There are so many aspects that shape each playthrough. I enjoy this a lot. I want to get some thoughts on this topic. Do you feel the same? Do you think something is missing or could be done better? Do you want to have full control over what will happen or prefer to be surprised sometimes? Here's some of the stuff I like and some ideas for improvement:
1) Your character. Obviously. But compared to some other games, character creation has a very big impact on how the story and the gameplay will unfold. I'm honestly impressed by how often the race of my character gets noticed, especially as a drow. And I was positively caught off guard by how the goblins just let me through because I was a drow when I was expecting to have to talk my way through, sneak past or fight it out. Little things like these make a big difference in how the game feels.
As for classes I like the variance but on the other hand they could be more unique than they currently are (for example everyone having bonus action hide and jump/disengage). I've seen plenty of good suggestions for this. I'm all for each class being more distinct and unique. Not everyone needs to be able to do everything.
One really cool unique aspect about each class is the class specific illithid power. Although, you might not want to use those powers for story reasons.
2) Companions. You can choose who you want around. Your race or class might affect how well things go with particular people. I very much enjoy how bold the game is that these people don't just automatically follow you anywhere. It's crazy that they might just not join, leave or die despite them having a lot of story and interactions to follow. I much prefer this over having everyone around every playthrough. This could be improved by having them comment on dialog/events more frequently, giving their opinions, so it would really feel like travelling with a party rather than having people behind you who just help in combat. It's always exciting when they have something to say about something we came across.
3) Choices. Right now it isn't very in depth as the EA ends before you can really find conclusions to your decisions. Also, the evil route doesn't make sense story wise, as finding a healer should be top priority for you and your party, and joining the goblins generally isn't beneficial. However, the créche route seems like a really interesting alternative to druid Halsin and that's really cool. And if you do take the evil route, that does lead to a different kind of adventure whether it makes sense or not. And as somewhat part of the evil route, whether you want to abuse illithid powers or not is a big decision as well. Right now it seems purely beneficial to abuse its powers, but I hope to see that in the full game, things will play differently depending on this. And you get to make decisions like these early on; I appreciate not having to play half of the game to pick an alternative route.
4) Not always successful. Although the skill checks are debatable, it's enjoyable that the same choices don't always lead to the same results. I'm sure some people disagree though, which I understand. It could be worth trying an alternative system where you could get consistent results if your skill and proficiency are high enough, maybe factor in the attitude of the person you're talking with too or another solution to the problem where people tend to want to quickload until they succeed in a skill check. Or, work on putting unique content behind failures more than a line of dialog or two.
5) Optional content. My first playthrough was relatively straight forward. There was a sense of urgency and I didn't want to stop to do all side quests and explore every corner. Didn't seem like the right thing to do. But I helped some people out on the way. On following playthroughs, I explored areas and quests I did not before which lead me to find new characters, learn about my companions, acquire unique equipment and more. Most quests can also resolve differently, so it's interesting to try the alternatives the second time. So far I really enjoy the state of side quests. Maybe add some that fit evil characters or entice you to be evil? Like where someone strikes you a better deal than the honest person begging for help. Or someone just asking you to steal something from a good guy.
6) Ways of managing combat encounters. There is hardly any forced combat. You can sneak or talk past almost anything. That is really cool. And if you do decide to engage in battle, it can play out quite differently depending on your party composition and use of environment. Obviously, this could use a lot of work. Combat is unbalanced in many ways. Surface effects are too prelevant, disengage is too free (bonus action), melee wants to backstab every turn etc. Lot's of feedback everywhere about this, let's not get too in depth here.
To sum it up, this aspects and some others I failed to mention made me feel like each playthrough so far has been a whole new adventure rather than repeating the same things each time. In other words, there are many ways your choices affect what your adventure is like, and a little bit of the game world treating you differently. I find that a lot of the game's strengths lie here. So please, discuss, what are your opinions on this topic? (I'm getting sleepy so hopefully this post came out cohesive enough...)
