I initially didn't want to write about the turned-based system since it was an assumed decision.
I tried it, must admin that going through traps is really useful in turned-based mode.
Some on-the-edge battles are really efficient in turned-based, so I wouldn't through it away now.
But when you're fighting ten mephits it becomes absurd!
- Every creature has its right to its turn, that's fair, but I don't need to watch them thinking and "roaring" and spending their turn in 10 seconds, at least not 10 times until the full turn ends!
- Every turn, I can try to hit a mephit with a sword or use a spell, does it feel realistic? Let me reiterate: a swing of a sword equals the time of saying a spell phrase. What in the 9th ...?? You will tell me that's dnd rules, but what do we really want? A picturization of a dice on a computer or a good videogame?
- I wait for my turn, I build my strategy, I aim, I release, and miss; and then I watch 4 more mephits before I charge a level 1 spell; these battles take forever
- And finally I watch 10 characters standing and breathing while one of them moves two meters, charges and... misses; my wife says I'd better play chess than waste an i7 on this
- "We say" (or agreed, since Larian says it) that turn-based is an "evolution" of the real-time with pause system. So let's reiterate. Decades ago some dudes wanted to play a game with the logic of damage/health/etc. so they used math, but they needed a mechanic of chance to remove predestination so they used dices and there you have it: dnd tabletop game with turn-based system, brilliant! Then we started to use computers, so the logical way was to implement whatever system there was physically into virtual, so there goes the turn-based system on computer games (Heroes & co). Meanwhile there are so many games out there working real time, why? because the computer CAN do all the calculations behind a turn in the backend and the user can benefit a real experience. Then we realize that the environment moves too fast for the user who wants to control everything and we need something to slow-down the action. And decades later, we "evolve" to the turn-based system. Let's speak up plain: this is going back to the origin because some old beards want to remember their good days when they played tabletop. We were supposed to play better than real-time with pause now, what system? I don't know, you're the experts, but definitely this is an involution.
Okay, let's look at the bigger picture:
- the game allows nice interactions with many objects (I can through a can or I can fall from a spider web), nice
- but the rest of the physics are at most mediocre for a game in 2020, it's a 2D game with 3D characters and few extra vectors
- it was discussed so much about variety and multiple options, but the dialogue and plot options don't get even close to the old BG2 complexity
- the story is ... there... an intrigue worth investigating, a "little" crossed the line: you're level 1 in a mindflayer spacecraft attacked by dragons which lands in hell. Okay, I didn't finish the game and I'm still waiting for that Baldur's Gate spark to hit me, but so far my expectations are low.
- music is not bad, very bad, main title welcomes you with some yells (from hell, probably)
- we know it's an alfa/beta/something, and we paid for it so you can work more on the real thing, but let's face it: the pressure was huge to redo a 20-year old best seller and with this it just gets bigger and bigger
- we will pay your full-game, too, we have no choice because we love Baldur's Gate and we hope, but do you want just money and be remembered as the one who tried?
I want to help you and help me buy a satisfactory game:
First, keep the turn-based thing, but give me an option to skip stupid useless turns; give me control, let me turn the turns off! Don't worry, I'll turn them on from time to time.
Second, in BG and BG2, the biggest reward and credibility for the player was that you started as no one, lost in a mass of people who do their daily job and later you grew into infinite! You need to consider this seriously, in your game you're already a recognized fighter and people are sparse, all already watching you; that's not Baldur's Gate.
Last and not least, get a better music! not a little better, much better! BG2 is a masterpiece in that sense, you must do something here.
