I usually shun major AAA games in favor of small indie publishers. So when this game first came out and got a lot of attention, I ignored it, thinking it was overrated. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give Baldur's Gate 3 a try. Boy, have I been missing out.

Game play and game mechanics are similar to Dungeons & Dragons. There are nice tie-ins to the series that D&D players (including myself) will appreciate, such as certain races like elves and half-elves having dark vision, critical successes and critical failures, and classes like bards, wizards, and fighters. One key difference between the game and D&D is that in Baldur's Gate 3, instead of rolling initiative at the start of each turn, initiative is rolled only once and remains locked in for the rest of combat. It's not a feature but the most authentic part to D&D are perception checks. Just like D&D your characters will fail almost all of their perception checks. This is true even if they have high wisdom (which affects perception), and even if the switch or button or trap is an inch from their face. Knowledge of D&D isn't required to play though, as there are tutorials for your first play through and game play is intuitive. One caveat is that the early game is slow and not especially exciting. Your party will fold over like lawn chairs from levels 1-3, especially the mages. Things get more interesting at level 5 onward. That's when mages unlock powerful AOE spells, and most classes gain second attacks.

Where the game really shines is all of its content. There are so many classes, paladin, barbarian, fighter, druid, cleric, bard, and monk, and just as many races too. Many classes and races also have sub-classes or sub-races, which allows in-depth customization of your characters. The only problem with this is customizing your first character (assuming you don't choose a pre-made one) can take a very long time, especially if you're indecisive like me. My first character Daelis, was a Wild Magic Sorcerer, and I had a cleric, fighter, and rogue in my party. Each class felt distinct and was fun in their own way.

The story was very enjoyable (no spoilers here!). You are forced to make many tough irreversible decisions with far-reaching consequences throughout, this did raise my blood pressure at times but it also made everything feel more consequential. I liked how my party members' backstories diverged and intersected with the main story. Each character was well-written and fully-fleshed out, which made it feel like a real D&D campaign. There isn't much replayability when it comes to the main story. You can make different decisions, which can affect the ending but the overall story line remains the same. Unlike D&D there is only one campaign. Things that surprised you in your first play through will be expected in the second. Replayability is instead found in game play and quests. It's impossible to complete every quest, especially every party member's unique quests, in one play through. All the different races and classes also give the game more replay value. You can also recruit different party members than last time, resulting in new character interactions.

My only complaint is saving in the game. There is an auto-save system, but it only activates after you enter important areas. You're forced to manually quick-save most of the time. I eventually got the hang of it, but it was annoying at first when I forgot to quick-save and lost progress. I played on the Balanced difficulty, which is essentially normal, and struggled during many fights. I had to reload old saves because my party kept dying or failing. That's more of a skill issue on my party than a problem with the game though. If you play a lot of casual games and don't have experience with RPGs, I'd recommend the Narrative or easy mode. Things will still be challenging, it's just your blood pressure won't spike as much.

Overall, this is a good game for anyone who likes D&D or story-rich RPGs with lots of content.