Baldur's Gate 3 gameplay teaser shows off spells and the Underdark

The developers of Baldur's Gate 3 have a new sizzle reel of gameplay to show off ahead of their big announcements in early June.

The official Larian Studios Twitter account shared the new video which is only 40 seconds long, but it's a busy 40 seconds: watch out for environmental hazards, a trip to a different kind of Mushroom Kingdom, and a whole bunch of flashy spells.

As a D&D player myself, my favorite part is what appears to be a powered-up Mage Hand shoving somebody off a cliff. Mage Hand can normally only manipulate an object weighing 10 pounds or less, but at some point every spellcaster has wished they could use it like that. I would never do anything else.

This video also reveals that your adventures in Baldur's Gate 3 will take you to the Underdark. The subterranean home of the drow and duergar (evil elves and dwarves, respectively) is a sprawling expanse of caverns and chasms, where mushrooms grow to the size of trees and spiders the size of Escalades.

Basically, if the surface of the Forgotten Realms is standard high fantasy, the Underdark is freaky blacklight poster fantasy. The rest of the game's footage has taken place in the surface world so far, so we'll have to wait and see how your party ends up down there - though getting into the Underdark is almost always easier than getting out.

Larian Studios will share much more about Baldur's Gate 3 as part of the Guerrilla Collective event on June 6, just a few hours before our very own Future Games Show begins. It's gonna be a big day.

Development on Baldur's Gate 3 has been slowed by COVID-19, but the developers say it's still on track to hit early access this year.