When I meet a new party member in Baldur’s Gate 3, I strip them naked. I know it sounds weird, and it kinda is, but I swear it isn’t part of some perverse hazing ritual. The reason I do it is that Larian Studios has taken an approach to nudity that isn’t juvenile, despite its rampant explicitness. Seconds before starting a new game you’re asked if you want to enable or disable nudity. I cannot overestimate the severity of this decision.
Unlike Dragon Age or Mass Effect, nudity isn’t merely present in tasteful sex scenes, defined by the occasional buttcheek and smattering of side boob. Baldur’s Gate 3 is dick city. Pussy galore. And a gleefully nude
display of characters we create and others we meet and recruit.
All the top performing clips on Twitch following the game’s hugely successful release are of streamers accidentally discovering that the game features full-frontal nudity. More specifically, the knowledge that Baldur’s Gate 3 includes four options for both penises and vulva, which can be equipped to your character regardless of gender. It’s a bold form of expression that I expressed excitement for ahead of launch last week as I played the review build, and now thousands of fans are finally getting their hands on Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s taking on a life of its own. Not because it’s horny or weird or inappropriate - but because it’s human.
To be fair to Larian, it wasn’t screaming from the rooftops about the intimacy of its character creator ahead of launch, largely because it didn’t need to. Baldur’s Gate 3 takes inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons, and that dedication extends to creating a character in its world that reflects either who you are or whomever you want to be without compromise. This can translate to parading around the fantastical realm as a Tiefling with an attitude, or a Half Elf trans woman with a massive hog swinging between her legs. Anything is possible, and in a time when games like Cyberpunk 2077 only serve to underwhelm with the queer potential seen in their own offerings, Baldur’s Gate 3 leaves them in the dust and forges an exciting path forward. One where your entire party is naked and absolutely slaying the day away.
I’m not saying you should, but Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t disallow you from playing through the entire game without a piece of armour equipped by anyone in your party. I think it’s adorable to keep their shoes on, so they don’t get muddy feet even if everything else is flaunted for the world to see. You might run a D&D campaign where your party consists of a daring society of nudists, and every dialogue option you pick and battle you partake in is built to reflect such a philosophy. Everybody acts like it’s the most normal thing in the world, and it’s sort of brilliant, doubly so in a medium which is often so prudishly afraid of any form of sex or nudity.
Larian doesn’t care, and knows many of us will take joy from such an act, even when sex has not a thing to do with it. I’ve yet to stumble upon a sex scene in Baldur’s Gate 3, but I can already feel a bond forming between us that may extend to innocent flirtation, or perhaps something more.
There is no way for me to know right now, but regardless I’m basking in the freedom afforded to me both gendered and sexual that turns Baldur’s Gate 3 into an experience very few won’t be able to see themselves in.