What gameplay has to do with immersion? This game is gonna be a game, video game.
Everything. BG3 blatantly ignores the rules of physics and logic in it's gameplay. The gameplay constantly reminds you it's indeed just a video game rather than a story with characters that could be real, at least on some level.
What makes The Witcher games or Dark Souls so
immersive? The gameplay in those games looks and feels convincing and
real without any of that cartoony shoving, gamey debuff acid surfaces and funny projectile arcs crap. The world and characters become more believable and relatable. It's easier to get immersed in those worlds and forget it's just a funny video game with clever mechanics, puzzles and systems. In BG3 I'm forced to pay too much attention to surreal surfaces, gamey puzzles and power slapping enemies into lava. I didn't have that problem with BG1, BG2, IWD, IWD2, NWN, NWN2 or even Dragon Age: Origins.
And before someone makes the inevitable "but the game has magic it will never be realistic lol" argument: having magic is completely different from a setting abiding by the rules of real world physics and logic. Magic is the exception to that which makes it special and exciting. If everything is "magic" nothing feels like magic.
RPG's that are telling mature stories (to the level of awkward realistic sex scenes!) should be more anchored in reality than BG3
gameplay currently is. That's Larian's problem with their loose direction that aims to let developers be fully creative and committed. The passion shows but different dev teams can be making different games. I think they need slightly stricter guidelines and game direction without losing that creativity and developer ownership.
