Baldur's Gate III launches in Early Access on September 30 - briefly
(hx) 09:16 PM CEST - Aug,18 2020
- Post a comment / read (1) Baldur’s Gate III will launch in Early Access for PC via Steam and Stadia on September 30, developer Larian Studios announced during its “Panel from Hell” live stream. Here is a fully summary of the panel, via Larian Studios:
CGI Introduction
The final part of the game’s now roughly six-minute CGI introduction revealed that players begin their journey in Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. Avernus featured heavily in the recently released Dunegons & Dragons adventure module Descent Into Avernus, which saw the entire city of Elturel dragged into hell. The city was saved, but the aftermath of that cataclysmic event casts a shadow over the events of Baldur’s Gate III. Players won’t just see the aftermath, however; captive aboard a nautiloid, they’ll take part in a daring escape as the ship jumps between planes of existence and is caught in the fury of the eternal, apocalyptic Blood War that rages across the hellscape. Avernus will be featured throughout the game, alongside many other locations to be announced later.
Gameplay
A highlight of the Panel From Hell was the “lobotomy scene,” a new gameplay snippet shown during the stream. As players attempt to seize control of the nautiloid, they find a corpse with its brain exposed. The brain itself seems to address the player, asking them to free it. At this point, players can decide to get their hands dirty, extracting the brain from the skull, which leads to the discovery that it’s not a brain at all, but rather a trapped Intellect Devourer. These creatures feed on the intelligence of sentient beings, taking over their victims’ bodies on behalf of their Mind Flayer masters.
Scope of Early Access
Swen Vincke, Creative Director of Larian Studios, also showcased the scope of early access, giving details on how the size of Baldur’s Gate III‘s first act compares to Larian’s previous release, Divinity: Original Sin II, when it launched in early access. Here are a few numbers that will emphasize the depth of Baldur’s Gate III in comparison to Divinity: Original Sin II:
- Number of Combat Encounters: 22 in Divinity: Original Sin II Early Access vs. 80 in Baldur’s Gate III Early Access
- Number of English Dialogue Lines: 17,600 in Divinity: Original Sin II Early Access vs. 45,980 in Baldur’s Gate III Early Access
- Number of Characters: 142 in Divinity: Original Sin II Early Access vs. 596 in Baldur’s Gate III Early Access
- Number of Spells / Actions: 69 in Divinity: Original Sin II Early Access vs. 146 in Baldur’s Gate III Early Access
Classes and races will be announced closer to September 30, but Larian today confirmed that Baldur’s Gate III‘s Early Access will include five Origin characters (as well as player-customized characters), with more to be announced throughout Early Access. The five launch characters are: Astarion (Elf / Vampire Rogue), Gale (Human Wizard), Lae’zel (Githyanki Warrior), Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric), Wyll (Human Warlock).
Through gameplay footage, and audience interaction, Vincke demonstrated how the game allows players to discover different permutations in encounters and dialogue depending on the characters they play and the choices they make. This depth of reactivity means that even in early access, multiple playthroughs will lead to different outcomes and developments not only for players and their companions, but for the many NPCs they meet and the world around them, too. In simple terms, playing “good” and “evil” will offer wholly different experiences with many twists and turns (all performance-captured) that other players may never see, depending on their choices.
Following its “Panel From Hell” presentation, developer Larian Studios shared more information on what to expect from Baldur’s Gate 3 when it heads into Early Access next month. Specifically, the developer shared the initial system requirements for the game on PC, noting that the specs may change as the game progresses in development. You can take a look at the current minimum and recommended specs below:
MINIMUM:
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- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 70 GB available space
- Additional Notes: The minimum requirements might decrease over the course of Early Access, as performance improves.
RECOMMENDED:
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- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 70 GB available space
- Additional Notes: The recommended requirements might decrease over the course of Early Access, as performance improves.
Alongside the system requirements for the game’s Early Access debut on PC, Larian Studios also shared an FAQ with more insight into the Early Access experience for Baldur’s Gate 3. According to its Steam page, Larian is anticipating the game being in an Early Access state for “at least one year,” but that timeline could change depending on the course of development.
The Early Access build will include the game’s first Act, which measures up to “approximately 25 hours of self-contained gameplay.” Players will be able to access 6 character classes from the start and recruit 5 (non-playable, for now) origin characters, while additional classes, races, and subraces are expected to be added later during its development. From the start, the Early Access build of Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature “most” of its initially advertised features, though others are a “work in progress,” according to Larian. Alongside the technical and content specifications of the beta, Larian revealed that the Early Access build for Baldur’s Gate 3 will be fully-voiced in English, while supporting 6 other languages for its interface and subtitles: French, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. |