Originally Posted by anjovis bonus
I wrote here last before the Early Access came out. I don't unfortunately have a computer capable of running modern games at the moment, but I am intrigued whether the game is any good from an old school fans perspective. I have read a few early reviews, and they've been positive but naturally a bit mixed since it's a long ways from finished.

When I last posted, there were multiple issues that worried fans of the original games:

no day/night cycle
forced camping scenes
turn based combat
linear structure
overall feel of the game being too "larian"

How do you feel the game has tackled these issues? Does the lack of day/night cycle make it a distictly different experience? Does it retain the epic & freeform feel of the old games at all? Is the combat as fun as in the originals? Is the structure too linear, does it feel more like a japanese RPG than a semi-open world experience? Is it any good if you love the old games and expect something similar?

Thanks!

Day / Night cycle has not been discussed by larian as far as I can see at this point which is something that may come up over time.

Forced camping scenes thats just a time progression path to the tadpole after x amount of time it does trigger different story interactions. / Use of the tadpole and sleep triggering effects / story progression and camping triggering effects. If your are fairly efficient with combat you can get about 4 combats in before you need to rest.

The turn based combat they have said is here to stay there was an interview done with larion where they stated it will be / stay turn based if there is a RTwp option based on the interview it would not be changed for the base game release. Would most likely be added down the road as dlc content if at all.

Structure isnt really to linear there are alternate paths to approaching things that do change the outcome mostly the good / evil path options the most obvious being siding with different factions within the game.

I personally dont really feel its too larian there are a bit too many explosive ways of dealing with things it does seem like they toned down some of that a little but it could be done a bit more. Some of the combat effects I would assume they are holding off correcting them till majority of content is added to make it easier to filter out things like spells specifically and wizards I would hope they plan to remove wizards being able to cast divine spells from scrolls. It just makes Wizards way to overpowered and not feel even remotely like dnd in that aspect. Swapping weapons needs a fix as well you should not be able to change weapons without using a bonus action. and back stab needs to require a target being flanked to be applicable. Outside that there is nothing super standoffish with combat that I dont think needs a major fix. Ranger also still needs more work with animal companions IMO since they planned to take that a different route which I think is a positive thing as the base game ranger does need an overhaul which even WoTC has stated its the weakest class. Scaling the animal companions is a good starting point for that.

Nothing new has been added since the druid. I wouldnt set my expectations to high on anything new coming in anytime soon.