I was wondering how much story/quest there is if you subtract the origin character arcs? To me it feels as though too much time is devoted to their stories and resolution, rather than the "main" story. Of course they are connected, but that in itself is something that is a large departure from BG1/2 - where our bhaalspawn becomes the principal hero/villain. I found I spent a disproportionate amount of time rushing about to 'keep them happy'. That's not to say I didn't enjoy those quests - but I felt it was canted too much towards resolving their issues. I ask this , because as far as I recall, Larian made certain you could kill all origin characters and still complete, I believe)? So, part of my sense of unhappiness in Act 3 stems from that fact that once all NPC/origin quests were resolved, I don't think there was that much to do? I'd be curious to know how much of the main story arc there was for runs where you took no origin characters and didn't pursue Jahieira/Minsc. I found myself going through Act 3 with laundry list Cazador? Check! Jaheira? Check! Hag? Check! etc. And you could actually take your time and womble about - at least until you killed Gortash AND Orin. So there wasn' really a sense of doom. I was also very unhappy that the upper city didn't materialize - I had been looking forward to all sorts of intrigue and shenanigans there. The Lower city was well done - but the scale was not what I imagined (I heard comparisons to Novigrad in the Witcher3...erm, no) and if you actually look at key quests (not origin or arbitrary ones) it felt there wasn't really that much going on.
I agree about the writing - I really did feel ACt 1+2 did a great job of building up to the shadow cursed lands (and the drider was awesome) and I really was anticipating the final showdown. By comparison, Gortash and Orin were somewhat cookie cutter villains (power hungry megalomaniac autocrat vs psychopath). Neither impressed me much. I also feel that Halsin's quest was beautifully tied into the game in Act 2- I really enjoyed that (but didn't retain him in in my part either).
