After Baldur’s Gate 3’s explosive launch on Steam, millions of people are exploring its hardcore role-playing trappings with a single finger poised over one button on their keyboard: F5.
F5 triggers a quicksave without having to go through the laborious process of opening the main menu and manually saving. Many games have a quick save option, of course, but for Baldur’s Gate 3 it’s crucial, because this is a game seemingly built for save scumming.
Save scumming, for the uninitiated, is the act of saving before key decisions, or expected key decisions, so that you can reload if you end up with an undesirably outcome. Baldur’s Gate 3’s chaotic freedom and sometimes random, brutal difficulty are such that undesirable outcomes are part of the experience.
You might have failed a dice check, steering a conversation in a direction you hate. You might have passed a dice check but hated how things turned out because of it. You might have whiffed an attack when it seemed almost impossible to do so, making death at the hands of a horrible pack of goblins an inevitability. There are so many choices to make in Baldur’s Gate 3 and so many methods with which to make them, that things have a habit of going wrong.
But is there such a thing as wrong in Baldur’s Gate 3? This week IGN reported on a tip from Larian director of publishing, Michael Douse, who advised players “trust the dice”. While this is good advice in the context of Baldur’s Gate 3’s rock hard combat, it gets to the heart of save scumming, too. “Trust yourself, and trust the dice,” Douse said. “It reacts to your success and failures.”
Own your failures, perhaps? Resist the urge to save scum? Maybe. One of the best things about Baldur’s Gate 3 is how it copes with player failure, even catering for it. It’s as if Larian considered how to make “wrong” feel “right”, with delightful results.
Some streamers are already billing their playthroughs with “no save scumming” front and centre, as if a badge of honour. Popular streamer Sean “Day9” Plott is currently working his way through Baldur’s Gate 3 on Twitch. “We’re never save scumming ever. We’re not doing that,” they said. “We don’t save scum, period. We don’t do that.”
“We’re never save scumming ever. We’re not doing that. We don’t save scum, period. We don’t do that.
But for many Baldur’s Gate 3 players, save scumming is simply par for the course. Players are pressing F8 to quickload their last quicksave as you read this, unashamedly giving those dice rolls another go until things are just right. “Who else saves 300 times per hour just in case they have to reload but almost never actually do?” said redditor abluecolor.
“You’re not save scumming, the [Dungeon Master] is giving you another chance,” joked ferevon. “They say you should leave things up to fate,” said Firesnakearies. “I leave things up to F8.”
Save scumming is nothing new. CRPG fans have been dabbling with it since Fallout came out in 1997, perhaps even earlier. And of course it’s present in other Dungeons & Dragons video games, such as the original Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. In this sense, Baldur’s Gate 3 simply continues a tradition established 30 years ago on PC.
The ultimate Baldur’s Gate 3 challenge, of course, is to play on the hardest difficulty (Tactician) while resisting the urge to save scum even once. Can it be done? The world is watching.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on PC, with a console release set for a later date. For more info, check out how our guide to building a character in Baldur’s Gate 3 as well as our guide to Baldur’s Gate 3’s races and subraces.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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