WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
After announcing that they were delaying the release of the early access for Baldur’s Gate 3, fans (myself included) were left a little downhearted as they’ve made this game look so damn good. But, in a Livestream tonight featuring folks from Larian and Wizards of the Coast, we got to see the final scene from the opening sequence, an insight into what to expect, and a new release date. Let’s dive right into the details.
The new, updated release date for the early access version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is September 30th. For many of us, this came as a really pleasant surprise. I know I was expecting to hear a 2021 date and was keeping everything crossed it wouldn’t be too far away. Hearing that the new (although, still slightly tentative) release date was just six weeks away was an exciting moment.
By revealing the final scene from the opening, Larian finally revealed a huge plot point for the game – we’re going to hell! In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, there are nine layers of hell, and we know that we will at least be visiting the first layer – Avernus. The story for Baldur’s Gate 3 seems to loosely follow on from the events of the DnD 5e adventure Descent Into Avernus – another Baldur’s Gate storyline.
As we are transported by the mind flayers that have abducted us and attacked by dragon riders, the Mindflayer decides that teleporting into the hells might be a good idea for escape. Here, we land slap bang in the middle of a war between devils and demons – a common occurrence here in Avernus.
We also learned that we will have the chance to explore the Underdark – another well-loved location in the world of DnD. Filled with monsters and general danger, it’s not a fun place to be for your characters, but it is an incredibly fun place for you as a player.
Romance has been confirmed to be in a big part of the game too – so those of you who love a bit of romancing in your RPG games, you’ll be glad to know that!
The early access version of the game will allow your characters to reach level 4. While that may sound low, in the world of DnD, the max level is 20, so this is a pretty nice chunk to be able to play through to get a feel for the game. They also mentioned that the playable races and classes won’t be as extensive as the full release, but were reluctant to name exactly which ones we’ll have access to. My guess would be we’ll be limited to the more standard options from DnD so; human, elf, dwarf, half-elf, gnome, possibly tiefling and githyanki too. Then class wise I imagine it will be similar, we’ll hopefully get access to all the major classes and then one or two subclasses for each during this early access stage.
They’ve shown us just how many options there are in this game when it comes to story points and dialog, so it seems like it will be an easy game to replay for different experiences. Adding all that to the amount of character creation options they’ve promised means I cannot wait to get my hands on this game.
