Baldur’s Gate 3’s full nudity is giving unsuspecting players a bit of a shock, particularly at the character creation screen.
Right at the start of Larian’s sprawling role-playing game, a warning pops up asking you if you want to turn nudity off. But even with nudity left on, there’s scope for a surprise eyeful. Baldur’s Gate 3 has deep character customisation options that even include different types of genitals. And it’s the character creation screen, which includes a button you can click to “hide clothes”, that’s causing a few yelps from players.
You might have expected “hide clothes” to show your character wearing underwear only, as it does in most games. But in Baldur’s Gate 3, hiding your clothes hides all your clothes, including underwear. So, yes, you can see your character completely nude.
Even high-profile streamers are getting caught out. First-person shooter specialist Shroud took to Twitch yesterday, like so many others, to give Baldur’s Gate 3 a whirl, and couldn’t resist a cheeky click on the hide clothes button. MissMikkaa, famous for beating Elden Ring with a dance pad, was surprised to find “hide clothes” actually hides all her character’s clothes. “I don’t know guys…” said a shocked AnnieFuchsia after letting out a scream. Etalyx got a fright, too. Streamer sodapoppin was amazed by the sheer number of different penis options included in Baldur’s Gate 3.
The Twitch streamers immediately click to hide their clothes, perhaps in fear of falling foul of nudity guidelines. But Twitch’s rules on video game nudity leave plenty of wiggle room to show off a character’s bits as long as they're not the “core focus”, and you “only spend as much time as is required to progress”. Character creation seems fair game, then, but perhaps don’t linger too long if you’re streaming? Oh, and make sure you flag your stream as intended for mature audiences.
Of course, no-one should be surprised Baldur's Gate 3 is a little on the horny side. Larian teased Baldur’s Gate 3’s now infamous bear sex scene ahead of the game’s launch (a genius marketing beat that helped propel the game up the Steam sales chart), and this week senior writer John Corcoran said there’s much more where that came from. "Spent the past week or so doing final tests on some companion romance arcs, and… damn, I’m still surprised at just how horny this game is. Bear’s got nothin’ on what’s still to come," Corcoran said.
IGN’s Baldur’s Gate 3 review in-progress is full of praise: "I’ve been waiting 14 years for another alignment of the planets like Dragon Age: Origins, when an old-school CRPG got a big enough budget to look like a high quality animated movie – but the design hadn't been completely steered in the wrong direction in a misguided attempt to reach a different market like the later two Dragon Ages," reviewer Leana Hafer wrote. "This is the closest anyone has ever come to recapturing that magic."
Baldur's Gate 3 is now available on PC, with a console release set for a later date. For more info, check out how our guide to building a character in Baldur's Gate 3 as well as our guide to Baldur's Gate 3's races and subraces.
Image credit: Twitch / AnnieFuchsia
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
