Industry and CRPG veteran Josh Sawyer has weighed in on Baldur's Gate 3's gameplay and mechanics, highlighting the challenges of adapting from D&D's fifth edition.
Over on Twitter, one fan has asked Sawyer if he had any enlightening critiques of Baldur's Gate 3's gameplay before getting the reply they likely hoped for.
"This will surprise no one, but I think that 5E itself is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in gameplay because it complicates an already complicated and overloaded UI," he says. "The most fun things in the game aren't really 5E things or even D&D things, but Larian things.
"That said I still do feel the UI is clumsy and I'm never going to like the camera. There are places where the camera feels fine, but when it's bad (i.e. the level design doesn't work with it), it's a very frustrating experience."
Sawyer's thoughts have naturally sparked some chatter. One fan reckons that 5E makes the tabletop experience more "approachable and modular," though that isn't always guaranteed to cross over to video game adaptations. As such, they ask Sawyer if 3.5E is the best edition regarding video game adaptations.
"Sure but that's just within the realm of D&D," he replies. "There are a ton of other TTRPGs with arguably better core mechanics (not that I'm interested in arguing about that right now) and in the end, this is a CRPG, not a TTRPG. And I'd take 5E over 3.5 for ease of learning, definitely."
D&D 5E has thrown up a few design dilemmas for Baldur's Gate 3 – how powerful the spells that exist beyond the level cap are, for one – so it's fun and enlightening to hear more about the other challenges behind it weaving it into a video game – especially from someone with Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and other RPG big hitters to their name.
Thankfully, Larian has stuck the landing, as we can see from the oodles of rewards they've managed to pick up in the past few months. The RPG is also at the top of a particular Game of the Year list, as it would have it.
