Originally Posted by Count Turnipsome
Indeed.
But maybe a better example would be comparing it also to the previous Baldur's gate games? I mean, Larian took the pain to get the IP... I am not feeling the continuity in that third game. They could of inserted the menu in a magical mindflayer highly detailed artifact, or used grotesque skin tissues with tatoos, a dusty tome of lore with maps...naaa, lets just use a common cave, fans will love it. Nothing else screams D&D Baldurs gate better than a damp dark cave lol. EPIC.
Puzzling choice. At least they got the logo right.

It actually didn't cross my mind since I didn't play the previous BG games. But even so they're made by different companies so wouldn't do a lot of good comparing them. Seeing them now though I personally find that even worse as the point is to expand the scene, not narrow it. As imagine the main theme of BG3 with that kind of a 90s/early 2000s main menu.

Games today have moved past such basic and simple main menus. Today main menus are animated, practically rendered in real time and visually rich so it needs to be epic and fitting. I just don't see that with a 90s menu. They did have a lot of heart though, as a lot of early RPGs had that amazingly loud *clink* sound when clicking on menus ^^

Originally Posted by MelivySilverRoot
We do get a glimpse of a beach at the start of the sequence
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

But the sequence does land on a somewhat lackluster shot
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Unless it's something that would be significant later :
- Why are there piles of bones there?
- Will we have more information on those rune (other than what Gale gives)?
- Is this the entrance to some important location we will have to visit?

Even then, it's not the most exiting view (and this is coming from someone who loves caves).

I like the alternatives you gave Crimsonrider. Especially the shots of Baldur's Gate. It would just make the most sense.

Also, nitpicking here, I think it's weird that the music starts so "late".
We get 4-5 seconds of the menu without music, then it starts when the beach appears but it feels like it didn't load in time.

True, it starts with a beach ^^

Naturally I'm just joking about the beach thing, I find it amusing that every Larian game starts with a beach, so I just run with it as a gag. Though even if it remained on that particular scene permanently it is still quite lackluster. The only thing of note is the tower in the distance, which may be Gale's city Waterdeep. To make it worthwhile the scene would have to move outside of the cave and show us the entire coastline, sea and city, rather than obscure it. Even the DOS1 outshines the BG3 main menu.

But compared to DOS2 which had such an amazing main menu, with plenty of foreshadowing, it's quite lackluster. I hope it's just a placeholder for Early Access.