I've been meaning to give some solid feedback for a while, but never had time to sit down and write it up. A lot of my complaints have either been addressed in patches or I know they will be updated later. So I'm gonna try to stick to the big stuff.
The good:
- Holy crap is this game in depth. A friend and I were exploring the other day and we discovered a secret room behind a bookcase in a basement of a building that you would otherwise typically ignore. This led us to an encounter against a bunch of undead, which lead to a magic mirror that tried to burn the world to the ground unless we answer it's riddles, this lead to a workshop of a necromancer that lead us into a cave system with a crazy boss fight against warping spider monsters, that even then led to a pit that took us to a mushroom filled wonderland and 2 minotaurs waiting for anyone who survived the fall. All because we moved a rug in an old collapsed herb shop. Like. . . WHAT?!?
- Astarion: I thought from the trailers and promos that I was gonna hate this guy. Everything he says and does is like silky freaking smooth! Holy crap, I love this guy.
- Combat is HARD! It's super strategic and not unlikely that you'll just get your ass beat for no reason. I ADORE that.
- Lighting: Give a huge shoutout to the lighting team in this game. They are freaking heroes. There are some scenes, especially in the opening sequence, where you could sear a steak on some of the hot whites and it is just *Chef's Kiss*
The Bad:
- Lae'zel and Shadowheart: I know we are supposed to spend a lengthy journey getting to know these people. But it makes it very hard to want to stick it out two people who barely want you alive. Especially when your other options are the funny guy, the optimist, and the smoothest mug of hot chocolate that was ever cooked.
- Character Customizer: Don't get me wrong, this Character Creator is spectacular. However there are a few things that honestly bother me. There are too few character faces for non humans and particular male characters. This will likely be adjusted with the full launch but it really bottlenecks the creative process. Also, (and this is dumb and petty on my part) the character name is an option at the beginning of the creator, and not a popup at the end. This has lead to many a save file with the default name TAV.
- Multiplayer QOL: There is a lot of stuff in the multiplayer section of the game that needs to be optimized. The ability to choose a character to join a multiplayer session with, the lobby system in general, and most importantly dialog.
Suggestions:
- Player character voice: I could write an entire essay here about the irrelevancy of a silent protagonist in modern gaming. But I won't. And there is a particular reason I bring this up here. Yes, I get the desire to want your players to self insert, and that is fine and dandy. But there is a large accessibility issue created by the exact perfect storm of situations that is this game's multiplayer gameplay loop. If Player 1 initiates a dialog with an NPC, there is no indicator to Player 2 unless they are standing right next to Player 1. Additionally, Player 1 is the only one allowed to select dialog options. But because they are not voiced dialog, the game moves on assuming the player read before clicking. So if player 1 is a faster reader, or already knows the option so click quickly, Player 2 has no context for the rest of the interaction. To combat that, the designers should look to the gold standard for multiplayer dialog options, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Players are chosen by dice roll to determine who gets to respond, allowing more agency for the entire party. But more importantly, the voiced dialog, allows all players time to absorb the decisions of the other players before continuing in the dialog.
Criticals: I know that the player handbook for 5e says that critical rolls only matter in combat. But that is boring. And even then, underimplemented in the current combat system. Critical rolls should be more impactful. At my table when my player rolls a critical roll, it results in the absolute best or worst outcome of the requested action. If they swing a weapon and roll a 1, maybe they drop their weapon, a 20, maybe their attack knocks the enemy prone or severs a limb. On ability checks, a 1 might break their lock pick whereas the 20 opens the lock with relative ease. Have fun with your criticals that's why they are called criticals.
Ice Spells: 5e has too few and BG has none!
