I don’t know anything about video games. My experience is limited to Roblox, Minecraft, Just Dance, Wii Sports, five rounds of Super Smash Bros. and one round of Mario Party.
However, when I heard about Baldur’s Gate 3, I just couldn’t get the game out of my head. I like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), and Baldur’s Gate 3 is just Dungeons and Dragons that you can play alone. That’s perfect for times when I’m too busy to play with others.
Now, granted, I am not an experienced Dungeons and Dragons player, but I understand the gist of it.
Once I started, I created my character and began the journey. Now, I know this is a cliché of first-time D&D players, but I did play as a tiefling. Tieflings are a race that is part human and part demon or some other dark entity.
Before you criticize me, I have never played as a tiefling before and have played as a human in the majority of campaigns. I just wanted to try something different.
My tiefling ranger made it through the first cut scene without major injuries besides having a worm implanted in her head by a mind flayer.
My next task was to collect the six other characters in my same predicament and team up to find a cure. This is proving incredibly difficult and I don’t have them all yet. I have played for 17 hours.
I have met all of them but respawned incorrectly after dying once, which reset me to before I met two of the characters.
However, I’m debating if I want to gather all of them because half of the main characters get on my nerves.
My favorites, Shadowheart, Wyll and Karlach, are perfect. Wyll can be a little boring sometimes, but he’s still better than the other three options.
The least frustrating of these other options is Gale. I thought he would be fun to be around based on the clips of him online. I was mistaken.
He’s a wizard who loves to hear himself talk and needs everyone to know how smart he is. I don’t enjoy listening to characters whom I need a thesaurus to understand.
Another upsetting option is Lae’zel. She scares me. The only way to please her is by killing another person, and every path she sets you on is filled with violence.
I don’t want to be in constant fights to appease her. I’m really bad at fighting in video games, and I barely understand the controls.
It took me a couple of days to find the map button on the controller, and she wants me to take on her guards while I’m at half health? Absolutely not.
Despite Lae’zel’s mean spirit, she is manageable compared to the last option.
The absolute worst character is Astarion. I know he’s the fan favorite, but I find him unbearably annoying.
He always gets in my way and tries to stab or bite me, so with every opportunity that I am given, I enact payback. I have punched him five times.
I would recommend this game to others but only if they are more experienced than I. Otherwise, good luck.
Curtin can be reached at curtinem5864@uwec.edu.
