A good dungeon master (DM) in any role playing adventure session wastes no time getting to the point of the story. So let’s do that. Just like the fantastical city it is named after, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a soaring success. It’s everything you’ve ever loved about any roleplaying game, with +1 to all stats.

Like its predecessors, Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place in Dungeons and Dragons’ Forgotten Realms setting. Unlike those earlier titles – nascent offerings from the Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio, BioWare – this adventure from Belgian studio Larian, uses the fifth edition D&D ruleset. A few homebrew tweaks aside, it’s as faithful a rendition as you’ll find in the digital space, though no worries if you don’t know your Armor Class from your Proficiencies - the game will take care of all that pesky maths for you. It’s a solid, varied ruleset that’s as satisfying and permissive of creativity as they come, but even a great D&D module is only ever as good as the Dungeon Master in charge. So, what kind of DM is Larian Studios?

A solid, varied ruleset … Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay. Larian Studios

After creating your custom character from a huge pool of classes, species, traits and backgrounds, or after choosing to experience the story through the eyes of one of five wonderfully voice-acted and richly backstoried companion characters, you’ll wake up trapped in a tube inside a Nautiloid – a tentacled airship telekinetically piloted by bipedal, squid-faced horrors known as Mind Flayers. Also known as Illithids, these creatures reproduce by incubating vicious tadpoles inside the brains of their captives. Lucky you! Something’s off with your particular infection, though. You should have transformed into a Mind Flayer by now. But aside from the ability to read the thoughts of the similarly infected companions you’ll soon meet, you’re still your old self. Venturing forth to find out exactly why you haven’t – and what’s making these Mind Flayers so aggressive all of a sudden – kicks off the story proper.

RPG fans will have played through Baldur’s Gate 3’s basic structure before. You’ll travel through huge maps, exploring, fighting, looting, and talking your way through a main questline, seemingly limitless hugely entertaining side quests, and individual story threads for each of your companions. You’ll probably romance one or more of them, too. You’ll collect magical gear. You’ll level up.