Baldur's Gate III Preview - Page 3
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There's a similar problem with the combat. Larian eschews trash fights, but to make the battles more meaningful, they've all but turned each one into a boss fight, complete with a bunch of crazy bosses. You can only reach Level 4 in the game right now, but you still encounter beholders, bulettes, harpies, mind flayers, minotaurs, and owlbears -- plus, of course, the wicked witch and a series of goblin bosses. I sort of worry that Larian is going to run through the entire Monster Manual before the end of Chapter 2, and then not have anything left for the rest of the game.
Of course, while you're visiting this smorgasbord of enemies and locales, you also meet a bunch of people who need your help. The quests they give you usually work pretty well, and there are always options for how to complete them. For example, at one point you meet a wounded tiefling hiding out from a group of paladins. The tiefling tells you that the paladins are really henchmen working for the demon she escaped from, while the paladins tell you that the tiefling is a cold-hearted murderess. So whom do you believe, and what do you do? This example quest is all about combat, but in other cases you can bribe, charm, deceive or intimidate your way to success -- assuming the Random Number Gods favor you and you win your skill checks.
The writing in the game is good but not great. There aren't any megalomaniacal creatures running around doing evil things just because they're the designated bad guy. Characters are given motivations, and everything makes sense. But while I've found the dialogue to be intellectually interesting, it hasn't affected me in any sort of emotional way. Every so often Larian tries really hard to tug at your heartstrings -- oh, no, a tiefling child was caught stealing, and a hardline druid wants to kill her! -- or they throw in a squirrel for comedic effect, but most of the time I didn't really care what happened, or if the people involved lived or died.
This extends to the companions, who aren't exactly personable. The more they approve of what you do, the more they talk to you, and the more you learn about them -- which presumably will lead to quest and romance options later in the game. But the companions add so little so far that I wouldn't mind dropping them altogether and creating three more characters from scratch -- only it's not allowed, at least not yet. Of course, the caveat here is that it's still early in the game, so maybe we're still in the getting-to-know-you phase, and the companions will bloom once the watering has been completed.
So far I haven't noticed any links to the first two Baldur's Gate games -- or, really, much that makes me think of the Forgotten Realms. Volo shows up briefly in the druid grove, but that's about it. Maybe later we'll see Drizzt again -- it's tradition, after all -- and get another crack at Twinkle and Icingdeath.
I'm probably making the campaign sound worse than it is. The creatures, quests, and locations are all solidly crafted, and the excellent voice acting (especially from Amelia Tyler as the narrator) really sells the dialogue. If Larian continues in this vein, then Baldur's Gate III is going to be just fine.
Combat
Baldur's Gate III uses turn-based combat. When a fight starts up, the characters involved in the battle are ordered using their initiative stat, which is derived from their dexterity. Then the characters take their turn, during which they can move, perform an action, and perform a bonus action, in any order. The amount they can move is based on their race. Actions are typically attacks and spells, while bonus actions are more utility-oriented, such as jumping and quaffing potions.
If one of your characters loses all of their hit points, then they're knocked unconscious rather than killed. This allows any other character in your party to "help" them and restore them to 1 hit point. You can also cast healing spells on unconscious characters to get them going again. If an unconscious character takes enough damage, then they finally die, and you have to revive them using a Scroll of Revivify (or possibly a Raise Dead spell later in the game when clerics are high enough level to cast it). Failing everything else, you can also pay to revive characters, but to do that you have to visit a specific location, which means you have to finish the fight first.
Because Baldur's Gate III is a Larian game, the environment plays an important role. There aren't as many elemental effects and barrels as in the Original Sin games, but they're still there. More importantly, height makes a difference. Characters on high ground have an advantage over characters below them, and characters on low ground have a disadvantage against characters above them. So half the battle sometimes is positioning your party in the best possible way.
