I have a confession, one that’s directed much more at PC gamers rather than console ones, who might not appreciate the depraved depths of the transgression I committed. Ever since Larian enabled controller support in the originalDivinity: Original Sin, I’ve exclusively played their games with a controller. In my defence, I’d say that that was because that was the only way to play Original Sin 1, 2, andBaldur’s Gate 3in split-screen with my partner, but I’m not sure that will redeem me in the eyes of my PC brethren. Split-screen, after all, is historically a ‘console thing’ too.
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But recently, due to sometechnical awkwardness playing Baldur’s Gate 3 in split-screenthat I suspect won’t be fully resolved until the Definitive Edition (split-screen players represent a tiny portion of the player base), I’ve begun playing my campaign with keyboard-and-mouse, andhoo-boydoes it feel different. Larian very thoughtfully designed two completely different UIs depending on whether you play with KB+M or controller, with the game seamlessly switching between them as soon as you start using the other, meaning that you get two really quite distinct play experiences depending on the setup at your fingertips.
So keyboard-and-mouse or controller? Controller, or keyboard-and-mouse? Read on for my breakdown.
Controller: For That Console-Style Immersion
While I first began playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with a controller out of necessity, I can’t deny that there are aspects of it that I legitimately prefer to keyboard-and-mouse, even though it’s inevitably more limited than the, dunno, 143(?) keys you get on a keyboard (which is a big factor in a game like this, and something I’ll get to later).
The big positive of a controller is the precision of the 1:1 movement. There’s the psychological—or immersive—aspect, which is that it really makes it feel like you’re embodying the character you’re controlling, rather than clicking them around and giving them orders. But there’s a mechanical benefit to this too, especially when doing precise actions like sneaking around, and that’s that you don’t need to rely on pathfinding like you do when clicking around with a mouse. So if you’re trying to do those precise things like avoiding enemy vision cones when trying to steal, or tip-toeing around traps, controller actually works better in these situations.
On the other hand, the auto-targeting when playing with a controller, which highlights an object to interact with as you approach it, can land you in trouble, and you can find yourself accidentally stealing items next to an NPC instead of interacting with the NPC, for instance. It’swayless precise than a mouse click, and means you sometimes need to faff around position the camera so it highlights what you actually want to interact with. This is offset a bit by the manual targeting reticule you can bring up with L3, but again moving that thing around with the analog stick is way more ponderous than clicking around with the trusty mouse.
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Picking up loot or searching areas could be a bit of a faff on controller, but luckily you may not only hold R3 to label all interactable items on the screen (just like Alt on the keyboard), but by holding A/X, you can do an Active Search, which creates a circle in a pretty big radius around your controlled character and lets you instantly interact with all objects in that area. This feature is exclusive to playing with a controller, and while keyboard-and-mouse players might bemoan why they too don’t have it, it does give the controller a little edge on this front.
Third-Person Frolics
The controller really thrives when you zoom into the third-person perspective, which again is a fun way to pull you into the world, letting you appreciate distant scenery and vistas like you would in your typical third-person open-world game (while you can get the same camera angle with keyboard-and-mouse, it’s extremely awkward using mouse movement to move ‘deeper’ into the screen). It gets even better when you get theNative Camera Tweaks mod, which unlocks camera movement so you can get into a full third-person angle and really appreciate the world around you.
At the heart of the controller experience is the multi-radial menu. It’s a bold, innovative move by Larian, and means that when just roaming around there’s less UI on the screen, and therefore more screen space (with keyboard-and-mouse, you have the Actions bar sprawled across the bottom part of the screen at all times).
Once you’re using the radial menu however, things can get a bit fiddly, which they really didn’t need to be.
Once you’re using the radial menu however, things can get a bit fiddly unfortunately, which it didn’t need to be. It’s completely disorganised, with no rhyme or reason as to why spells, actions, bonus actions etc. get thrown into the slots that they do. Level 1 spells are jumbled in with Level 4 spells and bonus actions, useable items fill out spare slots awkwardly, and if you want to get this stuff organised then you’re going to have to spend a good chunk of time sorting it all out yourself (and even then you’ll still need to update the radial menus each time you get new spells, change weapons, and so on). Yes, you can bundle all Bonus Actions into one radial and different levels of spell into their own radials, but there’s no way to ‘fix’ this stuff in place, so it’ll slowly get messy over time again, and you’ll just need to fix it again.
Radial-Activity
It’s a real shame that you’re able to’t assign ‘rules’ to different radials, so as items and abilities get swapped in and out, they go to their correct radials accordingly. Visually the radial system looks lovely, and it’s good in principle, but it’s woefully lacking in proper customisation options.
Things also get a bit frustrating in inventory management and general navigation when you want to fiddle around in character sheets, spellbooks, and so on. This is a big, deep RPG, there’s tons of stuff to sift through in the UIs, and getting through it all on a controller can be a cumbersome, tiring experience. Having to use the analog to get through inventories instead of just clicking exactly what you want was probably the final straw in me deciding to give things a go with the mouse-and-keyboard.
Keyboard-and-Mouse: For Raw Practicality
And now we come to the old-school way to play—what cRPG traditionalists would call therealway to play—Baldur’s Gate 3. From the off, there’s a lot of information on-screen, which can be a tad intimidating, but once you soak it all in, it’s clear that this is a far more efficient way to play Baldur’s Gate 3, with all the buttons and actions and functions you need just a mouse-click or keyboard shortcut keystroke away.
To see info on any action or spell, you simply hover over it in the hotbar at the bottom, and it’s right there for you, with extra information on any keyword in the description being available by tapping the ‘Inspect’ key, which brings up neat nested menus (controller also has the ‘Inspect’ function, but it brings up a large and less specific menu displaying the extra information). Just above the hotbar you can click buttons which filter possible actions by Actions, Bonus Actions, separate spell levels, and cantrips, which really feels like it should’ve been implemented into the radial menu system in some way, but alas it wasn’t, giving keyboard-and-mouse a big win here.
It’s Just A Click Away
Managing your characters and UI is an absolute cinch with the mouse (and the fact you can bring up every respective menu with a keyboard shortcut is great, assuming you can memorise them all), turning the ordeal of controller-based menu navigation into something as unobtrusive as it should be. The screen that lets you see every character in your party presents the information far more clearly than the same screen with a controller, and there are added perks like being able to see every character’s Character Sheet and Spellbook at the same time on one screen. As a small side-point, the art style of the UI is prettier too, evoking the tome-like designs of old-school RPGs in contrast to the bolder, more modern stylings of the controller UI; this might be a personal preference thing, but I dig the old-school look.
I’ve already covered how controller movement is more immersive and has its advantages (especially if you want to dabble in the close-up third-person perspective), but the practicality of just being able to click a distant object and leave it to your character to get there is a big one (just make sure there are no traps or obstacles in the way, because theywillrun through them).
Plenty of people will have experienced the semi-regular jankiness of Baldur’s Gate 3’s combat camera, especially when fights take place across multiple vertical levels and it gets confused about which one you want to be looking at. That jankiness does occur either way, but it’s much faster to correct using mouse movement than slowly gliding the reticule around using the controller. Yes, you may scroll through auto-targeting allies and enemies on the controller if you get a bit lost, but like with the inventories, spending ages scrolling to get the thing you want isn’t how you want to be spending your gaming time. You just want to click, and it’s done, and that’s one of the massive advantages of playing with keyboard-and-mouse.
So, Keyboard-And-Mouse Or Controller?
The obvious and boring answer is ‘it depends,’ largely based around how much you value direct character movement and the option to really pull that camera in and enjoy the game in the third-person perspective. A common pro-controller argument will be that it’s easier to kick back on the sofa and play on the big TV with a controller, and that’s valid, though I’m in that crazy minority of people who have a wireless keyboard-and-mouse as well as a surface to put them on in front of the big TV; in a game like this I’d be prepared to do that to get the innumerable advantages and smoothness that playing with a keyboard-and-mouse brings.
To be clear, the controller implementation is still very good in Baldur’s Gate 3, and its biggest issue in my eyes—the lack of options to organise the radial menu—is something that could (and really should) get fixed in a future update, but as a general rule cRPGs, with all their depth and inventories and complexity, work best with keyboard-and-mouse, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception.
But hey, you do you!
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