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While many fans of Baldur’s Gate 3 agree on the fact that it is an exceptional and unique game, this near-unanimity is tinged with deep disappointment for those who have already at least tried to make choices divergent from what we call the “norm”, or simply the “good choices”. The narrative is an outright success for the ‘good’ camp, although it has its drawbacks, the ‘evil’ narrative having a little more difficulty persuading.
Do “evil” or the art of self-sabotage in the style of Baldur’s Gate 3
According to stats revealed by Larian Studios, the vast majority of Baldur’s Gate 3 players tend to make fairly positive choices during their first adventure in the lands of Faerûn. But a third of adventurers still choose what we call the “Evil Race” whose principle is to be as bad as possible during your journey. Unfortunately, the reception for this version of the game is not as unanimous as it is for Camp Good.
According to some feedback, starting with Thread on Reddit started by AwesomeninjaHowever, playing as the “bad guy” in Baldur’s Gate 3 would be self-sabotaging in many ways. Thus, not only do you miss out on a lot of missions available in the world of this RPG, but you also have to ignore many fellow travelers, equipment, and even the friendliest or more intimate relationships with some NPCs.
On this thread, Reddit users are widely criticizing that playing a “bad” character would actually be very punishing and uninteresting in a Larian Studios game. Thus, we will be given the feeling of many choices that aren’t really choices to greatly encourage us to orient ourselves towards a more or less “good” arc. If you deviate from this path drawn by the editor, you will find yourself punished in many ways:
If you save Minthara during Chapter 1 for example, you have to separate yourself from Wyll (thus an extension of Mizora and the less negative ending of Karlach). awesome !
From theory to evil practice
If in theory we can fully agree with these criticisms, the reality turns out to be a bit more complicated. In fact, if you choose to play the big villain, your narrative will be cut off from a lot of elements, but it will also allow you to at least discover other interesting elements! We, for example, chose Dark Instincts’ Forsworn Paladin as an “evil” character, and the possibilities immediately became more numerous and more interesting!
You also have to be smart with your actions: playing the tough guy who breaks everything is funny once or twice, but in reality it doesn’t bring you anything good (even the “nice” side, by the way). Set up Tieflings against the Emerald Grove priests for example, have them kill each other, then ally with the goblins to finish the job. This is also mean, as it allows you to access a large portion of the missions that would not have been accessible if you had simply slaughtered the entire Emerald Grove from the front.
The “Evil Run” as it’s called, in our opinion, is only really important when you’ve finished the game at least once. This way, you make sure you discover everything you need to discover, before you seek to find out more about those things you’ve just fought. In addition, if you accumulate sins through having dark and evil instincts, you will have access to so many (sometimes delusional) possibilities that at some point you will find yourself saying to yourself “Damn, I’m going to have to do a third!“.
Special mention elsewhere: the characteristic sombres pulse condition. Many players will seek to combat said urges, which gives them a certain version of that particular character’s story, but letting go also opens up a huge field of possibilities.
Some of your “enemies” get to know you throughout your adventure and provide you with elements that are crucial to understanding the game’s story as a whole. An essential clip that we warmly recommend!
In short, doing ‘evil’ remains in our opinion an underrated experience in Baldur’s Gate 3, but we wouldn’t recommend it to someone who’s never set foot in the game since it’s the ‘bad’ pile of choices that makes this mode really interesting (Forsworn + Dark heartbeat + bad choice). Discover and experience evil, then immerse yourself in evil in another playthrough to gain access to all major storytelling editions.
