As someone who played BG1+2, Arcanum (my favourite) and Icewind Dale 1 way back in the day... The positives of BG3 are: 1) Very impressive game to look at, the motion capture and voice acting are fantastic (although sometimes it can be a little robotic with jarring pauses between animations and voice lines playing) and lift the game into a cinematic experience. The attacks and spells feel great to use and are great to watch. 2) The party NPCs are all very good in their own way and feel mostly like they have some depth and a purpose. 3) The introduction of gameplay mechanics like jump and the way throw is implemented is something that i'd hope will become standard now in other games as it makes interaction with the environment really interesting. 4) You can RP quite well with a lot of choice in character creation and during the game (even if its just an illusion most of the time) Neutral: 1) This game is Divinity 3, not BG3, im not sure if that's good or bad for me. 2) The music for me is just good not great. It's no Icewind Dale soundtrack. I love musicals and I did enjoy the famous song in the boss fight but it wasn't amazing. The negatives are: 1) It is a very Larian experience, by which I mean that the quality of the story and content decreases as the game progresses with Act 1 being really quite outstanding (which you would hope for after so many years of beta testing) and by Act 3 its very average with a lot of obvious cut content and content which was clearly intended for more acts all mushed together. 2) The story itself is... not great. It's a theme park extravaganza experience. If you want something that could feel realistic then you will be disappointed. 3) The 5e ruleset is for me not as good as 3.5 and is a little too basic and its interpretation into the game makes this game very very easy. If you are familiar with CRPGs I would recommend the hardest mode. Overall I enjoyed it a lot and will do another couple of playthroughs. 3.5/5
