Having seen a lot of reviews from the angry or dissatisfied saying "THIS IS DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN!!!", I was expecting to be disappointed with even the early access version of BG3, despite falling into the camp of reviewers who (after a bit of struggle with the writing and the fields of environmental effects) enjoyed D:OS. There is perhaps a bit of the D:OS narrative approach here, and I don't just mean the fact that it seems to replicate the first act of D:OS (but with mind flayers!). However, they are clearly implementing 5th edition D&D, which I've spent a few hours playing in the last year or two including dice rolls, advantage/disadvantage, character classes and spells. Tutorial entries explain most of what's happening under the hood. I don't even think they do too badly with the characters so far. I think there's a tendency with these RPGs for most players to play the proverbial goody two-shoes (with an angry minority wanting to play as chaotic evil). In the current early access version, you have the D&D alignment system, but character motivation and behaviour has a bit more depth than simply "evil = cackling villain; good = paragon of virtue". I've got 14 hours on this so far, so maybe this changes. In any case, this is certainly "Larian does D&D", but I'm still looking forward to being able to play the full game.
This is a third-person adventure/horror game where you literally have to piss your way to victory. Yes, to keep your characters from committing suicide, you find yourself using every CGI toilet in view. To prevent this being simply ludicrous, no-one poops and only male characters urinate. Well that makes perfect sense! Wizz fetish aside, the story is entertaining, but console-style rhythmic button mashing takes the place of serious puzzle solving.
