Baldur’s Gate 3 Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · Published December 15, 2023 · Updated December 13, 2023

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review, is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review Pros:

Stunning graphics.
137.8GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Action RPG gameplay.
Official Dungeons And Dragons licensed game.
Nudity option – on/off.
Text settings – subtitles, show speaker icon, text background, background opacity, and dialogue text size slider.
Colorblind support.
Accessibility options – longer active search hold, center cinematic audio, force mono audio, overhead text size slider, explicit options, and camera shake.
Sensitivity sliders for each stick.
Five difficulties – Explorer, balanced, tactician, honor, and custom.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play and on the loading screens.
Fast loading times.
In-game cutscenes, FMV, and player interactions.
Two character choices – create your custom character or choose from the group of characters – Astarion, Lae’zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Wyll, Karlach, and the Dark Urge.
Your character can identify as male, female, nonbinary, and other.
In-depth character creator – origin, race (Tiefling/Drow/Human/Githyanki/Dwarf/Half-Elf/Halfling/Gnome/Dragonborn/Half-Orc/Elf), Class (Barbarian/Bard/Cleric/Druid/Fighter/Monk/Paladin/Ranger/Rogue/Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard), subclass, background, abilities, skills, and appearance. Along with your name.
Choose a guardian to fight alongside you – randomize, race, sub-race, body type, voice, face, and basic face/hair/scar settings.
Enchanting soundtrack.
All the cinematics are of a movie quality.
Interactions and some actions require a skill check, this is done by rolling a dice and adding any modifiers you have to try and match/beat the shown amount.
It uses a lot of the Dungeons and Dragons 5e tools et and phrasing but in an inviting way.
The narrator of your story is like the DM (dungeon master) who narrates and describes events and outcomes as you play.
Save and load when you want.
Interactive points will be highlighted when hovered over.
A full 3D world with 360-degree camera control.
Running activity log in the corner shows at all times.
Online Co-op is drop-in and drop-out.
Play how you want.
Multiple choice encounters and questions.
You play the game like a typical 3D action game but you can click the left stick and make it more like a point-and-click game.
Such powerful performances from the amazing cast of memorable characters.
The world’s and locations just look amazing.
It is a visual treat.
Recruit party members and you control them in battle, you can also swap between characters when roaming around.
Earned exp pops up above your head.
Round-based combat is where you can move, use an item, and do an action.
Radical menus are used for a lot of the menus, especially the combat ones.
Seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay.
Earn/unlock/buy new dice.
As you travel around the environment can help/hinder you like being in deep water or up high.
Handy right-click button to highlight all interactive points in the area.
Waypoints act as fast travel points.
To regain health and some supplies you can take a full or short rest, one gives all health, and the other only half your health.
You can share initiatives with party members when in combat.
Earn EXP and level up to get a stats increase, new passives, or spells. Your party members are dealt with by you aswel.
The campsite is where you can fully heal, replenish spells, talk with characters increase your relationship level, and organize who is going out on adventures with you.
At any point, you can teleport to your camp through the menu.
The map uncovers as you explore.
Aside from enemies, there are environmental hazards.
Travelers chest is your storage and you can send things there no matter where you are.
The journal stores all quests, inspirational dialogues, and tutorials.
To full rest you have to own all the needed food and supplies otherwise you have to do a half/partial rest.
If you ever wanted a digital Dungeons And Dragons experience this is it and you can do it solo or with friends.
The game helps the Tabletop game as it can inspire ideas and give insight into how a DM can work.
Anything can happen at any given time.
It has a strong grip on you so you are left thinking about the game long after you turn it off.
Every encounter is different even replaying an encounter through save scumming (reloading saves) can be different.
Group and ungroup at any time.
Find many secret areas and locations.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
No random name generator.
The game never actually pauses when pressing start.
A lot to take in and for a long time especially if you’ve not played Dungeons and Dragons 5e or a game in this genre before.
Slowdown happens in places.
The game stutters when autosaving.
It’s not always clear when you are breaking the law or what characters can see you doing.
No way to speed up enemy turns in combat.
The action camera shots can be quite bad.
Any sort of precision can be tricky.
You don’t always get great feedback on combat.
The list of quests gets long and a nightmare to manage or even understand half the time.

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