The Baldur's Gate 3 opening cinematic is here and it's absolutely wild

The opening cinematic for Baldur's Gate 3 was revealed on Thursday, and it's nothing short of exhilarating. Simply on a technical level, the cinematography is on another level, but the real stars of the show are the dragons, which are beautifully detailed and wonderfully horrifying.

Whether or not you played the original Baldur's Gate games, the new trailer is an absolute spectacle. However, more likely you're a fan of the franchise and are still reeling from the epic return of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG from Larian Studios. Chaos abounds, the opening cinematic starts off quietly unnerving and then explodes with spectacular dragons, tentacled mindflayers, and widespread destruction.

The substantial opening cinematic doesn't show any gameplay sequences, but fear not; the trailer was released just as a rather lengthy gameplay reveal stream raged on Thursday afternoon. While a release date has yet to be revealed and is likely still a ways off, this is by far the best look yet at the long-awaited return of the Baldur's Gate series.

Despite not having a concrete release date for the finished game, we do know Baldur's Gate 3 will hit Steam Early Access sometime in 2020 (via Dark Side of Gaming). GamesRadar+ was lucky enough to spend some hands-on time with Baldur's Gate 3 and speak with the developers about delivering a satisfying product to fans of Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, and Larian Studios' Divinity series.

In the meantime, burn some time catching up with the best RPGs to play in 2020.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.