Well, this PFH finally made it explicit for me that the core theme of this game is: evil is cool; good is boring. And that is the exact opposite of the original BG games. Dark Urge is the final awful piece of the game. What a disgusting psychopath monster! That Swen and co. would see Dark Urge as some cool, awesome, interesting, fun character to play says a lot.
It's a huge blow that there is no truly good party to play with, a first for a D&D-style party-based RPG.
They put a custom character driven to murder (probably because of Bhaal) in a series about a character being driven to murder because they are a child of Bhaal, the Lord of Murder. But where BG1 and 2 really only ever told you that you were experiencing dark impulses based on your heritage, the Dark Urge makes it part of the gameplay, and a part of the gameplay you can resist. This is totally on brand.
I mean, fair point, but another way to look at it is they made an entire origin about being a normal person with a dark and sinister inner voice which they can either resist or give in to in a game about being a normal person with a dark and sinister inner voice which they can either resist or give in to. You now have the tadpole/Absolute/dream person(?) and whatever is the Urge's inner voice serving a very similar purpose and following a very similar pattern (resist the 'evil' urges or give in to them).
While I see your point, I don’t bump into that. The Absolute cult wear Dead Three pendants, and the goblin from the DU teaser is shown as being connected to Bhaal in the new PFH trailer, so these elements (the Dark Urge and the Cult of the Absolute) are connected. And where the Absolute is promising you power if you submit, the DU is just being driven to kill. The goblin says “you are the chosen one,” so the connection to Bhaal is quite apparent. Maybe a new Bhaalspawn or new Avatar for the Slayer?
