I absolutely agree with everything you just said. In particular I remember the diversity in terrain and how it actually affected gameplay. IIRC unless you took steps to counter it I think in the desert region you were constantly slowed and in the ice realm you were always chilled.
Yeah. I say all this as someone who played 1 after playing 2 as well, so this isn’t some nostalgia thing either. The first game had really good environmental variety, so I hope BG3 is far closer to DOS1 in that aspect.
The first game had some really good scenarios too. Some were a straight miss, like the mine stealth sequence that put you in what I remember was an unwinnable fight if you were caught, until you got far enough to obtain the plot device that finally allowed you to even damage your pursuers. But it also showcased the variety in even different parts of the same dungeon, because that mine was actually connected to a volcano (or the elemental plane of fire, I don’t exactly remember), and your ultimate goal was a hidden library deep within that also had a barrier protecting everything within from the erupting flames.
Most others were clever, like the late game town overrun by a massive group of bandit cultists of some sort. After some investigation, you learn that they’re split into two factions and that both would immediately try to kill you if they knew what you were. You could either go in and try to wreck them immediately, or discreetly try to play both factions against each other by doing various tasks for their leaders aimed at undermining each other. The latter culminates into a glorious city-wide brawl between both factions, with the remaining faction that you choose to support swearing allegiance to you afterwards.
There was nothing like this in DOS2, which again was straight combat all the way. Though to be fair, it's hard to do proper puzzles and well thought out alternate solutions to avoid combat when DOS2's sheer mobility, armor system, and instant full heal bedrolls trivializes most environmental hazards outside of combat, and the combat was the #1 selling point of DOS2 to begin with, so doing anything to discourage that would have been probably been seen as a black mark by most of the community.
To the people in the back who have only played DOS2: Do give DOS1 a try. It’s well worth it despite what the internet might say about it being objectively worse than 2, because that’s simply not true. If anything, it will give you a direct frame of reference on differing design philosophies between both games of the same series.
I just had a thought. What if someone tried to remake all of DOS1 into DOS2’s engine via modding?
