2024 has been a killer year already. In just three months, we’ve hadLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,Helldivers 2,Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, andDragon’s Dogma 2. Yet I find myself itching to go back toBaldur’s Gate 3.
I work in games, so keeping up is part of the job description, which means I don’t have the time to go back to my favourites of 2023. Even if I miraculously wrap up Dragon’s Dogma 2 in the next couple of weeks, there are a ton of other hits on the horizon and a backlog mounting—I promise I’ll find time forUnicorn OverlordandTekken 8. But I’d toss all of that responsibility aside for one thing, photo mode.
It’s boggling that a game as beautiful as Baldur’s Gate 3 with such an emphasis on individual personality doesn’t already have this feature. My first foray into the mountain pass was a moment of awe, stepping out of the dilapidated towns and burned shrubbery of a goblin feud into a vast valley of luscious green fauna reclaiming beautiful, ancient architecture. I wanted nothing more than to pull out my magical medieval camera and snap a pic.
I did some digging -Dungeons & Dragonsdoesn’thave cameras (despite having submarines and Face Time with Gortash), but it does have two spells that function the same way, Major Image and Programmed Illusion. There’s your lore-friendly photo mode.
Larian Studios director of publishing Michael Douse revealed last year thatphoto mode is “on the list” of features the team plans to add, but it’s been nearly six months since then. We’ve hadan entire epilogueadded,new evil endingsare on the way, andmod support is even coming to console. But in the middle of it all is a gaping, lens-shaped hole.
The community pours so much of its heart into their characters, but the only way to show them off is to take generic screenshots of dialogue scenes, with no room to express ourselves in our framing as much as we do in the crafting of our Tavs. I’d love to have my studious drow paladin pondering by the cliffside with Minthara as the devil on their shoulder or my bloodthirsty tiefling smile as they stand atop a mountain of corpses they’ve pilfered.
Virtual photography has become an ingrained part of gaming, with photo mode an expectation these days. I remember having to use noclip and console commands if I wanted to snap pics of the scenery inSkyrim, and even getting banned inDark Soulsfor using Cheat Engine to take sweeping shots of Lordran, showing how intricately its Metroidvania world connects. We’re long past those days, and photo mode is understood as another way to experience a game’s world.
You become much more deeply connected to a game when you’ve spent hours fine-tuning shots and finding the best angles, turning the world into your stage. Baldur’s Gate 3 still doesn’t offer that opportunity, with its top-down view and limited third-person camera pigeonholing us into the most basic of shots.
I know that when photo mode is eventually added it’ll push me to start an entirely new playthrough and get knee-deep in the Sword Coast for another hundred hours because it will be a fresh experience. Getting to interact with Larian’s world that much more, uncovering secrets and minute details with the freeness of an unshackled camera, will put our quest against the Absolute into a different light. It isn’t technically a new game in a year already stacked with amazing new titles, but it might as well be.
Baldur’s Gate 3
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Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
