Why should Baldur’s Gate 3 win the GOTY title at The Game Awards 2023?

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been chosen as a GOTY nominee at The Game Awards 2023 since it excels as a video game in all aspects. When picking such nominees, TGA mostly focuses on innovations made by a title and how well it works to fulfill gamers globally. Similarly, the RPG managed to cater to these criteria to become a favorite of the masses shortly after release.

Baldur Gate 3 was developed by Larian Studios and is based on the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game. What made the game special was giving players the option to have branching storylines through choices and a massive world to explore. Not only that, the game also pays homage to the flexibility of the original board game.

The development of the RPG lasted for six years and it was released on the PC platform first. The reception of the game had been great initially and it also got non-RPG players into it for its level of detail. Not only that the game even managed to rise over Diablo 4 which was released this year, as it delivered a full game rather than providing extension content over time.

Larian Studios also gave the players the full freedom to create their own characters and choose their own narrative, setting an example of how an RPG really should be. Baldur’s Gate 3 deserves credit for its rich narrative, direction, environment design, art, sound, and more details that other RPGs fail to look at. Due to the immense level of hard work put in by Larian Studios, many developers even criticized them for setting unrealistic goals.

Modern gaming has been more keen on providing DLCs for additional content which led many developers to release unfinished games. However, Larian Studios proved that it doesn’t have to be that way by creating their RPG which takes almost 50 hours to beat (120 hours to finish 100%). For its exceptionalism, the title even bagged seven awards during the Golden Joystick Award 2023 which is noteworthy.

With overall recognition from players and various critics combined, the game has a chance of doing the same during The Game Awards 2023 too. While we cannot refute the fact that other competitors have put in a similar level of dedication, none quite compare to the attention to detail and gameplay mechanics that have been provided by Larian Studios as a whole.

Other than the GOTY, Baldur’s Gate 3 also managed to get nominated for seven other categories at The Game Awards. Even if the game doesn’t manage to win the grand title at the award show, it might be able to pack multiple awards from other categories. As for the main competitors in the Game of the Year nominee list, the RPG will go up against Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake 2 for their innovations.

Both games also set standards in their own genre by nailing narrative design, gameplay, and sound design as well. Yet, these titles do not come close to the experience that has been provided by Larian Studios through their hard work. Nonetheless, all these three titles are deserving of the Game of the Year title, but only one can take all the glory.

Baldur’s Gate 3 could be GOTY in the upcoming major ceremony

There are a few things that make Baldur’s Gate 3 an avid contender for GOTY at the Game Awards, like the gameplay, visual design, narrative, music, and more. The gameplay of BG3 can be defined by comparing it to traditional RPG titles that are technically refreshed with modern additions. Due to this, many have stated that the title does everything right when it comes to an RPG game.

Many role-playing games do it wrong by making the narrative extremely long with fillers instead of just focusing on the story itself. For instance, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was created as an RPG with various choices, however, only a few actually matter. In the case of BG3, the same couldn’t be observed due to the hard work that went into the development.

The narrative of a game also depends on the art direction and visual design, which Larian Studio nailed. Since the game is set in a fantastical medieval period, the art design has been tweaked throughout to give the intended experience. 

From designs of elves, vampires, and other fantasy creatures, everything was done right for the title, which was appreciated by fans globally. Not just that, efforts were made with the sound design as well that helped sell the feeling of that period. Even more, the title proves how an open-world RPG should be created and has since become a perfect example.

Many fans believe that the game deserves to get the prime title at The Game Awards for all the above reasons. Some even wish to see expansion content from the developers as it was a fun experience for many. However, that won’t be happening any time soon as Larian Studios’ main focus still remains on the Xbox version of the title. Still, fans extended their support to the developer as the game will remain as GOTY in their hearts.