Ironically, I played Origins before there was anything but Stone Prisoner. I quite enjoyed it, and there are still DLC that I haven't purchased for it. I gave DA 2 a hard pass, and this is what's really funny, reading through the responses here:
I passed on it because the BSN, BioWare's forums back then, were lit up with "It's not Dragon Age, because it's not the Warden", along with all the much deserved negative press about reused areas and wave combat that they went into for 2. Seems familiar, doesn't it? I learned a very valuable lesson about gaming forums during that year, first and foremost, not to rely on them for a "buy/don't buy" decision.
I didn't like DA2 not because it wasn't about the Warden (I love my Warden but the way DAI took... glad my Warden was written out, because the way Grey Wardens were portrayed sucked). It was the repeated maps over and over again and the general "why am I the one doing this". The Warden doing what the Warden did makes sense. Inquisitor makes sense. Hawke... dunno why Hawke did what Hawke did.
I loved DAO and this is from someone who played BG series, all the while pondering "How does a Chaotic Good Elven Cleric of Sehanine get the portfolio of a Murder God". It's a different story, in a different setting, and Bioware did the smart thing of building the world from scratch. You don't get nerds like me wailing that it makes no sense for a wizard to learn the Bless spell.
Why this game feels less like Baldur's Gate and more like DAO (to me) is... the way the locations are currently portrayed, I think. It's not the characters, but rather the general atmospheres of the locations. Baldur's Gate is... chaotic. It has the upper city and the lower city, and the lower city is a cesspit. It had Talonite priests next to Helmite temples. Neverwinter, despite being on the Sword Coast, is organised, almost militaristic, and (from what I imagined) cleaner. Waterdeep is a metropolis. Baldur's Gate is... gritty. Dirty. Cutthroats abound in the darkest corners of the city, while on the surface it keeps its facade by the Flaming Fist and the Watch. Which was fitting for the story of Bhaalspawn to unfold. Helmspawn's tale, despite having the temple of Helm, in Baldur's Gate would be weird.
A lot of people in various review sites have compared BG3 to NWN for this reason, I think. Neverwinter and Ferelden have a similar feel (Baldur's Gate would be more similar to Antiva City from the way Zevran described it, for DA fans out there). Organised, not too luxurious or exotic or anything, just run-of-the-mill fantasy city with nothing too crazy. From what we have been exposed to in this game, from Waukeen's Rest to the Hollow, it feels... too clean and organised. I don't expect a regular inn (peasant level) in Baldur's Gate to have too clean of sheets, but I almost expect it in Waukeen's Rest.
Granted, Baldur's Gate is about 300 miles away from where our PCs are at the moment (there's a mention of the city being a good tenday walk), so who knows, suddenly as we approach the city we might be ambushed by an army of cutthroats. But what we see right now is... too healthy. Too wholesome. Baldur's Gate isn't a wholesome city. It's a merchant city, filled with intrigue, greed, and opportunities.
