Some of this might be a little harsh, but, well, it is very true.
The thing is, this is sort of what Larian does. They make games where the first act or so feels very polished, with lots of content, and makes you fall in love with it. And then, at some point, things fall off a cliff. This is why I think BG3 is simultaneously:
1. The best, most fun game they've made yet;
2. The game where I am absolutely going to stop giving Larian the benefit of the doubt. I will *never again* buy their games on release. I will outright *refuse* to buy their games at all until I hear from many reliable sources that the game's quality doesn't go plummeting off a cliff at some point.
The thing is, what they do - make very polished first halves and then skimp on the back half of the game - it's an effective strategy. Most reviewers will play just the first half of the game, so it helps to drive the hype for it. And yeah, I know they're not like, a big studio, so they have to work with what they got, and for a game or two, this could be forgivable from a smaller studio. But you watch it happen 3 times in a row, and it stops feeling so innocent. It starts feeling like a deliberate strategy, or an outright unwillingness to learn from past mistakes.
Maybe this is uncharitable. I mean look, I love the opening of BG3. (Even if I really, really don't like Larian's storytelling). The gameplay is some of the most fun I've had in a video game in a long time. But I can't help but feel, knowing the full state of the game, that they *really* don't deserve some of the praise they're getting. They deserve to face some consequences for this repeated strategy of "Amazing first half, rushed and crappy second half" that they *keep engaging in*. But they keep getting rewarded for it.
