There is a balance certainly between having a cinematic narrative experience with limited pathways versus a systems driven choose-anything-under-the-sun and see where it goes - in the Cyberpunk 2077 version of things you get a smoother narrative and it's easier to have high quality VA outcomes. In the BG3 version of things it's much easier to run into "clunky" outcomes or just break the game entirely if you get too weird in your choices.
That's oft kinda the point... some may perceive "weird" things happening like bugs. For others (like me) or the devs of such games, it's a gift from heaven if it hits. In Ultima 9 for instance, players built bridges over water with items that could swim and thus got to places they otherwise couldn't access (yet).
https://www.it-he.org/u9_otwab.php In BG3's EA, I threw a bunch of skeletons about to rise when you pull a lever into a nearby firetrap, problem solved. There was also that story in Skyrim where people put buckets over people's heads, thus blocking their simulated "line of sight" and then they robbed them, er, blind.
Bit OT though.
That said, when I did the skeleton thingie in BG3's EA, throwing them into that firetrap before they rose... There is actually a scripted cutscene showing them rising each time you pull that lever. The cutscene, being a scripted thing after all (it's just a prebaked 3D movie, as cutscenes all are), showed the skeletons still rising in the place I had them removed from. That was only the cutscene, naturally. In the actual "gameplay", they rose in the firetrap and were dead. Larian's design, in particular for BG3, could be considered as a weird clash of going all-out cinematic and systems driven design... and this shows if you can "break" cutscenes that way. The devs of Thief, for instance, never had any traditional cutscenes in the gameplay happen, only in between missions. However, as Larian have argued, they went "cinematic" in a bet to attract a wider audience. And it seems to have paid off here.
oof, Ultima 9, the death knell of that series once EA wrecked the IP. One of the worst games I have ever played.
I can't speak to Thief as I have not played it.
You know Larian solved the "throwing the skeletons into the firepit" problem by not letting you do it in the full game. If you throw any skeleton it triggers all of them, so you get the accurate cinematic now instead of them having to account for that.
I think that what wins is having cinematics at all. Cyberpunk 2077 is built around cinematics since the game is a giant cinematic. The cinematic experience never ends. Bg3's main UI doesn't quite line up with it's cinematics so they have the harder job here.
Long term I can't say which game will be the more successful one. On the one hand Cyberpunk 2077 screwed it's chances for GOTY because of it's bad release, but has made 1.5 billion+
Bg3 had the better release, but has a more niche audience. It's hard to say if it will outpace Cyberpunk 2077 financially but it will almost certainly win GOTY.
Frankly I see them as both successes and despite what some devs may want to believe the bar has been raised significantly. People are taking notice that a well-made game can net substantial returns AND deliver a more satisfying experience to the consumer. Which is the deeper experience? Watching the Witcher on Netflix? or playing The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt? or reading the books?
I've read Andrej's books, watched the Netflix series and played The Wild Hunt game for a few hundred hours. I would say the game is the most in-depth experience of that world with the Books second, Netflix series a distant third.
