As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself extolling the virtues of a well-crafted story. From Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Project Hail Mary and Red Dwarf to Kraven’s Last Hunt, Watchmen and Kingdom Come, my bookshelf is a cacophony of well-crafted and entertaining stories… and some pulpy stuff mixed in it must be said. The more eagle-eyed reader would have noticed I didn’t mention any video game titles. The more pedantic reader would note that I was talking about my bookshelf, so there wouldn’t be any video games stored there, to which I’d counter with the classic rhetoric device defence for the sake of keeping this article on the rails and not getting stuck in the weeds.
Some of you may ask why I haven’t included any video game titles and that’s a fair question. I’ve been playing games since I was a small lad and there are a lot that I love playing. The sticking point comes when I have to ask myself whether my enjoyment came from the stories in the games themselves or the way I got to experience them and control the narrative in a way you don’t get with other media. If I were being honest, I’d say that it would be the latter as although you get the occasional story that comes out of left field, the majority of the writing in the larger triple-A sector feels more of an afterthought compared to fine-tuning gameplay systems and planning out season pass roadmaps that never come to fruition.
Unlike books and comics, where the writing is the primary focus of the medium, video games have a lot more moving parts that need to intersect well to keep players interested. It comes down to a simple issue of limited resources and one of the unfortunate truths of video game development is that writing can’t be the priority for most game developers. I used to think that was all triple-A game developers until I stumbled upon a little indie gem, Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios was given the keys to the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms after building their reputation on solid fantasy roleplaying games Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II.
Having played both of these games, the breadth and depth of writing in the world and characters is something that I haven’t seen since Disco Elysium. You can see that the open-world fantasy model is Larian’s wheelhouse and the pure love and joy they have for the genre. Every side quest, NPC interaction and bit of fluff dialogue in these games drip with a passion that made me want to explore the game world and learn more about my party companions. However, when Baldur’s Gate 3 was released, I’ll admit I was unsure if Larian would be able to carry on their good run. For one, a lot of my favourite video game franchises have weak third entries (looking at you, Batman: Arkham Origins), and two, the fact that I’d never heard of the Baldur’s Gate series before didn’t fill me with confidence.
It took me a year after the release to work my way around to playing the game and these fears were assayed from the first cutscene. The world-building is superb; the story is intricate and engaging, and the characters have depth and complexity that unfolds itself to the player over time – if they so choose to. While I don’t like having Astarion, Gale and Lae’zel in my party, I love that I can still appreciate them as characters and want to learn more about them just on the strength of the writing alone.
Now, this was all thrown into sharp relief when I went back to former Baldur’s Gate developer and much-lauded game developer Bioware. I’d played through Dragon Age: Inquisition to completion back in my uni days, loving the big story moments and the world I spent 50-odd hours inhabiting through my character. I’d also played a bit of the Mass Effect games and enjoyed them as fun romps in a non-trademarked galaxy far, far away.
After not touching them for ages and playing Baldur’s Gate 3, I got the fantasy bug and decided to throw back in with Dragon Age. I only got a couple of hours into the opening segment before having to stop. The game was just like I remembered, yet that spark that had ignited in me playing Baldur’s Gate 3 wasn’t there. Every side quest felt disconnected from the main plot and the characters felt all the same playing in moment-to-moment gameplay, only showing some form of “individuality” in direct character conversations in the tired and well-worn Bioware dialogue wheels.
Regardless, there are no real points of contention between party members in Dragon Age Inquisition (one of the main criticisms of the game compared to previous entries). On the other hand, Baldur’s Gate 3 has characters that disagree with each other and allows you to roleplay on a deeper level through your actions, not just dialogue choices. It all just feels so mechanical and lacking a passion that Larian has in spades.
I’ll focus on my two love interests to help highlight my point. In Dragon Age, the only character that stood out to me as interesting or having some secrets to uncover was Cassandra Pentaghast. I enjoyed getting to know her but it felt very much divorced from the rest of the game. I could take a scythe to that entire section of the game and not lose anything to the overall story. Compare that to the goth elf cleric that stole my heart, Shadowheart. Besides her romance feeling a lot more entrenched in the overall plot, I found her to be a more engaging and interesting character with hidden depth Cassandra just wasn’t given.
The sole moment from the Cassandra romance I remember is the final cutscene, mainly because there was a sense of checking this off the list for a playthrough. With Shadowheart, the scene where your player character and her share a bottle of wine on a cliff was much more engaging as it delved more into her character, feeding you little breadcrumbs alongside the romance.
In isolation, I get that this might not seem like an issue. After all, it’s just one fantasy game compared to another, correct? Well, nothing exists in isolation so let’s look at the broader video game industry as a whole. Bioware was the high water mark for triple-A open-world writing at the turn of the century, with the rest of the industry fighting to compete for gamers’ attention. However, the importance of writing seems to have been shunted down the list as live service and multiplayer-focused games have been the focus of Triple-A studios for years, and the single-player games have suffered because of it.
Am I just angry that in the current industry, video game writing that weaves story and gameplay together to harness the interactivity of the medium is the exception not the rule? Yes, fuck yes, absolutely I’m angry. I’m angry that writing in this industry has been so devalued that games like Baldur’s Gate 3 have to come out to remind people how a video game story can interact with its players and how it can stick with you years after playing.
Recently delisted game (fuck everyone involved with that decision) Spec Ops: The Line was the main game that comes to mind that meshes player choice into the story as well as Baldur’s Gate 3. The writers for both games have sat down and thought through how a player could impact the story progression and story choices that directly impact the character through their actions instead of through a few big tentpole moments like the rest of the larger studios seem to treat player choice. Other smaller indie games do this as well, but it shouldn’t be up to the indie studios and the aligning of the stars for this to occur. These studios are making video games, not movies, not books, not television shows. This is an interactive medium and as such, you have to consider that interactivity when crafting your stories.
A lot of studios have forgotten that key detail, and their games have suffered because of it. Gameplay and loot can keep players hooked for a while, but eventually, you get bored and move on to the next shiny thing in this big hamster wheel. Story and characters are what keep players invested and coming back to replay their favourite games. Story is what comes to you at 3 am as you ache to experience specific moments for the first time from your favourite games.
Baldur’s Gate 3 feels like a long overdue wakeup call for the industry at large, along with players kicking looter shooters and live service games to the curb. I’m hopeful that we will see a new renaissance, just like the Bioware home runs of the early 2000s. Don’t let us down, publishers.
What’s your favourite story in games? Who did you romance in Baldur’s Gate 3? Let us know in the comments down below.
