Baldur's Gate III
- Baldur's Gate III (Collector's Edition) (2023)
-
Baldur's Gate III (Deluxe Edition)
(2024) -
Baldur's Gate III: Digital Deluxe Edition
(2023)
Description official description
Baldur's Gate III is a role-playing game situated within the established universe of the Forgotten Realms. The story unfolds around a group of characters who become infected by a parasitic tadpole, threatening to turn them into Mind Flayers, a dreaded and alien species known for their psionic abilities and power over other creatures. This central conflict serves as a catalyst, drawing the characters into a grander plot that spans diverse regions and encounters with various factions.
Players can either choose the pre-designed Origin characters or craft their own from a selection of races and classes typical of Dungeons & Dragons lore, such as elves, dwarves, wizards, and rogues, among others. The gameplay emphasizes turn-based tactical combat, where players must strategically deploy their party members on the battlefield, leveraging their unique abilities and spells. Additionally, decision-making and character interactions play significant roles, with player choices leading to varying narrative outcomes, affecting not only the story's progression but also relationships with party members and other NPCs.
A notable feature is its adherence to many Dungeons & Dragons mechanics, translating the tabletop experience into a digital format. Dice-rolling, a staple of the D&D system, is integral to many actions and decisions in the game, introducing elements of chance and unpredictability. Environments in the game are highly interactive, allowing players to exploit them for strategic benefits during encounters. Furthermore, the game provides the option for cooperative play, letting multiple players navigate the narrative and challenges together.
Spellings
- 博德之门III - Simplified Chinese spelling
Groups +
- 3D Engine: Divinity
- Baldur's Gate series
- Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
- Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Forgotten Realms
- Fantasy creatures: Dragons
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Gnomes
- Fantasy creatures: Goblins
- Fantasy creatures: Golems
- Fantasy creatures: Halflings / Hobbits
- Fantasy creatures: Minotaurs
- Fantasy creatures: Orcs
- Gameplay feature: Auto-mapping
- Gameplay feature: Burden / Encumbrance
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Skill distribution
- Gameplay feature: Color-blind mode
- Gameplay feature: Dating / Romance
- Gameplay feature: Equipment quick slots
- Gameplay feature: Fog of war
- Gameplay feature: Journal
- Gameplay feature: Pettable animals
- Gameplay feature: Pickpocketing
- Gameplay feature: Transformation
- Games with post-credits scene or gameplay
- GOG Early Access games
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Middleware: FaceFX
- Middleware: mod.io
- Middleware: Noesis
- Middleware: RakNet
- Middleware: SDL
- Middleware: SpeedTree
- Nudity
- Physics Engine: PhysX
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Protagonist: Visually customizable character
- Scripting language: Lua
- Sound engine: Wwise
- Steam Early Access games
Screenshots
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Videos
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Credits (Windows version)
2,943 People (2,332 developers, 611 thanks) · View all
| In loving memory of | |
| Directed by | |
| Produced by | |
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| Cinematic Director | |
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| PR & Communications Director | |
| Performance Director | |
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| Scripting Director | |
| Technical Animation Director | |
| Technical Art Director | |
| Technical Director | |
| UI/UX Design Director | |
| VFX Director | |
| Voice and Casting Director | |
| World Building Director | |
| Lead Animators | |
| Associate Lead Animator | |
| Animation Producer | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 95% (based on 181 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 60 ratings with 2 reviews)
The Good
A few of the scenes like Act 2 look nice
The Bad
- The 3D camera is awful.
- Turn-based combat takes way too long compared to BG1/2 RTWP.
- Characters and monsters many actions and move too far per turn.
- It has 4 party members instead of 6 like in BG1/2.
- The UI is very ugly compared to BG1/2.
- The 3D character faces/portraits are very ugly compared to the drawn portraits in BG1/2.
- It includes childish reddit humor like the poop knife.
- It's been in early access for years, but it's still very buggy.
- It's too sexual to the point of being disgusting in my opinion
- The animations are comically bad.
- The PC is not voiced so they just mime in the animated dialogues.
- The companions are extremely unlikeable.
- The environmental graphics tend to be confusing (though not as much as JA3)
- The narrator is a bizarre feature
I could go on...
The Bottom Line
The story of BG ended definitively in BG2 ToB.
This is a different game that they cynically put the BG name on. I think that without the name this would be recognized as a bad or mediocre game.
Sometimes our memories deceive us, so after finding "BG3" so disappointing I went and played BG2 SoA. Yep, it's just as good as I remember it being and much better than "BG3".
Windows · by dorian grey (243) · 2024
The Good
Good music, entertaining tactics
The Bad
Garbage loot system, journal bugs
The Bottom Line
Killed half of the annoying companions
Macintosh · by Absolute · 2024
Trivia
Awards
- The Game Awards 2023
- Game of the Year - Won
- Best Game Direction - Nominated
- Best Narrative - Nominated
- Best Score and Music - Nominated
- Best Performance (Neil Newbon as Astarion) - Won
- Best Community Support - Won
- Best RPG - Won
- Best Multiplayer - Won
- Player's Voice - Won
- GameSpot
- Game of the Year 2023 - Won
- Golden Joysticks 2023
- Best Storytelling - Won
- Best Visual Design - Won
- Studio of the Year (Larian Studios) - Won
- Best Game Community - Won
- Best Supporting Performer (Neil Newbon as Astarion) - Won
- Best Supporting Performer (Amelia Tyler as the narrator) - Nominated
- PC Game of the Year - Won
- Ultimate Game of the Year - Won
- Hollywood Music in Media Awards
- Video Game Song, 2020 ("Weeping Dawn" composed by Borislav Slavov and performed by Vesela Delcheva and the Budapest Studio Orchestra) - Nominated
- Video Game Song, 2021 ("I Want to Live" composed by Borislav Slavov and performed by Ilona Ivanova) - Nominated
- Video Game Score, 2023 (Borislav Slavov) - Nominated
- 27th D.I.C.E Awards (2024)
- Outstanding Achievement in Story - Won
- Role-Playing Game of the Year - Won
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Won
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Won
- Outstanding Achievement in Character (Astarion) - Nominated
- Outstanding Achievement in Character (Karlach) - Nominated
- Game of the Year - Won
- 24th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2024)
- Game of the Year - Won
- Best Audio - Nominated
- Best Design - Won
- Best Narrative - Won
- Best Technology - Nominated
- Innovation Award - Nominated
- Social Impact Award - Nominated
- Audience Award - Won
- 2024 BAFTA Games Awards
- Artistic Achievement - Nominated
- Best Game - Won
- Multiplayer - Nominated
- Music - Won
- Narrative - Won
- Performer in a Leading Role (Amelia Tyler as the narrator) - Nominated
- Performer in a Leading Role (Neil Newbon as Astarion) - Nominated
- Performer in a Leading Role (Samantha Béart as Karlach) - Nominated
- Performer in a Supporting Role (Andrew Wincott as Raphael) - Won
- Performer in a Supporting Role (Tracy Wiles as Jaheira) - Nominated
- EE Player's Choice - Won
By July 2024, Larian started rotating staff members who went to accept awards, as the sheer number of ceremonies they were invited to started negatively affecting development.
Cancelled Black Isle Studios' version
By 2002, Black Isle Studios was developing a game titled Baldur's Gate III (originally codenamed Project Jefferson and The Black Hound), and was to use a 3D engine and 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. It was cancelled by 2003, when publisher Interplay lost the Dungeons & Dragons license to Atari.
Sales
During its 3 year-long early access period on Windows and Macintosh, the game sold 2.5 million copies according to studio lead Swen Vincke.
Baldur's Gate III had the second-biggest launch day on Steam in 2023, with approximately 470,000 concurrent players on 3 August 2023. The number of concurrent Steam players in general would peak at 875,343 on 13 August 2023 at 19:55:05 UTC, which was the 9th all-time highest peak on the platform according to SteamDB.
Note: At the time, the only other storefront the game was available from was GOG.com, for which there is no publicly available sales data.
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Related Sites +
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Baldur's Gate 3
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Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Rik Hideto.
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series added by Plok.
Additional contributors: Plok, MobyReed, Rick Corretjer.
Game added November 16, 2020. Last modified November 7, 2024.