Baldur’s Gate III has a whole suite of useful Twitch integration features, and players are already enthusiastically taking notice after its August 3 release. Larian Studios’ eagerly anticipated entry in the BioWare-created Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game series seems to have thought of mostly everything a streamer could want built into a game.
Larian first announced its Twitch integration in 2020, ahead of its Early Access release on September 30 that year. It would allow “viewers in chat [to vote] on dialogue choices as they occur in real time,” Game Informer reported in 2020, as well as include an interactable “overlay to check out character stats, inventory, and other critical information without pestering the streamer to spend time constantly checking bags and character sheets.”
Some players, including pixel artist Sandy Gordon, are rightfully calling the latter Twitch integration “insane”—even years after its announcement, the overlay is still a relatively unique feature that makes streams suddenly more personal and engaging. As Gordon notes on Twitter, it provides viewers information on-demand for everything they can see on-screen, turning what can be a passive activity, stream-watching, into something more inherently dynamic.
Baldur’s Gate III, a game where you can customize your character’s vulva or watch a bear ostensibly fuck someone in the ass, also has a number of novel features for non-streamers.
Read More: 14 Things To Know Before Starting Baldur’s Gate 3
It holds within it intricate dialogue options, occasionally “obtuse […] quest design,” Kotaku staff writer Kenneth Shepard writes, and, more thrillingly, “opportunities to push an enemy to their death like I’m Gerard Butler in 300.” All of these options, coupled with the game’s largely faithful recreation of D&D 5e mechanics, can lead BGIII to feel “sometimes overwhelmingly” dense.
Speaking to senior writer Ethan Gach earlier this summer, game director and Larian founder Swen Vincke acknowledged this neutrally. He doubted most players would uncover all of what the knotty high-fantasy world has to offer in only their first visit.
I mean, “It’s possible to be turned into a cheese wheel in this game,” Vincke noted. We’re innovating here, people.