Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most recent games we’re talking about here, so you can pretty much call this a prediction for how it will likely influence RPGs in the future. Larian Studios released the third entry in the Dungeons & Dragons RPG series at exactly the right time. Tabletop RPGs are at a fever pitch in popularity, fans are craving an RPG of this style with BioWare’s output in a state of limbo, and the fandom is going nuts for its colorful cast of tadpole-infected weirdos. But more than anything else, it is one of the most reactive RPG experiences anyone has put out on this scale.

Baldur’s Gate 3 exists somewhere between tactical RPG and immersive sim, and has what feels like an endless amount of opportunities for player expression and role-playing, all of which the game accommodates for. There were a lot of factors that allowed Larian to put the time and effort into creating such an open-ended game, and because the rest of the industry is so broken, we might not see another like it for a long time. But until we do, a lot of other games are going to feel pretty hollow in comparison. — Kenneth Shepard, Staff Writer