About
Baldur's Gate 3 is a party-based RPG set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe where you create a character and guide a group of companions through a sprawling story shaped by your decisions. You spend most of your time exploring environments, engaging in dialogue with NPCs to gather information and forge relationships, and resolving encounters through turn-based combat that uses D&D 5th Edition rules. The game tracks how your choices ripple through the narrative, determining which companions join you, how major plot points unfold, and which of multiple endings you reach.
Verdict
Larian built a D&D adventure where systems hold up to almost any idea you bring, marrying reactivity to satisfying combat. Act 3 sags under its ambition, but nothing else delivers "the closest thing to a living tabletop campaign."
You'll like it if …
- +you experiment with builds, stealth, persuasion and environmental tricks to crack encounters your own way
- +you want choices that fork the world and companions who pull the story
- +you'll happily sink hundreds of hours into exploring and replaying differently
You'll dislike it if …
- −you want a tight, guided story over open-ended decision-making
- −you play co-op with a full group of custom characters rather than companions
- −you stick to conventional paths and want polish over off-the-rails experimentation
Breakdown
- +Combat sandbox rewards talking, sneaking, shoving enemies off cliffs and disguising yourself into entirely different dialogue trees
- +Turns-based encounters adapt 5e faithfully while bending rules to suit a game rather than a rulebook
- +Environmental tricks and unconventional builds create solutions most encounters don't telegraph
- −Act 3 buckles under buggy triggers and wonky fights
- −Edge-case builds and role-playing paths still hit broken inspiration events and sequence breaks two years on
- −Most fights still come down to spell and stat math despite environmental possibilities
- +Choices genuinely fork the world, not just dialogue flavor
- +Class variety and full mod support mean a second run plays nothing like the first
- +Players report hundreds of hours in Act 1 alone, rewarding extensive exploration and experimentation
- −Act 3 turns tedious under its own ambition
- −Dialogue not built for multiplayer groups of custom characters
- +Companions carry the whole thing, each with a backstory and will of their own
- +Reactivity and voice work put it near the top of the genre
- +Full voice acting anchors the cast, with even the EULA written in character
- −The act structure is so complete that players mistake the end of each act for the end of the game
- +Detailed and consistently called stunning
- +Audio quality draws repeated praise even from players who bounced off the combat
- −Photo mode is disappointing, the one thing players single out as below par
- +Act 1 and 2 run beautifully
- −Act 3 buckles under buggy triggers and technical instability
- −Edge-case builds and role-playing paths still hit broken inspiration events and sequence breaks two years on
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