The CRPG has come back into the mainstream gaming world, and it’s thanks to two titles. Divinity: Original Sin 2 came out of nowhere in 2017 to make people care about the genre again. Then, Larian Studios took that success and parlayed it into getting one of the biggest names in the RPG world and released Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023, which changed the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 shattered the boundaries of who would or wouldn’t enjoy a CRPG. It became a crossover hit for the ages, demanding attention from RPG fans and those new to the genre alike. But it begs the question: which is the better game? While Baldur’s Gate 3 obviously has the big budget and production value, there is plenty that Divinity: Original Sin 2 does that is on par or better than its successor.
We’re going to dive into two of the best games of all time to see which game comes out on top based on a series of competing categories.
8
Story
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The story of Baldur’s Gate 3 is an interesting one, but largely, it’s a scavenger hunt to see who can cure you of the tadpole in your ear. As a basis, it’s dull, but each journey has its own substories to get caught up in and makes for a thrilling ride.
However, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is just an incredibly bizarre tale about your ascension to godhood, and it involves all sorts of cool machinations like corrupt magisters and renegade party members. Overall, it’s just a more interesting tale to experience because we haven’t really seen anything like it before.
I think both stories go to some very interesting places, but the skeleton that drives each tale forward is very important, and the overall mystery of what Divinity: Original Sin 2 was even about kept me more compelled than Baldur’s Gate 3.
7
Visuals
Baldur’s Gate 3
This one isn’t particularly fair as the whole reason Baldur’s Gate 3’s visuals are so good is because of Divinity: Original Sin 2’s success. But either way, the superior-looking game is without a doubt Baldur’s Gate 3. It looks in many ways what a proper Bioware game would look like in the modern era, and that’s a huge thing for me.
Characters are incredibly lifelike, with expressive faces and amazing animations that put to shame games with far bigger production teams and budgets. The effects of spells and other attacks are particularly impressive, with them often lighting up the screen or resulting in devastating-looking status effects.
There is also the incredible variety of environment, with goblin camps, underground hellscapes, ghost-infested forests, and everything in between looking absolutely jaw-dropping, making every location a consistent joy to explore.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a visual treat as well, with a far more stylized look than Baldur’s Gate 3. It works, and it allows its worlds to be far more fantastical and weird than what you may find in Baldur’s Gate 3. You can do no wrong with either, but from a pure visual fidelity standpoint, Baldur’s Gate 3 gets the nod from me.
6
Gameplay Loop
Baldur’s Gate 3
The gameplay loop in both games is very similar, with you exploring from area to area and finding a variety of main and side quests to complete along the way. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 just takes it to another level. There are so many side quests in this game that it’s hard to count, and each one usually leads to a wealth of different outcomes depending on what you decide to do or don’t do.
There is just so much intricacy to the exploration here that wasn’t as present in Divinity: Original Sin 2, and it’s one of the main reasons that you can get lost for hundreds of hours in Baldur’s Gate 3 without ever seeing the ending.
The progression of the characters is a lot easier to deal with in Baldur’s Gate 3 as it’s taken directly from DND rules, where Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a bit more freeform, so I definitely preferred Baldur’s Gate 3’s streamlined approach there.
5
Enemy Variety
Divinity: Original Sin 2
This is a tough one, because Baldur’s Gate 3 has so many awesome enemies to encounter and fight, but there is just something about the creatures that Divinity: Original Sin 2 possesses.
They are so bizarre, and my favorite have to be the Fire/Oil Slugs. They produce one of the most chaotic and frantic boss fights I’ve ever seen in a game, and this creativity is present in just about any enemy you encounter during the game.
There are so many weird creatures and others to face off with throughout the game, but the bosses are really the highlight here, with several fights against massive creatures that would suggest a way bigger budget than they actually got.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has some great creatures too, but a lot of them are standard DND fair. While there are some really cool ones here and there, the majority of them you’ve literally seen before. For example, the Mindflayer, one of the main enemies of the game, is a fightable enemy in Final Fantasy XV. They perfected the creatures they have, but they are not their own for the most part.
4
Exploration
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Something about the wonder of Divinity: Original Sin 2 just captured me. It was such a weird and strange world I couldn’t help but explore every inch of it I could. While the exploration is obviously also great in Baldur’s Gate 3, it presented a game world that I was more familiar with, so I was less surprised by what it had to show me.
Divinity: Original Sin 2, on the other hand, is constantly surprising due to having no rules to go by imposed by the Baldur’s Gate universe. It’s eerie in a way that I can’t quite nail. It’s a world that feels off in a way that is so compelling. The mysteries you’ll uncover don’t always have an easy resolution to them either. Sometimes you’ll just find a thread and follow it and be left to wonder what it all means. I love that kind of lore.
The locales are also just completely bizarre here, upending your normal fantasy clichés for some spectacularly weird locations, and while there might be more areas to explore in Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2 almost feels alien in its exploration. That’s something that can’t be replicated by big production values.
3
Combat
Baldur’s Gate 3
The combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is just tough to match. Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a great combat system, but it relies so much on taking down the various armor types of each enemy that it gets a bit repetitive, and the enemies start to lose identity after a while.
With Baldur’s Gate 3, your options in combat are among the most numerous you can find in a game. Your creativity fuels the combat system; if you can think of something outside the box to win a battle, there is usually the chance to see it in action.
The incredible amount of spells, status effects, and even melee attacks you can pull off makes it so no playthrough feels the same and any class you play will be an awesome time. The fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 are so varied too, with all kinds of different hazards to face off with, characters to protect, or unique objectives to complete mid-battle that every single one feels like a puzzle that you need to find the solution to.
2
Soundtrack/Music
Baldur’s Gate 3
Again, it’s like choosing your favorite child here when it comes to the soundtrack and music for both of these games. Divinity: Original Sin 2 set a standard for CRPGs when it came to that, but then Baldur’s Gate 3 shattered the standard and gave us excellence personified.
The music in Baldur’s Gate 3 is simply brilliant. With countless soundtracks and ambient music to support the exploration of all the different locales you will visit, it’s a feast for the ears. The battle music is also appropriately epic and when the big boss fights come, the music lets you know it.
It’s hard to find a game with better music than Baldur’s Gate 3, because it feels like the apex of what an RPG should be in just about every way. Anyone who knows anything about the genre knows the best moments are carried by their amazing soundtracks.
1
Winner
Baldur’s Gate 3
The winner is Baldur’s Gate 3. There is no shame in losing this battle for Divinity: Original Sin 2. That is easily one of the top 3 CRPGs ever made in my book. It’s a sprawling journey with some incredible writing, memorable characters, and fantastic combat. The problem is that Baldur’s Gate 3 is the best CRPG ever made, and probably one of the best pure games ever made in general.
It gives us a big-budget production mixed with intricate, DND-style storytelling and questing. It gives you near limitless combat options and ways to complete quests both in the story and optional ones. There are also multiple optional party members, many different paths to take in the story, and a completely unique option for a playthrough using The Dark Urge, which changes so much about the story that it may as well be a new game.
Every RPG from here on out will be compared to Baldur’s Gate 3, and that’s CRPG or otherwise. It has established a new bar in the gaming world, and it’s one that developers and fans have both marveled at and, understandably, have not expected anything to top it anytime soon. Until Larian’s next masterpiece comes out, Baldur’s Gate 3 stands alone.
