Just adding my voice that I too think this game feels too much like Divinity, too little like Baldur's Gate.

I will say - and perhaps this is the result of 21 years of starting pnp campaigns that rarely get far - that I actually enjoy getting a balls-to-the-wall opening, without the usual slow start to adventure. But it goes too far and prompts the question - how the heck is Astarion a level 1 character anyway?