If a squirrel is kicked into a tree on one side of the Sword Coast, it can cause a Goblin uprising many miles away, as the saying goes. Now I didn’t kick the squirrel because I’m not a monster, and therefore there was no Goblin uprising in my playthrough (not that I know if that can even happen, but knowing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3, I’m sure it can), but I feel like every decision I make has great consequences in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Larian Studios’ incredible, impossible RPG.

I’ve already waxed lyrical about the number of cho❀ices I was faced with coming into a chapel that functioned as a basic tutorial for persuading, fighting in different terrain, and solving puzzles. That was what sold me on Baldur’s Gate 3, mere hours into my playthrough and after killing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:o๊ne of gaming’s verꩲy few Scousers. The number of options at your disposal, the number ♋of creative ways of solving any puzzle – often without necessitating combat – showed me a new way of approaching RPGs. But it’s the consequences of my actions that took Baldur’s Gate 3 from being a great game to a masterpiece.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 Is Inspiring Me To Bec🎉ome A ❀Better Writer

In many RPGs, your choices have very obvious consequences. Take 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fallout: New Vegas, for example. Choosing how you reroute power across the Mojave completely changes the plot of the game, but the consequences of doing so seem fairly straightforward. Yes, Obsid꧃ian throws a couple of curveballs into the mix, but diverting power away from New Vegas will piss off the casino owners. It’s a difficult decision to come to, as are many in the game, but it’s difficult because you know what will happen if you make each choice. Baldur’s Gate 3 takes a different approach.

Image of Halsin speaking with a smile at the camp in Baldur's Gate 3

I followed Halsin’s scent to the Goblin Camp, hoping to recruit the Bear-Druid to my party (despite the fact that I’m already suffering with my deliberations of who to take with me on my adventure). I found him quic🔴kly, by luck, after persuading hordes of guards and legions of soldiers to let me past. He gave me two options: fight my way out with him, in bear form, by my side, or let me try my own way. One thing was for sure, he wanted the group’s three leaders dead. They’d imprisoned him, so it only seems fair enough, and I needed him back at the Emerald Grove because his right-hand Druid was being a bit of a prick.

So I fought my way out with Halsin by my side. It was tough going, with wave after wave of Goblin mercenar✅ies sounding the alarm and bringing more death to their doorstep. There were no fewer than three bosses to defeat amongst it all, so I was glad to have a fifth party member in the form of a mammal hellbent on dismemberment. Once the Goblins were defeated, I thought it was done. It wasn’t until I was looking into party members much later that I realised I’d messed up.

Minthara, one of the bosses in the Goblin Camp, is a recruitable party member if you make a differe🐓nt decision. Of course you can side with the Goblins and assault the Emerald Grove, this is Baldur’s Gate 3. You can do anything. But that option never crossed my mind, and my fellow Drow is lying dead as a dodo in a Goblin cave.

This got me thinking about other choices I’d made along the way. I’d advised some Tieflings in the Grove, who were asking whether to make a run for it or stay and take back the Grove from the Druids. I can’t even remember what I suggested 🌼they do – the conversation seemed so inconsequential at the time – but I’m suddenly sure that I’ve messed up again. That decision, something I thought about for maybe ten seconds and decided on a whim, may have huge repercussions down the line. What if these Tieflings die fighting the Druids when I could have joined up with them in the titular city later on? What if they were the extra bodies needed to take back the Grove?

Every decision in B🍸aldur’s Gate 3 seems like a bad idea, and every decision has serious consequences. You just don’t know what they are yet.

Next: How Baldur's Gate 3 Makes Your Decisions Really Matter