Baldur's Gate 3 story a "big spider web", as writer sheds light on purported 17,000 ending variations
Rogue nation.
Baldur's Gate 3 recently made headlines when it was reported the game would have 17,000 ending variations. It's a claim that comes from an interview with one of the game's lead writers by YouTuber Fextralife, and related specifically to the differences which might flavour the more general core paths to the game's ending.
Lead writer Adam Smith has now shed further light on these variations, and further confirmed they don't equate to endgame states. Rather, Baldur's Gate 3's narrative should be thought of as a "big spider web", he said, with the endgame in the centre.
"It's not that you start at point A, and then you keep branching and branching and branching," Smith explained to GamesRadar. "That's often how people think of it, but the problem with that would be that if I make a choice, then I branch over here, and suddenly I'm over here and I can't get back [to the trunk]."
The writer continued: "[Baldur's Gate 3] is more like this big spider web - the end of the game is [the centre], and the start of the game is [the outer edge]. So you're always heading towards the same point, and what happens when you get there is very different. But it interweaves, so you're kind of dancing between plots."
Smith additionally stressed that while sometimes things in Baldur's Gate 3 can go awry, there will always be a way to "get back to the plotline".
Said Smith: "The game reacts, the game can let that happen. You can always pull yourself out of it and get back to the plotline. There's very few points in the game where you can be like 'I don't know what to do next'.
"We try to make sure you always have direction. Even if everything goes to hell, or you decide to just kill everyone, you can pick up the thread and say 'I'm gonna do this next'."
As for these threads, the centre point of Larian's hypothetical web leaves less room for variation than narrative beats found towards the outed edges, meaning the number of true endings to Baldur's Gate 3 is a far more managable figure. While Smith did not go into specifics, this will reportedly be in the low double-digits, albeit with thousands of variations depending on how a player approaches the game elsewhere.
"We're not going to say this is a world that changes with every choice you make," Smith stated. "What we are going to say - and it's true - is that the characters react to every choice you make. Everything you click will cause something to happen. Sometimes it's small, sometimes it's subtle, but it all means something from the very first clicks."
Baldur's Gate 3 is set to launch on 3rd August for PC. Meanwhile, the game's PlayStation 5 version will launch slightly later - directly up against Starfield on 6th September.
On its release, Baldur's Gate 3 will include seven playable protagonists, 11 playable races, 12 classes and 46 subclasses. Over 600 spells and actions (excluding upcasts) are also included, compared to Larian's Divinity: Original Sin 2's 225 player spells and actions.
For more on the game, be sure to check out Bertie's interview with Larian founder Swen Vincke, for discussion on the studio's history and Baldur's Gate 3's origins.