“There are no more mid-seasons”. “It was better when it was worse.”. “It always rains in the wet“. “Serious video games were made once upon a time, not today“. “Back in my day“... Let’s face it: so many clichés like these have we heard rumbling (in different sauces)? On the street, at home, school, work and above all on social media. Well, another one of these (a great classic, mind you) is “a turn-based game is old, slow and boring”.
Baldur’s Gate 3 this night he won the prize Game of the Year.
Yes, I wanted to write it as a standalone sentence, like sculpting on a digital stone a historic moment and equally exciting. At the ripe old age of 35, I have enjoyed enough games to be able to tell you what this award represents a summary of the years we live ina glimmer of hope for the gaming world in general, as well as the practical demonstration of the fact that if you do things well, you get rewarded.
But how did all this happen? How is it possible that a saga, suspended for 23 years, could have annihilated important modern games of the caliber of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom And Alan Wake 2? How did an isometric fantasy game (definable almost niche) and with turn-based gameplay (pure madness in today’s frenetic world) win not only the GOTY but also 5 other awards afterwards?
A semi-unknown study
In the far 1996 Swen Vincke founds Larian Studioswith a handful of developers who in five months of activity produced an Indie game called The Lady, the Mage and the Knight: An isometric RPG title that lays the foundation for their future works. The game sells enough to suggest a sequel, even in collaboration with another development studio, but due to artistic differences the result will never be published and will end up in general oblivion.
Larian Studios continues its run and produces Divine Divinitya mix between Diablo II (which at the time was the undisputed “King” of the dark fantasy action RPG universe) and Baldur’s Gate. Compared to the two more complex productions, Divine Divinity has a mediocre technical sector but a strong gameplay and a narrative component to spare, so much so that it receives various appreciations from the public, and in 2004 one was produced spin off of the called game Beyond Divinity. Believe it or not, the group gets noticed by Ubisoftwhich takes over the standard version of the latter game.
Ten years pass, in which the Larians dedicate themselves to various productions which, all things considered, are not bad, although times are changing, with the public turning its attention towards other genres. Larian Studios therefore finds itself (like many others) lost in market fragmentation.
Everything changes when it arrives forcefully in the world”Kickstarter“, and here, when it is presented Divinity: Original Sinthe public of 2014 returns to watch isometric productions with a strong narrative component with interest: the game is funded with almost a million dollarson a base request of $400 thousand.
Do you think it’s a happy ending? And yet it wasn’t even an idea! Do you think that Divinity: Original Sin had a prospectus of costs equal to 3 million dollars and that, at the end of production, it cost $4.50 of millions more or less. Swen Vincke, visionary and perhaps crazy as only the great can be, he delayed tax payments to squeeze out every last dollar he could and complete the game: if it hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here telling you about it today. Already, Divinity: Original Sin was a unprecedented success for Larian Studiosmoreover there was also an Enhanced Edition at the end of 2015 which brought various improvements to the game and all the DLC released.
Just a year later, after the game had the deserved success (although it was perceived that the studio could have done more, if it had had more means), comes a new Kickstarter campaignfinanced in a few hours, e Divinity II: Original Sin lays the foundation for what will be next Baldur’s Gate 3. The game has a more complex story than the previous one and undoubtedly a richer graphic style, although it always maintains the bright colors of the previous chapter and takes place 1400 years later.
From the dust of centuries to the modern limelight
Twenty-three years ago Baldur’s Gate II was released, a licensed title Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro) which owns the world of the most famous paper game of all time i.e Dungeons & Dragons. The game was quite successful in terms of sales, although at the time the public was already moving towards the world of action games, with 3D graphics making great strides and astonishing the eyes of all of us.
The world of Faerûn where is the Sword Coast – and consequently the city of Baldur’s Gate – continued to live in the legends told at gaming tables all over the world, with books to play, novels to explore and adventures that most will not know, but which ultimately have characterized the collective imagination and silent of millions of players.
Right in the silence, in the serenity of anonymity, Larian Studios is working painstakingly on Baldur’s Gate 3: in 2020, when the world was in the midst of the pandemic crisis, the existence of this production was announced as strong as the weight of a war hammer on October 6th, and which will see the light within a few years. The promise was kept.
Excitement, hope and then panic, uncontrolled fear and doubts: and if Larian Studios wanted to overdo it (as often happens to production studios that find themselves with a huge license like this in their hands) and the game came out incorrectly? What if the public doesn’t understand it? And then… to many it might have seemed like one folly: an isometric gameAnd in shiftsbut where do you want to go?
These questions gripped modern social networks, and many of them they gave up this production well before it saw the light.
But times had changedand what the masses had not yet perceived was already taking place: the pandemic has changed the way we meet, gaming groups that were initially all live have transformed into online or hybrid groups (some live around a table and some connected via the internet to the same game). There have been productions capable of reaching the hearts of many people such as Critical Role (a group of actors and voice actors who started role-playing around a table and “turned the world upside down”) which gave rise to podcasts, YouTube series and even The Legend of Vox Machinavisual adaptation of Prime Video in cartoon style.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is like the Pyramid of Giza
The game, which grew up in the above scenario, as well as the videogame summary of that scenario, was able to find its way into the hearts of everyone: not only aesthetic style (masterful and well cared for) he convinced everyoneeven the most scepticalbut Larian Studios has been able to demonstrate that when a gameplay has solid foundations, when it comes from the past and is modernized in a coherent way, even a layman can become passionate about it and become a fanatic about a product he had never heard of.
Baldur’s Gate 3 represents the same importance in the gaming world as Pyramid of Jaza in Egypt: something that has its roots in the past, that does not necessarily belong to a generation or a group of people, and that willy-nilly conditions the world (video game in this case) pushing those who come from now on to ask questions to which he previously gave little importance. For example: “Have we taken care of the narrative aspect of our game?” ,”Did we stop to look for a form of dubbing and music consistent with the production?“.
For many, rediscovering the gameplay of Baldur’s Gate 3, with all its facets and smallnesses (which make it great!) and all its defects that make it so alive, it was a spectacle for fansbut even more profound and visceral for those who, until yesterday, he has never had his hand on a production like this: those who disdained the turn-based game, today look at it with interest and curiosity, just like the world looked at the first mummy ever found, realizing that that was something that came from the past, but that was being told to them in some way way the origins of the world, a sort of wordless narration of how it was in the past, and how it could still be today and in the future.
Baldur’s Gate 3 islike Ramesses II, the most important product of this generation because it allows not only itself to be honored, but because will push the others to buildfrom now on, games and products increasingly detailedvivid in aesthetics and solid in gameplay.
It all started with the vision of a “raving madman” called Swen Vincke, who is still at the head of the company today. Ultimately, this is also the explanation of how when you have had solid foundations for almost thirty years, what you do is not the result of choices taken lightly.
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