Baldur’s Gate 3 will release in early access later this year and it looks pretty fantastic. Over an hour of gameplay footage was revealed at PAX East 2020 along with plenty of new information and a delightful cinematic opening cinematic.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is being developed by Larian Studios, the makers of Divinity: Original Sin II, alongside the owner of Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast. Founder and CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, showed off around 90 minutes of gameplay.
The game is set in the city of Baldur’s Gate in the world of the Forgotten Realms and surrounds mind flayers, alien creatures with physic abilities. Players will be able to choose from several character classes and races featured in D&D.
Tiefling, drow, human, gith, dwarf, elf, half-elf, half-drow, and halflings are all the playable races Vincke included in the footage. There will be more in the final game, but he did not go into detail on what they would be. Here’s hoping for duergar.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature multiplayer as well, where a party of four can team up and travel the world as a party of four. Each character can choose to play together or go off on their own and explore side quests only to catch back up with everyone later. It’s a concept that sounds exactly like a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
One of the most interesting mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3 is when it comes to fighting. It will feature a turn-based combat mode similar to one featured in D&D 5E. Players and enemies will roll for initiative with turns lasting six seconds. In that time, everyone will get to act on their own until the fight is over. The game will even use dice to add to ability checks, saving throws, and attacks.
The game will be available on Steam Early Access in a few months, but Vincke did not announce exactly when that date is.
It was announced it was going to go in early access, but we actually wanted to announce it today, but people were very excited about announcing it for us. It’s going to be in early access in a couple of months. We don’t know exactly when it’s ready for early access.”
