I still play the Infinity Engines games once in a while, and yes, BG1-2 still holds up. Mainly because top notch graphics is not necessary for a great game, and is very secondary to gameplay and story, in my experience/tastes.
The same phenomenon happens for films and series. A great story, with great dialogues, is what does the heavy lifting. Game Of Thrones seasons 1--4 would have been nearly as good without the great soundtrack. Meanwhile, despite having the same great soundtrack and increasingly better visual effects, seasons 5--8 became worse and worse as the story (and dialogues) became shit.
What did you like about these classic games them? What would you love seeing back in BG3?
I liked plenty of things in BG1-2, but here are some of the things that were great and that I would love seeing in BG3.
UI, CONTROLS AND PLAYABILITY.- The party controls. I know, they are just the standard control scheme used in so many CRPG and RTS games, nothing really special there. In fact, I didn't even notice this when I first played BG. I had to meet Larian's much inferior chain system to appreciate how seamless the rest of the industry makes moving a bunch of units around in a video game.
- The clearly organised "hotbar"/action bar. With a special menu for spells ... It is also customisable with Quick Access Spells and Belt Items. The icons are sorted. They do not move around when I load a game.
- Looting : the Display All Loot function (which appeared in the Enhanced Editions, wasn't there in the original games). Such a QoL improvement after slaughtering a whole of camp of baddies.
- Looting : One-click pick-up of item. I would love it if BG3 removed the stupid double-click requirement for those players who don't want to use Take All in each loot window.
- Looting : the loot window close immediately when moving away from a body or chest.
IMMERSION. - Time is actually a thing. The in-world time is displayed in the main screen. The journal records the days of events.
- There is a Day/Night cycle . It adds a lot of atmosphere. You even have some differences in NPC availability (no merchants at night in the small villages).
- Camping takes place on the spot. It's very natural. There is no pocket dimension (except when the story clearly introduces one in ToB).
- Credible sense of distances and travel time. No convenient teleportation portals that nobody uses except the heroes.
- Living world : wild life and monsters are renewed when we come back on a previously visited map. Little squirrels, wolves and bears are found roaming around. They are not waiting for us.
- Credible sense of time for some quests. Whether it's those who want to go to Nashkel in BG1, or Nalia who wants your help to combat the invasion of her castle in BG2, NPC Companions will get annoyed if you keep not doing what you said you would.
COMPANIONS.- A cast of 17 decent Companions in BG2. I hope that Larian can give us at least 12-14 of them.
- Not every companion is a Bhaalspawn. Some just follow us because we helped them. Or they care about us.
