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Larian Studios has reassured fans that it is “making good progress” on Baldur’s Gate III, and will announce an early access release date soon.
The company revealed the game’s current state in a community update on its Steam page. “We know you all want to know when we’ll release Baldur’s Gate III into early access but you’ll have to be a bit more patient before we can announce an exact date. The one thing we can tell you is that we are making good progress,” the statement reads.
Larian also detailed the changes made to the game since the company showcased the game’s reworked combat system at this year’s D&D Live event on June 18. The update also gave fans a sneak peek at how stealth will work in the upcoming game.
The company has doubled down on the reworked combat system, which now better reflects the Dungeon & Dragons’ turn order. Battles are also set to be more “fluid” than Larian’s previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, thanks to improvements regarding “how animations are both created and processed”.
“We invested heavily into what drives our animation pipeline, and specifically made tweaks to improve the feel and motion in combat,” it said. “The increased brevity and flow is down to many, many changes shaving off microseconds (and sometimes entire seconds).”
Stealth is also set to play a big part in Baldur’s Gate III, but only if players “want it to be”, Larian noted. “Sneaking is a really useful technique for positioning your party prior to the initiative roll, ensuring you get the first strike.”
It added that players will be able to switch from exploration to turned-based battle mode in order to make use of stealth to prepare for combat. Moreover, the system also takes lighting into account, “so that even when you are caught in the visibility cones of the enemy, you still have a chance to slip through unseen”.
Check out more details on both the combat and stealth systems, as well as brief chips of the two modes, at the official Baldur’s Gate III Steam page.
If everything goes to plan, Baldur’s Gate III is scheduled to enter early access as soon as August. However, Swen Vincke, the head of Larian Studios, cautioned that the date is just a possibility as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the game’s development.
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