So, I wanted to come here after the gameplay reveal of Baldur's Gate 3, and provide an in-depth feedback.
First of all, what I've seen looks like a solid foundation for a new RPG from Larian, a worthy follow-up to the great Divinity: Original Sin 1-2. I think that's not really debatable, what Larian has accomplished here is stunning, it should impress anybody who loves a good CRPG.
Now, as a fan of the first two, I didn't feel that this new game captures the core of Baldur's Gate (yet?), but instead of being all contrarian, I just wanted to identify those pillars of what makes the Baldur's Gate experience for me, and what are the elements that I didn't get to see in this new game.
Again, the game looks astonishing as a new RPG, but here's what I'm missing as of now:
1. Home
Swen mentioned that the tutorial isn't ready and that this is a pre-alpha footage, so this might change, but here's my thoughts. Both Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 started with you being among friends. Baldur's Gate explores your own home, which has a history of its own and your own, Baldur's Gate 2 starts with you being among previous companions and exploring the home of the villain. I feel this is an important part of what made BG1-2 the way they were. You were among people at the beginning of the game, people that not you but your character knew... I feel like a character like Imoen is crucial to a personal story, a foil, somebody with the ability to anchor a new player into the world... I don't know, being immediately thrusted into an apocalyptic scenario isn't the kind of vibe I was thinking, but this might be just me.
2. People and communities
This brings me to my next point. Again, this is pre-alpha... but I was kind of hoping to see inhabited, peaceful places first, or at least a glimpse of such. When I think about Baldur's Gate, I'm not thinking about combat, nor a supernatural threat (which is a looming backdrop thing), but the everyday struggles of ordinary citizen, corruption, how stuff like the iron shortage or the Shadow Thieves affect folks on a basic, human level... this is probably going to be expanded in the later game, but I kind of wanted to see something like this.
3. UI
It's clear that it is just a WIP version, but it just doesn't have any personality right now. Feels very tactical/MMO-esque, but the worst part is that it just doesn't have a nice hand-crafted feel like in BG1-2, and I feel like the UI is a huge part of the identity for these games. The little animated clockwork, the wooden/stone look... I don't know, something to be aware of.
4. The turn-based pacing
So, okay, I'll accept that we're getting turn-based combat. Makes more sense than RtwP anyway. But when I think about Baldur's Gate, I'm generally not thinking about staring at a combat situation for twenty minutes. Everybody seems to suggest that the original Baldur's Gate is slow-paced, but combat played out very fast and you got to expore new places at a pretty rapid pace. While you're micro-managing a turn-based fight in BG3, you have the time to peek around Beregost in the original, see its surroundings, flee from unnecessary combat, check out a small cave, etc. I fear that turn-based combat streamlines the game into a linear progression (mandatory combat serving as gates you absolutely have to plow through), and I know that fewer but more memorable combat situations are preferable to disposable small encounters (it made sense for D:OS), but it is kind of what I loved in the originals. "Adventuring a bit", so to speak.
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These are my main concerns for now, but overall, it looks like a very high quality game. I'm not sure how I feel about dialogue, writing, music, all of it feels very WIP-y, but that's maybe to be expected. It's looking good, even if it's looking more like a follow up to D:OS than Baldur's Gate.
