For the wild at heart
A new patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 goes live today, adding more features to the Early Access RPG. And while the addition of the Barbarian class might be the big-ticket item, it’s the user interface overhauls and more that have really caught my eye.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7, dubbed “Absolute Frenzy,” brings the chaotic and furious Barbarian class into the roster of options. Within Barbarian are two subclasses, Wildheart and Berserker. The former can choose a Bestial Heart to empower them, giving them options like an eagle dive while also adding new piercings. Berserkers, meanwhile, embrace the fury and can use attacks like Frenzied Strike.
Improvised Weapons are also coming to Baldur’s Gate 3 in this patch, allowing characters to wield objects as deadly weapons as long as they meet the right Strength-to-weight ratio. Does this mean you can beat one goblin to death with another goblin? Yes, yes it does. A very fitting addition for the Barbarian update.
Thrown Weapons also get an update, as do stealth and exploration. The biggest takeaway of the update for me, though, was the total UI overhaul Larian Studios has introduced. It’s much more streamlined and easier to read, with one of my favorite additions being a windowed inventory screen. Patch 7 also introduces new Magic Loot and improvements to a bevy of cutscenes.
It feels like a big stride towards the 1.0 marker. We were invited to ask Larian head Swen Vincke some questions about the update ahead of today’s Panel From Hell. When asked about the 1.0 launch, Vincke said Larian still has “about a year left of development at this point.” The to-do list is getting checked off, but it has to meet their internal markers.
“Again, we keep on repeating it, quality is our ultimate decision point,” said Vincke. “We want everything in the game to be at a certain level of quality. As long as it doesn’t hit that, we’re not gonna release it. But we’re getting closer to hitting what we have as our internal benchmark for the quality level that we want to achieve.”
Right now, Larian Studios says its expectation is that Baldur’s Gate 3 will leave Early Access in 2023. That my feel like a long way off, but each new Patch has added a pretty substantial wealth to what’s in the game already. I’ve resolved to pick it back up when the full run is available, but it’s hard to not want to spin up a new character after seeing a Barbarian chuck a goblin across the map.
Patch 7 for Baldur’s Gate 3 goes live in Early Access today.
