Baldur’s Gate 3 has already been out of early access for a year. Time is a myth, and it’s easy to see how Larian’s masterpiece has maintained such staying power. Fans have played it dozens of times with myriad different characters as they seek out every slice of narrative the game has to offer, not to mention mastering its gameplay mechanics and seeing every single relationship the fantasy world possesses. In many ways, it was a perfect storm for Larian.
A prolonged early access period allowed the already tenured RPG developer to listen to fans and build on the fantastic formula it has been fostering since 2002 with the Divinity series, albeit this time with a Dungeons & Dragons twist. It changed characters, innovated on combat and exploration, and split the experience into three individual acts that ensured quality remained its top priority. So, when the early access period came to an end and the full game was given permission to run wild, it immediately took over the world.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Is Going To Live On Forever
In my lifetime, I’m not sure if I’ve seen a game become a cultural juggernaut so immediately, and hold onto that significant position for months and months with no signs of slowing. As I write this article, it is still one of the most-played and top-selling games on all platforms you can find it, while social media feeds are flooded with discussions, fan art, and posts from a mixture of developers, actors, and players who are happy to admit this game changed their lives. And if I’m being perfectly honest, it also changed mine.
Larian is now one of the biggest game developers on the planet. Perhaps not in scope, but Baldur’s Gate 3 finally put it on the map. That brings with it tremendous pressure, but alongside it pride and excitement. I can’t wait to see what it does next, even if it means leaving its previous masterpiece behind. But let’s be real, it’s here to stay.
Over the years, I’ve moved through dozens of fandoms where people become obsessed with a multitude of characters and universes, but at some point, they move on and fall in love with something else, and only a few legendary names manage to stick around.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one such name, and given everyone is still head-over-heels for Astarion and Karlach a year from release, that’s evidence enough that they’d be permanently etched into the annals of gaming history. The cast have not only become convention regulars all over the world, they are entrenched in the community and always will be as they take bold new steps in their individual careers. No matter what they do, Baldur’s Gate 3 will always be a part of them.
The writing was so intimate and nuanced that the game was able to act as a foundation for the community to build upon, and with this comes immortality. Every major character found in Baldur’s Gate 3 has a beautifully emotional story to tell, but despite taking us hundreds of hours to see them all through, they are only the beginning.
Players are still discovering new lines of dialogue, inventive gameplay secrets, and creating memories of their own with mods that treat the original experience as a masterful baseline. Like D&D campaigns in reality, it’s a game of infinite possibilities, regardless of its masterfully curated feel and insatiable level of detail. You can take it in an infinite number of directions, many of which remain undiscovered even a year after release, so who knows how we will be talking about it a decade from now.
What I love most about the continued success of Baldur’s Gate 3 is how we won't know how it will influence other video games for a couple of years at the earliest, as developers big and small react to its familiar yet incredible take on the cRPG genre.
How it single-handedly took a daunting and assumed near-impenetrable genre and made it approachable for millions of people by putting character writing and player choice at the forefront. If you can make someone care, the rest is a cakewalk. It’s a part of the game’s legacy I cannot wait to see realised.
