Recent reviews by spookylovespooky

In my ten plus years on Steam I don't think I've ever written a review, but I felt compelled to for this game.

Baldur's Gate is like Skyrim, Elden Ring, Fallout, DnD (which I've never played - same with any other Baldur's Gate game) and a few other turn-based games combined in terms of worldbuilding, gameplay, and story. You can get to hoarding treasure, leveling up, using magic, organizing your inventory, talking to NPCs, going into every corner of the map, robbing people, killing absolutely everyone, and so much more. Whatever you choose, really.
It's just a big sandbox, with a super cool plot baked into it. There's individual quests for every single companion in the game (there's about 10 or so, not including some animals), and you really can try to do everything at once in one playthrough, if you're like me and don't want to run multiple 100+ hour playthroughs of one game. Steam says I have about 150 hours, but my actual save in-game says about 90, and I just entered act 3 during my heroic (pretty completionist) run. I savescummed a lot to get the desired results, whether it was mid-conversation or to keep certain characters alive during fights. You can save whenever you want, as many times as you want.

If you get bored of regularly attacking enemies (that range from goblins to possessed demons), you can stack barrels to get to otherwise accessible areas and ambush your opposition with thrown furniture. If you find armor that provides more hitpoints and a boost to your attack roll when you're drunk, you can keep your character wasted the entire game. If you get bored of playing, you can end the game 30 hours early by.... just kidding, no spoilers here. Aside from this part of my review I'm going to cover some things I feel like I are necessary for a full review of the game.

I have a 1080ti and an i7 in my computer and I run everything at max in BG3. It'll lag sometimes when I load into a new area, and the cutscenes may take longer than normal to load (with animations at max), so there have been a few occasions I'm looking at my party just kind-of... standing there for a minute or two right before a major moment. The environments are lush and beautiful, and facial animations are really good too.

Most of the gameplay is super smooth, like moving things around your inventory or the world, and combat. I choose not to use karmic dice, but others may disagree. There are some minor issues with moving your party around as a unit, especially with jumping, but I think those have been addressed already by the developers. Your party loves walking into fire, however. Everything about conversation is great, and oftentimes hilarious. Every interaction/situation can be solved in an infinite number of ways.

The plot of the game is really, really good. At least to me, someone with zero experience in DnD or BG. Within the first ten minutes you're made aware that some alien race is able to ride dragons while chasing another more stereotypical alien race through portals that take you to different dimensions. Then, demons attack. I think that's all I have to say.

The voice acting is excellent, and the acting just as much. There are so many lovable and hateable characters that you come across, and each one feels straight out of a big budget production like Game of Thrones. Every setting in the game, for me so far, has been beautifully thought out and unique to the ones before it, leading to an original and further encapsulating experience the more I keep traveling towards Baldur's Gate (which you will not see until Act 3 - don't get your hopes up if that's the reason you want to play as badly as you do).

All in all, this is game of the year, easily, in my opinion.

It's also one of the best games of the decade, and of all time. I grew up playing Diablo, and after reaching level 35 and not even completing Diablo 4, I'm just glad this game came along to scratch that demon-story itch that I've had since, that I didn't know I did. The developers put a lot of love into this game, and although I've read a few times that at the end some big choices may not matter, so far I have noticed that everything I've done has had its proper effect on the world. If someone dies, everyone takes note, and it'll come up when I least expect it. When I make big choices, there are clear effects, I feel like. I only got this game because I succumbed to the peer pressure after reading a review like this. Be like me, get this game. The DnD nerds got it so right.

The orcs totally doin' it in the barn was crazy. The sword I got from the demon commander on the ship before running to the lever in the intro is still carrying my party. What the **** is the Strange Ox? When do I get the Shadussy? Will Gale EVER stop trying to smash me?