Former Bethesda lead is sceptical of The Elder Scrolls’ return to ‘fiddly stat sheets’, even in the face of Baldur’s Gate 3’s success

Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of last year’s biggest critical and commercial successes—selling bonkers numbers and taking the crown of our annual top 100 list. We rather liked it, in case you couldn’t tell.

What’s more, it did so against what big-budget companies making RPGs would like you to believe is convention. It’s a turn-based RPG that directly uses a TTRPG system, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, and there’s nary a quick-time event in sight. I’d even argue that it’s even more demanding than its parental D&D ruleset, since it has you controlling four characters (in a singleplayer campaign, at least), while also letting you equip tons of magic items (5th edition, in contrast, usually only lets you attune to three major ones).