Even at this early stage, it's clear that this will be a well made, fun RPG when it's finished. However, I still feel like it should have been titled something else, as even though it contains references to the previous BG games, it doesn't have the same style or "feel" as those games. They should go with something like Baldur's Gate: , as the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance did. That'd alleviate 90% of the complaints from fans of the previous games I think. As a long time fan of both the Infinity Engine games and the Divinity games, I feel this game is a fun blend of both, but the merger does have flaws. Most notably, too many deviations from D&D 5th edition (often for no good reason). But this is Early Access, so some of these may be changes just to see what people do with them, and hopefully the feedback they are getting will fix many of these issues. On the subject of turn based combat, I think it works fine and I have no issue with its inclusion in the game. It's how tabletop works, and so I think it's a good thing it has been translated well into the game. A major point of contention currently is the "surfaces" and how prevalent they are, and changes made to spells and abilities to work with the system. I like the surfaces and some of the associated mechanics, but I think Larian could have merged them with D&D better. For example, Firebolt should be single target with it's standard stats by default. But I'm fine with it igniting a "Grease" surface if I directly target that surface instead of targetting an enemy and so on. So to sum up: the game has potential, it's already engaging and I will revisit this review as the EA progresses.
