Warning: The following article contains spoilers for why the choices in Baldur’s Gate 3 paralyzed me.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is many things to many people. To me, it might be the most stress-inducing gaming experience of my life. It comes from the most bizarre place, something that many consider a positive in the genre of RPGs – choice.
An Embarrassment of Riches or Drowning in Content?
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a fantastic title – I’m not here to say it’s not, but we have to address the copper dragon in the room. With so many options available to me, all I have felt for the last dozens of hours is stress. As the world got bigger, I felt smaller and realized how quickly I could mess up. It didn’t help that, when I missed Lae’zel by literal feet, I didn’t find her until the tail end of Act 2. And by finding her, I mean I found her corpse.
This sense of failure continued when I tried to save Halsin and Thanriel in the Shadow Forest. When that portal got destroyed, I was just staring into space, feeling like a failure. When this happened, I did the unthinkable, something I usually don’t ever do – I restarted from a savepoint.
Then, when I couldn’t figure out a particular puzzle, I’d go to one of the many walkthroughs on the Internet because it was integral to a random sidequest. I found myself feeling like I wasn’t truly enjoying the experience, and so I found myself frozen between trying to get through certain elements of Baldur’s Gate 3 without having to head to the Internet.
There are many reasons why this has happened to me. It comes from the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3‘s narrative structure can be frustrating at times. I ended Act 1 and lost several storylines that I wanted to see through. This all culminated when I entered Baldur’s Gate for the first time.
Related: All Grenade Recipes in Baldur’s Gate 3
Collapsing Under the Weight of Baldur’s Gate
When I was tasked by Gortash to take down Orin, I genuinely froze. I had to worry about Wil’s dad and the civvies in Baldur’s Gate. Plus, I could potentially annoy Kharlach and lose her forever if I join up with him. Then the hammer fell, and Orin captured Halsin. She stole my favorite giant elf furry. She also offered her own twisted alliance, and with it, even more choices were dropped on me.
What if I take Gortash’s side? Will Halsin die? If I take Orin’s side, will I have to face down the legions of Steel Watchers? If I take the bomb that I was offered by the Ironhands, how many innocents will die? It became maddening, and I put my controller down and just sank into my couch.
This probably sounds silly to you, but I have found that there are many across the forums who are having similar experiences with Baldur’s Gate 3. There are gamers out there not sure where to go, wondering what happens if they don’t have that key character with them, and it’s stifling.
It comes down to trying to replicate the experience of a Tabletop Roleplaying Game session, in my opinion. With a whole wide world open to players in a session, the same issues could potentially arise. However, we have no internet to fall back on, no forums to ask what’s the best strategy, and that is genuinely freeing. Sure, you can get advice, but no two sessions will ever truly be the same.
By trying to replicate the session experience, strangely, Larian Studios has caged us in a world of false freedom. And when you knock up against those invisible walls, it hurts.
