It’s impossible to see everything inBaldur’s Gate 3. It’s the sort of game where you will swap anecdotes around a watercooler with friends and colleagues because no one player is going to have the same experience. Your class, race, personality, and decision-making will always take you on a different path, while even the same road will be ripe with endless variables.
For example, my first playthrough has me stepping into the shoes of a bisexual wood elf ranger who’s a sarcastic bitch when the situation calls for it, but aside from that doesn’t have a bad bone in her body. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and do all that is needed to help those in need. No needless murder or wanton pillaging, because I’m just not about that life. Unless you’re a baddie that is. If so, your ass is going down.
Whenever I stumble across bandits causing trouble or goblins engaging in a ruckus, I try to talk them down from bloodshed. But this isn’t always possible, so a pile of corpses will be left in my wake. I won’t be cleaning them up, and chances are they’ll inevitably cause some sort of weird plague outbreak, but the world is a safer place with them gone. My head was filled with thoughts like this as I stepped into theGoblin Campfor the first time and was utterly overwhelmed by all the choices presented before me.
Baldur’s Gate 3 had made it very clear that violence can be an applicable answer for most situations, but in a dungeon so large and filled with so many named characters, I wanted to ask questions first and swing my sword later. So I decided to blend in and pretend I was a cool goblin girl who totally got along with the giant spiders hanging out in a pit beneath. This worked until I metstupid, sexy Minthara.
The drow paladin is a homicidal hottie with tiefling genocide on the brain, and instead of trying to kill me on sight, she asks me to help her out. I can spill all the details I have on the Emerald Grove and assist her in preparing for an attack, or interrogate the nearby prisoner for information she hasn’t been able to pry out of him. I am gay enough to attempt to help, but it means turning my back on the moral superiority my ranger is renowned for. A toughie which could only be solved by save scumming constantly until I came across one solution involving not only a lack of murder, but a means of dispatching her alongside all the other leaders I needed to take care of.
I handled her fellow leaders first, hoping I could return to Minthara and perhaps come across a new dialogue option or means of convincing her that didn’t ruin my reputation. It wasn’t there, or at least not in the way I had hoped. So I started blasting, knowing I’d lost all hope and would need to bring this character down even if she held secrets I was curious to uncover. I developed the ingenious strategy of luring her onto the nearby bridge before bringing it down from underneath her, causing her to fall into a pit.
She was dead, but without a corpse to loot I reloaded my save and murdered her the old-fashioned way. My job here is done, the Grove is saved, and I can finally move onto Act Two. But a few (real life) days later, I began to see screenshots of Minthara online and conversations about her even being a party member and love interest. I had no idea this was even possible, I’m kicking myself. But I’m also delighted Baldur’s Gate 3 was brave enough to hide this possibility from me. A major character with hours of dialogue and gameplay mechanics housed within them wiped off the face of the map because of irreversible choices I made.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is filled with moments like this that serve to make every single playthrough for every single player entirely unique. Maybe you’re determined enough to keep Minthara alive, or role-playing an evil warrior happy to slaughter innocents when the reward is recruiting a powerful drow paladin into your ranks. That is, if you knew this was possible in the first place, which I sure didn’t. More games should be willing to hide things from us like this, to make repeat visits worthwhile as opposed to worrying that we’ll grow bored if anything and everything isn’t shoved right in front of our eyes.
Minthara will be mine eventually, but I’m willing to wait and see what other surprises await when I finally turn to the dark side.
