Played several hours. First off, from technical point of view, at the time of this review the game was very functional. Sure, a few camera problems here and there (like zooming going haywire and stucking inside mountain void) but everything like this can be fixed. Graphics look good, cinematics mostly great (Dragon Age/Mass Effect vibes there) with a very few glitches. No crashes (for me), skills, movement, everything works. Very polished for a in development version. However, what really let me down was that it really does not feel like a Baldur's Gate game. At all. More like version 3 of Divinity (there are Origins stories, animations, special effects are like those in DoS series..). This is as different to Baldur's Gate as Neverwinter Nights was. Which is a shame; as a NWN sequel this would probably have worked out great! But as a BG sequel not so much. Sure, the isometric, hand painted scenery was completely different but it had the BG feel and artistic style that BG3 just cannot replicate, or even come close to. Some will argue that this is a completely new Baldur's Gate game. Sure! But why call it Baldur's Gate then? Why not just make it a D&D game based in Faerun? Era could be same, or it could be different, there could be references to BG sure (news, gossips), shouldn't even be a licensing issue. But like this, I feel the name is just misleading. So long story short: - If you loved BG and hoped this would be similar sequel with similar artistic style and feel, you will most likely be disappointed. - If you liked Neverwinter Nights and BG was either ok or you never played, you will probably like this game. - If you liked D:OS series and have no significant opinion of BG, you will probably like this game. - If you loved NWN and and hoped BG would have been more like it, you will probably love this game. I fully admit that I am nostalgic, but as a BG fan, I unfortunately belong to the first group.
