LogInIt was a first-person, real-time RPG with multiplayer.
Baldur's Gate 2 was released back in 2000, and we have been waiting for another full-fledged game since then. Thankfully, BG3 is coming really soon, but there have been a lot of plans for it through the years.
Tim Cain, the co-creator of Fallout and co-founder of Troika Games, recently revealed his studio's pitch for BG3, which was proposed in July 2003.
Cain found it in the folder with the Temple of Elemental Evil materials. The pitch was made before the game was finished and the team moved on to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Troika's Baldur's Gate was supposed to be a PC-only real-time first-person RPG where you could switch to a third-person view only for melee combat, like in Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. You could have only one character but get "a follower or two."
This game would give you an opportunity to work against or together with your friends in multiplayer by either fighting each other or trying to complete quests first.
Cain described it as a "very action-oriented version of DnD" and said Troika was trying to rewrite all of the rules.
"I learned the lesson with Temple [of Elemental Evil], which was making a computer game and trying to [make] it as true as possible to the paper and pencil game. We did that, it's done, now I wanted to make what I called adapted DnD, which was DnD adapted for being played first person, real time on a computer."
The developers got rid of Intelligence and Wisdom and stuck to physical attributes, which would not be rolled but assigned when you picked your race and class. With each lever, the attributes would increase based on your class, so you wouldn't really choose them yourself. Additionally, Troika introduced a new stat called Fatigue, which you would spend on combat maneuvers and spells instead of memorizing your abilities.
The game would have had eight classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Mage, Monk, Ranger, and Rogue. There were no Paladins or Assassins because everyone started off Neutral and your actions determined your alignment.
In this game, skills were only active abilities, and feats provided passive benefits. The whole story was going to take place in and around the city of Baldur's Gate: "We thought it was important that if we were a sequel, we weren't in a whole new location. Plus we thought that there's still a lot more stories to be told around Baldur's Gate."
While Troika envisioned an "enormous single-player campaign" and a multiplayer arena, its idea wouldn't make it: "I'm not sure we even heard back on this," Cain said. He is also curious about Larian's take on the franchise, which is evidently so different from what his was 20 years ago.
Soon, we'll see what the long-awaited sequel brings us after so much time has passed. Larian's BG3 is set to release on August 3 for PC and September 6 for PS5.
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