Panel from Hell was a live-streamed event where enthusiastic fans learned more details about Baldur's Gate 3, which was being developed by Larian Studios, creator of Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2. The panel featured Geoff Keighley hosting the event, Swen Vincke, Creative Director at Larian Studios, Chris Perkins, Senior Game Designer for Dungeons and Dungeons, and Adam Smith, Senior Writer at Larian Studios.
The event was full of new details for the epic RPG, where players will take on the fearsome Illithid, also known as the Mind Flayers. These squid-like horrors possess psionic powers which they use to create slaves even among the most intelligent of creatures. Here's everything the live broadcast event covered.
Hell
As the live stream begins, we see the end of the full trailer first airing on PAX East. It turns out that the Spirit Flayers who captured your character, and the other companions aboard their flying ship, attempted to escape the Red Dragons that were chasing them by plunging into the First Layer of Hell, Avernus. The place, Avernus, features a constant war called Blood War between demons trying to escape to the other side against demons trying to contain them.
Our character is in the middle of this environment, but that's not the major complication he's faced with.
Têtard Mind Flayer
During the trailer, our character is captured by the Spirit Flayers. They planted a little worm inside of us known as the tadpole. This is how spirit flayers reproduce because they cannot do it naturally. Instead, they plant the tadpole inside a creature and consume their brain. Once their brain is completely consumed, they take over the body. Everything about the person is erased, and within a week a fully born illithid was in his place. Usually, these tadpoles do not survive the process. If they do, the big worm becomes a hungry predator known as the neothelid.
Mind Flayer Creatures
Vincke shared some new content that his team created just over two weeks after the stream started. A member of the team at Larian Studios came up with the idea of transforming an interactive object in the environment into a companion called an intellect devourer. It takes control of a host's body, and if a devourer has already taken control of a host, someone may not know they're talking to one of them. The scene was something the team had come up with in no time, adding it to the game. The problem with this is that the team is adding smaller details to the game, such as other companions recognizing this change and s 'ensuring that everything fits together.
This is one of the reasons that delayed the release of Early Access to the game, but it's a good thing for players who are eagerly awaiting a mountain of content for Baldur's Gate 3.
Fight a Bulette
The live stream mentioned how players could expect to face off against a Bulette in Baldur's Gate 3. The creature resembles a heavily armored land shark that digs underground. He is able to dig through the dirt and then burst through the crust, attacking players. He'll be a formidable foe to face and could be a fun encounter when that happens.
Early Access Details
We've learned a few more details about Early Access. Players will be able to create custom characters. There will be online multiplayer and you can play with a full party of four players. You won't have access to the split screen, but it should arrive in the future. Anyone will be able to reach character level four. The team is working hard to try to fill any developmental holes left in this area, but it has been difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There will be a lot of content in the early access content. There will be 80 unique fights, you will be able to hear 40000 lines of dialogue and a variety of unique spells and actions that you will have in your arsenal. You won't see all of these dialogue or combat encounters in a standard game, as Baldur's Gate 3 reacts to your choices as if you have a digital dungeon master guiding your adventure.
When playing an evil character you can expect to fight more often, and if you play a good, kind character you can talk to more characters and not fight that much. Your experience varies depending on how you play your character.
Pets give you options
If your character starts handling animals, you can earn the cantrap to accept a pet; they take control of an animal that you can choose to tame. It could be a spider, a cat, or something small that won't have a lot of hit points, but it does decent damage. The real depth of this is how you can use it to distract NPCs and open up even more choices. For example, you can summon a spider to distract NPCs who are trying to protect a door. While they're looking away, your main character might sneak up to grab their goal.
Do you want an owl? You can get an owl
Players who take their time, ride exceptionally well, and make it work, they can win an owl. We saw a quick look at this with the Panel from Hell stream with an owl mother protecting her cubs. Vincke detailed that a smart character might be able to recruit this little one, but didn't show you how it happened. However, the handling of animals played a significant role.
Spells? Lots of spells and talk to the dead
There are a lot of spells and choices that you can have in your Baldur's Gate 3 game. If you don't play or don't have a paladin, for example, you might be missing out on the opportunity to talk to dead characters that you have. find. If you don't talk about the dead spell on a character, or a scroll you can use, you might be missing out on some dialogue options.
There's a lot going on at Baldur's Gate 3. The main discourse of Panel from Hell's discussion has ended, only digging to the surface of the vast amount of depth available.
