Two of 2023's most eagerly awaited game launches, Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield, have captured the attention of gamers worldwide. One game is about a fantasy world that offers a deep role-playing experience, while the other takes you on a universe exploration journey.

While these two open-world titles have numerous differences, from their settings to gameplay mechanics, they also have similarities in providing immersive experiences and engaging landscapes.

Ultimately, the choice between the mystical realms of Baldur's Gate 3 and the vast galaxies of Starfield comes down to personal preference, but we assure you each game offers unique adventures.

In this article, we'll compare both games' narratives, visuals, graphics, world-building, gameplay difficulty, quests, and more to determine which game suits your gaming preferences and is worth playing.

• Release Date: Aug 3, 2023.

• Developer: Larian Studios.

• Publisher: Larian Studios.

• Metascore: 96.

Baldur's Gate 3 is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and revolves around an epic narrative filled with magic, intrigue, and conflict. The story begins with your character being captured by Mind Flayers, alien beings known for their powerful psychic abilities. The Mind Flayers implant a parasitic tadpole into your character and other captives, which is intended to transform them into Mind Flayers.

The main quest revolves around finding a cure for the parasitic infection while navigating a world teeming with conflict and danger. Along the way, you will encounter various factions, mythical creatures, and side characters, each with their own agendas and stories.

The narrative delves into themes of power, corruption, and identity as you make choices that affect your character's development and have significant consequences for the world around you, leading to multiple possible outcomes and paths.

Baldur's Gate 3 Steam CD Key is available for purchase on RoyalCDKeys.

• Release Date: Sep 6, 2023.

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios.

• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks.

• Metascore: 83.

Starfield is a game based on space exploration and emphasizes the theme of "only the freedom" to explore and engage with the universe. The story revolves around your character's journey through the galaxy and is set in a future where humanity has ventured into space and established colonies and factions on different planets.

The narrative allows you to make choices that impact the game world. This involves forming alliances, engaging in space combat, and making decisions that shape the political landscape of the galaxy. 

Additionally, this title offers a vast open-world experience, typical of Bethesda's other games, where exploration and player choice are central elements. 

Starfield Steam CD Key is available for purchase on RoyalCDKeys.

Before playing any of both video games, deciding where to play them is essential. Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield offer unique gaming experiences on different platforms. If you're a PC gamer, you have the best deal, with full, moddable access to both games. This means that you can dive into both worlds without any restrictions.

Baldur's Gate 3, a game that revisits the genre's past with its classic RPG elements, is currently available on PlayStation 5. The good news for Xbox Series X/S owners is that Baldur's Gate 3 will come on these consoles at the end of 2023.

On the other side, Starfield, created by Bethesda Game Studios, is an Xbox exclusive. Sadly, this title won't be released on PS5 or PS4 soon because Bethesda Softworks is part of ZeniMax Media, an entertainment publisher that was acquired by Microsoft in 2021.

In this section, Bladur's Gate 3 and Starfield take different paths to engage their players. 

Starfield's opening is monotonous, lacking the captivating intros seen in other Bethesda titles. This oddly bland beginning contrasts with the engaging start of Baldur's Gate 3, which quickly establishes the stakes, introduces mechanics, and brings companion characters into the fold.

Its narrative does not always match the grandeur of its setting. The main story sometimes lacks depth, leaving players to create their adventures among the stars. This approach turns the game into a theme park, where the joy comes from exploring rather than following a story.

Baldur's Gate 3, on the contrary, is set in a rich fantasy world with a narrative that combines sinister implications with fun little jokes, creating a self-contained story that feels epic and personal. The narrative's strength lies in immersing you in a world filled with adventures that contribute to a grand and intimate story.

Sometimes, visuals and graphics in games might not seem crucial. Indeed, the gameplay is what matters most in any great game. However, good visuals are essential to creating a solid and believable environment. This is where Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield show some clear differences.

Baldur's Gate 3 may not be the top game ever made in graphics, but it certainly has superior visuals compared to Starfield. Its graphics stand out, especially when looking at character models. The level in detail is far more refined than its opponent.

Starfield follows the traditional AAA open-world game approach and features impressive visuals in the landscapes, a strong point in its gameplay experience.

Baldur's Gate 3, with its roots in isometric, CRPG style, faces some limitations. So, Starfield has an advantage in grand, sweeping vistas and the sheer scale of the open world.

Starfield feels deeply stuck in its narrative as you set foot on different planets. But, at the same time, it is known for its detailed environmental storytelling.

The game's design and random worlds showcase a hugely ambitious prospect. Each planet offers excellent experiences, making the game's universe feel vast and alive. It ensures real engagement with small elements pointed out in the vast expanse of random worlds.

Baldur's Gate 3, on the contrary, brings a richly detailed world set in the land of Faerûn. Larian Studios, the game's developer, has skillfully expanded the series' lore, adding new layers that make the world feel familiar and fresh.

Both games stand out for their exceptional world-building. While Starfield immerses you in a sci-fi universe with many planets to explore, Blaldur's Gate 3 offers a fantasy world rich in lore and detail.

Baldur's Gate 3 stands out in character building and allows you to create deeply personalized characters. You can select from being an immortal Wizard to a Charismatic Barbarian, each with their skills and powers.

This extends to the game's companions – interactable NPCs and fully realized characters with their own personalities, beliefs, and reactions to your decisions. This richness in character development ensures replayability and meaningful interactions in a real-life-like world.

Starfield presents a more streamlined approach to character building. While you can also create your character and choose its path in the galaxy, the only impactful feature relies on its appearance and level of growth. Beyond that, every character you create will perform almost the same quests and storyline.

Additionally, the side characters tend to have similar opinions and moral stances, limiting the diversity and interaction depth. So, Starfield offers a more uniform experience in character building and side-character interactions, focusing more on exploration.

The biggest difference in role-playing between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield lies in your decisions' impact on the dialogue choices. In Baldur's Gate 3, every action significantly shapes the main story and affects the entire game, making a huge step forward in traditional RPG gameplay.

This approach ensures that no two playthroughs are an exact duplicate, as each choice you make can lead to different outcomes in the main story and interactions within the world.

In contrast, Starfield features a more generalized approach to role-playing, having a less pronounced impact than Baldur's Gate 3. The game allows for broad exploration and interaction but doesn't deeply integrate these role-playing elements into the main narrative.

In Starfield, the combat features a mix of first and third-person perspectives, a style that Bethesda is well known for. This approach allows for a more casual and direct combat experience, where you can engage in gunplay and action from your preferred perspective.

However, one notable aspect is the absence of the VATS system from the Fallout series, which makes the gunplay in Starfield feel more generic compared to Bethesda's other titles.

On the other hand, Baldur's Gate 3 adopts a tactical turn-based combat system. This combat style requires more strategic thinking and planning, as you must consider your moves and actions carefully.

Turn-based combat in Baldur's Gate 3 adds depth and complexity to encounters, making each battle a unique challenge. But it's worth noting that some players might find the enemy encounters tedious because some battles can become more prolonged and complex.

Both game's combat systems have their positives and negatives. The choice between the two depends on the player's preference for combat style. If you enjoy a direct and action-oriented combat system, you might prefer Starfield. But if you want to play a game where combat is more about strategy and careful planning, Baldur's Gate 3 might be more appealing.

Regarding the difficulty aspect of gameplay, Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield show clear differences in how they challenge the player.

The difficulty isn't Bethesda's strong point. They typically handle it just by adjusting the amount of health on enemies or damage they deal. So, when you play Starfield, the game makes the enemies tougher or weaker based on the difficulty level, but it doesn't necessarily require you to change your strategy. Whether you play on easy or hard, how you approach combat encounters in Starfield generally remains the same.

In contrast, Baldur's Gate 3 offers a more nuanced approach to difficulty. When you play this game, the difficulty setting you choose significantly alters the gameplay experience. The tactics you must employ and the number of hostels you face change with the difficulty level. 

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 might require you to rethink and adapt your strategies to overcome the challenges. The game can be pretty tough, especially on higher difficulty settings, but it's designed in a way that, while challenging, never feels impossible to beat.

It's important to remember that a game's length isn't the only thing determining its quality. However, the story's pace is crucial in giving players a sense of progression and accomplishment.

In Starfield, if you focus solely on the main quest line, the adventure through the galaxy can be completed in about 12-15 hours. This shorter main story in the open world allows you to easily get sidetracked by other encounters and questlines, offering a variety of experiences as you play through the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 offers a much longer main story. Even if you decide to skip the side quests, a single playthrough will take you at least 75 hours. Baldur's Gate 3 narrative is designed to keep circling back to the main plot, making the story a central part of the game's experience.

The difference in story length between the two games isn't about one being better. Starfield gives players a quicker journey through its main story, while Baldur's Gate 3 offers a more extended and in-depth narrative experience in its fantasy world.

Despite Starfield's pitch of freedom and exploration in the galaxy, players have noticed several problems. One of the most apparent issues is the large number of loading screens interrupting travel between different locations.

Additionally, the game lacks a high-quality world map, making navigation challenging. When exploring the galaxy, you are often required to travel on foot across various environments, and many of the planets visited can feel recycled or barren, detracting from the overall fun of exploration.

On the contrary, Baldur's Gate 3 presents a different scenario. The game has some bugs, and the difficulty sometimes seems unfairly balanced. However, it's generally a very polished game. Larian Studios is working to patch the game and fix these minor issues. This ongoing support helps in maintaining the game's quality and player satisfaction.

Comparatively, while Starfield is less buggy than some previous Bethesda games, its issues can significantly impact the gameplay experience. Baldur's Gate 3, despite its bugs, offers a more consistent experience, with developers continuously addressing issues to enhance the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 features a wide range of quests that are well-written and well-designed but vary in scope and complexity. Some quests in Baldur's Gate 3 are quick diversions, solvable with a few dialogue choices, while others are sprawling adventures that span the entire game and may not even be discovered on the first playthrough.

This variety makes each quest feel significant to your journey. The game offers player freedom, allowing you to approach and resolve quests in multiple ways. Baldur's Gate 3 encourages you to explore every option, whether dealing with a thief on the road or embarking on a more complex mission.

Starfield's quest design offers a similar experience. The game's main quest missions are compelling, with narratives, actions, and outcomes significantly impacting the game. Additionally, some of the most exciting adventures are found in secondary storylines, leading to unexpected and wild discoveries.

However, it's important to note that many quests ultimately boil down to talking or fighting, with a procedural generation algorithm sometimes leading to repetitive experiences. For example, some locations used for main quest missions repeat on random planets, indicating the game quests' poor design. There are quests with creative solutions, but the options for overcoming them are generally more limited.

Based on this extensive article, Baldur's Gate 3 has won over Starfield in terms of RPG gaming, narrative, character development, and more aspects, becoming the winner in this contest. However, what you prefer in a game is entirely up to you. Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield are different games, each excelling in its own way. 

Despite Starfield's many great qualities, it sometimes feels like a game that hasn't entirely met modern gaming standards. Under its impressive surface, Starfield has numerous issues, some of which seem out of place in the current gaming landscape. These problems have held back the game from reaching its full potential.

Baldur's Gate 3 stands out in the RPG genre, offering a unique experience that sets it apart from Starfield and other games in the industry.