I am not afraid to admit that I was so obsessed with Dragon Age 2, at one point I was ready to get the logo inked on my skin. It's a wholly different experience to that of Baldur's Gate 3, for sure, but getting stuck into this incomprehensibly large new RPG is giving me genuine anxiety. I can't quite place it, but boy is it there.
Whether it's a case of FOMO, mild agoraphobia, or my noncommittal brain rearing at the thought of a hardcore Baldur's Gate 3 campaign taking up 200 hours of my precious time, this game truly has me hankering for a short, contained story like that of the BioWare classic Dragon Age 2.
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Let's put all my worries into perspective for a moment, in case you haven't quite bought into the ambiguous terror I'm currently feeling.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a massive game. The map in its entirety – sub-areas and all – is so vast no one's quite sure exactly how large it is. Screen Rant reckons the entire Baldur's Gate 3 world map is around "three times the size of Baldur's Gate 2." Moreover, it's considered to be "the size of a country on the larger side of medium." So it could even live up to the ridiculous claim that Cities: Skylines 2 maps are now "bigger than some countries".
Essentially, even this little slice of the Forgotten Realms to which I've been granted access to seems almost unfathomably large. When you put that against the repetitious, walled-in maps of Dragon Age 2, it's a vast difference in terms of scale. But thinking about being somewhat safely snuggled between the battlements of Kirkwall, or staring into the familiar glow of Lyrium deposits in the Deep Roads, gives me some comfort when I'm staring down the open world of Baldur's Gate 3.
The scope of choice doesn't stop when it comes to direction of travel either, when I've been presented with so many incredible classes and subclasses in Baldur's Gate 3, I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Sure that's great, and an incredible feat to have achieved (even if it did take Larian long enough), but I find myself wishing for the simplicity of a choice between warrior, mage, or rogue. I love the loyalty to the expansive choices of D&D, but how could I possibly settle on one for an entire 80 hours or more of gameplay?
And although I'm not a completionist, the idea of 53 achievements and 29 hidden trophies hanging over me in this land of Faerûn is certainly hitting a nerve. Fear of missing out is setting in a little, especially when you consider how spaced out each achievement must be on a map so large. That being said, Dragon Age 2 sports 55 achievements and 56 trophies, which somehow manages to overtake that of Baldur's gate by a long shot.
"I suppose it goes to show that a larger map doesn't necessarily make for greater rewards."
I suppose it goes to show that a larger map doesn't necessarily make for greater rewards. Though it's clear both games' rewards tend to come more in the form of satisfying narrative arcs, and fun dialogue options – as is the true bread and butter of D&D (unless you're playing as a loot-hungry murder hobo, of course).
As for the BG3 narrative itself, between the 174 hours of cinematics and 2 million scripted words alone I'm frightened to speak to a soul, lest it drag out my play time immensely. Fighting all these cretins already takes long enough, without having to actually speak words to them as well. Granted, the fact the narrative is so permutation-heavy means I'll never actually uncover the full breadth of possible cutscenes in a single playthrough… But who's realistically stopping at a single playthrough when there's so much replay value in classing differently, or getting cozy with a different companion.
Dragon Age 2's thirteen-or-so hours of cutscenes starts to look pretty meager in the face of that level of narratological prowess. But then going back and playing something with a little less unreachable content sounds like it would ease my fear of missing out, at least. And that way there's more chance I'll actually have time to complete something, instead of adding another to my ever growing list of half-finished playthroughs.
It's also not just the length of the game, size of the map, or the ridiculous number of cutscenes that are putting me off Baldur's Gate 3, either. It's all this turn-based nonsense. I miss hacking and slashing my way through battles as the only worthy class in the whole of Dragon Age 2 game: a bloodthirsty rogue.
Sure the options and the environments are nowhere near as far-reaching in Dragon Age 2, but there's a certain comfort in less. Less open space to travel; less words spoken; less things to potentially miss out on. Less, is in fact more.
On that note, please someone take me away from the paralyzing choices of Baldur's Gate 3, and send me back to fight the Darkspawn in the comforting claustrophobia of Thedas. Wrap me in the warm BioWare blankie. There I will spam buttons to my heart's content, and won't have to think about the sheer immensity of this bloody great game world Larian has presented me with.
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