I wrote this as a review on steam as not recommended. I figured I should post it here. Not sure where larian studios prefers to get its feed back from.
This game is meh... Not bad, but not great either.
Pros:
- The title!!! I mean it is a baldur's gate game. And 1 and 2 were great child hood memories.
- Pretty close to D&D rules. (Could be better. Some minor & major disappointments here and there. Like added rules that some spells can’t be cast in combat. Also, some divinity stuff in there for better or worse.)
- Combat. Max level in the early release is lvl 4. I am pretty sure some areas the combat is made for much higher. Like the 2 minitours will kill you. I had to use cheese strategies to kill them. Like sending a guy to die. Just to get a little dmg in. Then teleport to camp to rez the dead guy. Rinse and repeat. But most fights are more strategy based. And getting surprise attacks in is the name of the game.
- Feats. I love that they are there. Was really looking forward to them at lvl 4. Was a bit disappointed with the amount of them. And I am hoping more get added before the release. The lack of selection here made me just go with abilities points. But hey they are there.
Cons:
- The default controls are just bad. (Like walking around and rotating the camera is just really bad.)
- Space bar for everything. You can't use ESC to skip stuff but space bar works. You can't use enter to accept the current dialog option, but space bar works. They need to be different buttons for sure. Like really? So you want to enter turn base mode... You got it space bar. Want to end a turn... Guess what space bar. To bad it doesn't also end turn base mode. Shouldn't starting turn base and ending turn base be the same key? I am sure there are more things this one key does. That I am not remember off the top of my head. When in doubt what key it is... Try space bar in this game it will probable be right 90% of the time.
- Item management is horrible. Took forever to realize I could sell stuff by double clicking an item. Double clicking in inventory will use the item. But at a vendor it sells it. Like why double click? Single click does nothing. I wish there was a faster and better way to manage items for sure. Sending stuff to camp requires a right click and then a left click on a menu. Drag and drop is buggy and often doesn’t move the item. So it is much easier to right click it and send it off to a different party member. Than to just drag it to that empty square in the next bag. They could at least make it so if I click this party member, And I double click that other party member item. It would just move it. The system is cumbersome as hell. (But this is early access so that is subject to change. And I can't image it staying that way. And OMG it should. Almost anything would be better than it's current system.)
Also the sort function is also kind of hidden. A very small icon at the top of the screen. Off to the right center if you can't find it. Took me a while to find it anyways. - Combat. I know I listed this a pro. And some parts are great. Other things are bad. Elevation is king. Being lower down in a battle is quite literally and figuratively fighting an up-hill battle. Having an elevated location can make or break some fights. I killed the entire goblin camp without a challenge. Just by having a higher elevation. While being on the same elevation that same fight was impossible. While I think it can be fun. It was just too OP for what it is. If it doesn't get balanced better I would rather have it removed. Also NPCs need to learn how to jump. Or ledges will just get abused.
Other missing things such as cover from D&D rules would go a long way. Currently cover just messes up your casting/range. Oh, you shot that arrow into that railing your leaning against. Hmm guess you better stand on top of it instead?!?!
This is where divinity ideals win over D&D 5e. It is all about ground effects. And grease bottles and whatnot are better than spells. Hell they could have at lease used D&D ball barrings instead. Ground effects seem to always hit the target. And are unavoidable so you have to deal with them. By change them to something else for example.
Added spell rules such as X spell can't be cast in battle are also very disapointing. And are not D&D.
On a side note I am really hoping that your passive perception also increases the range at which you can see monsters from. (In the future at some point.) - The game allows you to save. Normally I love to save a game and go back to point X. But I found myself loading my saves over and over. Just to see what that passive check I failed on was. While rolling on that stuff is awesome. I found that I just kept trying that check over and over until I succeeded. Some things should just be that what’s you get. And I lack the self-discipline to self impose it. It should maybe at least cost you character something to go back in time. Current save system is not D&D at all.
- Dice rolls. While I love it. I dislike how 20 doesn’t mean you succeed and a 1 doesn’t mean you failed. Some difference from D&D rules for the worse. 20 is still a crit in combat, but that’s about it. I also wished you rolled death rolls like you do for disarming a trap. Instead it is treated more like a background passive roll.
- Scripted characters. I think they missed the mark on personalities. By more than a mile. First time I saw Minsc in the other baldur gate games... Instant love for that character. And I liked many others. First time I saw the 5 playable character in this game... Was like really? I have to put up with this? Maybe I can handle Gale, and Wyll. But didn't want Wyll because I picked a warlock to play as. Party comp and all. Can I have a guy in my party I don't have to force myself to like? Or maybe a gnome I actually liked saving?
Almost all the party members here seem to hate people in general. And the huge F'Off stamped on their forehead gets tiring very fast. Like really! I went to camp once and Lae'zel told me off by talking about her body?!?!. And that we are more like enemies. And I was like WTF? First off I was playing a female char. And second why even bring up sex? I guess I picked to many dialog options she didn't like. While talking to other NPCs!!! The companions in this game are just awful. I don't play the game to pretend to have sex with every female character. Like holy hell.
If I ever play again I will make 4 custom chars. And just kill all the in game companions. Maybe the game won't annoy me as much that way. - Story... Well the graphics and cinematics are great. And the voice acting is spot on. However; that doesn't save it at all. Over arcing story of act one sucks. (All you can currently play.) You are meant to find a healer... And spoiler
You don't need one?!?!?! But go find one in the next act anyways.
Conclusion:
Some small changes could make the game play go from ok to great. Sadly, there are a lot of small changes needed. Also maybe a rework on all the optional companions personalities would be nice. As I don't even want to hang out with those jerks. They are not likable at all. I know what changes I would make to the game. But I don’t know if the studio would see it the same way. Overall, I would say it is a mixed bag. Some things you suffer threw while other things you want more of. If you are not sure about this game. Don't get the early access. Wait until they fix the inventory system at least. Also I fail to see any reason why this is called baldurs gate. I see nothing where the story from the first two games interact with this one. All characters are new. And I don't even know if you will ever even make it to the city of baldurs gate. The game doesn't appear to have any relationship other than the title.
