Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access has been delayed once more, pushing it back one week.
Steam is now listing the game as releasing on October 6, which is now the date set in stone for release.
The delay was announced on Twitter by Larian Studios alongside an update on how the romance will work with companions in the game.
Initially, a live-stream called the Panel From Hell gave us our biggest look at Baldur's Gate 3, saying that "if all goes well" we could expect to play an Early Access build of Baldur's Gate 3 by the end of September, obviously things didn't go exactly to plan.
This is the third time Larian has set a release date for Early Access after the earlier August date had to be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the September date has now been pushed back to finalise bug fixes and localisation text.
Unlike the other two release date delays, Larian has promised that the October 6 date is set in stone.
At the time of writing, we now know more than ever about Baldur's Gate 3, including how romance will work thanks to a new Community Update on YouTube.
Larian has previously explained the story, characters, multiplayer and system requirements of its upcoming game set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe.
This game is being developed by the same studio who made Divinity: Original Sin, which is a stellar RPG title. Baldur's Gate 3 certainly has a different tone to Divinity, but it will be following the same sort of process such as going into Early Access.
The Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3 will not be the full game, but we do know that it will contain over five characters, create your own character, online multiplayer and a substantial chunk of content.
“We did Early Access for [Divinity] Original Sin 1 and we liked it a lot because it helped us to make OS1 a better game,” Larian creative director Swen Vincke said. "We're hoping to get the same out of Early Access for BG3".
Baldur's Gate 3 new release date
Baldur's Gate 3 will now be released into early access on Steam on October 6.
Check out the game's Steam page for a rundown of the recommended PC specs
Baldur's Gate 3 romance and companions
In a brand new community update, Larian has given us information about how romance will work with your companions as you travel through the world.
Your dialogue options will also have some bearing on how your allies feel towards you, for example being inquisitive or kind or evil will resonate different between each party member.
From the community update video, it looks like there will be situations where you'll be able to have intimate moments with your chosen companions and there are sex scenes in the game.
It also look like you can kill party members off if the chance presents itself, but perhaps this is the result of a high disapproval rating.
As you adventure you'll build a trust system with your allies; with some paying close attention to who you decide to fight, save or outright kill in some cases, all of these actions will be scrutinised by your allies and either lead to approval or disapproval.
While not explicitly stated or denied, it would stand to reason that your characters can romance anyone they like, specifically people of the same sex.
Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access content
Following this Early Access structure allows players to essentially help shape the game by offering direct feedback and help with identifying bugs and give people the chance to offer up changes to content.
Baldur's Gate 3 is set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe and the game will be using the tabletop's 5th Edition ruleset.
In Early Access, you'll be exploring the worlds of Avernis (the first layer of Hell), Faerun (the fictional land central to Dungeons and Dragons lore) and the Underdark.
You will be able to get to level 4, which might sound low to those who haven't played DnD, but that is actually a substantially high level.
Like with Larian's other game, Divinity, you can choose between pre-set characters, of which there are five, or you can create your own custom character to completely customise.
The announced Origin characters so far are:
- Astarion (Elf/Vampire Rogue)
- Gale (Human Wizard)
- Lae’zel (Githyanki Warrior)
- Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric),
- Wyll (Human Warlock)
More Origin characters will be revealed as the game continues to develop.
As a point of reference, Larian Studios has offered some numbers to compare how much content will be in BG3 versus Divinity: Original Sin 2 (DOSA2):
- Number of combat encounters: 22 in DOS2 EA vs. 80 in BG3 EA
- Number of English dialogue lines: 17,600 in DOS2 EA vs. 45,980 in BG3 EA
- Number of characters: 142 in DOS2 EA vs. 596 in BG3 EA
- Number of spells/actions: 69 in DOS2 EA vs. 146 in BG3 EA
As you can see, this Early Access version of Baldur's Gate will be chocked full of content, completely dwarfing that of the studio's last game.
Director of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke said during the stream that there might still be further delays and, unfortunately, this is true.
However, this is only a one week delay to the game and we'll all be able to start playing soon enough
Baldur's Gate 3 will be released into Steam early access on October 6
