BALDUR’S GATE III

GAMES

The D&D franchise reaches a truly epic level…

Don’t you go nibbling on those mushrooms – this game’s world is trippy enough as it is

★★★★★ OUT NOW PS5, PC

Once considered the preserve of basement-bound nerds, Dungeons & Dragons’ pop-cultural stock has never been higher. Endorsements from celebs ranging from Vin Diesel to Stephen Colbert to Joseph Gordon-Levitt have certainly done no harm to its mainstream profile. Likewise, Netflix smash Stranger Things, which places the game right at the heart of its storytelling (the fourth season addressed the ‘Satanic panic’ that surrounded D&D in the 80s).

Though the box-office takings for this year’s Honour Among Thieves might suggest it has yet to become a truly mass-market proposition, that can partly be attributed to stiff competition from the likes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. More telling is the fact that Paramount stumped up a reported $150m budget in the first place.

Still, the property’s enduring popularity and influence is most apparent in video games. Built around D&D’s breakout fifth edition, the expansive RPG Baldur’s Gate III was breaking records within hours of its full launch. What makes that all the more remarkable is that the finished game hasn’t softened its edges for a broader audience.

Encouraged by player feedback during its three-year spell in ‘early access’ mode, Baldur’s Gate III sets a steep challenge from the off. Even initial combat encounters are fraught with peril, forcing you to make choices that will test your morals as well as your tactics. Newcomers might find the granular character creator overwhelming. Helpfully, you can pick from a series of ‘Origin’ protagonists, each with a fixed race, class and appearance, but still with the capacity to be moulded into a hero of your choosing. Or an anti-hero, for that matter. If you’ve grown accustomed to treading the ‘paragon path’ in choice-driven RPGs, be warned: you can’t always take the virtuous approach here. That’s particularly true if you select the Dark Urge character, where you’re forced to adapt to involuntary actions that often have grisly consequences.

Your choice of race and class has a bearing on your strategy: you can sneak through some encounters, or wheedle your way out of them using your skills of persuasion. Friends in one playthrough may become sworn enemies in the next, but the game’s sprawling size means it may be hours before you get to see just how deftly this tale adjusts to the decisions you make.

As such, it’s akin to playing a D&D campaign with a veteran Game Master: one who can conjure twists, surprises and memorable scenarios with uncanny regularity. If the sheer number of variables creates a few technical wobbles, all is forgiven in the moments when you improvise a crackpot solution and the game happily lets you get away with it. And with its lavish cinematics voiced by a stellar cast (including J.K. Simmons and Jason Isaacs) it has the production values to match its mechanical excellence. As the tabletop game approaches its 50th anniversary, this could well be a new pinnacle for Dungeons & Dragons.