With the right partner, the game becomes even more interesting.
There aren’t many games with a co-op campaign. Of course, it was even more pleasing to learn that the long-awaited role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 would feature co-op. Of course, this wasn’t a big surprise, since previous games from Larian Studios also featured co-op.
Get a (reliable) escort!
My husband and I had played Divinity: Original Sin 2, so we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. You play through the campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3 with four characters, a fixed number. However, any slot can be filled by either a pre-made NPC companion or an actual player, so up to four people can play. The campaign is a generic form of guest player, with others joining in, just like in Divinity.
This leads to a number of features that need to be taken into account. Perhaps the most important is that the game is saved only by the visiting player. Therefore, only he can continue the game without you, and in this case he will take control of your character.
I would also strongly recommend that you think carefully about how reliable the guest player is. The campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3 is extremely long, and if he stops enjoying the game halfway through, you will have a very difficult time resolving the situation. Of course, complications arise if another player drops out during the game. In short, departures and arrivals cannot be arranged as easily and elegantly as in tabletop Dungeons & Dragons.
We play the campaign in pairs, each of us controlling our own character and one prepared companion.
Tactical exercises
Of course, the big question in multiplayer is profession. Especially if you’re playing with four other players. Building a balanced group is tricky, especially if someone insists on playing a paladin with an oath of allegiance (which is a great choice and a lot of fun in the campaign, by the way) and someone else is determined to point their thief at the biggest bad guy around.
Playing with two players gives you a lot of flexibility, because in addition to the character you created and the profession you chose, you simply add another one who can complement both your character and the character of your teammate. Another advantage of having fewer people is, of course, shorter waits during turn-based battles. Since my husband was clear from the start that he wanted to play a bard, and none of us had a Lae’zel character in early access, I chose a two-meter half-elf warrior who can intervene. with a two-handed sword in case the bard’s manipulations or lies don’t work. For this, we took the help of the cleric Shadowheart and the support of the crossbow Astarion from the rear.
To charm or to intimidate
What makes Baldur’s Gate great is, of course, the number of options. It may be that as a fighter with low intelligence I will immediately run into a responsible dialogue, but even with the charisma of an average brick I can still try to play out the situation with good old intimidation. Likewise, the lack of knowledge in occult subjects does not matter. As the saying goes: when the only solution at hand is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.
However, diplomacy with a bard is much better, and his set of support spells is also very useful in combat. As a bonus, he can talk to animals or help improve your economic situation by pickpocketing random passersby. And of course, this is just one of many, many combinations of personalities and professions.
Of course, you have little control over your teammate’s actions, which leads to often unexpected, but often comical situations, whether in the context of interactions with NPCs or during fights.
But does it work?
We tried co-op as soon as the developers added it to early access, and of course a lot of things didn’t work at first, the game had problems maintaining a connection, the options for teammates were very limited, and of course various bugs in the gameplay that I can’t even name.
But Larian made the most of Early Access and in the full game we encountered a couple of game and a couple of minor lag issues in the full game during the ten or so hours of play, but they were definitely not frequent or extremely serious issues.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is highly recommended. If you’ve played Original Sin 2, you’ll be right at home here, and if not, it just works and is a lot of fun.
Source :Indian TV
