Dark Urge

The Dark Urge
The default appearance of the Dark Urge in Baldur's Gate 3
First game	Baldur's Gate 3 (2023)
Created by	Swen Vinke
Designed by	Baudelaire Welch
Voiced by	Neil Roberts Amelia Tyler (narration)
In-universe information
Race	White Dragonborn
Class	Sorcerer

The Dark Urge is a character from the 2023 video game Baldur's Gate 3, a role-playing video game by Larian Studios set in the Forgotten Realms universe of Dungeons & Dragons. Designated as an "Origin" character, the player can select to play through the game from their perspective. Unlike other Origin characters, the Dark Urge's appearance, voice, gender, and class can be customized if the player chooses, and by default they are a male White Dragonborn Sorcerer, voiced by Neil Roberts.

Conception and design

The Dark Urge was a character concept lead developer Swen Vinke had wanted to put in a game for some time, and was planned at the start of Baldur's Gate 3's development. Added to give players a choice, allowing them to be completely evil if they so chose, though with the caveat that by the end of the game they would be alone. The addition was in part inspired by interactions with another character in the game, who players would need to commit heinous acts to gain the trust of, and if they rescued her later would question why they committed the act in the first place. Vinke acknowledged while very few players played evil characters, he felt the addition was worth it for those that chose to. Originally, the was intended to be a Paladin, however they found this made things difficult from a narrative standpoint. As a result they allowed players to customize the character and make the choice of class themselves, and not make it the default option as it made roleplaying as the character difficult.

Throughout the game's early access period, the character's addition was kept secret, with Swen only hinting there was a big secret he had in regards to the game during the initial announcement. Lead writer Adam Smith noted when the character was first revealed, he worked hard to encourage that the character was not intended as "the evil run" for the game. He further argued that the character had the potential to be the most heroic character in the game, through resisting their urges and instead being shrewd, adding "those very urges may be what allows you to seal the deal on a good ending."

Writing and voice

The character was written by Baudelaire Welch. The character was written as a "dark counterpoint" to the main storyline, and intended to ask the question why players were compelled to do evil acts in a video game. They wanted players to enjoy playing as "the bad guy", but also have room to play as a hero if they chose. Though the character is customizable, Welch chose Neil Roberts to provide their default voice. Roberts, whose voice lines were intended to fit Rogue class characters, also provided the opening narration for the Dark Urge. He enjoyed the positive reaction it had received, and acknowledged fans comparison of the monologue to Shakespeare, stating that he wanted to maintain that character dilemma, and portray the Dark Urge as someone not knowing where they were from but with an overwhelming feel of something they had to fight. He added "it’s confusion, and almost like a child not quite knowing what to do. And so we veered into that.”

The game's narrator, voiced by Amelia Tyler, was used to give a voice to the character's bloodlust as well. Tyler considered what the character represented, and portrayed it as "feral, visceral, animalistic, want to tear the world apart with your teeth". She utilized her background in animal studies to characterize its behavior, wanting to portray the character's internal urge to kill akin to an animal pacing in its cage yearning to be let out, a primal need "to kill and not even really knowing why". She didn't want it to feel like someone else's voice, however, but instead a part of the player's character they may not like. She additionally stated that "You so rarely get a character that you can just sink your teeth into like that", and that one of her favorite lines she provided to the game, a dark chuckle after committing a brutal murder, was her favorite line for the character.

Appearances

The character was first introduced in a community-based browser game, Blood in Baldur's Gate. In it, players were tasked with solving murders within the city of Baldur's Gate. The killer is revealed to be the Dark Urge, who kills the players' character at the end of the game.

Critical reception

Polygon's Cass Marshall compared playing as the Dark Urge to the Independent New Vegas option of Fallout: New Vegas or playing as a Malkavian in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, due to the freedom it gave the player and helped enrich the story from a different point of view. While they acknowledged that playing a villain or anti-hero in the game was viable without needing to play as the Dark Urge, "the constant battle against intrusive thoughts", and the ramifications of them if not prepared, added some depth. They further found it "delightful taking the time to peel back the layers and explore Baldur's Gate 3's branching paths", and enjoyed how the community had taken to portray the character as "an adorable scamp" as they dealt with their internal struggle. Madeline Carpou of The Mary Sue meanwhile shared Marshall's Malkavian comparison, illustrating how significantly the game and player perspective of it changed due to the mental issues presented to the player, and presented aspects of a player's character to them that they may not completely comprehend.

Cat Bussell in an article for TechRadar praised how the Dark Urge affected the concept of the game as a whole, undermining the sense of control and player agency usually provided. In particular she cited the bard's death as an example, and how in the aftermath the player is forced to try and reason how to deal with not only the body, but their companion's discovery of the murder. She added that no matter what response the player chose, "it’s an upsetting experience, on par with what you might expect from some of the best horror games", and helped establish a sense of dread in the player as to whether they will lose control again. Bussell gave additional praise to how ever presented the presence of the urges were throughout the game, either through dialogue options "that veer from the darkly amusing to the genuinely upsetting", or the presence of Sceleritas Fel. She closed with stating that "knowing that you are only a bad dice roll away from turning into a blood-hungry serial killer offers a distinctive kind of horror", appropriate in particular for the Halloween season.

Jasmine Gould-Wilson of GamesRadar+ praised the depth that was added to the game's story when playing as the character. She argued that the character's intrinsic links to the game's plot helped the player feel more like the protagonist of the game, and the most "canon": "You're not just another everyman hero with a worm in their brain, but a true stakeholder in the outcome of a long, perilous journey." She additionally described being able to play as a homicidal maniac "who still has a merry band of best buds" made for a unique roleplaying experience. She compared the role of Withers to a chorus member of a Greek tragedy, and alongside the expanded dialogue and involvement with the game's villains provided "an inexplicable weight" to the character's decisions.