Baldur's Gate 3 Developer Says Game's Hardest Difficulty Will Leave Players "Crying"

By Ricky Frech

Baldur's Gate 3 is finally coming out early next month after spending nearly three years in early access. The latest game in the long-running RPG franchise is being made by Larian Studios, who previously spent years working on its Divinity series before signing on for Baldur's Gate 3. Longtime fans of the series know that these games can sometimes be brutally difficult and it doesn't seem like Larian is backing down from delivering a challenge. In fact, one developer recently claimed that the hardest difficulty in the game will cause some players to break down into tears due to its challenge.

The comment was made during Larian's Panel From Hell that it put out recently. It was first spotted by PCgamesN, who noted that creative director Swen Vincke and senior combat designer Matt Holland briefly touched on difficulty during the lengthy panel. They explain that players in early access have only been able to play the standard difficulty, called Balanced. Holland says this version is "a bit of a challenge but not too much." At launch, Baldur's Gate 3 will also have Explorer mode for players who want to focus on the story and Tactician mode to truly challenge themselves.

Holland claims Tactitian is "really going to challenge you in the combat and even outside the combat in some ways." Of course, players can expect all the standard changes to make combat more difficult. That includes everything from increased enemy health to enhanced AI decision-making, but Holland also says that Larian has "gone through every single combat in our game and added in little bits of spice to make that combat shine just a little bit hotter and be that much harder." To showcase that, Holland showed off an encounter with goblins where the Tacticition mode adds new oil and explosive barrel placements that can be used against you if you're not careful. Vincke warns that players are going to "get creamed" the first time they hop into Tactician mode, saying there's nothing wrong with bumping the difficulty back down if you're having trouble. 

Regardless of what difficulty you play on, Baldur's Gate 3 is shaping up to be quite the release from Larian Studios. It's already climbing up the Steam charts after the latest trailer that showed the player character entering a romantic relationship with a bear and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Baldur's Gate 3 launches on August 3 for PC and September 5 for PS5. An Xbox Series X/S release is also in the works but doesn't yet have a date.

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