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Baldur’s Gate 3 is best played 20 minutes at a time and that is greatTime and dice wait for no Alice
Time and dice wait for no Alice
Despite my misgivings about the chaotic and impractical nature of their build, ol' DoubleDoubleyou and crew are actually going okay, mainly because all of the NPCs are competent at their roles, and Wonderwall is a decent archer so they can stand at the back and not get in anyone’s way. But as well as going okay, their adventure is also going very slowly, and I am finding this an ideal turn of events.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
Baldur’s Gate 3is a massive, complex RPG based on the ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons. Its opening area, which is the bit you can do in the current early access, is layered and rich and full of startling happenstances. Wonderwall has not encountered most of these, because their capricious god-puppeteer (me, hello) only plays for about 20 minutes a session every time. Half an hour, max.
I felt a bit guilty about this at first, because I’ve always thought of RPGs as these big immersive epics that you need to spend hours at a time in - and I’m sure you can do this with BG3. But then I thought, is this really the most enjoyable way to play? Even real life sessions of TRPGs go on for ages, until at the end, when only the shit snacks are left and you just want to go home, and you are slumped in your chair going “I just… I fuckin'… I stab the goblin. I dunno. Whatever. Christ, it’s midnight.”
Another great thing about BG3 is that when you move somewhere the party rearrange themselves around you like an album cover.
In BG3, everything is a milestone. Successfully unlocked a door? Smashed it. Had an argument with a smug wizard at your camp? Pat yourself on the back, you champion. Saw a boar? Gold star time. And getting through any single bit of combat unscathed is a massive win. I spam F5 so much whilst playing that I fear the other keys are getting jealous, because they know it’s my favourite. I savescum like a motherfucker, and I don’t care who knows it (apart from on the big d20 dice checks, which are super fun and reloading on a failure for one of those would really be cheating).
Bold of Larian to include my unauthorised biography
God, I can’t wait for the next 20 minutes tonight. Might even take my daily ‘short rest’. What a rush!
