I’d heard some horror stories of people playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 together. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Arguments over what decisions to make, stories going around in circles, frustrations with a difficult video game where characters need to be lined up strategically spilling over into real life… as much as I love Baldur’s Gate 3, it didn’t seem wise to play it with someone you love. But it seems I am not wise. Wisdom is a dump stat for me, because I recently asked my wife to play Baldur’s Gate 3 together. Thanℱkfully, everyone else was wrong.
My wife and I play 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons together, so I knew she had a base level of interest and understanding. She prefers the role playing and storytelling of D&D to minmaxing stats and hardcore combat๊, but Baldur’s Gate 3 has plenty 🌳of room for that and I’d be on hand for gear and attacks. However, video games have been hard going. She tells me she likes them, and she tolerates, and occasionally enjoys, watching me play the various titles I need to keep up with. But she has the dual combination of being very competitive and yet not very good.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Co-O🧜p? Nah. Baldur’s Gate 3 Parallel Play? Yeah. ꧅
Larian's RPG is great i𝓰n co-op, but even better playing side-by-side with a friend in a separate campaign.
She doesn’t play games very often, so obviously she’s not a pro. She still needs to look at the controller sometimes, that’s her skill level. So even when we take turns on something easy like Spyro, she doesn’t like that there’s a skill gap. She says she prefers 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crash Bandicoot, because you just go in a straight line, but then gets halfway through and gives up because it’s too hard. Baldur’s Gate 3, significantly 💝more difficult, was a major risk. And yet so far, it has p𝓀aid off.
Initially I made 𒅌the plaಞyer one character, she made hers alongside, and just concentrated on running her own character while I ran mine, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart. I equipped everyone with the right gear. I ran the conversations, checking with her what she wanted ‘us’ to say. I navigated around the Nautiloid, her only contribution to say ‘what’s this’ before handling a bomb and taking self-inflicted damage. As we worked through the twisting corridors, I didn’t have the most hope things would even continue to the Emerald Grove, let alone to Baldur’s Gate itself.
But soon she grew into it. The next time we🌄 levelled up, she handled it. She took the lead in conversations. She took control of the other party members, and decided when to mix in Gale and Wyll (she does not care for Astarion). By the time we did indeed reach the Emerald Grove, I was just following along as my own character in the background. By the time we reached the Goblin Camp, I had stopped completely - she took control of my dragonborn monk alongside her elven ranger, and while she kept ‘me’ in her party, it became her playthrough, with her as the main character and her making every call.
It’s the co-op game of Theseus - at what point does it stop being a co-op game? My character is still there, and I’m still sitti🅷ng alongside her watching her play, giving advice on spells and gear, but this way she gets the full screen to enjoy, I don’t need to nudge myself along behind her, and I can still direct battles (or even take over) as needed. I’m trying to avoid giving much away in the ‘what choice should I make’ stakes because I’ve done ♛all this before, but I can steer her away from unintended disaster just enough that it’s still ‘our’ game.
It feels like a little bit of a role reversal. My wife will talk about the times ‘we’ played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the one with Keanu Reeves. In all those games, I played them and she watched. But she was there for the ride and occasionally contributed with some minor choices. Now that’s what 💞I’m doing. And ‘we’re’ still playing.
I’m not sure how long her interest will last. She’s yet to die, and while I’ve been reminding her to save a lot, I know progress wipes can be demoralising. I’m praying she never hits a big one. But she’s making solid progress through Act One🍷 and has played for prolonged bursts far more than other games she’s quickly gotten bored of. I think I’ve found the solution to playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with loved ones - play them the same way they play games ‘with’ you. Sit alongside them and watch quietly.