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Baldur's Gate 3 gets prequel in the form of a co-op website murder mystery

Blood in Baldur's Gate takes place 15 years before Baldur's Gate 3 and challenges players to work together to solve a murder.

TJ Denzer

June 20, 2023 7:55 AM

Image via Larian Studios

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We’ve seen some pretty decent ways to rep a game ahead of its launch, but Larian might be taking us back to the 2000 decade with its prequel for Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian just launched Blood in Baldur’s Gate: a website that challenges players to engage in and make choices to solve a mystery. It all takes place 15 years before the events of Baldur’s Gate 3 and players must vote on the next course of action in the investigation each day as they work to find the murderer.

Larian Studios launched the Blood in Baldur’s Gate website with an accompanying intro trailer on June 19, 2023. According to the intro, it takes place about 15 years prior to the in-game events of Baldur’s Gate 3. A murder has been committed and players are now tasked with tracking down the murderer before they kill again. There’s only one issue. By taking on the murder, investigators have aligned themselves as the ‘next lamb brought to slaughter.’ It seems if we don’t make the right choices along the way, we could end up the next victim in the murder mystery.

Larian’s prequel is an interesting move that harkens back to promotions leading up to a variety of games. One of the most notable might be Dead Space Ignition, which led up to the launch of Dead Space 2. It’s an interesting twist that for Blood in Baldur’s Gate, it’s the cumulative votes of players that make up the next direction in the mystery. We could see our collective investigation go in some very interesting and maybe even unfortunate directions depending on how people vote.

With Baldur’s Gate 3 coming in August 2023, Blood in Baldur’s Gate looks like a fun way to get deeper into the lore and pass the time before the game’s release. Stay tuned for more details as we work our way towards the game’s launch.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.