[STEAM] Baldur's Gate 3 True Third-Person Camera Mod Goes Viral, Sparks Debate About Whether It Erases the Game's Identity

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might be three years old, but it’s still the subject of much debate — and many new mods. One mod in particular has gone viral, leading some fans to say developer Larian should keep it in mind for its future games. Others, though, believe using it to play Baldur’s Gate 3 essentially amounts to heresy.

The mod in question is Relysia’s True Third-Person Camera, which was released on

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earlier this month. It features a modern, over-the-shoulder third-person camera view where the camera stays closely attached to your character. There is a dynamic FOV when running, and smooth crouch transitions.

In this over-the-shoulder mode, the camera stays at a fixed distance to retain a close perspective. During gameplay actions, such as spell targeting, jumping, or inspecting the camera temporarily switches back to the normal view and automatically returns to over-the-shoulder mode once finished.

This is of course very different from the default Baldur’s Gate 3 camera, which is a top-down, isometric camera view in the classic computer role-playing game style. The mod essentially lets PC players jog through Faerûn like they do in BioWare’s Dragon Age or CD Projekt’s The Witcher games.

Relysia’s mod blew up after X /

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account Brator News published a video showcasing the new camera perspective. It’s seen 3.9 million views so far.

Baldur's Gate 3 Third Person showcase.

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— Brator News (@BratorNews)

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It wasn’t long before a debate sprung up around the video, with some recoiling in horror at the idea you would play Baldur’s Gate 3 in this way. These critics claim the changes made by the new camera perspective are a mismatch for Larian’s cRPG design, not least in terms of exploration and combat, and any benefits gained from a more immersive experience are outweighed by the joys of traditional cRPG play.

Of course, this is just a mod, and you can simply not use it. But that line of thinking hasn’t stopped plenty of hand-wringing, and the perception that mods like this one are somehow an attack on the cRPG genre itself.

"Not every game needs to be playable from every camera angle,"

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. "People treat the camera like it's some filter slapped onto the screen. In reality, the camera is the foundation of game design. Changing a game's perspective requires reevaluating dozens of systems, from level design to combat, animations to UI. Reducing a change to a game's design philosophy down to 'just add it as an option' shows a complete lack of understanding of how game development actually works."

There's plenty more reaction like that. “CRPG larpers are truly a blight on the genre after Baldur's Gate,”

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. “You don't get to say you love a unique and underrepresented genre when it's actively being replaced by action RPG slop and more and more companies stop making cRPG projects.”

“I swear I don’t understand the obsession with wanting every game to be the same third-person experience and not respect someone’s artistic choice,”

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. “Cyberpunk gets levelled with the same criticism esp when the core experience relies on their perspective.”

Some, though, are thrilled with the mod. “I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 this way for a long time, and it's an absolute blast,”

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, who called on Larian to “seriously reconsider what players have been asking for.”

“The popularity of the WASD movement and Native Camera Tweaks mods shows that there's a real demand for this style of gameplay,” they continued. “They've even attracted people who normally wouldn't play a cRPG.

“During the recent Divinity AMA, you said these features won't be in the game. As someone who truly admires and respects your work, I sincerely hope you'll reconsider that decision.

“Making these features optional, disabled by default but available for anyone who wants them doesn't seem like an unreasonable request. It would let players enjoy the game the way they prefer without changing the experience for those who like the classic controls.

“Please, Larian, listen to your players. We love your games, and many of us genuinely believe these features would make them even better.”

This plea has itself come under fire from those who want Larian to stick to its cRPG guns not just for Divinity, but for all its games. “Me when I want my CRPG to not play like a CRPG,”

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.

This raises the question: should Larian include optional WASD movement and camera controls as well as the traditional cRPG camera controls? “It's funny how some of you keep pretending optional features somehow erase the game's identity,” Tarik continued.

“No one's asking Larian to remove click-to-move, force a third-person camera, or replace turn-based combat. We're asking for optional WASD movement and camera controls features that players can enable or ignore.

“If your preferred way to play remains completely unchanged, why are you so threatened by someone else having another option?

“Calling every third-person game ‘just another Witcher clone’ is an incredibly shallow argument. Camera controls don't define a game's genre its mechanics, systems, and design philosophy do. Baldur's Gate 3 would still be a turn-based cRPG built on D&D rules, regardless of whether I move with WASD or click the ground.

“More player choice doesn't take anything away from you. It just gives more people another way to enjoy the same game.”

Something interesting to come out of the reaction to this mod is that there is clearly a lot of love for

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out there, as the mod makes Baldur’s Gate 3 look a bit like BioWare’s 2009 fantasy role-playing game and lots of people have picked up on that. Subsequent Dragon Age games deviated somewhat from the old-school RPG systems and mechanics and even vibe of Origins, and the latest release, the much-maligned

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, has essentially killed the series. But in an age of remakes, I do wonder how well a Dragon Age: Origins remake would do. Pretty well, I’d suggest.

As for Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian, there’s no chance of an official update to make it play as it does with this mod, given the developer has said it won't release any more big patches for the game. And it doesn't sound like it's in the plan for future games, either. Larian confirmed in January that

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, so expect much the same when the developer's hotly anticipated Baldur's Gate 3 follow-up eventually comes out. If that upsets you, well... I imagine that, eventually, there will be a true third-person camera mod for Divinity, too.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on

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at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld.

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