5 factors that separate Baldur's Gate 3 from other RPGs in the market 

From being described as an anomaly to becoming one of the 10 most-played games on Steam, Baldur's Gate 3 has had an enormous impact on the gaming world. Some specialized media have even chosen to refrain from issuing opinions about the depth of the release and preferred to wait a while before formally qualifying it. Even new gamers are embracing role-playing games (RPG) after its release.

Everything points to the fact that we are staring at a game-of-the-year candidate. Baldur's Gate 3's success relies on five factors that separate it from other RPGs in the market, which we'll explain in this article.

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5 defining aspects that make Baldur's Gate 3 a must-play RPG

The success of Baldur's Gate 3 represents a paradigm shift for gamers and game studios. The development time, its use of Dungeons and Dragons lore, the freedom to explore, as well as the game's art and length are key factors in understanding why it marks a new era in the industry.

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1) Development time

Every character is special and can take you to new stories (Image via Larian Studios)

Larian, the studio behind Baldur's Gate 3, did not rush the release of the title. This allowed them to work on a more polished version, unlike the many rushed AAA games of late. Nowadays, most major games are accompanied by a considerable amount of bugs. Some of them also fail to fulfill pre-release promises, as was the case with Cyberpunk 2077. However, this did not happen in the third part of Baldur's Gate.

The studio in charge of the development began its journey approximately six years ago. Since then, the title has suffered a series of delays. In October 2020, there was a first glimpse of the game via early access to the first act. This part alone spanned 25 hours of gameplay - a considerable amount of time for a title of this caliber still in development.

This early access allowed them to gather feedback from the first players. That fact guided the efforts in the right direction, optimizing certain processes and eliminating bugs.

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2) The lore of Dungeons and Dragons

Much of what makes an RPG game successful is tied to how deep its story is. It is also very important how well the game mechanics and characters fit into the world they inhabit.

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is one of the world's most popular board games and unites generations. The particularity of the environment it offers, as well as the rules and mechanics of that imaginary world, gives advantages to Baldur's Gate as it is officially based on the Forgotten Realms from the D&D mythology.

The game has a complex backstory of spells, locations, characters, and mechanics that have been popularized over the years by Dungeons and Dragons players. That's also why Baldur's Gate 3 feels stronger in most areas than its competitors.

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3) Freedom

RPG games can often feel bound to specific paths, items, and decisions. Yet, in Baldur's Gate 3, we get the quintessential RPG game where your role is very much defined by your decisions. This fact is related to its source material, D&D. One of Larian's purposes was to scale the game to a dimension close to players' free will on real-world boards.

The story has been written in such a way that the player is always in expectation of what is going to happen. It has unexpected and exciting plot twists, further influenced by player decisions and dice rolls. Besides, each character has unique characteristics and customization as well as a background that influences the adventure's development.

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4) The length of the game

One of the elements that differentiates Baldur's Gate 3 from other RPGs is its length. Currently, many games in the genre tend to have an approximate duration of between 40 and 60 hours. But according to Larian, the complete content of the game promises up to 100 hours of entertainment.

The game's length is determined not only because Larian Studios took the time to build a good story. A crucial element influencing this fact is driven by the mechanics and decision systems, which will make the progression of each player different.

On the other hand, the large amount of easter eggs, endings, and paths that can be explored make this release an example of a game that provides entertainment and does not introduce long, pointless explorations to boast about its length.

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5) The art that accompanies the videogame

A final element that sets Baldur's Gate apart from most RPGs on the market is the artistic quality behind it. Every element is taken care of in detail, be it the cinematics, animation, landscapes, armor, character features, movement, etc.

In this third part of the saga, it would seem that the world on which it is based is palpable and coherent. Except for its creative visuals, it would pass for the recreation of any place on the planet with its extensive map. The music and sound effects, which make Baldur's Gate 3 an almost perfect game, contribute much to this.

Definitely, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a new standard for RPG games in the industry. It would be really difficult for the competitors to beat this launch, at least for the next few years.