Agree with most of this. It's absolutely DOS3 set in Forgotten Realms. Anyone that thinks otherwise never played DOS1/2 or is just delusional.
The biggest irritant for me personally is that after 3 years of EA there are still a bunch of common sense broken shit, that was reported on day 1 of EA, that has yet to be fixed. Like Solasta which is made by like 15-20 dudes does some things way better than this game, that is inexcusable.
Yeah, it is DoS3 without :
- the armor system
- the turn economy
- the surface spam
- the setting
- the lore
- the tone
- the basic cutscenes
Sure dude, also they are both turn based. So they MUST be the same!
I was referring to the 'feel' of the game. I'll tell you what my perceived differences are:
1. BG and Pathfinder games have smaller maps, but more map traversing. You spend maybe 5 hours (or less) per map. BG3 and DoS have large maps. You spend about 30 hours or more on a single map. When you traverse maps, you're basically progressing the Chapters.
2. Six characters vs Four characters.
3. Camera controls. You can't really move the camera that far from where your characters are. You can for BG and Pathfinder Games.
4. Where are the weapon proficiency levels? A classical D&D / Pathfinder game can have weapon proficiencies up to Level 5. This is one of the big advantages of choosing a Fighter - able to have a +5 DMG, +5 Attack Roll for a weapon type whereas other classes can only go to +2. In BG3, it seems you're either proficient, or not proficient.
5. The spell system feels different. In classical D&D / Pathfinder games, you have the traditional say.... Six Level 1 spells, Three Level 3 spells, One Level 4 spell. In BG3, you have a certain spell quantity in your spellbook. You can freely load your spellbook with more Level 2 or 3 spells compared to Level 1, but your number of casts for each Level is a separate thing. I admit this is an improved quality of life design decision, but it feels different nonetheless.
6. Painted character portraits vs rendered portraits. I can understand if you think this is petty, but I think it affects the feel alot. I think painted portraits enchances the fantasy/storybook feel alot.
7. Finally, Dragon Age-esque dialog vs Text Dialog (with Portrait). This one is important. It's about visualizing the dialog from an NPC portrait instead of seeing it being acted out. The visualization is part of the storybook imagination aspect.
Anyway, I'm not nitpicking the above differences to say that the game is bad. The game is good (compared to Diablo 4, which left a bad taste in my mouth). But it feels different enough from traditional D&D/Pathfinder games that it reminds me of DoS.
