The world’s moved forward quite a bit
since the last games, so instead of picking
up where its predecessors left things,
Baldur’s Gate III is a brand new adventure
set in the Forgotten Realms as it is today,
where Bhaal’s unruly kids are history. Not
to worry, though, as Larian’s got another
crisis to fling at the unfortunate city.
With over 20 years of D&D-adjacent
RPGs behind it, from Divine Divinity to
Divinity: Original Sin 2, Larian’s hardly a
wildcard choice, but when CEO Swen
Vincke first approached Wizards of the
Coast, he didn’t get very far. Wizards
called the studio “a bit too green” when
Vincke tried to convince the publisher
during the development of the first
Original Sin. It was Wizards that got in
touch with Larian, however, once Original
Sin 2 was in the works.
“During Divinity: Original Sin 2, we had
to submit the design for Baldur’s Gate,
which was annoying because we were
about to release D:OS2,” Vincke says. “So
we sat in a hotel for a weekend the month
before release, me and a couple of writers
and designers, and we made the initial
design document. It wasn’t very good, but
it had the core ideas and they did like it.”
Larian made another version, Wizards
loved it, and that became the foundation
for Baldur’s Gate III. Much of that
foundation, unfortunately, remains a
mystery. The first trailer is appropriately
enigmatic until the end, with only a few
hints that it’s Baldur’s Gate. A man with
a flaming fist emblazoned on his tunic
stumbles across cobbled streets,
sweaty and distressed.
The trailer descends into gruesome
body horror as he spits up teeth and
violently transforms, evoking the
appetite-ruining transformations of Akira
and An American Werewolf in London,
until his final form is unveiled. Baldur’s
Gate is being invaded by mind flayers.
If you’ve not got your Monster Manual
at hand, mind flayers are a race of
Cthulhu-looking villains that use their
psionic abilities to control their victims and
slaves. Their glory days, when they ruled a
vast astral empire, are long behind them,
and the squid-faced tyrants have been
skulking around in the Underdark,
impressing the duergar and drow.
Unfortunately, they’ve had an upgrade.
Mind flayers used to be able to travel
between worlds via the Astral Plane,
piloting massive shells with protruding
tentacles known as nautiloids. They made
the mind flayers even more formidable,
but the art of making new ones has been
lost to them. Until now. “Those are big
problems,” says Vincke. “They want to
restore their empire, so we see the mind
flayers invading a city with a nautaloid. You
can imagine what might happen—but it’s
not what you’ll expect!”
With Divinity, particularly the
crowdfunded Original Sin games, Larian’s
been free to build its world how it sees fit.
With the Forgotten Realms, however, the
studio’s playing with a licence that’s been
developed over decades, full of its own
lore and rules, but Vincke says it’s not
been an obstacle.LORE COPS
“There are a lot of people at Larian who
play D&D, and there are a lot of game
sessions going on continuously, so that
already makes it easier because we have
the internal lore police. I’m the guy that
usually tries to break it, but then I get the
lore police on me. Usually that’s sufficient,D
ivinity: Original Sin 2 developer Larian
Studios is working on its follow up to
one of the best RPGs on PC—a third
adventure with a new party of heroes.
Just what you’d expect from Baldur’s Gate III. Cue
fainting elves and gasping halflings. Eighteen years
after the Bhaalspawn saga came to a close, we’re
finally returning to the Forgotten Realms.
Larian combines the best of
Divinity with D&D 5th edition
BALDUR’S
GATE III
THE STUDIO’S PLAYING WITH
A LICENCE THAT’S BEEN
DEVELOPED OVER DECADESRELEASE
TBA
DEVELOPER
Larian StudiosPUBLISHER
In-houseLINK
http://www.baldursgate3.gameNEED TO KNOW
FIRST
LOOKBaldur’s Gate III
PREVIEW