It’s just occurred to me that Baldur’s Gate 3 is shy of being a year old, and I’m struggling to come to terms with that because it feels like the game just came out. I know in my rational mind it didn’t, but where did those months go? Why didn’t I feel them in the way I normally would? I think I have an inkling why.
I felt it while watching an orchestral performance of Baldur’s Gate 3 at the weekend. It was part of the Game Music Festival and featured a special concert arrangement of the game’s score, and it was sublimely done. There was a large choir and full orchestra and it gave oomph to the dramatic music from the game. Even the vocalists were there to reprise their iconic “down, down, down by the river” motif. Not that any of this is unique; we’ve had orchestral video game concerts before – Ed was just at one for Elden Ring – and earlier in the day at the Southbank Centre, there was a recital for The Last of Us. I saw people milling around in The Last of Us T-shirts when I arrived. So I expected much of this. What I didn’t expect, however, or what I wasn’t prepared for, was the Baldur’s Gate 3 effect.
Remember what the event itself was: an orchestral performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra. It’s not where you would expect to see cosplay, as you would a games convention, but as the afternoon unfolded, that’s what it resembled. Shadowhearts and Astarions gathered, as did copies of other characters from the game, and a palpable feeling of excitement crackled around. This quietened for the start of the performance, as people sat sensibly and clapped in the correct places, but the further it went on, the less it could be contained.
You see, it wasn’t just the orchestra of note in the room that evening. Sitting in the middle of the auditorium were a handful of actors from the game. Shadowheart actor Jennifer English was there; Lae’Zel actor Devora Wilde was there; Karlach actor Samantha Béart was there; Halsin actor Dave Jones was there; Raphael actor Andrew Wincott was there; and the game’s narrator Amelia Tyler was there, involved directly in the performance itself. What’s more, the game’s BAFTA award-winning composer Borislav Slavov was there, as was an entourage of Larian employees. I was delighted to spot – a day before publishing a piece about him – principal narrative designer Lawrence Schick from across the hall. Wherever Baldur’s Gate 3 goes, a convoy seems to follow – and I was far from the only person who’d noticed.
Excited applause began to interrupt the changing of movements, where there would usually be only a silent pause. I had a good view of conductor Marek Wroniszewski from where I sat, so I could see the slight bemusement on his face – happy bemusement – as it became an increasingly frequent thing, but the closer the orchestra came to the end, the more trouble he seemed to be having containing it. As his hand snapped shut and the orchestra played its final note, the pent up energy poured out. A wave of applause swept the auditorium, mingled in no small part with a sense of relief that noise was now allowed. Host Amelia Tyler came back on stage – and by now the audience was on its feet whooping and cheering – to say thank you and read a prepared outro, before inviting composer Borislav Slavov to the stage. The audience roared, and Slavov – as you might imagine if you’ve seen his impassioned speech upon winning the Best Music BAFTA – bounded down to the stage, a flurry of emotion, arms aloft, smile beaming. But that wasn’t all.
I had a suspicion when I saw Raphael actor Andrew Wincott mouthing something to himself earlier, before the concert began, that he might be rehearsing something, and I hoped, given how iconic Raphael’s Final Act song has become, that a live performance might be it. But the main performance had come and gone and we hadn’t heard the song. Yet.
Cut back to Slavov, now cutting his own applause short. “Hold your applause!” he said. Weren’t they the same words Raphael says in the song? Understanding began to ripple around the auditorium. Then, Slavov confirmed it: “Down comes the claw!” he bellowed. This, unequivocally, was Raphael’s line, and there Wincott/Raphael was, striding to the stage to reprise it – to sing the song. I’m not ashamed to say I lost my cool at this point – my partner tried to capture the moment for TikTok, where you can probably hear me hooting. Suffice to say what had begun as a relatively reserved affair was now more like a carnival in atmosphere. Even the conductor seemed to be enjoying himself, squished as he was between several people amongst the violins. Happy chaos, it was.
It’s this sort of thing that always seems to happen around the game, around Baldur’s Gate 3. Wherever the cavalcade goes, an unprecedented amount of love seems to gush out for it. Be it an awards ceremony, a conference, a convention or an orchestral performance: the level of goodwill is staggering. And I think this is why I haven’t noticed the time passing as I normally would, because the applause for Baldur’s Gate 3 has never really stopped. It’s the encore that goes on and on and on (a bit like our applause on the night – my hands still hurt). I laugh, now, to remember Larian founder Swen Vincke saying – around launch – that he was done talking about BG3 now because he’d been working on it for so long, only to go on and talk about it for another six months. It’s not like he could have predicted the reaction the game got, though – who could have?
The power of Baldur’s Gate 3 was never more apparent than at that concert this past weekend. It’s a phenomenon, not only as a game but how it’s spread to a community around it. There’s a sense of people wanting to belong to its fandom just to be in that big happy club, and of Larian encouraging and protecting that, which is really heartwarming to see. But there’s something else that I thought was apparent at that concert too, and it’s a slightly more sobering thought: that this might be the end of the victory tour. The awards are all given out, and the last remnants of the BAFTA-related events – this one included – are now coming to an end. There’s a BAFTA masterclass event in June – An Evening with Baldur’s Gate 3 – and the actors will continue to pop up at conventions like London Comic Con but it feels like the main tour is over. That’s what I felt when I watched Slavov on stage at the weekend, singing with Wincott and hugging everyone in sight – I got a sense of this being a final bow.
There has to come a time when people go to work on new projects, of course, because it’s the natural way of things. Actors will take on other roles and drift away (many of the BG3 lot already have) and Larian will hunker down and make new games, and the familiarity of them all together – all those backstage selfies on socials – will seem increasingly distant. I realise in writing that it might sound like a sad thing, but I don’t mean it – or think of it – in that way. I think, with a bit of space for reflection, it will only serve to highlight what an extraordinary period this has been. I’ve never seen a developer and community and cast come together like this – it’s a gathering that will live long in the memory indeed.
