A couple of months ago, I wrote about how Baldur’s Gate 3’s next major update could quietly become one of 2021’s best games. From role-playing as a Celtic demon king – and still getting my ass handed to me by Swen Vincke – to learning to love shoving smug little goblins off precariously high ledges, Baldur’s Gate 3’s small but excellent first section almost snuck its way into my top ten games of 2020. After several months away from the game, I’ve been dying for something, anything, to draw me back in – unfortunately, I’m not sure this week’s patch is going to do that.
This week’s update predominantly introduces some minor new features and quality-of-life changes, although it’s steering clear of major story advancements. I already tried to replay the start of Baldur’s Gate 3 with a new character, but I’ve come to love my main lad so much that I just couldn’t really stick with it. Unfortunately, my main lad has also exhausted pretty much every sliver of content available to him right now, which means that, currently, Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have much to offer me.
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Patch five is apparently adding some new Shadowheart material, which, don’t get me wrong, sounds sick. I think I’d rather experience it in a bulkier session though, where I’ve got at least ten hours’ worth of quests to play through. Reinstalling Baldur’s Gate 3, readjusting to its uniquely persnickety mechanics – they’re good, just different from what I’d normally play – and getting all excited about going back to the Underdark is all well and good, but if I’m only getting half an hour of actual new content, it’s asking a lot for very little.
I’m not trying to be dismissive – Larian is an amazing studio and has been 100 percent open about the fact this is an Early Access game. As a matter of fact, Baldur’s Gate 3, alongside Hades, Temtem, and Valheim, has played a huge part in convincing me that Early Access is the future of game design. Hades is content-complete now, but I’m always excited about upcoming updates for the other three. It’s a lovely thing, really, being able to take a breather and play other stuff before realizing, “Oh yeah! That new update drops next week!” Speaking of which, I still need to get around to visiting Cipanku in the Airborne Archipelago…
That’s exactly it, though – even with Temtem’s massive new update, I’ve been in no rush to play it because I know it’s still not Temtem 1.0. Sure, there is a Baldur’s Gate 3 content drop happening later this week, but it’s just not the one I’m looking forward to. Patch six is scheduled for later this summer, which means the wait between this update and the next one is going to be relatively painless. If I played patch five, right, and only got two hours out of it, and then patch six added another eight, or ten, or 15, I’d be like, “Well, I’m an idiot.”
I know people who aren’t planning on touching this game until its full launch, mind, so I’m not just being overly picky. I genuinely love Baldur’s Gate 3 and don’t want to burn myself out on it by rinsing and repeating existing content before any new material launches, which is sort of what I did when I tried to get into competitive Temtem. I’m good at competitive Pokemon – check out these articles about the time I used Ash’s Pokemon League-winning team and Ash’s dream team in the most popular tier of competitive play – but I was rubbish at Temtem. Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have any kind of competitive counterpart, but it does support co-op, and I’m looking forward to there being enough hours in the game to justify running it with a few pals, Divinity Original Sin 2-style. Unfortunately, that’s not the case right now, which is why despite wanting nothing more than to venture further into this brilliant game world, I’m probably going to sit it out for just a little bit longer.
If you, unlike me, are planning to jump back into Baldur’s Gate 3 for patch five this week, more power to you. I’d love to join you, but I’ve gone off too many games I thought I’d love by not giving them the attention they deserve to risk it. To be perfectly honest, right now Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have a whole lot of new material I can even give attention to in the first place. I still think its next major update is going to break into my top ten games of 2021, but I reckon it’s best for me to give patch five a miss – the Mindflayers will still be waiting in a couple of months’ time, at which point I’ll finally get to learn whether Gale is as genuinely sound as he seems or is some kind of secret evil wizard who’s playing us all for great big eejits.
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