Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 is a single-player and co-op CRPG from the Belgian studio Larian Studios, released on 3 August 2023 after three years in early access. It is a return to the Forgotten Realms setting after 26 years of real time and about 120 years in the game's own timeline: the earlier parts of the series (BG1 in 1998, BG2 in 2000) were made by BioWare, while BG3 is entirely Larian's work. There is no need to play the originals: the story is self-contained, characters such as Minsc and Jaheira return as cameos for fans, and newcomers get the full context through the in-game journal.

Under the hood is strict D&D 5th Edition (5e): turn-based d20 rolls for every action in combat, and a roll of fate decides the outcome of any dialogue or skill check. This is not The Witcher 3 or Elden Ring: combat here is slow and tactical, with spell slots and rests. In return there are 12 classes, about 30 race varieties, a true permadeath Honor Mode with a single save slot, and online co-op for up to 4 players, so the replay value is huge.

The companions are the core of the game: Shadowheart, Astarion, Lae'zel, Gale, Wyll, and Karlach are full characters with their own arcs and romance lines. Each of them can be played as an Origin character (with a pre-written backstory), you can create your own hero Tav, or you can choose the dark Origin Dark Urge for an alternative playthrough. There are more than 17,000 permutations of possible endings: the outcome depends on the fates of the companions, choices in romances, and key decisions across the three acts.

The three acts cover the following: Act 1 - the Druid Grove, the Goblin Camp, the Underdark (25 to 40 hours); Act 2 - the Shadow Plane, the Last Light Inn, Moonrise Towers (20 to 30 hours); Act 3 - the Lower City of Baldur's Gate with the densest concentration of content in the genre, the House of Hope, and the final battle with the Netherbrain. The game has 174 hours of cutscenes and about 2 million words of dialogue, five times more than The Witcher 3.

Larian has officially committed to releasing no paid DLC: all 8 major patches and the later fixes are free for all owners. Patch 8 (15 April 2025) was the final major update: Photo Mode, PC and console cross-play, and 12 new subclasses. After it the studio switched to a new Divinity, announced at The Game Awards 2025 ("bigger than BG3"). The modding tools are official and free, and by October 2025 Nexus Mods listed about 15,000 mods.

Localization: Russian subtitles and interface are official from Larian. There is no official Russian voice acting and none is planned. Larian structurally does not make Russian dubs of its CRPGs because of the volume of text (this is a permanent policy, not a consequence of the events of 2022). For those who want to hear the game in Russian, there is a fan-made AI dub, SynthVoiceRu: it is free through Boosty, has about 45,000 lines in the SV2 model, and is installed separately through the mods folder. Larian does not support this dub.

Reception: 96 on Metacritic, about 835,000 Steam reviews with an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating (~96 to 97%), GOTY 2023 at The Game Awards and BAFTA, and about 250 Game of the Year awards in total, a record on the level of The Witcher 3 in 2015. The peak concurrent player count was 875,343 (top 9 in Steam history), and by the end of 2025 more than 20 million copies had been sold. In February 2026, 30 months after release, about 110,000 people were playing at the same time, a longevity level comparable to GTA V and Skyrim.

Baldur's Gate 3 is the 2023 CRPG from Larian Studios: turn-based combat under D&D 5e rules, 12 classes, 11 races, and co-op for up to 4 players. Russian subtitles and interface are official, voice acting is in English. 20 million copies sold, 96 on Metacritic, GOTY 2023 at TGA and BAFTA.