Developed by the same talented hands that brought us the roundly excellent Divinity: Original Sin games, Baldur’s Gate 3 looks set to deliver the most sprawling, ambitious and accurate take on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop phenomenon seen to date and we’re here to let you know everything you need to know about it.
Make sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we cover everything you need to know about Baldur’s Gate 3 including the release date, gameplay details, latest trailer, PC specifications and much more.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Release Date
The Baldur’s Gate 3 full PC Steam and Mac release date has been confirmed as August 3, 2023. Further afield, it will also have a full release on PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2023. The RPG will also eventually release on Xbox Series S/X consoles, but a release date has yet to be announced at this stage owing to current technical difficulties in making the multiplayer split-screen functionality performant on the less powerful Xbox Series S console.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Gameplay
Following the footsteps of its genre defining predecessors, Baldur’s Gate 3 once more whisks players off into Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms setting, though this time the experience has been crafted with the sort of sweep and scope that those older BioWare titles could only dream of. Using the D&D 5e ruleset as its base, Larian’s game tasks players with gathering a party of heroes together and to venture deep into the Sword Coast in an attempt to unearth a conspiracy between earthbound rulers and otherworldly deities.
Kicking things off with the sort of super in-depth and layered character creation system that one would expect from the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons experience, it soon thrusts players into its world, offering up a delectable mixture of turn-based combat, ambitious third-person perspective exploration and sophisticated questlines. Baldur’s Gate 3 offers up a bounty of player agency and non-linear choice, allowing wannabe adventurers and armchair heroes to entirely shape the narrative and side quests in accordance with the alignments that they have chosen for their party.
Really though where the game really would seem to stand apart from its genre contemporaries is in how closely it hews to its tabletop source material, allowing players to really do just about everything. From engaging in wild Druid bear relations (and that’s all I’m saying about that) to an in-game newspaper that reports on what you’re doing – and can be affected by finding the print office and, well, convincing them to report things in a different way – to a full range of customisable character origins that can uniquely shape a given playthrough, it looks to be the most accurate representation of Dungeons & Dragons tabletop experience that we’ve ever seen.
How Long Does It Take To Complete?
To be clear – Baldur’s Gate 3 is far from some meagre morsel of a game. Clocking in at between 75-100 hours to complete just the main storyline, well over 200 hours to finish all of the side quests, more than 175 hours(!) of story cinematics and triple(!!) the word count of the Lord of the Rings novel trilogy, it’s certainly fair to say that this game represents a veritable banquet of epic RPG goodness. Quite simply, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a mammoth undertaking in every sense of the word and is so broad in sweep, scope and ambition that repeat play is utterly irresistible in order to see everything that Larian Studios latest can offer.
Does it Support Multiplayer?
Yes, Baldur’s Gate 3 does support multiplayer. Much like the tabletop experience that it’s based on, multiplayer is a key part of the proceedings and developer Larian Studios has implemented it seamlessly into the game. Supporting online cooperative multiplayer for up to four players, it permits each of those players to assume control of a character within the party and in doing so, allows each player to fully experience the gargantuan campaign that the game offers.
Even better, not only is crossplay between PC and Mac players available with the online multiplayer side of things but it also supports local, same screen co-operative play for up to two players as well. In addition to split-screen multiplayer being available in all three versions of Baldur’s Gate 3, so too is cross save functionality supported – enabling players to hop from one platform to another and bring their progress with them.
Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer?
The latest trailer for Baldur’s Gate 3 is available to watch right now and is a release trailer that provides players with a rapid-fire glimpse at what to expect from the game. Showing off an enticing mixture of combat, cutscenes, romance, terrifying monsters and providing a brief tease for the game’s story, the release trailer does a grand old job of priming players for their return to its titular realm of dark fantasy adventure.
Baldur’s Gate 3 PC Specifications
Unfolding within a sprawling take on the Dungeons & Dragons universe with an emphasis on detailed character models, breath-taking environments and extravagant effects work, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an opulent effort that demands a capable PC rig to get most from it. On that note, you can catch the minimum and recommended specifications below.
Minimum PC specifications:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel I5 4690 / AMD FX 8350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 / RX 480 (4GB+ of VRAM)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 150 GB available space
Recommended PC specifications:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i7 8700K / AMD r5 3600
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia 2060 Super / RX 5700 XT (8GB+ of VRAM)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 150 GB available space
