In 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year and became a legendary fantasy RPG. Its state-of-the-art engine earned the praise of critics and players, capturing the intricate gameplay of Dungeons and Dragons with stellar art direction and graphics. Furthermore, the game boasted fantastic character and story writing with endlessly branching options.
In a recent update, Larian Studios released the “stress test” for Patch 8, testing the device’s processing power before downloading. The update includes many new features while fixing several minor bugs from the base game. Here is a breakdown of how the base game will be enhanced and how this will affect the players.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s Latest Patch
According to the game’s Steam page, Baldur’s Gate 3 has released the stress test for Patch 8, which adds many new, impressive features to the base game while polishing minor elements. For those unaware, a “stress test” is a way to test the strain a game puts on a console or PC to see if it will run properly. Given the game’s massive size, this is a necessary test to ensure players can use it properly. After an unintentional re-release of the patch, they added the option to reinstall a previous version.
Larian originally announced the Patch in November, which introduced many additional features. First, they introduced cross-play, allowing for multiplayer between major consoles and bridging significant sections of the player base. Furthermore, they introduced an elaborate photo mode to capture the magnificent vistas and glorious battles of the Sword Coast.
They added a new subclass for each of the twelve major classes. Examples include the Cleric’s Death Domain, the Paladin’s Oath of the Crown, the Bard’s Collage of Glamour, and others. Finally, they added an array of minor bug fixes and adjustments to the base game, further polishing it to perfection.
A Modern Fantasy Classic
As stated above, Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year for good reason. The game had stellar graphics and kinetic combat that still captured the finely tuned strategies of the original tabletop game. Additionally, its story was critically acclaimed for its brilliant writing, three-dimensional characters such as Asterion, and endless branching choices like an actual Dugneon Master’s writing. Larian’s team also has strong relations with other fantasy developers, such as those for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Before Baldur’s Gate 3, the original series was considered one of the best Dungeons and Dragons video games. It told the story of the “Bhaalspawn,” one of the children of the god of murder, crossing through the Sword Coast. Alongside its sibling games, Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale, Black Isle captured the turn-based strategies of the original tabletop game.
Maintaining a Masterpiece
As impressive as Baldur’s Gate 3 was upon release, developers must always work to improve. Even after a game “goes gold,” players can still find bugs or balancing issues. This is further complicated by the game’s extensive modding community, which uses the official tools to create an infinite array of adjustments and even new adventures.
Additionally, Larian Studios confirmed there wouldn’t be a proper DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3, meaning the base game will likely stay the same. As stated earlier, the stress test will be an important step for improving the game, especially given the usual challenges of implementing cross-play between different devices. They implemented it in waves to ensure it was carefully added to the game.
Conclusion
Baldur’s Gate 3 has quickly established itself as a modern masterpiece, so Larian has to make a great effort to ensure its quality, especially for the modding community. As shown by other studios such as Bethesda, these independent creators can help keep a game’s community alive for a long time. Furthermore, releasing the stress test indicates that the patch is fast approaching. The fact that the studio would implement these huge features this long after release shows Larian’s inventiveness in finding new ways to upgrade the game.
