Bearded females and females with male voices? What next Larian, do your friends at WotC feel comfortable when you still use races in your games? My rating is a joke just like your decision to ditch DOS3 proper for this
Bear in mind it is currently Early Access and £50 for an Early Access game is a little steep. I bought it because I trust Larian as developers to make a game that's worth the price because Divinity: Origin Sin 1 + 2 are fantastic games.
And so far after 5 hours of playing it is shaping up to be a really good game, with DnD 5e rules in place it does a really good job of trying to bring the tabletop experience, which we've come to love about Divinity: Original Sin. It is more involved with things like rolls than their other games and as expected with this studio it leaves you open with several paths and options to resolve a problem.
Versus other Baldur's Gate games, I expect it's not true to their experience, I'll admit I came here as a fan of Divinity and loving the idea of a true DnD game built off the engine rather than as a fan of the Baldur's Gate series. The only Baldur's Gate I've played prior to this is Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.
The game looks gorgeous, has a decent soundtrack and player customisation is about on par with Divinity: Original Sin but obviously complying to DnD, whilst remaining simple. This is game is what you'd expect if Larian Studios developed a DnD game, which is what I was hoping for.
I mentioned at the top of the review to be mindful of it being Early Access, this is where the downsides are. It may be worth waiting for full release (especially if you're wanting to playing one of the classes not available until release) but there are some bugs, in terms of bugs they've not killed the experience and they are expected in an Early Access game.
However, one problem I've had is a memory leak, I've made tweaks based on recommendations to make the game playable and is something I expect will get patched out. But not everybody will get a memory leak, and at least it's not Mass Effect 1, which gave me a massive memory leak on full release, which never got fixed. And I expect unlike ARK's issues, this will be fixed during Early Access.
This is an excellent game, considering it is in early access. It appears a lot of the gripes with the games appears to be rather obscure things, such as bugs, limited content (such as certain classes being limited, and reworked during EA), and the usual "This incomplete Early Access game doesnt have the same feel as a game from 22 years ago.
The combat is fun and tricky, with a rather large amount of creative ways to deal with enemies. It does has some issues regarding Clerics and Spellcasters currently, however these are confirmed to be reworked.
The Companions are very interesting and honestly, a refreshing change from many of the companions traditional RPGS have.
The settings is excellent, introducing many races with a creative story which compells you to keep moving, yet wish to explore every crack!
Also, you can worship Bhaal, y'know, 'nuff said
This is quite honestly, the best RPG since Skyrim came out the first time. This is hands down the first time I've been stuck to a RPG for so long, and intensly since the aformentioned game. I would consider this game a true masterpiece. Excellent story, Magnificent graphics, Superb Sound & Music. Whatever bugs I have envountered have been few and far between. And even then very minor ones. Do I have critique? Yes, but again minor ones. Some choices in the story aren't ones I would make as an D&D player, but that's more down to taste than anything. I truly appreciate how open the game is, and that brings me to the next point. Had this game been made to play like Skyrim, it would have been the game of the century. But it's still right up there. The story is captivating, the characters well developed and the vocal scripts and voice actor performances deserve every praise. It is truly great work there. You owe it to yourself to play this game. A good, complete game.. like in the good old days.