The game adapts D&D rules but carries over some features from DOS2 - perhaps in an attempt to appeal to two fan bases. The colour coding of items, for instance, is out of DOS. I don't really mind, but some things bother me. Basically in the original D&D Intelligence of 9 meant you had 90 IQ. Now it's very tempting to min/max to create the most effective characters. But the results aren't necessarily believable. I may raise this as a separate thread also.

It's good to have companions with deep back stories but original main characters need more depth at creation also. Maybe extra background choices? We haven't seen Baldur's Gate in the gameplay yet ; but I don't accept that the game has to carry on the Bhaalspawn narrative to be a successor to the original Baldur's Gate games. Finally I wonder where the final level cap will be. At one point the Devs were saying level 10 but this got a bad reaction. I'd like to go to at least level 5 in Act I.

The question then is what's for a sequel? Maybe an entirely new D&D story/setting? Or maybe work out a way to go beyond level 20 - as in BG 2: Throne of Bhaal.

So far I'm quite happy with the progress - except the need for a higher level cap, maybe more magic items.