You have to realize that many of the legitimate complaints here come from the difficulty settings. The kingdom management is tedious, traveling through the overworld map with unbalanced encounters is awful, getting clapped by encounters much higher CR than you, encumbrance rules if antifun, etc. I guarantee there is a setting to fix your ailments. Despite that my main issue is that this game still plays terribly as a turn-based fight. Expect it to double your playtime ingame. Playing the real-time variant definitely feels more smooth but its not for me. I find that people who enjoy this game are munchkins who can min-max and know where the best equipment and optimal skills/spells for each encounter. No comment on daze here. With their OP character and a higher difficulty they are able to make meaningful combat decisions instead of reloading after a failed crit. Honestly stay away unless my review has actually interested you.
Veteran players of the Baldurs Gate franchise are some of the least demanding people for cutting edge graphics; opting for story and gameplay in a time when 3D gaming was becoming more popular. Now onto the main issue with the game itself. It does not feel like a spiritual successor in anyway to Baldurs Gate. With only some small dialogue tweaks the game itself could take place in an alternate universe. Now normally this would not be an issue but the combat itself is not my cup of tea. Combat is very focused on "floor" effects and taking advantage of elemental pools by dipping your weapon inside. Jumping in this game is a way to avoid attacks-of-oppurtunity from leaving melee range and it looks downright silly to jump half a screen. (Also as an aside for jumping. Since jump distance is based on youre maximum movement per turn which is based on race along with a strength modifier... it is entirely possible to create a character that cannot advance in the tutorial area because of a mandatory jump) This lends itself to a very wide sprawling battlefields where your jumping and littering the battefield with a glitter fiesta of elements. Now for the UI. Its pretty bad. Details are lacking in for almost every action from a spells duration to DC for modifiers to movement. I dont understand why the actions (sneaking, jumping, dipping, etc.) share an similar size with the hotbar for a characters' actual skills. The actual dice rolls for making a difficulty check are a wink to its D&D roots but it feels hollow. And thats what the game feels like. Hollow. Guess ill stop playing.
