Baldur's Gate III

An illithid spaceship crashes on the banks of the River Chionthar, far to the east of the great city of Baldur's Gate. Seven survivors stumble forth, former prisoners of the illithids, the much-feared mind-flayers. These seven individuals have been infected with mind-flayer tadpoles, which will slowly burrow into their brains and turn them into new illithids. But something is holding the tadpoles at bay. The companions learn that they may be able to escape their doom, if they can work out their differences, join forces and defeat the greatest threat to Faerûn and the Sword Coast to appear in generations.

Baldur's Gate III - now officially the Game of the Year™ - is a massive, sprawling, roleplaying game set on the Dungeons & Dragons world of Toril, better known as the Forgotten Realms. It is the sequel to Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, two of the greatest roleplaying games (and in fact video games full stop) of all time, but also notes that since it's almost a quarter of a century since the last game in the series game out, it requires zero previous knowledge of the series to enjoy. It arrives at a perfect moment, with the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop roleplaying games at an all-time high, and goodwill for developers Larian Studios still riding high from their previous two games in the Divinity: Original Sin series.

It would be churlish to say anything other than Baldur's Gate III is an overwhelmingly impressive game. It's enormous, with a playthrough of the main story and most side-quests taking around 100 hours, but an exhausting playthrough to find every bit of loot, gold and lore taking easily half again as long. The game can be played solo or as a co-op online game. You can create a new character from scratch, play as one of the six existing "origin characters" (who otherwise become your major NPC party-members), or play the "Dark Urge" character, who has a murderous drive which ties more directly into the previous games in the series. Creating a new character, you can play as one of numerous species, classes and sub-classes, with a wide array of feats, abilities and combat moves to develop and employ. There's a lot of game here, but the game is forgiving enough that you can muddle through even with "suboptimal" builds, and it does a good job of teaching you what you need to do as it goes along.

I mean, she's not wrong.

Baldur's Gate III feels bizarrely and positively schizophrenic: the game has AAA+ production values, cutscenes, voice-acting, graphics, visual effects and polish (at least for the first half of the game) to shame the latest Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed mainstream title, but it's also deeply geeky. The turn-based combat and the need for tactical positioning, mastery of buffs and debuffs and knowledge of how Concentration-based spell effects work all feel better suited for hardcore indie titles aimed squarely at insiders and grognards. The game's most startling success is bridging these two audiences, creating a game with the richness and depth of many of the classic CRPG titles but the mainstream accessibility and appeal of the most polished AAA action games.

The game isn't truly an open-world title, instead being set across one very large map in each of the three acts, plus a couple of side-maps related to them. Each map will still take a while to simply explore, and are packed with puzzles, enemies, potential allies, caves, loot and mysteries. Many events pertain to your current situation but others are incidental side-quests. Each act has its own major storyline: Act I focuses on a conflict between a goblin army and a druid grove which is also hosting a large number of tiefling refugees from the nearby city of Elturel; Act II is set in the mist-shrouded lands around Moonrise Towers, where the Harpers are planning a strike to retake the fortress from the evil warlord who controls it; and Act III takes the party to Baldur's Gate itself, where dubious shifts in governance mask a foul conspiracy unfolding both above and below ground. It sometimes feels like the game could have been a trilogy made up of three ~30-hour games which would have still been incredibly rewarding, and getting them all in one title for one price is an insane act of generosity on Larian's part. For the record, Baldur's Gate III is substantially longer than all three Mass Effect games combined.

No, it's not that one.

The game's narrative is complex, with the struggle to overcome the mind-flayer tadpole munching on your cerebellum tied into the mystery of why it hasn't already succeeded. Trying to remove this threat leads you into some very strange places. But you are also one of seven characters in the same boat, and each one of your companions - Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Wyll - has their own immense amount of backstory and baggage to deal with. Astarion is a vampire spawn who yearns for vengeance against his abusive former master. Gale has a ticking magical time bomb inside him and emotional damage from a relationship with the Goddess of Magic. Karlach is infused with an Infernal Engine that grants her strength but is also slowly killing her. Lae'zel is a githyanki with a severe attitude problem who is trying to serve her people the best way she can. Shadowheart is a brittle worshipper of Shar, the Goddess of Shadows and Darkness, but also has a good heart that seems at odd with her calling. Wyll is a warlock tied to a dubious, demonic patron. Each one of these characters and stories is well-drawn and enacted, with outstanding voice acting. Many of the game's finest moments come from interactions with and between your companion characters, as you move from dysfunctional-at-best allies to more of a found family.

That's not going too far into the other characters you meet along the way, people whom you can turn into powerful allies by helping their cause, such as rescuing the druid Halsin from the goblin camp or saving the thieves' guild of Baldur's Gate from being usurped by a rival operation. Many of these storylines are also highly engaging.

Combat is tactically satisfying, but - and this is a relief - not quite as puzzle-focused as the Original Sin games. In those games, incredibly tough battles were really puzzles which could only be unlocked through the use of oils, traps and explosives. Baldur's Gate III still has many of those elements, but they are more optional and instead combat is more reliant on the tactics you yourself develop through experimentation. This is much more satisfying and enjoyable.

Given the game's immense scale, its epic scope, its strong storytelling, outstanding characterisation and immaculate presentation, this must be a clean sweep, surely? An immediate five-star classic?

"This guy seems trustworthy."

Not quite. Baldur's Gate III's incredible first impression is slowly soured by a number of problems (some solved by the large number of patches and hotfixes since the game's launch four months ago, some not). None of these are fatal, but combined they do remove some of the sheen from the game.

The first is that the game's launch was technically problematic. The first half of the game was almost flawless, but the second half saw gradually escalating crashes, graphical errors, quest triggers misfiring, occasional random deaths and massively tanking framerates (especially when reaching Baldur's Gate itself, one of the most detailed and densest fantasy cities ever depicted in a video game). Many of these were fixed, but some issues remain: wonky physics, occasionally vanishing items which you are trying to pick up and cutscenes abruptly ending as the game can't work out what scene to play next (cutscenes are dynamic and depend on, sometimes, hundreds of choices you have made through the game).

This leads into a second problem in that Baldur's Gate III bills itself as being fully reactive to your game choices, so if you want to surprise-attack a major antagonist halfway through his evil plan speech and yeet him into a lava pit, you certainly can try. The problem is that it's rather easy to trip the game up in this way: in Act I I snuck into the goblin fortress from a side-tunnel rather than infiltrating via the camp outside, and in Act II I stumbled across the Gauntlet of Shar before finding Moonrise Towers. So, twice, I did major parts of the game's storyline in the opposite order to the way the game expects. Twice, the game failed to adequately respond to this, with characters making reference to things I had not done and people I had not yet met, cutscenes not really making sense and major parts of the story being shut off to me without much forewarning or the ability to do anything about it.

The game can also be extremely odd in what it tells you to do, or is possible: at the end of Act I you are told you have to proceed either via a mountain pass or the Underdark to reach Moonrise Towers. But, in fact, you can simply do both. In fact, you really should do both, as major storyline events for your companion characters take place in both locations. Following the game's directions literally can simply cut you out of large amounts of content if you are not careful.

Another issue is caused by the game's structure. As you pursue your myriad quests, they start to draw to conclusions deep into Act III, and they then climax in rapid succession, which is what you'd expect. But this means that the game can wind up putting five very tough boss fights one-after-another in the latter part of Act III, which ended up being a bit too much and left the actual final battle of the game feeling a bit undercooked in comparison. The game hints at a better structure earlier one, when Shadowheart's story really climaxes in Act II but gives her a meaty epilogue early in Act III. Wyll's story can also be brought to an early conclusion in Act III. Spacing out the companion characters' stories more evenly would be a better idea (and it may be possible on a replay to approach things somewhat differently).

Baldur's Gate III also cannot help but suffer a little in comparison to its earlier forebears; its music is notably nowhere near as good (BG3's soundtrack perks up with the excellent faux-opera accompanying your confrontation with a very powerful enemy near the end of the game, but is mostly generic) and - utterly bafflingly - its UI is sometimes clunkier. Identifying weapons and items in your inventory can be fiddlier, and things that can smoothly be done in one click in Baldur's Gate II now take two or three. BG2 has real-time combat that can be effectively made turn-based through the use of options, whilst BG3 only has turn-based combat, which sometimes kills the game's pacing when facing off against a bunch of dramatically weaker enemies whom you are absolutely going to rinse regardless. Baldur's Gate III's rogue's gallery of enemies also feels a little flat: the most charismatic and intimidating enemy in the game is seen off in Act II and those left behind are tiresome second-stringers. None of Jon Irenicus' powerful gravitas or Sarevok's mad-dog energy here (well, very little of it). I'm also now a little bored of big RPGs in which something weird is happening inside your head and is going to kill you unless you do the main quest (for a genre that utterly despises railroading, the video game versions of pen-and-paper RPGs are awfully fond of doing things that would risk a DM getting ostracised in real life).

The final criticism is also not so much of a bug but a feature for a lot of people: Baldur's Gate III is a lot and I found myself only really able to enjoy the game with my brain switched full on, paying maximum attention and in the zone. This is not a calm or gentle game to chill out to, like, say, Starfield. With its immense checklist of things to do and people to see and monsters to kill, BG3 occasionally risks feeling more like work than relaxation. Of course, for those who love number-crunching, story-tracking and optimising builds, this will be a huge appeal rather than a possible weakness.

Baldur's Gate III's weaknesses are not insignificant, especially cumulatively, but they ultimately cannot derail the game's immense achievements: mostly good writing, strong character work, intriguing combat, gorgeous graphics and best-in-class voice acting. Baldur's Gate III (****½) has rewritten expectations on how complex, challenging and layered a video game can be and still be a huge crossover smash hit, and it may be some considerable time before we see a game that has as much success.

The game is now available on PC, PlayStation 5 and, as of today, Xbox Series X and S.

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RUMOUR: Netflix interested in developing a BALDUR'S GATE adaptation

File under "highly tenuous" for now, but a couple of outlets are reporting rumours that Netflix has expressed an interest in developing a live-action Baldur's Gate TV series, based on the hot video game property.

Baldur's Gate III launched on PC at the start of August and reportedly sold five million copies in its first few weeks on sale (before it even launched on console), making it a remarkable success for something of an old-fashioned, party-based roleplaying game with turn-based combat. The game's critical acclaim was also off the charts, with the game becoming PC Gamer's highest-rated title in two decades. The game's voice cast have become almost immediate, breakout stars, and the memes have been constantly flowing since the game's launch.

The Baldur's Gate series comprises three games and three expansions in the core series and three games in the spin-off Dark Alliance series, as well as associated comics and roleplaying products. The series revolves around the titular city of Baldur's Gate, a great port on the River Chionthar and a hugely important trading post for the Sword Coast region of the continent of Faerûn. The city keeps getting into various scrapes, but of course handy adventurers keep showing up to help save it.

The series is set within the much wider Forgotten Realms fantasy universe, created by Canadian writer Ed Greenwood in the 1960s as a setting for short stories and worldbuilding as a hobby. He sold the setting to TSR, Inc., the company behind Dungeons & Dragons, to be turned in an official D&D setting in 1987. Continuously in print since, the setting has sold millions of roleplaying products, tens of millions of novels and has been the setting for almost three hundred books and over fifty video games. Ed invented the city of Baldur's Gate in 1968 for a short story called "The Box That Crept on Talons," whilst it got its first mention in print in Dragon Magazine #81 (January 1984), as the home of a wizard who is an expert on basilisks.

The video game Baldur's Gate was released in December 1998, having been developed by Canadian video game studio BioWare and published by Interplay. A smash-hit success, Baldur's Gate told the story of the Bhaalspawn, a number of progeny of the slain God of Murder, Bhaal, and the various attempts to resurrect Bhaal, a prospect welcomed by some of these progeny but fiercely resisted by others. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn followed in 2000, and both games had expansions: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999) and Throne of Bhaal (2001). Remasters of the two games, known as Enhanced Editions, were released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. An interquel expansion set between the two games, Siege of Dragonspear, was released in 2016. Baldur's Gate III was developed by Larian Studios in Belgium.

The prospects of a Netflix-produced series are dubious for the time being. Hasbro's TV and film division, eOne, currently has the TV and film rights to all D&D and Forgotten Realms related products. They recently produced the film Honor Among Thieves set in the same world, and are developing a number of further projects, including potentially an adaptation of R.A. Salvatore's mega-selling Legend of Drizzt book series, as well as a possible project based on the popular Dragonlance world of Krynn. eOne is developing these projects with Paramount, for potential airing on their Paramount+ streaming service. If a Baldur's Gate TV project was to be developed, Paramount+ might be a better bet than Netflix at this time.

However, Hasbro have also been entertaining offers to divest eOne (either spinning it off as an independent company or selling it outright, possibly to Paramount), in which case it is unclear what would happen to the D&D rights. It is possible they might entertain an alliance with Netflix at that stage.

Given the massive popularity of Baldur's Gate III, I wouldn't be surprised to see such a project go into development, but given the game is around 100 hours long with a massive cast and a story that can vary immensely from player to play based on the cumulative weight of hundreds of choices, it will certainly be a formidable challenge to bring the story to the screen.

BALDUR'S GATE 3 becomes one of the most popular Steam games ever

Larian Studios launched the extremely long-awaited third video game in the Baldur's Gate series last week on PC. The follow-up to BioWare's Baldur's Gate (1998) and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), the game is another fantasy roleplaying epic drawing on Dungeons & Dragons rules, with the player taking control of a motley crew and setting out to save the world, or at least to start with, their skulls.

The game had a lengthy three-year gestation period in Early Access, during which time over two and a half million people played the game and Larian received extensive feedback on how to improve balancing, combat, classes and characters.

The extensive Early Access period and pre-release hype seems to have paid off. In the four days since release, the game has peaked at just under 815,000 concurrent players, making it the ninth-most-played game in Steam's history. Larian have not disclosed how many additional sales were notched up in the release period, but the game has sat at the top of Steam's sales charts for a considerable chunk of that time. The game has likewise been the biggest-selling title on GoG for the past week or so.

Baldur's Gate 3's sales are restricted to the PC format only for the time being. The game will launch on PlayStation 5 on 5 September and an Xbox release is planned for later, although Larian have encountered technical difficulties in getting the game to run well on the lower-specced Xbox Series S console. They hope to resolve the problem soon.

For myself, I'm a dozen hours into the game and so far it's been a satisfying fantasy adventure. It may be some considerable time before a review, however. This is a very, very big game.

BALDUR'S GATE: DARK ALLIANCE to hit PC after twenty-year wait

The 2001 action-RPG Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is to arrive on PC later this year after spending more than twenty years as a console exclusive.

The original game was an action-oriented spin-off from the Baldur's Gate CRPG series from BioWare, although they were not involved in the Dark Alliance project. Snowblind Studios (now part of Monolith) developed the game and its highly-acclaimed (for the time) engine, and the game was published by Interplay via their Black Isle subsidiary. The game is less talky and cerebral than the mainline CRPG series, instead focusing on combat as the resolution to most of the game's challenges. Despite this, it still uses a simplified version of the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition ruleset to handle gameplay.

The game was well-received and sold over a million copies in its first year on sale, which at the time was considered a great success. Polish developers CD Projekt began developing a PC version of the game as their very first project, but Interplay, in financial difficulties at the time, went bust and the port was cancelled; CD Projekt used the expertise and experience gained to help develop The Witcher for release in 2007. Black Isle did release a sequel to the game, Dark Alliance II, in 2004.

The game has since been reissued for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, with a PC version now slated to follow in a few months. At over twenty years, this marks one of the longest waits a game has had to endure for a port to a platform that existed when it was released, although it is not a record: Final Fantasy III (1990) had to wait for twenty-four years for its port from the Nintendo Entertainment System to PC in 2014, whilst Chrono Trigger (1995) had to wait twenty-three years for its port.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, a spiritual successor the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series, is set for release on 22 June this year. Baldur's Gate III, a semi-sequel to the original CRPG series, is currently in Early Access and should get a full release in late 2021 or (more likely) 2022.

BALDUR'S GATE II - the LORD OF THE RINGS of western RPGs - turns 20

BioWare's classic computer roleplaying game, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, turned 20 years old this week. The sequel to the 1998 original, Baldur's Gate II was bigger, more epic and exhausting to make, but more exhilarating to play. It was the last 2D game BioWare made, switching to a 3D engine for their next games Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and never looking back. They have acknowledged that they will likely never be able to match the scale and scope of the game again.

BioWare shipped Baldur's Gate in late 1998. A 2D CRPG launching in the initial age of 3D games - being released within weeks of Half-Life, in fact - Baldur's Gate proved to be a huge hit. Using the Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition ruleset and the Forgotten Realms world, Baldur's Gate and its excellent Infinity Engine caught the public imagination. BioWare's publisher, Interplay, even borrowed the engine so their in-house CRPG studio, Black Isle, could make their own variants, Planescape: Torment (1999) and Icewind Dale (2000).

Baldur's Gate allowed the player to create any character they wished and then guide them through a lengthy adventure. Starting with the murder of the player's adopted father by a mysterious stranger, the player would explore a semi-open world brimming with adventures, side-quests, monsters and treasure. They'd join forces with a band of bickering companions, some of whom would hate and fight one another. The player would even be able to romance some of these companions. All the while a compelling central storyline would unfold, culminating in the reveal that the lead character is one of the "Bhaalspawn," descendants of the slain God of Murder, Bhaal, and poised to inherit his murderous power. The original game ended with the party defeated another of the Bhaalspawn, Sarevok, and defeating a conspiracy to destabilise the Sword Coast and the great city of Baldur's Gate. An expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), expanded the original game with a series of new quests and a "super dungeon" adding many hours of new content.

With Baldur's Gate a huge hit, the team at BioWare started work on a sequel. With the engine already mature and ready to go, the designers were able to focus almost exclusively on creating content. In less than eighteen months, they had created a game almost four times the scale and scope of the original Baldur's Gate. The new storyline would expand on the "Bhaalspawn" elements from the original, with a new villain called Jon Irenicus trying to capture the main character to gain access to his or her power. In a deviation from the original game, where Sarevok appeared fleetingly, Irenicus makes more frequent appearances in the game throughout its length and is ruthless and threatening, killing several major characters from the first game and kidnapping another. Actor David Warner (Time Bandits, Titanic, Star Trek) was praised for his memorable performance as Irenicus, often cited as one of the greatest video game antagonists of all time for his conviction and menace.

Although the new storyline was memorable and well-handled, praise was also lavished on the game's immense number of side-quests, some developing into significant sub-plots lasting hours in themselves. These appeared in the game's second act which, as is traditional with BioWare games, is wide open and allows players to travel around, meet people at random and achieve different goals. Although not an open world game as such (even arguably as much as the original), Baldur's Gate II was still huge in scope with more than 350 locations to visit, dozens of dungeons to explore and thousands of enemies to fight. The game also gave more power and choice to the player, including greater character customisation options and bringing in rules from the just-released 3rd Edition of the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game.

One of the game's most popular features was a home base. Depending on the main character's class, they would receive one of several potential strongholds. Over the course of the game the stronghold could be built up and improved on, and would provide a valuable location for players to retreat to between quests.

The game expanded the combat from the original game, offering a ton of elements to give players granular control over how they handled it. They could transform the game into a turn-based affair, pausing the game after every six-second action to issue new orders, or play completely in real time, able to pause with a tap of the spacebar to issue new orders. This freedom is, curiously, missing from in-development Baldur's Gate III, which has mandated turn-based combat only to the frustration of some long-term fans.

Baldur's Gate II was released in September 2000 and sold immensely well, garnering critical acclaim for its huge scope and length, as well as its refined game engine. The game such a success that Interplay wanted a sequel in development ASAP, but BioWare felt burned out on the Infinity Engine and had plans for an ambitious 3D engine that would allow gamers to replicate the tabletop D&D experience, including having one player serve as an online Dungeon Master in creating their own adventure. BioWare decided not to proceed with a full sequel but to "super-size" the planned expansion for the game into a proper ending to the saga. Released in September 2001, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal brought the Bhaalspawn story to a conclusion and was well-received, with its scope and size considered surprisingly huge for an expansion. BioWare would release their 3D, player-driven game, Neverwinter Nights, in June 2002 as their last (to date) D&D video game.

The size and scope of Baldur's Gate II could not be replicated in a 3D engine and BioWare decided not to even try, instead focusing on much shorter but much more "cinematic" game experiences, blending action and roleplaying. They also began developing games with a view to releasing console versions. Although the CRPGs developed during this period were highly successful and critically acclaimed for their stories and characters - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Jade Empire (2005) and Mass Effect (2007) - they faced some criticism for being short and "dumbing down" RPG elements in favour of action. BioWare tried to reverse this course with Dragon Age: Origins (2009), a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate II set in their own original world, but matching the older game's epic story and focus on strong characters. Even this game couldn't match Baldur's Gate II's scale (coming in at around a third the size), but it was critical and commercial success, generating two sequels: Dragon Age II (2011) and Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014).

Those wanting a genuine successor to Baldur's Gate II had to wait a long time to get it. Obsidian Entertainment's Neverwinter Nights II (2007) and its two expansions focused more on single-player adventuring than BioWare's original, and scratched an itch for D&D CRPG fun in the Forgotten Realms setting. Obsidian went on to develop several "spiritual successors" of their own in a modern take on the Infinity Engine, resulting in Pillars of Eternity (2015), Tyranny (2016) and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018). Their forthcoming new game Avowed is set in the same world as Pillars of Eternity, but draws more on Skyrim for inspiration than Baldur's Gate. Pathfinder: Kingmaker (2018) likewise channelled the spirit and energy of Baldur's Gate II, and made a rare attempt to try and match its size and scope. Arguably it was Larian Studios who delivered the first significant improvement to the isometric formula with Divinity: Original Sin (2014) and Divinity: Original Sin II (2017), which added environmental physics puzzles to the mix.

Although it's very different in moment-to-moment gameplay, which is more action-based, CD Projekt Red's The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (2015) might be the closest game to Baldur's Gate II in terms of the sheer epic nature of the storyline, the memorable cast of characters and the compelling plot which twists and turns over dozens of hours, whilst also giving the freedom to pursue a vast array of side-quests.

In 2019 it was confirmed that Divinity studio Larian would be helming the proper, official Baldur's Gate III. Taking place about 130 years after events of Baldur's Gate II, the epic new game sees the player creating a character who gets caught up in a battle between mind-flayers, dragons and demons, extending from the Forgotten Realms into the layers of Hell itself. Although the story is new and largely separate from the original games, some characters and dangling plot threads are expected to be addressed in the new game.

Baldur's Gate II set new standards for fantasy roleplaying games in terms of scope, storytelling, characterisation and adventure. Despite many brave attempts, it's never been quite matched and its influence looms large over the entire Western canon of digital roleplaying games. Whether Larian can match that legacy with Baldur's Gate III remains to be seen, but they certainly have an uphill task on their hands.

Baldur's Gate III will enter Early Access in October 2020 and will be released fully in 2021. Baldur's Gate II is available to play now in its updated "Enhanced Edition."

Larian Studios unveils BALDUR'S GATE III

Larian Studios have lifted the lid on Baldur's Gate III, their sequel to the venerable RPG series by BioWare.

Baldur's Gate (1998) and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) are two of the most highly-regarded CRPG video games of all time. Set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of the Forgotten Realms, they told the epic story of a young hero (you, with you choosing your character's race, profession and gender) who discovers they have a hidden past and a terrible destiny awaiting them, unless they can overcome it. The two games and assorted expansions and spin-offs (such as the console-focused Dark Alliance action series) sold very well and are held in high critical regard to this day. Beamdog Studios recently released remastered versions of the two games, complete with their add-ons, and even created a new interquel linking the two games, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (2016).

Larian Studio's official sequel has almost nothing to do with the original games in terms of plot or immediate consequences, being set some 120 years later. Instead, it shares a location, the great city of Baldur's Gate near the Sword Coast of Faerun. A new threat has risen, in the form of mind flayers, and a new band of heroes must join forces to disrupt the threat. Along the way they get involved in a huge number of side-missions and objectives.

Borrowing heavily from Larian's previous, original CRPGs, Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II, Baldur's Gate III retains the top-down, isometric view of the original games but is now in full 3D and with a fully operational physics engine (allowing you to use your environment to destroy enemies or even just pushing opponents off ledges). As with the prior games, you can choose your character's race, gender and appearance but are also accompanied by a large number of companion characters, three of whom can join you at any one time (everyone else "waits at camp" as is traditional). The game will be notable as the first video game to implement the 5th Edition of the Dungeons and Dragons rules set, which considering those rules are almost five years old is quite surprising.

The biggest change from the original games, apart from the vastly superior graphics of course, is that the game now features turn-based combat rather than in real-time (but with the ability to pause the game and issue new orders). Exploration and dialogue takes place in real-time with dialogue choices to be made, but when combat begins the game switches to an XCOM-esque interface with players and enemies taking turns. It is also possible to manually initiate turn-based mode for using stealth to sneak past enemies without engaging in combat at all.

The changes to combat will likely prove controversial - although turn-based combat has seen a surge in popularity recently, it's still seen as less commercially successful than real-time - but otherwise Larian seem to be on the right track here with a game that honours the spirit of the originals whilst also doing some new and interesting things.

At the moment, Baldur's Gate III is planned for release on PC and Google Stadia before the end of 2020, with an Early Access testing period beginning in the summer. Console versions have not been announced, but I would put strong money on them following later (as with Larian's previous games).

BALDUR'S GATE: DARK ALLIANCE reboot announced

Wizards of the Coast and Tuque Games have announced a reboot of the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance action game franchise from the 2000s.

The new game, now just titled Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, is a co-op action game where up to four players can take on the roles of the infamous Companions of the Hall: Drizzt Do'Urden, Bruenor Battlehammer, Wulfgar and Cattie-brie, characters made famous in R.A. Salvatore's long-running Legends of Drizzt series of Forgotten Realms novels.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001) and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004) were successful action games for the original X-Box. They were ostensibly spun off from the Baldur's Gate CRPG series on PC, but in practice had very little to do with them.

The Baldur's Gate series is returning next year with Baldur's Gate III, a turn-based CRPG from the renowned Larian Studios (the creators of the acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel). Presumably the new Dark Alliance game dropped the original title to avoid brand confusion.

Rumour: Larian Studios developing BALDUR'S GATE III

Larian Studios are reportedly working on Baldur's Gate III. Rumoured last year, but quickly denied, the claim has resurfaced after an animated "III" appeared on Larian's website. Studying the logo's source file, multiple references to the Baldur's Gate name can be found, along with licencing information from Wizards of the Coast.

Developed by BioWare, Baldur's Gate (1998) used the Dungeons & Dragons rules and was set in the popular Forgotten Realms world. It was a huge smash hit on release, and was credited with restoring interest in the western RPG genre at a time when the genre's popularity was on the wane. The game was followed by both expansions and sequels: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and Throne of Bhaal (2001). BioWare also developed Neverwinter Nights (2002), set in the same world, whilst Obsidian Entertainment later developed Neverwinter Nights II (2006). Beamdog later released "enhanced editions" of the two main games (with expansions) in 2012 and 2013, and a new "interquel" bridging the two games, Siege of Dragonspear, in 2016.

Larian Studios are best-known for developing the critically-acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin (2014) and Divinity: Original Sin II (2017), both fantasy RPGs viewed from an isometric, overhead view similar to Baldur's Gate. These games were strong on player freedom, reactivity and different combinations of characters, but relatively light on a compelling storyline. The "III" on Larian's website led some to believe that their next game would be Divinity: Original Sin III, but this now appears no to be the case.

A Larian-developed Baldur's Gate III would be highly intriguing, especially if it uses the Original Sin engine but with a stronger focus on story. It's also likely that this sequel will be more of a spiritual successor set in the current iteration of the Forgotten Realms setting (which set more than 100 years after the first two games and after the Realms have been through several apocalypses).

Of course, this may all be a smokescreen to make the reveal of a different game. We'll find out more at the E3 game conference on 11-14 June.

Happy 20th Birthday to BALDUR'S GATE

Back in 1998, it would have appeared that the venerable Western computer roleplaying game was in a precarious position. The genre had been dealt the hammerblows of a series of a disappointing releases (including in formerly well-regarded franchises like Might & Magic), the rise to prominence of real-time strategy and first-person shooters and an explosion in the popularity of the Japanese RPG, spearheaded by the all-conquering Final Fantasy VII. The genre needed a saviour and it would arise in...Canada?

Founded in Edmonton, Canada in 1995, BioWare was a rather odd video game development company. It had been established by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, recently-graduated medical doctors who realised they had much more fun playing and creating games than in practising medicine. Operating out of Zeschuk's basement, they had made a mech combat game called Shattered Steel in 1996 that had done quite well for their publishers, Interplay, and were now looking for a new project.

BioWare had developed an engine for a project called Battleground: Infinity in which creatures from different mythologies could be battled by powerful heroes. Although Shattered Steel had been a 3D game, they decided this new project required a more classic, old-skool look and reverted to sprites, with painted backgrounds digitally scanned into the game with a movement grid overlaid on top, an extremely fast way of producing game areas, although a somewhat storage-intensive one in an age when PC hard disks were still averaging out at around 4 GB in size. The engine was also unusual in that it combined statistic and customisation elements taken from role-playing games, but fused to a real-time strategy control scheme (including drawing boxes round heroes to select them and hotkeys to use their abilities). The genius moment was the ability to hit the space bar to pause the game, issue commands, and then have the action resume and the results play out. BioWare were proud of the engine and its unusual blending of new and old tech, and called it the Infinity Engine.

The BioWare team took the prototype into Interplay, who had published their first game, and got talking to the RPG division headed by Feargus Urquhart. The Interplay internal RPG division had had a bit of a rough time, as their last several games (including the Forgotten Realms-set game Descent to Undermountain) had bombed and they had little promising in development except a post-apocalyptic RPG being developed by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, which the team believed passionately in but senior management seemed sceptical about.

Urquhart liked the pitch, but not the setting. When the game's designers, including Trent Oster and Scott Greig, said for the umpteenth time it was "a bit like Dungeons and Dragons", Urquhart pointed out that Interplay held the gaming licence for D&D and all its myriad game worlds. Why not just make a Dungeons and Dragons game? BioWare were taken aback, but then enthusiastic. D&D had arguably not produced a classic game in the computer space since Eye of the Beholder II in 1992, and before that the classic "Gold Box" series of games. It was also a bit of a risk. Dungeons and Dragons was at the lowest ebb of its popularity in its history, with its parent company TSR in real danger of going bust. But Interplay loved the technology, BioWare loved the idea and they went for it.

The resulting game was to be called Baldur's Gate, named after an interesting but distinctly second-tier city in the Forgotten Realms setting (with cities like Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Calimport and Zhentil Keep being better known in the setting and the related fiction). There was relatively limited contact with TSR - whose financial woes at the time were considerable - so the teams at BioWare and Interplay delved deep into Forgotten Realms novels and pen-and-paper materials to assemble an impressive amount of lore with a high degree of fidelity to the setting.

There were worries about the project: Final Fantasy VII was released on the PlayStation several months into the development of Baldur's Gate and its elaborate cut-scenes, 3D graphics, gripping storyline and memorable characters was a huge hit (despite an iffy translation), selling millions upon millions of copies. It was a huge crossover success and brought Japanese RPGs into the mainstream. Would Baldur's Gate look tired and old-fashioned in comparison?

The developers did not believe so, and in fact they followed some of the conventions laid down by JRPGs in making the game. The biggest difference between WRPGs and JRPGs is based in character. In Western RPGs it is traditional for the player to create the entire party themselves, rolling their stats, naming them and deciding their course of action, with usually a fair degree of freedom available at any one time. JRPGs were much more focused and pre-planned, with players given control of a pre-created party of characters (although with the freedom to customise their stats and equipment as they increased in power through the game) and made to follow a much tighter storyline. Baldur's Gate squared the circle by giving the player the ability to craft a central character of any race, gender or class, but their companions would be pre-generated and the player would be able to choose up to five of them (from a pool of around a dozen) to join them at any one time. Companion characters would have moral codes and would object to the player's actions: evil actions might cause a paladin to leave the party or even attack the other characters. The interrelationships between the companion characters were fascinating, with some falling in love and marrying, or forcing the player to carry out a dangerous quest on their behalf.

During development there were already signs of a renaissance in Western RPGs: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall had been a modest success in 1996, combining enormous player freedom with a first-person viewpoint. Diablo, also released in 1996, had been a fast-paced action RPG focused on dungeon delving and frantic combat. Interplay's own Fallout, the Cain/Boyarsky project, had been a modest and well-reviewed success in 1997 and the company had followed up quickly with Fallout 2 in 1998. During development of that game, Interplay's internal CRPG division had renamed itself Black Isle, and provided assistance in developing Baldur's Gate as well.

Baldur's Gate was released to tremendous success on 21 December 1998. Reviews were ecstatic, the game's writing and character roster was highly praised and its translation of the D&D rules was appreciated for both its fidelity to the pen-and-paper game and its approachability for newcomers. Baldur's Gate was also part of the renaissance of D&D itself: in 1997 the ailing brand had been saved by Wizards of the Coast (creators of Magic: The Gathering) who were now releasing new material for the game and preparing for a new edition, to be released in 2000. Baldur's Gate formed part of the D&D comeback, showing that the game could be as fun and as cool - and far more customisable - than any high-budget, console-focused JRPG.

Baldur's Gate provided a vivid and rich fantasy experience, drawing on almost a dozen years in print of Forgotten Realms products and twenty-four years' worth of Dungeons and Dragons rules and materials. It's locations, characters and stories became iconic almost overnight, such as the struggles of the villain Sarevok, the perilous descent into the Mines of Nashkel and rise of the Rashemi hero Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster ally, Boo (who may constitute one of video gaming's earliest memes). The game was customisable, with a difficulty level that could be adjusted on the fly and on-line guides providing help and advice on how to develop your character. The story experience could be very different depending on which characters were recruited into the party and which options were chosen. The Infinity Engine's gorgeous painted backdrops and minimalist interfaces (where complex dice-rolling mechanics could be hidden away) were also highly impressive and almost immune to being dated: in 2018, the Baldur's Gate games have aged far better than the big-budget 3D extravaganzas which they had competed again.

Baldur's Gate also led to an explosion of CRPGs. Even before development had been completed, Interplay's internal CRPG team, Black Isle, had licenced the engine to make their own games: Planescape: Torment (1999), a moody, story-driven CRPG is often cited to this day as the greatest RPG of all time. Icewind Dale (2000) and Icewind Dale II (2002) were excellent, combat-focused dungeon dives.

BioWare themselves developed an expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast (1999) and then a full sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000). Baldur's Gate II was far bigger than the original with a much more complex, far more gripping plot. It also had, in Jon Irenicus, arguably the best-written and best-acted (by the brilliant David Warner) video game villain of all time. It was The Lord of the Rings to Baldur's Gate's The Hobbit, and is also often cited (alongside Planescape: Torment and, more latterly, The Witcher 3) as the greatest CRPG of all time.

After the release of Baldur's Gate II's expansion, Throne of Bhaal (2001), BioWare created a new 3D engine, Aurora, which they used to create Neverwinter Nights (2002) for Atari and, in a heavily-modified form, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) for LucasArts. BioWare chose to leave behind licensed properties to make original worlds, resulting in Jade Empire (2005), Mass Effect (2007) and their "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins (2009). BioWare's games became more graphically stunning, more streamlined and ever more accessible, but some feared this was at the cost of character and depth. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) and Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) were both heavily criticised for being dumbed-down action games lacking the richness of their previous titles. Of course, BioWare are really no longer BioWare: bought out by Electronic Arts in 2007, their founders and most of their original team had left the company by the mid-2010s.

It fell to others to keep the spirit of Baldur's Gate burning. Former BioWare staffer Trent Oster founded Beamdog in 2009 with the intent of resurrected the classic games. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (2012) and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition (2013) are both excellent revamps and remasters of the original games, made compatible with modern systems. In 2016, Beamdog even created a whole-new Baldur's Gate game using the Infinity Engine. Siege of Dragonspear is an interquel which links the stories of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II, creating a continuous RPG experience lasting well north of 200 hours to complete in full.

Other companies have also paid tribute to the game. Obsidian Entertainment, which arose from the ashes of Black Isle after Interplay's collapse in 2003, have developed a series of RPGs inspired by the Infinity Engine: Pillars of Eternity (2015), Tyranny (2016) and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018). inXile Entertainment, created by some of the same team at Interplay, have created RPGs such as Wasteland 2 (2014) and Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017). Larian Studios created Divinity: Original Sin (2014) and Divinity: Original Sin II (2017) which both fused the spirit of Baldur's Gate and Ultima with co-op gaming.

However, it may be the most significant offshoot of BioWare's creation of Baldur's Gate came in the founding of a Polish company called CD Projekt Red. CDPR was founded to bring official translations of English-language games to the Polish market, which was dominated by unofficial pirate copies. One of the first games they translated was Baldur's Gate, and it was a huge success. Years later, CDPR decided to make their own RPGs and licensed the Aurora Engine from BioWare to make The Witcher (2007). A huge hit, the game spawned two sequels, the second of which, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) is widely regarded as the greatest CRPG (and may be the best game, full stop) released this century. According to rumour, EA have asked BioWare to ensure that any future Dragon Age IV takes note of The Witcher 3's deep, reactive storyline and its memorable characters. Thus the apprentice has become the master.

Baldur's Gate changed the course of gaming history when it was released 20 years ago and is still a fine and engaging game to play today. You can find it now on Steam and GoG.

Cities of Fantasy: Baldur's Gate

The Western Heartlands of Faerun form an extensive area of wilderness, hundreds of miles of open countryside dominated by several large city-states.  The most famous and storied of these is the great port city of Baldur’s Gate. From its position on the River Chionthar, Baldur’s Gate is the largest beacon of civilisation between Waterdeep and the kingdom of Amn and acts as a vital trading post. Everything is for sale in Baldur’s Gate, including adventure, trouble and morality.

Note: Baldur’s Gate’s fortunes differ significantly at different points in the history of the Forgotten Realms. This description explores the city during the “classic” era of Forgotten Realms history, just prior to the highly ill-conceived event known as the Spellplague, regarded as non-fanon by many fans and players in the setting.

Location

Baldur’s Gate is located close to the north-western coast of the continent of Faerûn. It is located on the wide and deep River Chionthar, approximately twenty miles upriver from where it flows into the Sea of Swords. Technically the city is not on the Sword Coast itself, but its position as a major port and one of the few waystops north of Amn makes the difficulty of beating upriver to the city generally worthwhile.

The city is also located on the Coast Way, a vital trade artery along the west coast of the continent. The Coast Way extends south through the towns of Beregost and Nashkel into the Kingdom of Amn and thence to the rich southern kingdoms of Tethyr and Calimshan. The Coast Way eventually terminates at Calimport, the largest city in Faerûn, some 1,000 miles to the south, and continues to Waterdeep, the City of Splendours, located about 480 miles to the north-west. The Coast Way takes a massive detour to the east to avoid the Troll Hills and Trollbark Forest north of the Winding Water, an area infested with monsters. The Coast Way runs a dangerous gauntlet between the Troll Hills and High Moor to the north on its way to Waterdeep, so trade caravans usually travel well-armed.

Physical Description

Baldur’s Gate surrounds a significant inlet of the River Chionthar. With tall hills to the east hemming in the city’s walls, the city resembles a crescent moon with the bay forming the gap in the circle. Districts within the city include Bloomridge, Twin Songs and the Port District.

The most notable feature of the city is arguably Black Dragon Gate, built by Balduran himself, a formidable gateway and mini-fortress which has never fallen in battle. The city core contains the High Hall (or Palace of the Grand Dukes), the High House of Wonders (a huge temple to Gond, God of Artifice and Invention), the Water Queen’s House (a rare temple to Umberlee, the capricious Goddess of the Sea) and the Lady’s Hall (a temple to Tymora, Goddess of Good Fortune). Temples to Ilmater, Helm, Lathander and Oghma can also be found within the city centre.

The city’s primary defensive bastion is the Seatower of Balduran, located on an island in the harbour.

Population

The population of Baldur’s Gate varied according to the season. In 1372 DR the city’s permanent population was approximately 42,100, but at the height of the summer trading rush this could more than double to around 86,000. During the height of the trading season, it’s not unusual to see extensive tent cities and ad hoc markets springing up outside the walls.

Government

Baldur’s Gate is ruled by the Council of Four, also known as the Four Grand Dukes. As of 1372, the Four Grand Dukes are Eltan, the leader of the Flaming Fist Mercenary Company; Belt, a poweful warrior-priest; Liia Jannath, a wizardess; and Entar Silvershield, the city’s richest merchant. The Council works closely together to keep trade flowing through the city and to ensure threats are dealt with quietly and efficiently.

Baldur’s Gate is also part of the Lords’ Alliance, an alliance of city-states in north-western Faerun designed to resist the corrupting influence of the Black Network of the Zhentarim, the rulers of Amn, the Red Wizards of Thay and other potential enemies. Although the Alliance is a powerful force in resisting such enemies, it has no say over the internal running of the city. Other members of the Alliance include Waterdeep, Daggerford, Neverwinter, Mirabar, Gundarlun and the newly-founded Kingdom of Luruar in the Silver Marches, centered on the great city of Silverymoon.

History

The history of Baldur’s Gate dates back to the adventurer Orluth Tshahvur. In 227 DR he founded the short-lived kingdom of Shavinar at the mouth of the River Chionthar. He built a crude keep near the site of what is now Baldur’s Gate and attracted settlers to the town with a promise of freedom and mutual defence against marauding monsters and bandits. He gained a boon when a skilled Calishite shipwright arrived in the settlement, leading to a shipbuilding and repair yard springing up. The village became known as Gaeth (the local Thorass word for “rivermouth”) but, despite its good fortune, it was slow to grow. By Orluth’s death in 242 DR, the population was only 120 but the wider realm of Shinvar extended almost 100 miles upriver and as far north as the Troll Hills, where Orluth had built watchtowers to keep an eye out for trolls. Orluth’s son Arlsar, neglected his father’s achievements and was murdered in 256 DR by merchants angered by his incompetence.

There were several attempts to hold Shavinar together, the most notable being Arlsar’s youngest son Kondarar who had magical backing. Under his rule Shavinar began to grow again…but it was swept away by a troll horde in 277 DR. Gaeth was destroyed along with the rest of the realm.

Still, the realm’s existence did confirm that the location was a viable one for a port and over the next eight centuries several attempts were made to establish another settlement in the region. However, this always failed because the cost of building a wall around the port – which due to the geography required a very large one – was ruinous.

This situation was finally broken circa 1050. A great sailor hailing from the region, Balduran, took his ship, the Wandering Eye, across the Trackless Sea in search of new lands. Against the odds, beyond Evermeet he found a rich new continent, Anchorome, and found many riches there. He returned home, laden with gold, and paid for massive stone walls to be built around the nascent settlement on the site of ancient Gaeth. The port was named Baldur’s Gate in his honour and Balduran briefly stayed to rule and help the city become more established. However, he eventually could not resist the call of the sea and returned to Anchorome. He was killed there by the natives circa 1068, although some conflicting rumours suggest he actually returned to Faerûn but his ship was smashed to pieces on the coast south of the city. This rumour is considered fanciful.

Despite Balduran’s death, the city he left behind prospered. This was helped by the rise of Waterdeep to the north, and the presence of two new rich trade ports to the north saw trade start to flow up the Sword Coast from the rich southern kingdoms of Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan. The growing city was threatened in 1235 when the Black Horde, the largest orc horde in recorded history, rampaged down the Sword Coast. Both Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate were besieged, but their walls held and the ports remained open, preventing either from being starved out. The Black Horde itself fragmented due to a lack of food and supplies and eventually dispersed.

Circa 1350, the fighter Eltan founded the Flaming Fist, a mercenary company rooted in honour and order. The mercenary army, noted for its discipline and its success in resisting border incursions from Amn to the south and repelling monsters and trolls to the north, soon became the de facto police force of Baldur’s Gate and Eltan ascended to the rank of Grand Duke.

In 1358 the Time of Troubles (or Avatar Wars) wracked Faerûn. Bhaal, God of Murder and Patron of Assassins, did battle with the nascent demigod Cyric on Boareskyr Bridge a couple of hundred miles north-east of Baldur’s Gate. Bhaal was defeated and slain, but upon his death his essence was split between several mortals, the so-called “Bhaalspawn”. Ten years later, in 1368, one of these offspring, Sarevok, instigated a plan to kill the other Bhaalspawn and reunite Bhaal’s power in himself. To this end he allied with the Iron Throne criminal organisation and a band of doppelgangers to topple the Four Grand Dukes and seize control of the region. However, another Bhaalspawn thwarted his plans and killed Sarevok, preventing Bhaal’s return and restoring peace to the region.

In 1361 word arrived in the city that Captain Cordell and the Golden Legion of Amn had discovered a new continent far to the west, across the Trackless Sea. They had named this continent Maztica and toppled the evil empire that had dominated the land, as well as founding the new town of Helmsport to help exploit this new continent. The Council of Four realised that Maztica was likely associated with Anchorome and dispatched an expedition to stake out their own claim to the land. This expedition confirmed that Anchorome is the continent to the north of Maztica (with Maztica as a subcontinent or region of Anchorome rather than a geologically separate landmass) and founded Fort Flame on the coast of the continent in 1364. The local jungle elf tribes attacked Fort Flame several times but were repulsed.

In 1369 the Fifth Serôs War, also called the Sea War, raged when the sahuagin minions of Iakhovas the Taker attacked the city (and most of the coast of Faerûn). They were defeated and forced out of the city thanks to the Flaming Fist and the city’s wizards and priests.

As of 1372 Baldur’s Gate appears secure, having averted the threat of war with Amn to the south and increased its dominance on Sword Coast trade. Baldur’s Gate’s ambition seems to be to surpass Waterdeep to the north as the greatest city on the coast. Some have speculated that the Gate may try to expand into a nation or at least a more formal alliance, comprising all the lands between the Troll Hills and Cloud Peaks and incorporating settlements as Ulgoth’s Beard, Candlekeep, the Friendly Arm Inn (located inside a massive fortress) and Beregost, but if so this ambition has not been realised so far.

Origins and Influences

Baldur’s Gate is part of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, originally created by Ed Greenwood in 1968 and then developed as the setting for his home Dungeons and Dragons campaign from 1976 onwards. The world became better-known when Greenwood began writing for Dragon Magazine in 1978, often referencing his home campaign in his articles. In 1987 TSR, Inc. released the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, marking the first appearance of Baldur’s Gate in print. The city first appeared in a novel in 1990, when R.A. Salvatore set part of The Halfling’s Gem (the concluding novel in The Icewind Dale Trilogy) in the city.

Baldur’s Gate received little more attention in the second edition of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (1993) but it was expanded greatly by Ed Greenwood in Volo’s Guide to the Sword Coast (1994), a sourcebook which provided the first canonical map of the city itself. He detailed much more of the city’s history, geography and power groups.

In 1995 the video game company Interplay bought a licence to release games set in the Forgotten Realms setting and using the Dungeons and Dragons rules from TSR. After a couple of disappointing titles, Interplay partnered with a new Canadian game development studio called BioWare to develop a D&D game. They considered several settings, including better-known Realms locations such as the Dalelands and Waterdeep, but ultimately settled on Baldur’s Gate as the city had just enough background to be interesting but enough blank spaces they could fill in with new information.

The resulting video game, Baldur’s Gate, was released in 1998 and was a smash hit, setting BioWare on the path that would eventually lead them to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. This game began a series which continued with Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and its expansion Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001) (although only Baldur’s Gate itself was set in the titular city). It also inspired a spin-off console game series, comprising Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (2001) and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004). In 2012 Beamdog released Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition which updated the game for modern PCs and added a new expansion, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, in 2015 (although this expansion is not set in the city itself).

Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound was in development at Interplay when the company went bust in 2004. Despite the name, the game would have been set in the Dalelands with no connection to the earlier series by plot.

More recently, Baldur’s Gate was explored in both the 4^th and 5^th edition campaign settings for Dungeons and Dragons. The former saw the Forgotten Realms destroyed in an event known as the Spellplague, with Baldur’s Gate emerging as one of the few settlements to flourish following the cataclysm, becoming larger and more powerful than Waterdeep (a move motivated, it was believed, to cash in on the name recognition of the video games). 5^th Edition has undone many of the impacts of the Spellplague, but Baldur’s Gate retains its place as one of the most prominent cities in the setting.

Most recently, the city is the focus for the Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate board game (2017), a variant of the classic Betrayal at House on the Hill board game.

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