Baldur's Gate 3 vs. Baldur's Gate 2: combat, graphic style, etc.

We got our first look at Baldur's Gate 3 at Pax East 2020, where developer Larian Studios shared what players can expect from early access to the game. Larian Studios is taking the game in a new direction and changing that up a bit. than the original game was, aligning it more closely with their Divinity Original Sin 2 game.

Baldur's Gate 3 will vary greatly from how you've played Baldur's Gate 2. Here are some of the biggest differences we've spotted so far.

Fighting

The fight is very different from the original Baldur's Gate series. It was initially a real-time combat system with pause viewed from a top-to-bottom isometric perspective. The pause feature gave the player a bit of time to plan their strategy, but most of it went pretty quickly.

Baldur's Gate 3 works much more closely with the Divinity: Original Sin 2 series, where everything is turn-based, and you have as much time as you want to think about your character's actions. Your party will have a set amount of initiative, and it is compared to the enemy's initiative. If their initiative is higher, they go first, and if yours is higher, you and your party members go first. Each character in your party has a certain amount of movement depending on their speed. Actions are divided into bonus actions and regular actions.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

Your user interface is split into two sections, with health (red) on the left side and movement (orange) on the right. On top of health, you have your ability points, which you use to perform powerful attacks or spells. A handful of these abilities act as a bonus action, and those points are above the movement bar. You can choose how they're broken down, but once they're gone your turn ends. In the lower right part of the screen, you can see the progress of the fight. You can hover over any of the action areas to see a detailed read of the reels, bonuses, and what happened to both enemies and allies.

When you affect an environment, like adding fat or oil, the effect is accompanied by branching. Characters will need to perform save throws to perform certain actions, and you can interact with them to change their structure. For example, if you throw grease around enemies, their movement speed is slowed if they don't succeed on a saving throw. Now that this place is flammable, you can turn it into a fire, damaging everything in it.

Graphic

Baldur's Gate 3 moves away from the isometric vantage point to provide a free top-to-bottom vantage point in which players can change the camera angle, zoom in, and alter the way they view the game. The change was probably due to how combat works, and it gives you a way to examine your options much more thoroughly than if you were watching real-time combat.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

The graphics and art style are heavily influenced by Divinity: Original Sin 2. Much of it seems Baldur's Gate 3 was a mod made from scratch using the in-game engine, and that's not a bad thing.

Selection of characters, species and classes

When you start Baldur's Gate 3 for the first time, you can choose to customize your character or choose from a handful of Origin Story characters. Another characteristic of Divinity: Original Sin is the characters in the origin story. They were characters with a pre-constructed past that had a connection to the world, and they each had an exclusive quest for you to progress. through the main story. In Baldur's Gate 2, these original story characters seem to have less customization to them, without the ability to change their class. Still, you can change the stats, abilities, and general skills of the characters.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

You have a variety of species options in Baldur's Gate 3. You can choose to play as Human, Tiefling, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Drow, Half-elf, Half-drow, Githyanki and many more . These species will be the first options you get a chance to try during Early Access to the game, which releases later in 2020.

At the moment, we only know of the six classes in the game, but more will definitely be released before the game's official release. All six classes will be available to play in the game's Early Access mode, and they include Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger and Warlock.

We can expect a lot more from Baldur's Gate 3 features, updates and announcement to come on when the early access version of the game will be released in 2020.