Finishing Baldur’s Gate 3 feels like the end of an era. Larian Studio’s Dungeons & Dragons adventure is an emotional, cinematic, and sometimes chaotic journey through one of the richest worlds ever created. Players can easily spend hundreds of hours on a single playthrough, and as impressive as the game is, this can drag on. The RPG is a massive time commitment that can leave players exhausted by the end of it. This can dampen the excitement to play another game like it. However, there are shorter games that give off similar vibes to Baldur’s Gate 3.
There’s no shortage of role-playing games out there, but many of these have massive amounts of content to play. Finding shorter titles that still offer deep storytelling, party-based strategy, and meaningful choices can be challenging. Fortunately for you, we have selected five games that play like Baldur’s Gate 3 that are more digestible in length.
Before Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines became a cult classic, Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption started it off. It was a dark, story-driven RPG that remains one of the most underrated gems in the genre. It follows Cristof Romuald, a 12th-century Crusader turned vampire, on a journey that spans centuries. What begins in medieval Prague and Vienna continues in modern-day London and New York.
At around 20 to 25 hours, Redemption feels brisk compared to BG3 and CRPG standards. But it packs an incredible amount of atmosphere and drama into this short runtime. Its morality-driven narrative mirrors the character introspection of BG3. Players are asked to weigh their humanity against the seductive powers of evil.
The party system allows you to recruit other vampires from other clans, bringing unique playstyles to your team. It features real-time with pause combat, and may show its age. Despite this, it is an incredible game and one any CRPG fan should pick up. If you are coming off of Baldur’s Gate 3, this shorter title is a great way to continue playing the genre without getting burnt out.
If you’re looking to stick with the Dungeons & Dragons universe, you don’t need to look hard. Neverwinter Nights 2, which recently received a remaster, is an excellent party-based adventure. It is based on the 3.5 ruleset rather than Baldur’s Gate 3’s 5E inspiration. But its tactical combat, party management, and player-driven dialogue choices lend themselves to the same sprawling campaign style.
There are three campaigns to choose from in Neverwinter Nights 2, with each being somewhere between 15 and 20 hours. You can play all three back-to-back or space them out. Each offers a different experience and story, but the core elements of BG3 are there. Throughout the course of these campaigns, you meet new party members and make choices that shape the fate of the world.
Where Neverwinter Nights 2 shines is its companions. Like BG3, they react to your choices, argue amongst themselves, and sometimes question your leadership. The writing has the classic flair Obsidian is known for, bringing witty, sharp, and morally complex dialogue. It feels slightly dated, but holds up surprisingly well since its 2006 release.
On paper, Wildermyth may not look much like Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a small, stylized indie RPG that uses procedural storytelling and a comic-book aesthetic, opposed to BG3’s realistic graphics and cinematic cutscenes. But don’t let that fool you; once you start playing, the resemblance becomes clear. Wildermyth is all about characters, choices, and stories that grow organically from your actions.
A standard campaign can last around 30 hours, making it somewhere between the shorter end and the lengthier one. Each hour in the game is filled with emergent storytelling that is shaped by your characters and the choices they make. Characters can romance one another, die, retire, and so much more. Part of the joy is experiencing the unpredictable nature of the game.
Each campaign offers a new experience while maintaining the core elements. You follow a ragtag band of heroes, fight creeping evil, or embark on a noble quest. Regardless of your journey, you will watch your characters evolve both mechanically and emotionally. By the end, your party truly feels like yours: their backstories, traits, and relationships are all the results of your decisions and dice rolls.
You can’t talk about Baldur’s Gate 3 without paying respect to where it all began. The original Baldur’s Gate and its sequel were developed by BioWare and feature some of the studio’s best work. They are the bedrock of Larian’s game and some of the most foundational CRPGs in history. The graphics may be dated compared to BG3’s stylish looks, but they rival the writing, world-building, and tactical depth of the series’s most recent entry.
The first Baldur’s Gate will set you back between 30 and 40 hours, while Baldur’s Gate 2 has a longer runtime of around 50 or 60 hours. Both are shorter than BG3 on their own, but combined, you see a slightly longer playtime. You can play them separately, but they form one of the most epic sagas in the genre together.
The games share so much DNA with Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, even if they follow slightly different stories. Familiar faces appear in both games, giving more value to those who play all three games. Players will enjoy the same gameplay, if a bit older, and while the games may be shorter, they are just as satisfying. If you’re looking for another 100 hundreds of Baldur’s Gate 3, look no further than its predecessors.
Before Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios produced another hit CRPG, Divinity 2: Original Sin. It equals the D&D title in its craftsmanship. The freedom, interactivity, dialogue, and sheer creativity in design are legendary, and you owe it to yourself to play Larian’s other CRPG. The systems are different, and there is a bit more difficulty here, but it is well worth the learning curve.
Lengthwise, you’re looking at a slightly shorter experience, roughly between 60 and 70 hours. It is still a substantial game, but a bit leaner and more streamlined than Baldur’s Gate 3. It also features a more open-ended design that rewards experimentation. Similar to BG3, problems can be solved in numerous ways. Whether you simply wish to teleport foes into lava or steal a quest item to avoid entire battles is up to you.
The dialogue system, party interactions, and turn-based combat feel straight out of BG3. All the game’s companions have rich backstories and personalities, and your choices dramatically alter how the narrative unfolds. Divinity 2: Original Sin perfectly captures the sense of freedom and discovery many loved about Baldur’s Gate 3, making it an excellent game to play after.
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