2020 is a dark time for many of us, and thus the news of a Baldur's Gate sequel on the horizon was a desperate glimmer of hope. Having gone hands-on with it, it remains, unfortunately, only a glimmer. The potential is there. The cast of characters plastered on that banner hint at something intriguing and evocative of the original spirit of Baldur's Gate. The aesthetics are 110% on point, down to the cursor being a gauntlet, the spell icons, all of it. The art department did their homework. As did the lore people. It's a phenomenally beautiful game solidly grounded in the mythos not only of Faerun but of the Baldur's Gate franchise in particular. All of that can't plaster over the gameplay. Leaving aside the inevitable bugs and hiccups of an EA title, the fact is this is another DOS game. I haven't played DOS. I'm fine with turn-based games on a tabletop. I'm less fine with it here, or at least being forced into the mode where BG1 and 2 gave me the liberty to choose. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 succeeded because they opted to simulate the feeling of a tabletop experience, rather than the mechanics. Larian with BG3 seems to be tilting towards simulating the obtuse mechanics at the expense of everything else. Doubtless this will appeal to the same kind of grognards that flog the virtues of a command-line interface while ignoring its failings, those that confuse proficiency with a bad, inefficient, or just plain unpleasant system with high intelligence, rather than limited vision. I may come around to it, eventually. I initially hated BG2 because of Chateau Irenicus. I tried Morrowind when it came out, disliked it, played through Oblivion and Skyrim, before coming back to Morrowind and falling more deeply in love with it than either of the former. But I think as long as turn-based combat remains mandatory rather than another option, that will be a sticking point for a good long time.
