Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the biggest releases of this year. After first launching as an early access title in 2020, the latest outing from Larian Studios has been a smash hit since its initial full launch in August. The record-breaking game reportedly achieved a player peak of 814,666 on Steam during its first few days out of early access. These massive player numbers combined with a reported combined playtime of 1225 years from PC players show how fan reception to this RPG has been phenomenal.
While the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Game of the Year contender for those who do not have a powerful enough PC, (or prefer a controller over mouse and keyboard), the PS5 version is a mostly similar experience.
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While the story is the same and the gameplay somewhat similar the PS5 version of the game is not as “polished” as it could be. Although Larian Studios has done its best to emulate the PC experience on console there are a few reasons as to why Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5 isn’t as up to scratch as its PC counterpart.
PC VS PS5 – Is The Controller Mightier Than the Mouse and Keyboard In Baldur’s Gate 3?
So, the biggest difference between the PC and PS5 versions of Baldur’s Gate 3 is playing on a controller. Having put in just under a hundred hours into the PC version with mouse and keyboard, (which is nothing in comparison to some players, I know), I do find the DualSense is lacking buttons in a game with so many actions to use and menus to scroll through. While The PS5 control scheme uses the same one available for controller on PC, I found that on console everything was a bit more finicky and frustrating than usual.
While combat works quite well through the use of a Radial dial system to pick what action you want to execute it still did take a while to get used to where my favourite spells and different features were located on a limited button set-up. After playing for a few hours, however, muscle memory kicked in and I was casting burning hands and coating my weapons with poison in no time. Movement during combat is also fairly easy to do, by using the joystick to pick what direction and how far you want to move it was functional enough to not get too annoying.
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I feel like the real issues with controller started to arise whenever I was attempting to do more delicate tasks within the game. While combat and social interaction are both perfectly manageable on controller trying to examine small objects and items around the game’s world was a herculean task.
It has happened on more than one occasion where I’ll be searching for a specific item on a desk or cluttered area, spot it and then spend five minutes picking up every item apart from, the one I need. Although there is a way to “scroll” through items by using the D-pad to “lock” onto them like other menus in the game, it still feels a little stiff and hard to work. Honestly, nothing beats the simplicity of point and clicking on the item you want or the location you want to move to while playing with a mouse and keyboard.
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However, after looking into the control scheme settings,(and some Reddit scrolling), I found that there is a cursor mode that lets you emulate having a mouse. While it’s not nearly as accurate or quick as the real deal it’s still better than having to spend ages trying to get the right item from a cluttered space.
Overall, I feel that for the first-time Baldur’s Gate 3 Players on PS5 that controller will be a pretty solid experience. For those swapping to PS5 from PC however, I feel that it will be an overall downgrade in gameplay experience.
Part of a Party vs. Lone Wolf- How does Multiplayer work for Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5?
In terms of playing with friends on the PS5 version of Baldur’s Gate 3, I feel that this is a much better experience than on PC. While BG3 has cross-platform multiplayer allowing players to get into all sorts of hijinks across both platforms, PS5 excels against PC in one way; With couch co-op split screen. Now younger players may be asking; “What is couch co-op in BG3?” Well while I slowly recover from ageing rapidly, I’ll explain one of the PS5 version’s best underrated features.
While couch co-op was a staple of games in the past, more recently modern releases have ignored it in favour of a focus on online or LAN multiplayer systems. Instead, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives players a phenomenal 2-player couch co-op feature that also seamlessly melds with online multiplayer.
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To use the co-op mode, it’s as simple as connecting a second controller at any point during play from the multiplayer section in the pause menu. When you do this the screen will split allowing for the new player to create a character while “player one” will still be able to continue playing Baldur’s Gate 3.
From what I can tell it appears that Larian have managed to make two separate instances of the game to be running simultaneously. One player could be in a conversation while the other is halfway across the map lockpicking a chest. This means that players are not tethered together and can explore the world of Faerûn separately without limitations all while sitting beside each other on the comfort of their couch.
PS5 vs. PC- How Does PS5 handle Baldur’s Gate 3’s Graphics?
While PS5 does its best to run Baldurs Gate 3, I have encountered some issues in terms of Graphics and Framerate that are not present on the PC version of the game. While none of these issues have been game-breaking, they have overall impacted my experience on the PS5 version of the game. While playing I swapped between both the performance and quality modes available in the graphics settings and the most bugs occurred when using the former.
While playing in performance mode gives you an overall higher frame rate with 60fps uncapped (most of the time you do sit at 45-50), the quality mode gives a more solid and consistent experience. With a 30fps cap but a higher 1440p resolution, I believe that quality mode is the best way to play BG3 on PS5 as there are fewer issues with frame drops and texture pop-ins.
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The most noticeable issues that occurred were frame drops and screen tares which occurred most prominently in Act Three. Larian Studios has recommended that players avoid playing Act Three in performance mode as there are significant frame drops and issues that arise while playing in performance mode. However, the rest of the game is solid in performance mode despite screen-taring issues and frame drops.
Overall Baldur’s Gate 3 for PS5 is a solid game that despite some graphical issues provides a solid experience for console players. While my experience on PC may have skewed my opinion slightly, I feel that any new player coming to Baldur’s Gate 3 for the first time will enjoy the world of Faerûn the gripping story wacky characters and Dungeons and Dragons Inspired gameplay that Baldur’s Gate 3 has to offer.
8/10
Baldur’s Gate 3 was played on PlayStation 5 and reviewed on a code supplied by Ico Partners.
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