Looking toward the massive city of Baldur’s Gate in Baldur’s Gate 3 | screenshot by me
I’ve heard from several folks that Act 1 and 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) is really just the beginning of the game, that Act 3 is the largest part of the game. They were right.
Act 2 involves traveling to a land cursed by darkness, and the player can either fight against the forces controlling that darkness or side with them. I really enjoyed this section of the game. It had some fascinating side quests and a great epic battle to defeat a seemingly immortal being. Completing this era feels climatic — and then we discover that this is only the start of a new storyline, leading the player to Baldur’s Gate.
I dipped my toes into Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) when it was first released in 2023, but only played about an hour at the time before putting it down. This was partially due to my confusion about how to play the game and partially due to various distractions at the time that stole my attention away to other games.
In January, I opened it up again just for research. I wanted to understand how how Larian approaches branching dialog and gameplay choices, assuming I’d play for only and hour or two — and before I knew it, I was lost in the story and having a hard time putting it down. As of writing this, I have played around 80 hours of the game. And I still have soooo much game to go.
Old Man’s Journey (developed by Broken Rules) is a gorgeous puzzle adventure game about a man who receives a letter that sends him on a journey across the countryside. As he wanders closer and closer to his destination, he reminisces about the past and the family he became estranged from. The gameplay involves an simple, yet innovative puzzle mechanic, in which the player changes the height of the hills and landscape in order to allow the old man to traverse through the stunningly created landscapes. And I mean it, the art is phenomenal. This was such a chill and lovely experience — albeit a short one at only an hour or two long.
Firewatch (Campo Santo) is a beautifully melancholy adventure game. After a short prelude about loosing connection with his wife to early onset dementia, Henry takes up a post as a fire lookout in Shoshone National Forest with his only contact being with his supervisor Delilah via radio. As the player navigates the beautiful forrest settings, they learn about other lookouts who left notes in various drop boxes and uncover a mystery amid the trees.
By the time I got around to Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (which I’m playing on my phone using the touchscreen), I was well aware of the game’s reputation for inducing rage and frustration in its players. I had watched a number of Let’s Plays, in which gamers (particularly Markiplier) lost their cool, screaming in rage as they failed over and over again.
The game is based off a simple mechanic: a man in a cast-iron pot swings a hammer to climb the mountain — but its actual execution is exceedingly difficult. The hammer doesn’t swing the way you expect it to, and it takes a significant amount of trial and error to simply figure out how it functions and get over the first tree you encounter in the game. Not to mention the increasingly difficult challenges that lie ahead.
I’ll write a bit more about my ongoing struggle with trying to beat the game (I am very stuck at the moment) and how it makes me feel in another post. Short version: it is indeed frustrating, but in a way that I personally find oddly satisfying.
For the moment, I’d like to focus on the way Getting Over It approaches game writing — rather than providing a traditional narrative, the game presents a more philosophical approach. When the game opens up and the player faces the first obstacles, Bennett Foddy begins his narrations by warning the player about the challenges ahead:
