I do not normally say this proper out of the gate, however it’s unavoidable right here—main spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 are about to occur. Particularly plot factors from Acts 1 and a pair of and the Darkish Urge questline, in addition to a touch of Act 3 spoilers for seasoning.
I hit Act 3 on an evil Honour Mode playthrough not too long ago—and whereas the town of Baldur’s Gate does not know my crimes, an eerie sense of quiet has adopted me into its in any other case busy streets. It began in Act 2: Let me paint you an image.
I’ve checked all of my evil packing containers—crossed my t’s, gouged out my eyes (that’s how the saying goes, proper?) I am a Darkish Urge cleric who worships an evil deity, I give my all to my base instincts, and do no matter papa Bhaal needs me to.
I slaughter the druid grove, I slay the Harpers and let the drider reside, and I shuffle Isobel off this mortal coil the second I used to be given the order to. I additionally free Wulbren Bongle, as a result of he is form of a jerk however he has bombs—and my cleric likes something that provides him an excuse to practise the artwork of struggle.
Whereas Final Mild Inn grew to become a graveyard at my hand, the arc of Act 2 all the time forces you to cleave your approach by Moonrise Towers. Doing this with out the Harpers at my again was a whole nightmare—even when Larian does plonk a number of the enemy forces by the bridge to divide issues up a bit. I feel the total battle took round an hour and a half, with so many our bodies left in my wake I took a freaking video of it simply to hammer issues residence.
I burned a path by Ketheric’s gloopy mindflayer nest, slew him and his undead daughter, and claimed the primary netherstone.
Simply Wulbren
In a standard playthrough, the top of Act 2 has this air of triumph to it. The denizens of Final Mild Inn crowd into the halls of the tower. Isobel and Dame Aylin reunite, Halsin shares his hopes for the longer term. You are surrounded by cheers and pleasant distributors, representing a possibility to take a breath and top off for the street forward.
On this darkish timeline, although? It was simply me, my celebration, and Wulbren goddamn Bongle. Anticlimax does not even reduce it. Minthara cheers me up by dropping into Ketheric’s grand seat and telling me that she’ll by no means tire of claiming the thrones of lifeless males—and whereas I respect the hassle… man. Who knew butchery was so quiet.
My camp is likewise destitute. I’ve both killed or refused anybody outdoors of my core celebration of Shadowhart, Astarion, and Minthara, with Lae’zel completely parked after Act 2. I saved Volo round as a result of having the ability to bag a bundle of provides from him each lengthy relaxation is a significant profit, and I determine he is too afraid of me to go away. In any other case it is silent. Gloomy, even. Websites designed for a full host of vibrant characters are spaciously glum.
I am additionally taking part in in Honour Mode, and whereas I would not usually care about optimisation all that a lot, I do when permadeath’s on the desk, and lemme inform you: An evil playthrough limits your choices.
I miss Dammon, man
Killing the tieflings robs you of quite a lot of nice gadgets, just like the Cloak of Crafty Brume from Mattis in Act 2 that allows you to drop a fog cloud on an enemy with a single bonus motion, usually giving your complete celebration benefit towards them and not using a save through the blind situation. Then there’s Dammon, who has a lot package that I needed to put ’em in record format:
- The Sword of Lifestealing, a +2 weapon that offers further harm and provides you short-term HP on a important hit.
- The Darkfire Shortbow, which supplies you resistance to 2 complete harm sorts and the power to solid Haste.
- All the Flawed Helldusk items. Whereas the chestplate’s form of redundant if you happen to received a set of Adamantine Armor from Grymforge in Act 1, each the helmet and the gloves have some nice provides.
- The Armour of Persistence in Act 3—straight up the most effective heavy armour units within the recreation. All incoming harm is lowered by two, you achieve 1d4 to each saving throw you make, and also you get resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing harm.
And that is only a shortlist of the gadgets I occur to love. Heck, even letting Barcus Wroot reside nets you some nice gadgets just like the Gloves of the Automaton—which allow you to use that halberd from Act 1’s mage tower with out zapping your self foolish. Additionally he has a cool grenade, and is considerably chiller than Wulbren Bongle who—I can not stress this sufficient—sucks.
I’ve not pushed into the ultimate confrontation with the Netherbrain simply but. In reality, I am type of procrastinating coming again to the playthrough, as a result of it is turning into more and more clear that I will solely have a handful of allies to summon within the remaining battle. As an alternative of victoriously charging the Absolute with a military in tow, it is gonna be me and… who? Put your hand down, Wulbren. I am not summoning you out of sheer spite.
Is evil good, or simply so dangerous?
The “good” model of Baldur’s Gate 3—the one the place you save everybody, full their questlines, and wrap every little thing in a pleasant and tidy bow—is a hopeful story. It is concerning the energy individuals have over their very own fates, how they’ll escape a nasty scenario with the assist of these round them. It is a detailed, textured story with a large solid of characters, excellently solid and voice acted.
An evil playthrough is a lonely, so-so romp crammed with fight and good individuals screaming at you. This isn’t a world during which heroes exist—solely dangerous individuals, and dangerous individuals who occur to be killing different dangerous individuals for you. There’s nothing to be realized right here. In reality, my cleric’s meddling along with his companions has actively made them worse, as is the case with Shadowheart.
I feel it is honest to name the absolutely evil route a smidge underdeveloped. In one other timeline, the goblins would exchange the tieflings when it comes to significance—however I feel I’d prefer it this manner. I am reminded of Undertale’s genocide run, whereby cleansing an space of monsters would exchange the chipper background music with an echoing dirge of nothing, as a result of hey. Seems, if you happen to kill everybody, then you are going to be alone. And if you happen to’re not, it will be as a result of Wulbren’s there, which is arguably worse.