A weak game that deviates as far from its predecessors in every way. By gaming standards, it's an okayish game, but not at all what one should have expected from a new entry in one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time. An absolute shame and a waste.
Theres two ways to look at this game.
1) A Great new Divinity Original Sin... Boom Boom Barrells everywhere!
or
2) A version of Baldurs gate which isn't Baldurs Gate complete with Dark Elf settlement right outside the city
I loved both Divinity Original Sin and BG 1 and 2 but I couldn't bring myself to buy BG3 becuase its not BG3 its DIV3 using a expensive license to print money, lore, systems all done for you just slap it on top of the old game you made before. I mean partsof it are identical, Minimum effort maximum money and it irked me until solution!
3) Rename its icon as Divinity Original Sin 3 and stick it in the 'Squad Turn Based' game folder witht he other two, wasteland 2 and 3, XCOM 1,2, and 3 Battle Brothers etc not in the RPG with BG, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon age etc..
Becuase that's what it is a turn based squad game, not crpg, and certainly not BG.
And as long as I call it that I'm not dissapointed anymore and can enjoy it.
I just wrote a 2000 word review breaking the game down into different categories, and my browser crashed, which cost my the whole thing.
To summarize, I've played every major fantasy RPG from Baldur's Gate onwards, and this is by far the best.
It is bug free, features liberating and satisfying combat, has gorgeous graphics, solid writing, varied and immersive voice acting, and decent ai. The character appearance creator is quite limited for faces and bodies, and they get recycled in the game, which is disappointing for such a high profile title in 2023. But that's my only criticism.
If you want more great games by independent studios that love their product, then buy this game, take your time with it, and enjoy!
At first I was like, ok... this is like divinity... then I was like... "those dice are really getting on my nerves" and then i coudn't stop playing for over 100 hours. One of the best games out there. The complexity of the stories is so great that the whole thing is a big mess near the end lol, but your own original mess, and I loive it. The combat is awesome, ocne you win an impossible battle, tired, without spells and with a few potions left, but still manage to be victorious, it makes you feel the win. Totally recommend. A hell of a good work done by the devs.
The game is impressive, truly epic in scale. You have so many ways of doing things, so many choices throughout the story, that you and your friends can have vastly different experiences. This alone makes it worth for every fun of cRPG games. Companions are fun to talk to and fun to have them in the party. They are very well written and marvelously acted (seriously, all actors are great). The world we explore is rich and interesting, enemies are plentiful and companion quests are excellent. All of that is so great, it makes up for all the issues that this game has, and there are plenty.
The main issue is the ending. Actually, most of the act 3 doesn't feel as good as 1 & 2. The ending though, it was clearly under cooked. I hope Larian makes an enhanced version with focus on expanding the ending (and adding one clearly missing resolution, which I will not spoil!). This game deserves to get that.
Other big issue I had is the D&D system, stupendously over complicated, gameplay limiting D&D system. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the system from Divinity Original Sin. And to think I complained about D:OS system being limiting. I clearly didn't know what a limiting system was, which is of course this D&D thing, that I really disliked from the beginning to the end. I will probably never play any other game based on D&D (excluding possible expansions and continuations of this one :)).
The music could be more pronounce. There are only maybe 2 moments where the music made me feel something. Most of the time it's just there. Not that it's bad but it's also nothing special. To me at least, music in games can massively add to the experience (Witcher 3 is still the king).
Finally some annoyances: equipment management is very clunky (especially in camps), party should stop when perception checks happen instead of walking into literal mine fields, act 3 could use some optimization.
Despite all that I thinks it's a must play for all who like the genre.