Baldur’s Gate 3 Coming To Early Access

We haven’t had a complete and original installment in the Baldur’s Gate series since the early 2000s, but under the watchful eye of Divinity series developer Larian Studios, it looks like we could be getting our hands on Baldur’s Gate III before the end of the year.

Baldur’s Gate III is Larian Studios’ first contribution to the series, but it’s highly anticipated after the success of previous Larian games such as Divinity: Original Sin II. The Baldur’s Gate games have changed hands quite a few times over the past twenty-some years. They were first developed by BioWare, starting in 1998, with the first two games and subsequent expansion packs.

Then spin-offs were developed by the now-defunct Black Isle Studios and Snowblind Studios. The Enhanced Editions of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II were handled by Beamdog and Overhaul Games, and now the torch has been passed to Larian Studios, who is angling to have the game released in Early Access in August. Well, in the words of the announcement trailer: “Maybe.”

During D&D Live on June 18th, Larian Studios founder Sven Wicke demonstrated an hour and a half of new gameplay from the upcoming sequel. It’s the first that we’ve really seen of the gameplay since a similar stream earlier this year and went deeper into some of the tricks and systems, including inspiration points that can be used to re-roll the dice.

He also reiterated that they were hoping to put Baldur’s Gate III into Early Access this August, and in all honesty, it looks like the game could use the bug reports and suggestions that come along with early access releases. Wicke emphasized that animations and textures in the game were not yet polished in the latest stream, and has been open about bugs, crashes, and technical glitches whenever the game has been showcased.

He’s also discussed before that the game is so big and complicated that Early Access will help them reach that point of being able to call the game finished. There were already some major changes from the stream earlier this year to this one. Among them are dialogue tenses, they used to be in the past tense but are now in the present, which is far less clunky.

Baldur’s Gate III will include a character creator with choices such as being able to play as a wide range of in-world races such as the Tiefling, the Drow, Dwarves, or even just a plain old human. The selections will be limited in Early Access, with new races being added over time. The same system is in place for the companions – there will be five at launch with more coming later, including Lae’zel, a Githyanki warrior, and Astarion, a vampire spawn.

If you’re curious, yes, you can romance the companions. They can also romance each other. Senior writer Adam Smith said, “If you sleep with [Lae’zel] one night at camp, the next night you might well just find her sleeping with somebody else. And she’s going to be like, ‘oh, that was a bit of fun, wasn’t it? How are you doing?’ And you’re just like, ‘oh!’ Heartbroken!”

Larian Studios have successfully transitioned to the company working from home, with Wicke stating that the productivity has slowed a little in the process but has far from stopped. Although they’ve stressed the uncertainty of it all, Larian Studios are still clearly hoping to keep the game on track for that August release.