Most people that are aware of my gaming tendencies these days know that I’m more than a little obsessed with Baldur’s Gate 3. The thing that might surprise them, however, is that when the game released last year I wasn’t even remotely interested in it, yet somehow this past week I’ve broken 500 hours of game time.
I’ve always had an interest in role playing games, but I always lacked either free time or the patience to really get into them. I’ve primarily leaned more towards different flavors of action RPGs over the years, including but not limited to the Diablo and Legend of Zelda franchises, as well as many metroidvania and roguelike games. I’ve also spent a lot of time with MMORPGs such as WoW back in the day and more recently FFXIV, and I’m well aware of how that contradicts with my previous comment about a lack of free time or patience.
Also racing games. I do enjoy a good racing game.
So BG3 wasn’t in my wheelhouse and didn’t make a blip on my radar when it initially released, but people started playing it and heaping praise upon it and eventually it caught my attention. It was released around the same time as several other big name flops which had left a lot of the gaming community in a bit of a slump. It became an example of what a developer should do correctly to make their customers happy. After dropping too much money on other games that had been unable to keep me engaged I decided to vote with my wallet, so to speak, and take a chance on this genre that had interested me but hadn’t managed to hold my attention in the past as a way of rewarding a company that seemed to be doing everything right when so many other companies were not.
I spent some time bumbling around Faerûn aimlessly and dying a lot and not really enjoying myself because I was convinced that I was doing something wrong. I had very little idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. I had absolutely convinced myself that I was playing the game incorrectly and that I was missing important things and I was screwing everything up. I had become so accustomed to games with fairly linear and straightforward storylines that the freedom afforded to me by BG3 felt like a mistake.
I kept at it, however, and after awhile things started to click. The combat started to make sense. I began to take my time and strategize my moves rather than just rushing in and trying to smash everything into the ground as quickly as possible. I found myself paying more attention to the conversations I was having with characters in the game and realizing that the decisions I made were actually affecting their attitudes toward me and the progression of the story. I stopped worrying about being a completionist and finding every little secret and just enjoyed experiencing the game and soaking up the story.
My first playthrough was as a Drow Paladin, and it was messy to say the least, because there was such a massive learning curve for me, but I took what I had learned from the paladin and applied it to my second game, which was as a warlock. The warlock ended up being my second full solo playthrough and honestly one of the absolute best gaming experiences of my life to date. I was hooked by the immersion, the world building, the character arcs, and the massive tapestry that it all weaved together to make this amazing world that I was still bumbling through. I had learned to stop worrying about how the game was going and just focus on the story as it unfolded around me.
Now I finally “get” RPGs, and the old meta has flipped on it’s head. Now I search out the games that I had previously told myself I didn’t have time to delve into and I find everything else boring. I don’t want another post-apocalyptic dungeon-crawling survival game-as-a-service multiplayer word-salad of a game that every company seems to be pushing out when they’re not busy regurgitating the umpteenth remake of an older game that has only suffered more and more by every new version released. I’ve been diving into retro gaming more to find those legendary games in their original forms, and I’ve been spending more time working my way thru indie games because those seem to be the only games made by people that still really enjoy gaming and making good games.
I also still enjoy a good racing game.
This has also been part of my interest in handheld retro gaming, because I can experience those older titles without having to be tethered to a TV or computer. The freedom to take these games anywhere with me has been a game-changer as well. In the past year I’ve managed to complete Chrono Trigger, Fire Emblem – The Binding Blade, and Golden Sun as well as several more BG3 runs and I’ve been enjoying gaming more than I have in years.
Thank you, Larian, for making games fun for me again. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a githyanki cleric that needs my attention.