Baldur’s Gate 3 Review – The Wait Was Worth It (Xbox Series X/S)

Unlike those who were lucky enough to have a PS5 or a PC, us Xbox stans have had to patiently wait for Baldur’s Gate 3 to release for Xbox Series X/S. I’d say the wait was worth it though, as Baldur’s Gate 3 has given us a fantastic game that more than earns its’ win as Game of the Year. Developed by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 first released as a partial early access on PC in October 2020, three years later it’s taking the gaming world by storm and winning Game of the Year at the The Game Awards. 

Before we get into the review, Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on steam for $59.99 (USD) with the deluxe edition being $69.99 (USD) and available for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for $69.99 (USD) with the deluxe editions being $79.99 (USD).

Note: This review contains minor spoilers

Story – An Excellent D&D Experience 

The story in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one that’s rich with lore and allows your character to influence the events that take place. You’ll begin on a Mind Flayer ship after being snatched up by their nautiloid. This will lead to a rather unsightly procedure where you will have a Mind Flayer tadpole inserted into your brain through your eye socket. For those of you who are easily squeamish, don’t fret, the gore is kept to a minimum in this game.

From there, the Githyanki will ambush the ship, leading to your escape and the beginning of your journey through The Forgotten Realms. The first act of the game will follow this premise as you try to find a way to extract the parasite within your skull. Or, embrace the parasite and become more in tune with the capabilities of Mind Flayers as you consume other parasites to increase your potential, the choice is completely yours. However, be prepared for any drawbacks as each choice has its pros and its cons. 

Character Creation and In-Depth Character Building

One of the highlights of Baldur’s Gate 3 has been the way they treat their characters. Too often in these big RPGs the bulk of character depth goes into the playable character and others seem to be given the short stick in terms of character building. That’s not to say that the game isn’t enjoyable, but the immersion and story impact are elevated when you have characters that feel alive. Baldur’s Gate 3 has several avatars for you to choose from, these are called “Origin Characters” and each have their own unique backstory, long-term goals, and a distinct personality that sets them apart in the game’s dialogue. Whether it’s Shadowheart’s devoted and headstrong attitude or Gale’s witty but good-willed nature, each character sets themselves apart and becomes a core part of the Baldur’s Gate experience.

This screen shows the Origin Characters to choose from

If you don’t want to play as an Origin Character, there is a custom character suite that can help you bring to life an adventurer for your journey. The amount of customization isn’t the deepest in my opinion, it’s mostly templates instead of sculpting sliders, but it’s still extremely satisfying and you’ll no doubt want to create multiple characters once you give it a shot. In true Dungeons and Dragons fashion, you’ll give your customized character a backstory, choose its race and class, and select your attributes and proficiencies. The best part is that what you choose here will greatly influence your experience as you progress. You could be skilled at perception and insight checks, but the give and pull nature of D&D means you’ll struggle in other areas such as nature or arcana checks.

The customization goes beyond the gameplay, choices you make such as your race and class can affect your narrative experience as well. For example, I started a playthrough as a Dragonborn, this resulted in party members referring to me as such and provided multiple opportunities for Dragonborn specific choices during dialogue choices and story actions. The political influence is also there as some NPCs will react differently to you based on your race. One common instance of this is the Drow race. Drows typically live in The Underdark and are seen as untrustworthy, this will cause NPCs to react passive aggressively towards you until you can gain their trust through your actions.

I chose to create a Green Dragonborn Rogue for my adventure

Gameplay – Absolute Freedom

As I mentioned previously, BG3 is a huge RPG, so much so that it can be overwhelming to those who haven’t experienced a game like this. But once you dive in, you’ll notice the freedom the game gives you right from the start. Sure, you’ll have markers to point you in the general direction. But for the most part, you’re simply exploring the world and finding every little encounter that Larian put into the game. No area is off-limits, wherever your whims take you will decide the things you discover and how your world will evolve around you.

As you explore the world, you’ll run into plenty of situations that will test your skills. These situations (such as persuasion or intimidation dialogue choices) will bring up a D20 that you will roll. Each instance will have a difficulty class of 1-20 and you must roll higher than that number to succeed. There are many abilities and items that can help you with these rolls, but you might struggle to succeed in areas your character is weaker in. These rolls can affect your story in interesting ways and may even throw you a few curveballs so be sure to have a few saves handy if you really want a certain choice.

An image of Origin Characters overlooking Faerun

Controls and Radial Menus

The controls in Baldur’s Gate 3 is an interesting thing to learn on the Xbox Series X/S. You could tell that Larian’s intended audience is PC players. However, they’ve done a great job at adjusting their control scheme to fit every possible action onto the Xbox controller. Many of the buttons have a dual purpose, such as tapping on the up direction of the D-Pad will prepare your character for a jump whereas holding up on the D-Pad will bring out your torch. If you tap right/left on the D-Pad, you’ll cycle through the possible things near you that you can interact with, but holding left with equip your melee weapons and holding right will equip your ranged weapons. It’s a great system for a game with so many possible actions and streamlines gameplay.

One of the key mechanics in BG3 are the radial menus. You can bring up these menus with the left and right bumpers. These menus contain not only many of the common actions such throw or dash, but it will also provide your spells and other common items such as potions and bombs. It’s a nice way to quickly scroll through what will become a daunting inventory if you’re anything like the hoarder that I am. This will also be your primary method of choosing your actions both in the open world and in combat.

An image of the radial menus in the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3

Combat

Combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is something that is also heavily influenced by D&D. When you enter a combat situation, you will hear a clicking noise and all combatants will automatically roll for initiative. This will determine the order in which each character’s turn will take place. From there, each character will have an action point, a bonus action point, and a total amount of distance in which you can move in one turn. These can differ based on skills and other mechanics, but for the most part it will start in that format. Your radial menus will be your best friend in these situations. They will have every possible action you can take and even color code them according to whether it is a primary action or a bonus action.

If you’re a magic user, you will also have spell slots where your action points are. These will determine how many times you can cast a spell of that tier before needing to rest to refill them. As you level up, you will gain more spell slots to increase the time between needing to rest. The higher the number on the spell, the more powerful it will be, however you will typically have less slots the higher in spell tier you go so it’s best to use these spells strategically. You will always have one or two base spells that will only cost an action point, not a spell slot, so don’t worry about your wizard becoming a sitting duck.

An image of Gale using magic in combat

If you know a combat situation is ahead, you can manually switch on the turn-based mode and this will provide opportunities to get ahead in the battle. You could set up your party members in the positions you’d like to start combat in and even possibly catch your enemy unawares. When you surprise an enemy, this could potentially cost them their first turn as they are too stunned to take an action. It’s also beneficial to keep in mind that having the high ground will give you an advantage when taking aim at an enemy, so try to find places in the surrounding area that you can attack from above.

As I mentioned earlier, each character has their own unique stats and proficiencies, these will also come into play during combat. Each attack and spell has its own range of damage it can potentially inflict and when a character makes an attack they will roll to determine the amount of damage for that turn. These can also be influenced by your characters abilities. An example of this would be Karlach, who is a barbarian Tiefling, and she has a bonus action called Frenzy that when activated will boost her strength and result in higher damage rolls. 

Items and equipment can also greatly influence the ebb and flow of battle and you should always keep an eye out for them. Many times in both combat and open world activities I was helped by abilities that were granted to me by an item or my equipment. Some will increase your defensive capabilities, while others will inflict special modifiers to an enemy’s roll to either lower their damage or cause a special affliction like Fear or Immobilize. As is the case with most of BG3, your strategic decisions and imagination will lead to your victory.

An image of my party in combat against Duegar

Multiplayer

If you would like to journey with a friend, you can play the entirety of Baldur’s Gate 3 in multiplayer. Whether it’s playing online or with a friend on your couch in split screen, they can always drop in and out at the click of a button. However, any friend you currently have will take up a slot of your party which has a maximum of 4 party members. This means if you have 3 NPCs with you, you’ll need to send one back to camp to allow your friend into your party.

Multiplayer combat can be tricky at first as all players will be able to concurrently initiate their turns, the challenge then becomes coordinating your efforts with your party members and deciding how to split the loot. During dialogue, you can click the player who initiated the conversation to listen in and even select which choices you like/approve them to take. It can be a true virtual D&D adventure as you and your party members commit good/evil deeds. You can even stay connected but journey separately if you wish to do other things without your party.

An example of split screen multiplayer in Baldur’s Gate 3

Audio and Graphics – Mystical and Whimsical

Visuals and World Design

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t exactly an open world in the traditional sense, instead it’s more like a series of paths that lead to more open areas and the buildings are like “pop-ups” with layers that reveal themselves as you scale up or down. As you explore, you’ll feel like you’re discovering unknown territory as you find hidden levers or switches that will open more areas for you to plunder or navigate through a puzzling situation. The visuals are great as each area feels unique and alive, whether it’s the lush greens of the Druid’s Grove or the bioluminescent gloom of The Underdark, you’ll never feel like you’ve seen it all before. 

I’ve given BG3 a lot of praise, but this is where I’ll be a nitpick and highlight some of the negatives I felt the game had. There’s not an abundance, but there were some instances where I had visual bugs or certain events that were supposed to take place did not. Nothing game-breaking, in fact, all of them were solved with a quick reload of a previous save. It’s not unusual for a game this size and scale to have bugs and the fact they’ve all been minor and quickly solved is a feat in and of itself. Another thing I have a problem with is the walking speed. I understand the game wants you absorb the surroundings and not miss any events by potentially running past them, but it does make it a bit annoying to have to slightly jog from one end of the map to the other when working on a quest.

An image of my party in camp

Sounds of The Forgotten Realms

BG3 has an excellent sense of when to use certain sounds and what will help elevate the situation. One of the highlights has been the narrator who excellently weaves together all the thoughts and actions of characters to provide clear pictures. It never gets pretentious and she perfectly shifts tones to convey whether a situation is whimsical or if it should be considered dire. All the characters have terrific voice acting and that helps to make each one unique. Often times I didn’t vibe with a character at first, but through their dialogue and the emotions put into their words, many of them were able to turn me over.

You also have to give credit to Borislav Slavov for the incredible work he did on the soundtrack. The music in BG3 adds to the sense of wonder and adventure as sweet notes of Harp or other string instruments create a serene calm. Other times the music will ramp up with epic orchestral scores that make battles more intense.

Fantastic music, epic gameplay, and narrative cohesion, each layer of BG3 adds to the depth of the game and is the reason why Baldur’s Gate 3 won the 2023 Game of the Year award.

Baldur’s Gate 3 was reviewed on Xbox Series X/S with a key provided by ICO Partners.