GET THE PARTY STARTED

Our first look at BALDUR’S GATE III’s opening act.

- Fraser Brown

Jesus Christ,” mutters Larian CEO Swen Vincke as another arrow hits his unconscious wizard.

We’ve barely started our journey to Baldur’s Gate, and we’re close to a second party wipe. Vincke gets creative. He takes off his boot and throws it at a bandit, dealing a very small amount of damage. Five minutes later, unrelated to his missing footwear, he slips on some stairs and dies.

Baldur’s Gate III promises an epic yarn full of cosmic invaders, trap-filled dungeons, and more characters with a mysterious past than an Agatha Christie mystery. And just like its tabletop progenitor, a few unlucky rolls and some interesting decisions can transform it into a brilliant comedy of errors.

Details were slim last time we spoke to Larian about its next big RPG, but this time the developer has opened the gate—though lamentably not to the point where I’ve been able to take it for a spin myself. The illithids, grotesque alien tyrants have more commonly known as mind flayers, have rediscovered the secret of flying nautiloids, their weird crustacean ships, and have decided to invade the Forgotten Realms. They’ve abducted lots of people and stuck parasitic tadpoles in their heads, but before the show can really get started, another alien race appears, the githyanki, on top of red dragons no less, and blows them out of the sky.

This is good news, as it turns out. As one of the unfortunate abductees, you’re free. Unfortunately, you still have a parasite in your head. It’s not a great thing to have, as it’s how mind flayers procreate.