It just doesn't have the same sense of scale that I was expecting and hoping it would have. I don't know how to put it much more succinctly
The party is smaller than I would have liked
companions are fewer in number
classes available to play as a PC right now are very limited
char builds in general seem fairly narrow, with each class basically branching along one of two lines.
The variety of Backgrounds doesn't really make up for the lack of variety in core Races/Classes (or the subs within those, like having a variety of magical schools/priest domains etc.)
Char creation and aesthetic customization options like heads, voices, or even clothing/armor sets to define the character's look are pretty limited
level cap is lower than I'd have thought
There is a good number of spells, about 80 altogether, but the spellcasting UI has a way of making this seem on the low end, or maybe its just because some spells are clearly better, so I only use like half of them.
Right now it feels like there are maybe 50-60 NPCs and about as many unique combat encounters on offer
The map is not as large as I would have hoped. I mean like the discrete areas within the broader 'world' map
Basically going to the wiki
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Locations or
https://guides.gamepressure.com/baldurs-gate-iii/ and then looking at the aggregate material, its not as much as I'd hope from a first Act. Unless the second and third act are way more expansive. Or if this is like a 5 act game, rather than the 3 acts everyone seems to assume. About 25 hours worth of gameplay is what they said. Its hard to know how much bigger its going to get with the full release, since the EA is being presented more like a teaser.
One thing that is larger than I anticipated is the cinematic element, and it is very pretty too look at on the first run. I was captivated enough on the initial pass to continue playing, despite not feeling totally stoked about the controls and general inside/outside of combat gameplay. The story pushed along well enough, and I enjoyed doing the Goblin and Druid paths. But I had really hoped to spend a lot more time in the game, whereas instead I keep showing up at the forums to nitpick. I feel like that's not a great sign. I played the BG1/2 games and their expansions for like a decade before ever having the urge to try to join a forum about it, or to hunt down mods, or things of that sort. The game just had enough content to keep me humming, whereas with this one, I feel impatient and kinda content starved. I think maybe I just figured the game would be further along at the point of EA. I'm sure I'd have bought it regardless, just on pure enthusiasm of BG, still though...
I don't have the experience to compare this game to other contemporary games in the genre, just talking about the impression coming here the earlier Baldur's Gate games. But then I honestly don't know how I'd have felt about BG1 if it ended after the Kobold mines. Its just hard to assess a game when we only get to see the keyhole version of it.
I think the people who have the chops to go under the hood, to datamine or whatever, probably have a better sense of the full picture we're likely to get. Looking at nexus is encouraging, if only to see what stuff has been unlocked. But there's no roadmap out, so when left to speculate I kind of tend to fear for the worst, rather than assuming that there is a metric shit ton of killer content being held in reserve just to wow me when the full thing drops. I don't have a divinity experience to measure this against, though I gather that seems to be the more natural comparison here, as opposed to the earlier BG1/2 games. But coming from those I just expected it to be bigger. I think because I've heard that there won't be much more content in the EA (I don't know from where, I guess there are better sources of information than the News forum here lol), I'm kind of rationing the material of the game. Like I've tried to avoid hitting the underdark just so I can leave myself something to play around with, if they end up improving the hotbar or tweak the camera/movement UI, or push out another class sometime soon. But otherwise I think its kind of cul-de-sac'd right now. Hoping patch 4 is a lot more substantial than the prior 3.
