Baldur's Gate III

Remembering the Forgotten Realms

- IAN EVENDEN

RELEASING BALDUR’S GATE III into Early Access might be a masterstroke. It’s going to be there for about a year, and while it gets the 25-hour first act into players’ hands in a playable state, it also lets developer Larian off the hook for any glitches—like the fact we couldn’t get the game to run under its default Vulkan renderer, backing off to DirectX 11 instead. There’s a disclaimer up front and a darn great watermark on all screenshots to the effect that, yes, this is still an early build.

Look at it, then, as a valuable opportunity to watch a master at work. Or wait a year before buying. What you get now is a remarkable opening sequence involving a flying mollusc-ship and dragons right out of Westeros. Some mind flayers— levitating, tentacled, evil creatures with a nice line in psychic domination—have captured you and some other characters and implanted one of their tadpoles behind your eye. In a few days, unless cleansed, you’ll turn into a mind flayer yourself. We suspect cleansed doesn’t involve scented candles and a big syringe full of coffee, but everyone you meet seems to have a different plan to get the bug out of you, and some will make things far worse. The actual city of Baldur’s Gate remains off limits, for now.