In her mammoth Baldur’s Gate 3 preview, Alice Bee gets into a few of the shenanigans that Vincke claims players will be able pull off. As he showed off in the PAX East panel, Vincke says you can stack movable objects in the environment to build makeshift stairs or barricades. You can throw your footwear if you need to. You can throw bottles, though what’s inside will spill out, leaving you to contend with a surface on the ground of whatever you’ve foolishly (or perhaps tactically) discarded. Ah but wait, there’s more! “With throwing, I forgot to mention you can also throw NPCs if you’re strong enough,” Vincke says. Sorry, what? “Why would you be able to do that? Well it could be an interesting thing, right? My buddy could be dead and fire is burning and I need to get him out of there because death is so harsh in this game. So I throw him away.” Ah yes, the classic tactical decision to throw your friends out of a burning fire. I’m sure that can’t possibly backfire in any way. I almost, almost feel like Vincke has planted this idea on purpose, just to see who gets themselves into trouble by accidentally chucking a pal off a high ledge or into a hidden pit. Aside from everything being on fire absolutely all of the time in DOS2 (Vincke also says Larian are toning down environmental effects a smidge in BG3) I best remember all of the ways that players learned to abuse the interactions between DOS2’s many systems. One favorite ball of cheese was the ability to drop barrels full of junk on enemies’ heads to crush them beneath the weight. Another was the infamous Chicken Claw plus Rupture Tendons that forced enemies into self-inflicted death with a combo of status effects. I’m quite glad to hear that Baldur’s Gate 3 will have as much if not more of this tinkering involved. Not every ridiculous discovery will be a cheesy strat for bulling through fights, but I’m quite sure we’ll see a fair chunk of videos with neat combos after players get their hands on the game. If you’re playing in co-op, maybe ask before picking up and giving your mates the heave-ho, though? Or perhaps don’t, just for the laughs. Baldur’s Gate will launch first in early access, as Divinity: Original Sin 2 did, though Larian have yet to say exactly when that will happen. Previous rumors suggested it could be this summer, which is plenty believable given the state of the demo we’ve now seen.
