Game of the Year 2023 – Best Single Player Game
As big as online gaming has become, 2023 has shown that single player games are absolutely thriving. Whether it’s a sequel that takes what its forebears did and refines or expands the experience further, a game that takes a genre and wrings every ounce of creativity and ingenuity out of it with new ideas, this year has been absolutely fantastic for gamers that like to be left alone in front of the screen.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the big surprising success stories of the year, though not for the usual reasons. Everyone knew it was coming and, given Larian’s history, even expected it to be great, but given the genre, even Larian themselves were shocked by the amount of attention the game got around release.
Presumably that is why Larian went above and beyond, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is a frankly astonishing achievement. It’s not just the deep and involved story that changes based on your decisions and actions, or characters who are surprisingly relateable despite their absurdly dark back stories. It isn’t just the astonishing graphics, or the fully voice and motion captured performances for every single character in the game. It’s not even the depth to the combat from the D&D 5e ruleset, or the sheer wealth of options available to you at any given time, or the many possible class and skill options. What it is, is that Baldur’s Gate 3 let’s you do things.
Tabletop RPGs are strange games, where strange people do strange things while the Dungeon Master has to adapt. As a DM in digital form, Baldur’s Gate 3 welcomes that oddness with open arms, trying to “yes, and…” at every turn. Not only is there stuff everywhere, there are options everywhere, too, and they’re all compounded by the rolls of your dice. When you have the option to
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