Baldur's Gate III

''Baldur's Gate III'' is an upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. It is the third main game in the ''Baldur's Gate'' series, which is itself based on the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' tabletop role-playing system. A partial version of the game was released in early access format for Windows, macOS, and the Stadia streaming service, on 6 October 2020. The game is expected to remain in early access until its full release in August 2023. The full version of the game will not be released on Stadia due to the service's closure in January 2023.

Gameplay

''Baldur's Gate III'' is a role-playing video game that offers both a single-player and cooperative multiplayer element. Players can create one or more characters and form a party along with computer-generated characters to explore the game's story. Optionally, players will be able to take one of their characters and team up online with other players to form a party. Unlike previous games in the ''Baldur's Gate'' series, ''Baldur's Gate III'' has turn-based combat, similar to Larian's earlier games '' Divinity: Original Sin'' and '' Divinity: Original Sin II'' but this time based on the D&D 5th Edition rules.

Plot

In the year 1492 DR, over 120 years after the events of '' Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'' and months after the events of '' Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus'', the forces of darkness are on the rise. The player character (named by the player) has been taken captive by the mind flayers, who have launched an invasion of Faerûn. They have implanted the protagonist, as well as a host of other creatures, with illithid tadpoles, parasites capable of enthralling and transforming them into another mind flayer. Before the mind flayers can transform their victims, the nautiloid flying ship they are all aboard comes under attack from githyanki warriors and their red dragons and flees through multiple realms, including Avernus, the first of the Nine Hells. The protagonist is freed during the fighting and steers the damaged ship back to Faerûn, where it crashes. As the protagonist searches for a way to remove their parasite, they encounter other survivors of the wreck: the human wizard Gale, the half-elf cleric Shadowheart, the high elf vampire rogue Astarion, the human warlock Wyll, and the githyanki fighter Lae'zel.

Development

The original ''Baldur's Gate'' game was developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios, and published by Interplay Entertainment in 1998. The game used a licensed version of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') rule set, specifically in the ''Forgotten Realms'' setting. The game's success led to a sequel, '' Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'', and its expansion pack, as well as ''Icewind Dale'' and its sequel, and finally, '' Planescape: Torment''. Black Isle Studios began work on a further sequel, '' Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound'', in 2003, but Interplay faced significant financial crisis that year and shut down Black Isle, cancelling the game. Interplay lost the license to make ''D&D'' video games to Atari in 2008. Atari later released ''Neverwinter Nights'' and its sequel, ''Neverwinter Nights 2''. Wizards of the Coast had long since acquired the rights to ''D&D'' as part of their purchase of TSR, and had been making updates to the core rule sets over the previous years. The new sequel from Larian Studios has no connection to the cancelled ''Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound''.

The series' intellectual property (IP) had been sought after by multiple developers. This includes Brian Fargo, the founder of both Interplay and inXile Entertainment, as well as Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment, who were seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Larian Studios was interested in making a sequel in the ''Baldur's Gate'' series for some time, having first approached Wizards of the Coast after their release of '' Divinity: Original Sin'' around 2014. At this time, Wizards of the Coast felt the studio was still too new to the industry to be trusted with the ''Baldur's Gate'' license. Larian then developed '' Divinity: Original Sin II'', which was released in September 2017. Pre-release materials related to the game impressed Wizards of the Coast, so they contacted Larian to ask if they still had interest in ''Baldur's Gate III''. Larian accepted, and while working to wrap up the release stage of development for ''Divinity: Original Sin II'', a small group gathered to develop the design document to present to Wizards of the Coast with their ideas for the new ''Baldur's Gate''.

The game will be based on the 5th-edition ''Dungeons & Dragons'' rule set, though it will include tweaks and modifications that Larian found necessary in translating it to a video game. For example, the combat system is expected to be weighed more in favor of the player than in the tabletop version, to make the game more enjoyable.

Larian Studios teased ''Baldur's Gate III'' in the week prior to E3 2019. They formally revealed it during Google's presentation on the Stadia platform just ahead of E3, confirming its release for both Windows and Stadia. The tabletop adventure '' Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus'' was published by Wizards of the Coast in September 2019, and has been described as a "prequel" to ''Baldur's Gate III''. The ''Descent into Avernus'' adventure takes place roughly 100 years after the events of ''Baldur's Gate II'', and the story of ''Baldur's Gate III'' takes place immediately following the events of the ''Descent into Avernus'' tabletop module. On 5 October 2020, Larian Studios announced the game would be released for macOS in addition to Windows and Stadia.

''Baldur's Gate III'' was originally set to be released in early access on 30 September 2020. This date was later delayed to 6 October 2020. The early access version contained only the first act of the game, amounting to approximately 25 hours of content and one-fifth of the game world's map. The character creator also initially included a selection of 16 races and six classes to choose from, with more planned for the finalized release. Additional features and content, including multiplayer functionality and more classes, were gradually added to the early access version through patches as development progressed towards the final release. Save files created during early access will not be transferable to the completed game.

The game is expected to remain in early access until August 2023. The full version of the game will not be released on Stadia due to the service's closure in January 2023.

Reception

On the day of its early access launch, ''Baldur's Gate III'' became the best-selling game on both Steam and GOG.com. On Steam, the game peaked at over 70,000 concurrent players, indicating strong initial sales. Larian Studios stated that heavy demand for the game appeared to cause technical issues for Steam in the minutes after the launch.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldur's Gate III
3
Cancelled Stadia games
Early access video games
macOS games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Role-playing video games
Upcoming video games scheduled for 2023
Video game sequels
Video games developed in Belgium
Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender
Windows games
Wizards of the Coast games