Video game cameras are often a point of contention, mainly because a bad camera can completely disorient you, or even make you downright sick. These are interesting things to consider, but I wish there was more discussion about the specific choices that are made in terms of particular camera angles and positions, and how it might actually matter for certain games to be played the way they are designed. I’m going to throw all that out the window now and tell you about a real Baldur’s Gate 3 third-person camera mod.
This mod, found on Nexus Mods as most of them tend to be (ta, PC gamer), is created by modder Relysia and does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. “True third-person over-the-shoulder camera mod. Features a camera closely attached to your character, dynamic field of view while running, smooth crouching transitions, and full MCM setup,” the mod page explains. It should be noted, however, that “during gameplay actions, such as spell targeting, jumping, or inspecting, the camera temporarily returns to normal view and automatically returns to over-the-shoulder mode when completed.”
The result, which you can see in the video above, really looks completely natural! It’s not very strange, the camera follows several characters quite clearly; I would believe you if you told me the game looks like this! Whether it should look like this, well, see my comments above, but this is the anarchic world of modding, anything goes here. Conveniently, you can also change camera positioning, field of view, camera offset, whether you’re standing or crouching. There are more options here than most games, so cheers!
This might be one you’d like to pair with a slew of other relatively recently highlighted mods by good old Mark, like this one that adds an extra ending for Astarion, or this one that overhauls Wyll’s companion quest. There’s even this Path to Menzoberranzan custom campaign mod that will get a demo… someday.
