For me, personally... it frankly starts with the intro/main menu. The logo is right, the music and background aren't. Neither does the music riff on the classic Raldur's Gate theme (which BG2 did), the moving, 3d background: 100% Divinity OS.
After the game starts, we are frontloaded into a high octane, Planescape'esque action scene. Too much! Beginning a new D&D adventure should have a level appropriate feel. Yea, sure, the whole plane-chase aboard a Nautiloid, hunted by Githyanki raiders on red dragons is ultra cool, but, why not at least flash back to a "a few days earlier" prologue right after, where you can familiarize yourself with your character and the actual world for Toril for 2 or 3 levels, before you are pushed into crazy, Illithid mind bug, eternal Blood War, crazy territory? Remember BG1? You started of going through a more or less lazy day in Candle Keep... with assassins hounding you... before sh*t hit the fan.
Next, it's the whole look an feel of the UI. No right click interaction with character portraits, the inability to select your characters properly, that still very ropy chaining system. Inventory management is also very unintuitive. Equipping weapons and gear is... interesting. Spells scrolls are far too abundant and can be used by every character. 1000 interactive objects in the world, all are full of trash or outright empty. All of that worked so much better even 20 years ago in BG1.
Which leads me into: The rules: Yea, no. The basics are there. We have dice rolls, (very basic) character sheets, a few races, classes, spells and special abilities... but as soon as that's translated into actual gameplay, it's pure bouncy, wacky fun. Everything burns, explodes, falls over, jumps,... just like in Divinity! There is some nice stuff, like that multi faceted dialogues, branching here and there according to who speeks - if they can restrain the writing to stuff that characters in Faerun would actually say. But % chances to hit? Visible perception rolls? Hiding in more or less, plain sight? Bonus actions for everyone? Jeezas!
...and lastly: The world, the story and the characters. Wow, what a mess. I mean, sure, some of it has to be put down to game's status as EA, but also - sadly - to writing. First and foremost: The whole Ilithid tadpole gimmick is shaky from minute one, because... how to put that: Aside the fact that it highly convoluted and probably could be solved in a few, quick and easy ways by a competent group and DM, if it came along in a proper campaign, it completely roots the story in something outside of the world you are supposed to play in. Ilithids are creatures of the planes and Underdark, not Fearun proper. You are a first level adventurer. You shouldn't deal with stuff like that until level 10 plus. Heck, your companions (aside maybe La'zel) and you shouldn't even know about stuff like that without extensive research into obscure lore. It's like if in BG1, you not only immediately got the info that you are a Baal spawn, but also got a party of other god choosen and spawns together, jumped through portal to the plane of fire, and dealt with a conflict between a group of thieflings and Azers... that's D&D "campaign whiplash". So, right after you took that gut punch, and met a possy of the most convoluted adventuring buddies ever, you are reproached by a f-ing demi-fiend/cambion/whatever who immediately offers you an infernal deal! No adventuring down the Sword Coast for a few days/months, solving problems for local hamlets, making a name for yourself, learning to know your companions... instead you have tee with motherf-ing Volo, 5 hours in... and no, that's not the same as meeting Elmister on you way to the Friendly Arm.That one was a nice nod, the other is a lore sledgehammer to the face. See where I'm going with that?
Bottom line: You know who does stories like we got in BG3 right now? Larian, in their Divinity games...
