Hot on the heels of last week’s Summer Game Fest – which revealed award-winning actor Jason Isaacs in the role of Baldur’s Gate 3’s second major villain – at today’s PC Gaming Show, Larian Studios provided players their first look at the iconic Forgotten Realms city of Baldur’s Gate in decades.
Opening on an image of the sprawling waters of the Chionthar River, in-game footage reveals a fully next-gen reimagining of this iconic fantasy setting while the development team discusses the daunting undertaking of recreating Baldur’s Gate for a modern RPG.
The city of Baldur’s Gate is a metropolis of labyrinthine streets, with alleys, temples, and crowded public houses teeming with life, and stories woven into the lives of every local you encounter.
Baldur’s Gate is back and bigger than ever
“We can put lots more of the city on screen than we could in 1998,” narrative design expert Lawrence Schick explains, “We can do something that is more immersive, richer, has more texture to it.”
The city itself is also bigger than any iteration of this setting that’s come before it. The streets – which span the menacing roads of the Outer City, the opulent estates of the Upper City, and the dark alleys of the Lower City – are populated with a rich cast of characters, each possessing their own untold stories, well-kept secrets, and personal reactions.
“You have crowds that are walking around everywhere. You can talk to pretty much anybody, and they react to every single thing,” says Swen Vincke, creative director at Larian Studios. “It’s very alive in that sense.”
“One of the things that’s done is it’s added this level of believability and immersion and also complexity that wouldn’t have been there otherwise,” adds associate writing lead Chrystal Ding. “It feels like you are walking around a place where there are lots and lots of people living their actual lives.”
Larian originally prototyped Baldur’s Gate as a series of smaller contained regions connected by teleports, but mid-way into developing the city, decided to make some major changes.
“[Swen] said, like, can’t we just connect everything?” reminisces world building director Farhang Namdar. “And that was an interesting day.”
Come launch, players will be stepping foot in a Baldur’s Gate made up of three seamless open world districts. No matter if you’re investigating underground crypts, wandering the chambers of a towering citadel, or descending into hidden cellars, there will be no visible loading screens to interrupt your experience.
“We spent I think three times, four times more effort on the city than we originally planned to, but the result, the feeling of walking in there, is just fantastic,” says Vincke. “So, the thing that I was the most afraid of when we started making this game turned out to be the thing that I’m the most proud of.”
Players can experience the city for themselves when Baldur’s Gate 3 releases on PC & PS5 on August 31, 2023.