Story and characters: I actually loved the majority of the story and character work. 90% of the main plot is fantastic, has great setpieces, bombastic soundtracks, meaningful deaths and more choice and consequence than there initially seemed to be. The side characters are much richer than I thought; for example, I initially ignored one character's quests thinking they were some obligatory shallow racing thing. I had no idea that they built on her character and provided a moral choice at the end. The game stops to provide quiet character moments that take the game beyond flash and style. The female romances are deep, involved and could rival the best Bioware characters. Negatives; the male romance options have so much less development than the females it's honestly shocking, given that we were told to expect equality of content pre-release. It's about a quarter of the content the girls get, neither are in the main quest and the m/m option is met literally right before the final quest and only if you make certain story decisions. Why even bother? Both males feel like an afterthought. I also wish there more RP opportunities to have agency over who my V is/what motivates him in dialogue. Both these issues need work for future content. Other thoughts will be shorter because the story and characters are mainly what I care about but; gameplay was still fun for me after 100 hours, which, for me, is the only metric of whether it's good or not. I did have to police myself with quickhacking, though, and felt REALLY overpowered with a crit headshot build REALLY quickly. It's quickly trivial, but remains fun. The feel of the car became fun as I got a feel for it. Character animations are meticulous and most importantly, are used in unique ways to build character for the NPCs. The soundtrack gave me chills. Voice acting was top-notch (except for Grimes's cameo). Playing on PC I didn't have a single crash and only encountered minor bugs which were usually fixed by a reload.
So I'm about ten hours in and I'm pleasantly surprised. A LARGE portion of the original voice cast are back in enriched roles that, for the most part, are true to character or expand on a one dimensional concept from Baldurs Gate 1 (which, as someone who only played it a few years ago, I don't have quite the rose tinted glasses on about the characters that other decades long fans might). The world has gotten an ambience upgrade thanks to advanced technology, with bigger fights and large populations. The story is quite urgent and linear, but it feels like it should be. The main antagonist is nuanced and convincing. Generally, I feel like it flows naturally as part of the Baldurs Gate games and is a nice bridge. I can't speak too much to combat as I play in story mode, but it's essentially the same as the old games but with some extra bits thrown in (see again the bigger fights, more enemies on screen) and some new abilities to play with. Anyone who enjoyed the originals should enjoy this. It would be remiss of me not to mention the current drama, so let me be clear. There is a minor side character who, after TWO OPTIONAL dialogue prompts by the player, will tell you she is trans. The backlash is, as usual, about 'gamergate' types taking umbrage at that and (at this point) realising that the general populace don't support that and so shifting their criticisms to 'bad writing' (again, it's one optional line of dialogue). But don't take my word for it. Don't take their word for it. If you consider yourself a reasonable and autonomously thinking individual, gauge whether you can handle such an assault of 'SJW' values and just try the game yourself. If you're a fan of old school isometric RPG's and Baldurs Gate in particular, chances are you'll get some enjoyment out of this, or an integral new part of an old series at best. As it stands, I'm having a great time with it.
