On the core topic, I do have be honest in saying that it seriously amazes and astounds me that folk like Nyloth (sincerely no offence intended by this) are pleased with the cutscenes and think they're good... Aside from the exquisitely detailed face scans (which ultimately only serve to highlight the plastic nature of their animation range), the actual cutscenes themselves are very weak, both in choreography and in animation. Talking to Shadowheart at the ruins door is like talking to a marionette puppet, with her wooden movements and janky twitching - and it doesn't get any better, except in a few very specific places. They look and feel (again, apart from the highly detailed face scans), like a game that's at least five or six years old, or worse... definitely NOT what one would expect from a game being made today.
Frankly here I think it's mostly just you having unreasonable expectations to what a game of this kind can afford to invest in the most minute details.
If you are expecting immaculate cinematography or a level of technical prowess and detail comparable to, say, The Last of Us 2, from a gargantuan CRPG which is supposed to animate HUNDREDS of distinct character (often with branching dialogues too) rather than a dozen in a handful of heavily scripted scenes you are setting a bar that is virtually impossible to clear.
That, regardless of the fact that a lot of these details will most likely improve marginally at each iteration and update.
And yes, I'm not blind nor oblivious to how actual humans behave, so I can spot the "marionette-like" movement of some characters as well.
How do I feel about it? I honestly don't give a shit. This is WAY more than good enough for what the genres made me used to since the late '80s when I started playing it.
But I guess your point in the end isn't even that this aspect should be better, as much that since we can spot the flaws it may as well be canned entirely. And why have voice acting at all? After all every few hours of decent-to-good performances we are bound to spot few poor deliveries in some lines.
Experience taught me that if we want to be genuine purists and certified grognards about this genre we are supposed to hate anything that is "production value", because it's shallow, for the masses, not for us intellectuals who PREFER TO READ (which is FASTER, too!) and want more substance.
But nah, seriously, fuck that.
I'll enjoy my eye candy. and I hope I'll be able to say the same about the combat and controls some day.
