Well if we are praising Larian for replayability ...
I believe by 678h played, and still loving the game, still finding things that i didnt think about in previous game,
I am glad you are enjoying it. I am worried BG3 will be another Skyrim for me - a game many enjoy and sink countless hours into, and which bores me after an evening sessions or two.
players who can't appreciate the level of work that goes into creating a game like The Witcher 2, with two entirely different second acts, I hope don't impact game development (looks at Witcher 3) nevermind
Did I found someone who liked W2 reactivity? Would you expand on why you though W2 multiple paths were a good thing?
For me personally it didn't work for two reasons:
1) I don't think each path works on it's own. With resources stranded between two paths I thought that neither was particularly effective. I think there are some interesting concept (like how player might be missing some crucial information and make different decisions due to limited knowledge) but overall I thought the narrative is weaker because of it rather then stronger. Like dragon makes no sense, unless you followed to scoia'tael path. There could be a joy in seeing how those things fit together on both playthroughs but:
2) reactivity makes no goddam sense. The point of reactivity is for game to acknowladge player choice, but in W2 (and that's actually quite common in witcher series) we jump into another universe, when not only we, but everyone else made radically different choices. Events we had no influence on play out differently, things on the side we are not present on don't happen or get resolved anyway. As such, it fails in the very thing that reactivity aims to do - make players feel like their actions have impact.
If the only goal of such reactivity is to provide replayability - then yes, and open world with a lot of missable/skippable content is a better way of doing it. W3 is stronger narratively, and depending on your playstyle can still offer a decent reason to go back. System-rich games like Arcane games or Deus Ex offer replayibility through sheer flexibility of gameplay systems, and class based DnD combat can offer replayibility through a wide range of distinct classes.
From those three I think Larian has biggest shot at the second "Arcane-like" replayability, though for me, personally, many options Larian offers feel like they are too broken to work. For me RPGs are about roleplaying, and for example, how stealth and pickpocketing works is so detatched from other systems, I feel like I am using a command console everytime I try to engage with those mechanics. DnD's limited class system, should automatically give BG3 some replayability, but oddly enough Larian is hell bend on making everything feel the same and have access to similar tools. Why is that, I have no clue.
