Larian Studios has finally shed some light on the city of Baldur’s Gate as it will appear in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it far exceeds what fans expected, especially if they’re basing it on the first game in the series. Baldur’s Gate is one of the biggest cities on the Sword Coast in D&D’s Forgotten Realms campaign setting, and it has been featured in numerous video games.
In the original Baldur’s Gate video game, the player couldn’t access the titular city until they had been on several adventures in the Sword Coast and solved the crisis in the region. Due to the hardware limitations at the time, the city had to be broken into different maps, which the player could visit in turn, as it wasn’t possible to render the whole thing at once.
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Baldur’s Gate 3 Will Feature A Version Of The City Of Baldur’s Gate That Feels Alive
The scope of the new iteration of Baldur’s Gate was revealed in a segment of the 2023 PC Gaming Show, which is now available on the official Larian Studios YouTube page. The city is rendered all at once, even in multiplayer, allowing players to view and explore the city in ways that weren’t possible in the older entries in the series.
What’s impressive about Baldur’s Gate is the number of people milling around and the many places you can visit, especially as Baldur’s Gate 3 is filled with fleshed-out NPCs. The city is designed to be the culmination of everything that had happened to the story up until that point, so Baldur’s Gate is where many of the plot lines will be resolved. The intention was to create a living and breathing city, and it’s the place where the developers spent a lot more time than they had intended in bringing it to life.
The player doesn’t have to behave themselves, either, as it’s also possible to go Grand Theft Auto V and start attacking the citizens. In the old days, this meant a swift counter-attack from the Flaming Fist mercenaries, and the same is likely true in Baldur’s Gate 3. The Flaming Fist don’t mess around, and the player will likely be seeing the game over screen before long, should they attempt to take Baldur’s Gate as their own city.
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The Baldur’s Gate name has been used in different video games, even if the city itself never appeared. Baldur’s Gate didn’t even appear in Baldur’s Gate 2 or Throne of Bhaal, so Larian Studios was not obligated to bring it back for the third game. Luckily, they have done a fine job recreating the city in video game form, and it will hopefully be a blast to explore.
