Is there even a point in blogging about Baldur’s Gate 3? This game is over 2 years old, and surely it’s old news by now? Perhaps, but I’m probably not the only one still playing it, and this game is just something else entirely. I have 467 hours in this game of 4 full runs, but judging by some of the BG3 subreddits those are rookie numbers.

I’ve been a big fan of Larian’s games long before BG3 – my favorite game was Divinity: Original Sin 2 before it, and in some aspects, I still think that DOS2 is the superior game. I also played Divinity: Original Sin, which was great fun as well, albeit not as polished as it’s successor. Needless to say I was excited for BG3 – but then when it came out, it didn’t really hook me at first. I played it for about 10-12 hours and then lost interest for while, not sure why, but perhaps because it’s not a really good multiplayer experience, and also, much unlike DOS2 it’s not best experienced in an origin run.

About half a year later, I tried again and started a new character, a druid Tav. After getting the hang of the game, I finally really got into it and explored and saved the world with my buddies Karlach, Shadowheart and Astarion. I eventually finished this first run after 80 or 90 hours or so, only to start another run – this time as a resist Dark Urge Paladin, with Gale, Karlach and Wyll (I think). That’s when I realized that my first run was basically just a learning experience – I learned how to play this game and in my second run, I finally actually played it. And I was amazed at how much I missed in my first run. Entire plotpoints totally escaped me before, because there’s just SO much to explore in this game!

I finished that second run, but I felt it was still incomplete. That’s when I learned about the magic of mods, and the BG3 Mod Manager (NOT the in-game mod manager). After spending some time researching mods, I installed a few, and basically re-started my second run as my third run. I re-created the same resist Dark Urge character, but this time I played with ALL the party members, and wow it was sooo cool to have everyone around all the time! Some companions are so much fun, and can be totally missed if you only play this game casually (Minsc for example, who’s the funniest companion ever). Needless to say having a party of 12+ makes combat too easy, which is why I also had mods to increase the difficulty of the game. And plenty of other really cool mods, such as new and random loot. It made playing the game a whole new experience, and it was really fun.

My third run, aka my modded resist durge, was my favorite by far. Playing as a nature-loving paladin/bard makes resisting the dark urges very thematic, and this is where I really leaned into the roleplaying aspect of it, as you might have noticed in my creative writing exercise about that run. Smiting the hell out of things was so much fun with this character, as was just standing in town and playing music. Once you reach that climatic scene in the Temple of Bhaal with Withers, it just feels so epic and rewarding. Me and my companions have been through so much at this point, and have thwarted evil at every step of the way. This was my most complete run, and it took me about 130 hours. It was an amazing experience, that perhaps one day I will repeat yet again.

After I finished my resist Durge run, I took about a half a year break from the game – also because Patch 8 came out and I wanted to give it some time. Eventually I started a new run, my second attempt at an evil embrace durge run. I tried this before (before mods), and I just couldn’t do it, it wasn’t really fun. But after getting a bit of distance, my new embrace durge, a necromancer warlock, became quite fun as well as soon as I learned to not get emotionally involved in my decisions, but instead treat them as an experiment. I still felt bad a lot of times – raiding the grove, letting Shadowheart become a DJ, ascending Astarion, all of these things are sooo utterly evil. But still nothing is as evil as all the things Minthara has to say. She’s so horrible, it’s just funny to listen to her evil ramblings – most of all, in the very, very final scene of the game, where she praised my necromancer warlock for being so gloriously brutal – just before getting stabbed. Playing evil was an interesting experiment, but I think once is enough, as it’s just not in my nature. I enjoyed it mostly for experimenting with new subclasses and builds, and to see all those alternative cutscenes that you don’t get to see if you’re good.

BG3 is definitely a game that sets a new standard for the games industry. I wish more game publishers would gives us such amazing games. Aside from the already immense world where you can easily spent 100 hours in a single run, this game has immense replay value, great characters and an immersive story. It’s also one of the only games I’ve seen that does romance right, and integrates seamlessly and with complexity into the plot. And regardless of how many times you play it, it seems there’s always something new to discover. I honestly can’t wait to see Larian’s next games. Getting a new game that combines the best out of DOS2 and BG3 would be a dream, and I’m guessing that’s exactly what they’re working on.