Baldur's Gate 3 holds up shockingly well in first person—so well, in fact, that Larian head Swen Vincke's been gobsmacked by his own game: 'Just look at it'

An image of a Baldur's Gate 3 mod, showing off the beauty of a cave in first person mode - which is shocking, given the game's isometric.
(Image credit: Larian Studios / Proxy Gate Tactician on YouTube.)

Baldur's Gate 3 has, in spirit, carried on the tradition of mainstream isometric RPGs. Sure, there've been the Pillars of Eternity games—solid CRPGS in their own right—but even Obsidian's doing a pseudo-Skyrim, now, no matter how much it's saying otherwise. Meanwhile, Dragon Age has been getting more and more action RPG with each entry. The top-down flame has been held aloft by Larian & Co alone.

But what if the studio had erred? What if Larian had seen Skyrim and said: "Bet we could do that better"? What if, in some alternate universe, Baldur's Gate 3 was first-person? That's exactly the kind of question asked and answered by Proxy Gate Tactician, a harebrained challenge runner who strapped over six mods together to produce a first-person Baldur's Gate 3 (thanks, Gamesradar).

Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 While Locked In First Person PoV? - YouTube Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 While Locked In First Person PoV? - YouTube
Watch On

Given the fact that controlling companions is difficult with this appropriately mindflayer-tier abomination of stitched-together code, Proxy goes for a solo run—where they play different classes every level. I can only assume that this is because they're still high on a fit of inventor madness, like Frankenstein losing his gourd after creating his monster.

The most impressive thing about the whole ordeal is how well it holds up. As Proxy notes, "While searching the toll house. [I] had nostalgic feelings of a younger me exploring Skyrim for the first time." That really is the feeling—turns out, Larian's texture work and environment design doesn't completely crumple under close scrutiny. But because it's all a little lower-res than you might get from a first-person RPG (since it's viewed from afar) those 2011 RPG vibes are strong. "God, I miss when Bethesda cared," Proxy adds. Oof, brutal.

That's not to say everything works well. When Proxy hits Moonrise Towers, the roof becomes a "jumbled-up pile of assets", and almost every machine with a rope in it is a trick of view distance—none of the ropes actually move. One's immersion weeps. But it's just as surprising how many facades don't crumble. The underdark looks lovely, and Act 1's druid grove really gives off a proper sense of scale, with a fully-modelled cavern ceiling put together, best I can tell, to inform lighting for the environment artists and little else.

The effort even surprised Larian co-founder and game director Swen Vincke, who took to X to praise it: "Now I want to play this—just look at it," writes a man who—pound for pound—has probably looked at this game more than any of us. That's an impressive gold star for your modding efforts.

The actual mod, Proxy explains, is assembled from the basic ones you'd expect—a script extender and a mod loader—as well as other ones, like that WASD mod I covered last year, giving us PC players a taste of console analogue stick movement, or Gycicada's "remove camera move", which stops Proxy getting motion sick every time he fires an arrow, which would usually prompt the camera to zip across the battlefield. Guilty7 also gave him some size-changing underwear so he could see over his own head. There's also a ton of native camera tweaks. If you want to give it a try, you can find the full list of instructions in the description of the video itself—enjoy the semi-Skyrim kind of life, baby, because Bethesda won't be done with Elder Scrolls 6 for a while.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Shadowheart's eyes go white as she holds a glowing magic artifact
Baldur's Gate 3 modder says the community's been making 'huge strides' towards custom campaigns: 'I think we'll see many of them refined, improved, and released this year'
Avowed masked Knight with glowing red eyes Inquisitor Lodwyn looks at camera
Avowed fooled us all into thinking you have to commit to playing in first or third person, but you can actually swap on the fly like in Fallout or The Elder Scrolls
A man shouting while waving his sword in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 show that the future of RPGs is in games way more ambitious, weird and unexpected than anything Bethesda and BioWare have to offer
Avowed Kai holding out his hand toward camera while explaining something to the player.
Avowed succeeds where Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed: An actionized, beginner-friendly entry point to a long-running series that doesn't sacrifice its identity
Baldur's Gate 3
2024 was still the year of Baldur's Gate 3: Why we're all still playing Larian's once-in-a-decade RPG 16 months later
Casting a fireball at a mushroom creature in Avowed.
My respec in Avowed turned the combat from Skyrim into Dishonored, and now I'm having a blast as an invisible parkour sword-mage
Latest in Baldur's Gate
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
Baldur's Gate 3 player character made to resemble Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.
Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Sure, why not, here's a guy beating Baldur's Gate 3 without a race or class at all
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened