There's actually an addendum I'd like to add to this as well, which I didn't get around to when I was writing the initial report.
I wanted to make an additional comparison to the intimacy scenes available in Larian's other most well-known game, D:OS2.
Those scenes are purely text driven; not so much a fade to black as the characters on screen are just part of the background, while our attention is on the text box. The scenes that are available, however, are rich and complex in their design. They have pacing and build up, and they have continuous communication between the participants, sometimes in words and short phrases, but often by other means as well.
In particular, I want to note two important things: the character direction in those scenes is not invasive, but it still lets you guide the scene to play out as you feel your character would want it to; the erotic writing gives you four or five short pauses that let you pick how it continues, in the tone and style you prefer, and it blends very well.
The other part of this is that there are no wrong answers. This is an intimacy scene that you are being given leave to guide to your tastes – it will be however you, or your character, want it to be, because it is for you - if you want Ifan to be a slow and tender lover, then conveniently, he is, or at least understands that that's what you want, and gives that to you. If you want him to be dominant, animalistic and aggressive and to take you without mercy and leave you gasping, he will. If you want to take control of the scene and set the pace, he'll follow your lead and be what you want in that moment; there are no checks involved, and no 'trap' choices.
By contrast, our choice in the scenes that BG3 has put forward so far is limited to a single branching, in most cases... you don't really have a choice in how the scene plays out; the dialogue choices that suggest you altering the scene are either dead-ends that change nothing, traps that sabotage the scene and end it, or require a hard check that you can easily fail.
Larian have shown that they can write and script erotic scenes that have pace and atmosphere; they've shown that they know how to create and deliver a pay-off experience that feels satisfying and yet still provides a wealth of player choice for exactly how it plays out. They've shown an awareness that communication between lovers throughout the encounter is important – even if it's not in words directly. They can do this well; and for something that is being made as focal in this game as it is, they need to do better.
