Baldur’s Gate 3 is here! But only as unfinished Early Access Version. Nevertheless, the game already costs $59,99. We will tell you exactly what you will get for it.
It took almost 20 years. Now the waiting is over because Baldur’s Gate 3 continues one of the best roleplaying game series ever. And that’s from Larian, the people who created a modern role-playing masterpiece in Divinity: Original Sin 2. But the anticipation is still restrained. The release on October 6, 2020, will only be available for the early-access version of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Nevertheless, you will already pay 60 euros for it, because you will only get the early access if you pre-order the complete game beforehand. But should you do that? So that you don’t buy the cat in the bag, we’ll tell you what you can get for your money so far.
Baldur’s Gate 3 early access details
As mentioned, the Early Access of Baldur’s Gate 3 started on October 6th. There is no special preselection or registration process. You can download the game once you have purchased it on Steam. From then on you can get a taste of the Early Access at your leisure. The version will be updated in the months until the release.
How long the Early Access will take has not yet been finally clarified. But it is expected to take about 12 months. So it will take another year until we get the complete game. But during this time, a lot can still change and improve Baldur’s Gate 3. More details about the Early Access we have unraveled in our overview:
Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access features
Baldur’s Gate 3 is supposed to become a huge role-playing game. Game Director Swen Vincke emphasizes again and again that his new roleplaying game will surpass original Sin 2 in terms of numbers and possibilities. And that was already an extremely extensive role-playing game. But in Early Access, you still have to reckon with many drawbacks:
Build your own hero: Right at the beginning, you have to build your hero in the character editor in Early Access. You choose a background, a race, a class, and determine the look. You can also set your own attributes. The game also suggests a possible distribution for your class and marks the most important attribute with a star. The playable races are humans, dwarves, elves, half-elves, drow, halflings, githyanki, and lowlings. Each race again with about two to three subspecies (high elves & forest elves for example).
Build a lover: Somewhat surprisingly, you can not only build your own hero but also build a character that your hero would most likely dream of. This character has no abilities and you only determine his or her appearance. What purpose this serves is still unknown. Obviously, he or she will exert influence as a dream figure.
The first chapter: The Early Access of Baldur’s Gate 3 is limited to the first chapter of the story. So you get not only an unfinished version but also a much shorter one. Absurdly enough, this shortened version is longer than many a finished game. You can spend about 25 hours on your first run alone. Your main quest is to find a healer who can fumble a Thought Flayer larva out of your head. This is made more difficult by the fact that your hero crashes right at the beginning in a wilderness where competent doctors rarely appear.
Classes and skills: All in all you can choose from six classes in Early Access. Each class offers a different style of play, skills, and subclasses. Fighters deal in close or long-range combat, mages have a large arsenal of spells, rogues pick locks and deal damage from ambush, rangers can take animals as pets and have limited magical powers, clerics are healers and still have spells pleasing to their god, warlocks have limited spells but they can always use them all.
Pets: In Early Access, you can take five different pets or just leave them. Each pet has its own class. Asterion is a rogue, Gale is a mage, Lae’zel is a fighter, Shadowheart is a cleric and Wyl is a warlock. Only rangers do not exist. The companions have their own quests and you can level up everyone freely. The classes are fixed, but for some of them, you can choose the subclass after an upgrade and develop the elven Astarion into an arcane rogue with magic powers.
Problems & what is still missing in the Baldur’s Gate 3?
More Classes & Peoples: The current selection of classes, subclasses, and even peoples is not yet complete. Larian has already announced that he will provide supplies here. Even during the Early Access. So you don’t have to wait for the release of the full version. Classes that we definitely still expect to see are Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, and Paladin. The races will probably be joined by gnomes. Whether Dragonborn and Half-Orcs will be added is questionable.
Prefabricated characters: In the finished game you don’t necessarily have to build your own hero. You can also make one of the companions your character. This option is currently not available in Early Access.
More pets: New pets will be added parallel to the additional classes. However, don’t expect as many possible companions as in Baldur’s Gate 2, but it’s written in the stars how many are planned and if we will meet them after the first chapter.
There are bugs, naturally: We have already mentioned it and want to say it again: Baldur’s Gate 3 is unfinished! So expect lots of bugs. Some could even be devastating. In our case, for example, the companion Shadowheart simply vanished into thin air. There are also items that disappear, characters with absurd facial gymnastics and never-ending loading beams.
Get Baldur’s Gate 3 in the Early Access only if you want to help with the development. Baldur’s Gate 3 is far from complete. If that’s a deterrent, you shouldn’t get it under any circumstances. If you still want to be part of it, it would be better to send your feedback to the developers. The game shows a lot of potentials, but there are still many edges to be polished.
Also, you should definitely plan several rounds! Already in early access, it becomes apparent that you can take many different approaches in this roleplaying game. This does not always depend only on your decisions, but often also on your skills. A ranger might find a clue that everyone else would have overlooked. Early access is by no means short, but it is a great way to try out some character concepts and put the decision-making power of Baldur’s Gate 3 to the test.
If you are currently looking for a complex roleplaying game! If you feel a little bit like roleplaying right now and don’t have anything to play, then you might as well jump into the Early Access of Baldur’s Gate 3. The game is unfinished and incomplete but still offers a deep gaming experience. And you can use the time to familiarize yourself with the rules without any risk.
Baldur’s Gate 3 system requirements
Larian has announced the minimum and recommended hardware requirements. With the help of our overview you can directly check whether your system is ready for the early access start. The requirements are pretty moderate, however.
Minimum system requirements
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
- RAM: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 150 GB available space
Recommended system requirements
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
- RAM: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 150 GB available space
