I never valued BG's writing too much. I think people who keep praising it as a masterclass in narrative are frankly delusional, nostalgic or have incredibly low standards.
There are tidbits of BG3 that are already better than most of what BG1 or 2 ever offered, in that sense.
I agree. Look, I LOVED Baldur's Gate when it first came out. I bought it the first day it released, from a store shelf, and I was so thrilled to have it that I was practically shaking as I put the first CD in the drive. For the time, compared to all the D&D video games that came before, it was an absolute triumph, it was god-tier for a D&D fan and a computer RPG fan. It didn't even occur to me to see any flaws in it. It was simply better than everything else up to that point.
But a whole lot of RPGs have come out since then in the same subgenre. And honestly, I like MANY of them more than Baldur's Gate (1+2). There's a lot of silliness in BG. The companions, and some people will want to crucify me for saying this, but I think they're pretty garbage in the original BGs, compared to much less silly, much more realistic and well-developed companions in a great deal of newer RPGs. I don't really need to see Montaron and Xzar, or Tiax, or Xan, or Branwen, or honestly 90% of the others in beautiful new graphics, because those characters are still gonna be deeply un-compelling to me. The story of Baldur's Gate 1+2 was astounding for its time, it revolutionized computer RPGs, it created a whole new subgenre. I admire it deeply as a historical force, and for my memories of how much it thrilled me at the time. But looking at it now, through the lens of someone who has played a dozen or more evolutions from that game, it's just . . . okay. I could re-play the BGs, I guess. It would be . . . fine. But it wouldn't blow me away.
But everyone has that one thing that they love the most. BG fans love BG, to them it's the pinnacle. For me it's Planescape: Torment, and I can't even comprehend how anyone could think BG 1+2 is better than that game. But I understand that to them, the exact opposite is true. And that's perfectly valid. And those real die hard BG lovers would hate me for saying this, but I think that BG3, even in it's current state as a rough, unfinished, broken FRAGMENT of a game, is still vastly better than the originals. I know, it's blasphemy. But it's how I feel.
