Summary
Last week,Larianannounced that work on its next gamehas reached the “lift off” point. In a move that seems poetic but is actually just a reflection of how buildings work, the team gathered in the same room they were sitting in for the final meeting onBaldur’s Gate 3to discuss the next project. Nothing is known of the game apart from the fact it will not be Baldur’s Gate 4, nor anything tied toD&Dandthe 5e combat system. So for now, just one thing needs to be said: Let Larian cook.
A month ago my colleague Tessa Kaur wroteIt’s Time To Leave Larian Alone, so is TheGamer just doomed to repeat this article every month until we hit a breaking point and stop calling for time to cook, and instead demand answers with the sort of impatient tone reserved forWonder Woman, or Tomb Raider, orSilksong? Yes and no.
Larian’s Next Game Could Be Nearly A Decade Away
On the one hand, it would obviously be a waste of time to continue reminding our readers who are already well aware that games take a long time to make that Larian’s follow up to one of the most impressive games of all time won’t be completed in a matter of months. But on the other, Baldur’s Gate 3 is such a rich game, and that quality made it fun to write about in ways that other games, though we may love to play them, aren’t. It felt like there was always more to say about Baldur’s Gate 3, new methods of playing it, new secrets to uncover, new dialogue options to experience. That helped it, for many not just at TheGamer but in the press in general, develop a sort of professional affection as well as a personal one.
I suspect this is part of the reason so many game journalists are ready to go to war overThe Last of Us Part 2, but are largely indifferent toHorizon Forbidden West, a game that looks great and offers a fun time but provides little substance. That and the woke.
I loveInsomniac’sgames, but I’m not really too fussed about what it makes next. Sure, part of that is the leaks, but most of it is because while I loveSpider-ManandRatchet & Clankon a personal level, I don’t have much of a professional connection to them. Aside from commenting on internet drama or occasionally pointing at a cool thing and saying ‘this is cool!’, I can’t do a lot with an Insomniac game. I want to see what Larian will do next because I expect it to be an important game for me professionally.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s Follow Up Needs To Be Rich In Its Narrative
It’s not just journalists who feel this way. People fall in love with all sorts of games for all sorts of reasons. Someone at TheGamer has aNEO: The World Ends With Youtattoo. But it tends to be that the game with the most to say gets heard by the most people. Games with depth and substance resonate more often with players, and their echoes are felt for longer. Baldur’s Gate 3 was a game that could bore through granite and touch your soul, and it’s rare games make you feel that way. So rare, in fact, that we feel the need to chase it. But Larian’s next game needs to take a long time to be able to do that to us again, and all we can do is wait.
Sure, there are structural issues within gaming that compound this wait. The need for games to be bigger than ever, better looking, and more groundbreaking has seen development times swell - it’s why no developer can truly be inspired byRed Dead Redemption 2, despite its greatness. The push for quick profits funnelling studios towards generic live-service cash generators means fewer games even try to make us care on any level below the surface, and repeated short-sighted layoffs cause a brain drain that pushes talented developers out of the industry and clips the wings of those who stay by making them fearful of creativity and robbing them of mentors.
Larian should not be our only Larian, yet it feels like it is. But ultimately, its next game is just going to take a long time. We need to wait. You need to be okay with that and, maybe more to the point, so do I.
Baldur’s Gate 3
WHERE TO PLAY
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
