Everyone’s different, of course, but I played and loved BG1 & 2 when they first came out, and also enjoyed the IWD, NWN, KotOR games and Planescape:Torment. Dragon Age:Origins is still up there as possibly my favourite game. And it took me three goes to get through D:OS and I’ve still never made it past act 2 of D:OS2. In short, liking earlier Larian RPGs isn’t necessary for appreciating BG3.
And I do love BG3, and much prefer its turn-based combat to the RTwP of the earlier BG games and many of their more recent successors. It’s not great for massive battles, but then I’m not sure the combat in those worked brilliantly for big fights either. I do absolutely agree that the real time with pause of Dragon Age:Origins and DA2 with the programmable tactics was the best RTwP experience I’ve had, but certainly don’t have any issues with BG3 being turn-based only and think it lends itself to interestingly-designed, tactical and meaningful encounters. But then I also enjoyed learning about 5e for the game and personally don’t care about custom portraits (though am glad the generated portraits were improved from early access).
In short, I don’t think there’s any substitute for giving it a go and seeing what you think!
