2023-08-27 16:00:00
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Where many fans of Baldur’s Gate 3 agree that it is an exceptional and one-of-a-kind game, this near-consensus is tinged with deep disappointment for those who have already least once tempted to make choices diverging from what we would call “the norm”, or more simply the “good choices”. Because where the narration is a frank success for the camp of “Good”, although it has its faults, that of “Evil” struggles a little more to convince.
Do “Evil”, or the art of self-sabotage Baldur’s Gate 3 style
According to the statistics revealed by Larian Studios, the overwhelming majority of Baldur’s Gate 3 players tend to make rather positive choices during their first adventure in the lands of Faerûn. But a small third of adventurers still opted for what we would call an “Evil Run” whose principle is to be as bad as possible during your journey. Unfortunately, the reception of this version of the game is not as unanimous as for the “camp of good”.
According to some feedback, starting with a Reddit thread started by Awesomeninja, playing as a “bad guy” in Baldur’s Gate 3 would be self-sabotaging in many ways. Thus, not only do you miss a lot of quests available in the universe of this RPG, but you also have to ignore many companions, equipment, and even friendly or more intimate relationships with certain NPCs.
On this thread, Reddit users are widely criticizing that playing a “bad” character would actually be too punitive and uninteresting in Larian Studios’ game. We would thus be given the feeling of many choices that are not really choices to greatly encourage us to orient ourselves towards a rather “Good” arc. And if you were to diverge from this path traced by the editor then you would find yourself penalized in many respects:
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if you save Minthara during Act 1 for example, you must separate yourself from Wyll (and therefore by extension from Mizora and the least negative ending for Karlach). Terrible !
From Theory to the Practice of Evil
If in theory we could entirely agree with these criticisms, it turns out that the reality is a bit more complex. Indeed, if you choose to play the big bad then your narration will be cut off from a lot of elements, but it will also allow you to discover others that are at least as interesting! We, for example, opted for a Forsworn Paladin embodied by Dark Instincts as an “Evil” character, and the possibilities are immediately much, much more numerous and interesting!
You also have to be smart in your actions: playing tough guy who breaks everything is funny once or twice, but in practice it never brings you anything good (even “nice” side by the way). Set up the Tieflings against the druids of the Emerald Grove for example, have them kill each other, then ally with the goblins to finish the job. That’s also being mean, and it allows you to access a good part of the quests that would not have been accessible if you had simply massacred the entire Emerald Grove frontally.
The “Evil Run” as it is called, in our opinion, is only of real interest when you have finished the game at least once. This way, you make sure you discover everything you have to discover, before seek to learn more about those you have just fought. In addition, if you accumulate misdeeds by being Dark Instincts Forsworn and evil you have access to so many possibilities (sometimes delusional) that you will find yourself at some point saying to yourself “Damn, I’m going to have to do a third part!“.
Special mention elsewhere: The case of Sombres pulsions is particular. Many players will seek to combat said urges, giving them a particular version of the story of this special character, but letting go also opens up an absolutely colossal field of possibilities.
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Some of your “enemies” recognize you throughout your adventure and offer you crucial elements in order to understand the story of the game as a whole. An essential passage that we warmly recommend!
In short, doing “Evil” remains in our opinion a very underrated experience in Baldur’s Gate 3, but we would not recommend it to someone who has never set foot in the game since it is the accumulation of choices “bad” which makes this game mode really interesting (Forsworn + Dark impulses + bad choice). Discover, try, then indulge in evil in another playthrough to gain access to all major storytelling releases.
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