Baldur's Gate 3Â has been a long time coming, but fans of the upcoming RPG don't have much longer to wait for it to release in early access for Steam and Stadia users, even after the minor delay it was hit with.
Possibly in preparation for said release, developer and publisher Larian Studios has released a community update on Baldur's Gate 3's Steam page to go into detail about the character creation feature. Dspite the game being an early access title, this feature sounds incredibly extensive, which isn't too surprising as Larian seems to consider it one of the most important aspects, describing it as offering great player agency.
Firstly, Larian breaks down exactly what players can expect when they start the game. Players will get to choose their race, subrace, background, and class, which will all have some effect on how they will roleplay throughout the story and world. Though as a reminder, choices like race and gender won't have an impact on who players can and can't romance.
Next, players will assign points to the six abilities that any Dungeons and Dragons aficionado will be familiar with - Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma - before deciding which skills their character will be proficient in. Lastly, players can then fully customize how their character will look.
This last one is possibly the most impressive part of the whole feature as, according to Larian, there are 150 different photorealistic faces to pick from across the game's available races, each one based on 3D scans of actors and models. These faces can also be customized with different facial features like beards, hairstyles, tattoos, and so on.
Speaking of races, for those curious, there are eight in the game, though some have subraces as well, bringing the total to sixteen. And depending on what a player picks, they will gain specific bonuses and NPCs will react differently. Those races are:
- Human
- Githyanki
- High Elf
- Wood Elf
- Seldarine Drow
- Lolth-Sworn Drow
- High Half-Elf
- Wood Half-Elf
- Drow Half-Elf
- Gold Dwarf
- Shield Dwarf
- Lightfoot Halfling
- Strongheart Halfling
- Asmodeus Tiefling
- Mephistopheles Tiefling
- Zariel Tiefling
Afterwards, players can choose one of six classes - Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, and Wizard - which, just like the races, affect how NPCs interact with a player's character, with Larian promising that Baldur's Gate 3 early access players will gain unique dialogue and opportunities depending on their skill set.
It may be too early to tell, but Baldur's Gate 3 could very well redefine the RPG genre, much like its predecessors did, especially once development properly finishes.
Baldur's Gate 3Â will release on PC and Stadia on October 6th.
Source: Steam