad thing. However, we can only recommend for now a little patience so that at least the most major bugs are fixed so that you enjoy a more stable experience. But this eraly access remains a good opportunity to discover the promise made by Larian to make BG III an immense RPG, which we will not fail to follow with the greatest assiduity in order to update this test.