summary:
Over 20 years Larian stayed true to themselves. They tried to improve what was already good but stuff that used to be bad is still not good.
- They like huge worlds and the stuff you could do and how you could interact with the environment became more and more complex. This is good in principle, but sometimes they overdo it way too much just because they can (barrelmancy, surfaces everywhere and such stuff)
This is one of the reasons I'm excited for potential of Baldur's Gate 3. I would love to play a game that's a good representation of D&D 5e's ruleset that allows the player to make sandbox/creative choices with the environment.
One of the reasons I'm disappointed is that we we're given explosive cubes right on the Nautiloid and barrels are almost everywhere after. There is a time and a place for the explosive cube/cylinder, but they shouldn't be everywhere in the game. The game would be better with more sand-box choices. Maybe reduce the oil barrels and add more oil flasks on the merchants. Could we push this tree onto the goblins with Thunderwave? Could the player use a strength check to push a boulder down the hill?
TBH I'm a little sad that "shove" is stealing Thunderwave's "thunder". (I'll stop with puns there). Really the players should be hyped to throw enemies off a cliff-face with Thunderwave, not a bonus action.
