Baldur's Gate 3 is a stunning game in first-person. Swen Vincke, Larian's head, was so impressed by the game that he said, 'Just take a look'.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a continuation of the mainstream isometric RPG tradition. There are the Pillars Of Eternity games, which are solid CRPGS on their own, but Obsidian is doing a pseudo Skyrim now, despite its claims. Dragon Age is becoming more and more of an action RPG. Larian & Co. have been the sole defenders of the top-down flame.

What if the studio made a mistake? What if Larian saw Skyrim and thought: "I bet we could do it better"? What if in an alternate universe, Baldur's Gate 3 were first-person? Proxy Gate Tactician is a challenge runner that asked and answered this question. He slapped together six mods to create a first-person Baldur’s Gate 3. (Thanks, Gamesradar).

Proxy, recognizing that it is difficult to control companions in this mindflayer-tier abomination stitched together code, decides to play a solo game. They switch classes at every level. I can only assume this is because they are still high from a fit inventor madness. Like Frankenstein losing his gourd, after creating his monster.

The durability of the entire ordeal is impressive. Proxy writes, "While searching the Toll House. [I] felt nostalgic about a younger version of myself exploring Skyrim for a first time. It's true--Larian's texture and environment work doesn't crumble under close inspection. It's not as high-res as a first-person game, but it still has a strong 2011 RPG feel. Proxy says, "God I miss the days when Bethesda actually cared." Oof, brutal.

It's not that everything works perfectly. When Proxy hits Moonrise Towers the roof turns into a "jumbled up pile of assets" and almost every machine that has a rope is a trick to increase the view distance. None of the ropes move. Immersion is a painful experience. It's also surprising how many facades don't crumble. The underdark is beautiful, and Act 1’s druid's grove gives off a real sense of scale. A fully-modelled ceiling in the cavern was put together to inform lighting for environment artists, and little else.

Swen Vincke, Larian's co-founder and director of games, praised the effort on X: "Now I want this--just take a look at it," wrote a man who has probably looked at the game more than anyone else. Your modding efforts deserve a gold star.

Proxy explains that the actual mod is made up of the basic mods you'd expect - a script extender, and a modloader - as well as others, like the WASD mod which I covered last year to give PC players a taste for console analogue sticks, or Gycicada’s "remove the camera move" which stops Proxy from getting motion sick when he fires arrows, which would normally prompt the camera zoom across the battlefield. Guilty7 gave him some size-changing lingerie so he could see above his head. There are also a slew of native camera tweaks. You can find all the instructions in the video description. Enjoy the semi-Skyrim-like life, because Bethesda isn't done with Elder Scrolls 6 yet.