I'm in the same boat as far as the type of player and I agree with most everything here. I definitely agree about the sense of time being weird, having the journals say one thing but contradict the camp stuff is a little jarring and just confuses some of the urgency personally. I think the one slight thing I disagree with is not letting us have influence over the companions. I do think we should be able to push them either direction since personally I find characters who stay the same or don't grow (for good or ill) boring and what would be the point in some of the replayability if their outcome is always the same? But yes, as a new to Baldur's Gate games and only casually have played a few D&D sessions, I'm finding it incredibly fun and think the story is shaping up to be very good. I really enjoy reading perspectives from both hardcore fans of the original and newer players like myself. My two cents at least, as far as piggy backing off OP.
