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But there is some criticism as well.
Image credit: Larian Studios
Here I am, writing my first article after a weekend full of Baldur's Gate 3. I am not the only one obsessed with it though, as evidenced by over 800,000 concurrent players the game still manages to attract.
But we, ordinary players, are not the only ones enjoying this great adventure. PC Gamer talked to developers from famous studios to see what they think about Larian's latest release, and they are all happy with the game, although there is still room for improvement.
Mike Laidlaw (Jade Empire, Mass Effect, the Dragon Age series):
"If you ask me, Baldur's Gate 3 is a triumph. The throughline of robust world interactions and fun turn-based combat is obvious from the Divinity: Original Sin games, and the way the team have managed to weave the themes—and even some of the characters—of the originals into an all new story is very impressive. I'm not actively playing [D&D] fifth edition, but this interpretation of the rules feels robust and lets me pull off some pretty cool stunts, mixing jumps and so on into combat, that makes the space feel very alive. That and I never tire of having Karlach chuck half the room's furniture directly into the boss's face."
He also praised Larian's attention to detail but said it would be nice to wash the characters' faces before going to bed. So very true, I can't count how many screenshots I had to discard because you couldn't see my guys' and gals' features behind all the grime.
Image credit: Larian Studios
Josh Sawyer (Icewind Dale 1-2, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity 1-2, Pentiment):
"I'm still making my way through Act I content, but I think I've seen enough to form some basic thoughts. The production values are crazy high, especially for a party-based D&D CRPG of this scope. I can see their dialogue trees in my mind's eye and even if a lot of the cinematic setup for those conversations are automated, it's a massive amount of work to stage them."
To Sawyer, Baldur's Gate 3 is an "evolution of Divinity: Original Sin 2 using the 5E ruleset." Still, he said that its UI can feel "clumsy and clunky for a lot of actions," and "a lot of those actions are never tutorialized" – something David Gaider, who worked on Dragon Age, also talked about on Twitter.
Jeff Gardiner (The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 76):
"Baldur's Gate 3 is a masterpiece. I am constantly astonished by the level of detail, the choices, the tactical decisions in combat, the attention to the character models, the VFX, and the way everything comes together. It's a marvelous, magical masterpiece that immediately suspends my disbelief every second I'm playing. I'm as obsessed with it as I was with Baldur's Gate 2."
Gardiner plays both solo and in co-op and noted how different the experiences are. He mentioned an incident in Act 1 that amazed him with how much thought was put into each outcome.
Image credit: Larian Studios
Brian Fargo (The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Fallout):
"My thought on the launch was that I was jealous as I (and Feargus [Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment]) chased that license for more than a decade and Larian finally landed it and made it an even bigger success than imagined. And seeing the approach and success of Divinity: [Original Sin] 2, Larian was a very smart choice."
He hasn't played the game yet but is already afraid it's going to steal a lot of his time.
Image credit: Larian Studios
Overall, developers appreciate Larian's effort and seem to spend plenty of quality time walking around the vast planes and mountains of Baldur's Gate 3.
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