This game is certainly not for everyone. The learning curve is steep. If you intend to just romp through a RPG for the story, you may not make it out of the first chapter, even on the default mode. That said, I found BG3 incredibly generic, this is more for me. It's more of a tactical game than it is an RPG. Sure, there is plenty of story, and you certainly get a chance to save the world, but it's not going to be easy is it? Gameplay is, essentially unlimited. Character creation is simply wide open. Imagine D&D with unlimited multi-classing and that's a good start. Want to ride a dinosaur into battle? OK. While casting spells? Sure. Maybe you want your paladin to fight hand-to-hand? Why not? It most certain that not that all, or even most of these choices are good, but they are possible. The game takes you through 20 (normal) levels, along with a mandatory mythic (think a kind of prestige class) which see's you become one of several archtypes. Angel, Devil, Lich, Dragon etc. etc. There is even an option to forgo that and simply progress 40 levels. Is it complicated? Oh yeah, but that's a good thing. The story definitely changes depending on what you choose. You'll be lucky if your first playthrough lasts only 150 hours, all the while thinking, "I wonder what would happen if I had...." So replayability is off the charts. Highly recommended if you like very complicated games that are quite challenging.
Imagine logging in to your secret underwater base, boarding your submarine and taking it to the surface. You can get on a surface craft and take it to the shore. Then board a roamer to take you to a landing pad where you enter your starship. Take that for a spin around the planet then into space where you enter the hangar to your capital ship. All seamlessly. No menus or cutscenes. 18 quintillion planets in 256 galaxies and you just left one of them. Yes, it got a bad rep at launch, but the price of the game includes 27 updates that most companies would charge for as a DLC and Hello Games has never asked for an additional dime. The only real con I see from some players is that they get a bit lost as to what to do. There is about 40 hours of scripted content and a surprisingly intricate storyline, but at heart it's about exploration. I'd say it was an open world game, but, yeah, it's an open universe game. So if you require a game to pretty much tell you what to do or give you a specific objective all the time, it may not be for you.
