After just a couple of hours in game, my very early feelings, if it helps.
I am aware most of the points I mention have been already discussed in other threads.
First, some context: I am old enough to have played Baldur's Gate (the proper, first one) when it came out. Played it A LOT. What a revolution it was!
I realise that nostalgia is tricky, and easily leads to disappointment, so I launched BG3 trying to keep an open mind... But still hoping to find some of the feelings and atmosphere I loved so much in the original.
I enjoyed the character creation. Simple, but with a decent amount of options (even in early access). And my characters look cool. Great!
All set, ready to jump in!
...
And find myself in a *insert offensive adjective* space ship. Seriously, guys??? I came here to play Baldur's Gate. I want medieval villages, forests, fields, castles, maybe the occasionnal crypt. I don't want spaceships. If I did, I would go and create another character on The Old Republic, thank you very much.
But well, a spaceship is what I got. Deal with it, I tell myself, just a bad moment to go through, and it will get better later on.
So I start exploring this ship. Painfully.
...
I found movement a bit ackward at first, camera counter-intuitive, and map pretty much useless (because of the different levels not showing).
Nearly killed my first character just with the fire all over the floor; it is hard to know where you will get hurt or not.
My inventory fills in super-fast with tons of items giving elemental bonuses, creating AoE surfaces or acting on them, and other whatnots I will never use.
Did I mention that while I love BG, I didn't like Original Sin, precisely because of all this micro-management?
Even worse, not only my inventory gets jammed, but it also jams my quick actions buttons. After 10 minutes I have no idea what my action bars can or cannot do. (Thankfully I found since then options to prevent all the crap I pick up to go directly on the bar.)
...
Then I meet my first companions.
I like the dialogues and, unlike other posters, I kinda like the dice rolls. I wouldn't save and reroll: let my life be an adventure! If I fail, I fail. That is fun.
Pain starts again when I try to find a way to select all my party, or just some of them, and put everyone in formation. If it is possible at all, I haven't found how yet?
Party formation was the core of BG system? How can it not be there at all?
...
At this stage, to be honest, I am ready to quit.
I haven't found anything at all reminding me, not remotely, of Baldur's Gate. Instead, I am in a kind of Divinity: Original Sins, only even worse because I am on a spaceship and not in my beloved heroic fantasy environment. If the game had any other name than Baldur's Gate 3, I would have folded there, and gone on to play something else.
But, it IS called BG3. I am determined to give it a chance, so I force myself to keep on going and at least get off this ship to see what the future holds...
...
After crashing out of the ship at last, a bit of irony. I find myself on a beach, looking and feeling almost exactly like the start of DOS1. It's like the devs rubbing it in: "Mate, get real, you are not in Baldur's Gate, you are in Divinity!". I choose to laugh that off, and I keep on moving.
...
Thankfully, it gets a lot better from there on. Really a lot.
The ruins, the campsite, the forest: I am finally moving in a scenery I like, and I feel like exploring it.
I meet Shadowheart, and I enjoy my chat with her. This chat is actually the first time since I launched when I get a bit of BG feeling.
I am doing alright in the encounters, not too easy, not too hard (even if I ignore all the omnipresent elemental/environmental/surfaces DOS trademarks), I am beginning to understand how to organise my party.
I like talking with my companions, and I really like the large amount of options in dialogues and quests. It promises many different, interesting playthroughs.
...
Hopefully it will keep on getting better as I advance in the game.
I am now looking forward to seeing more of the world, which wasn't the case in my first hours.
...
In conclusion, one word to the devs, who I suspect are (at least most of them) too young to have known Baldur's Gate when it came out.
BG isn't about D&D, or any other mechanics. It never was.
It used D&D because well, a game needs a system, but the success of the game didn't come from that. It came from the atmosphere: great medieval-fantastic landscapes, funny/interesting/intriguing companions, pure and simple heroic fantasy world we were happy to visit. It was the first time in a video game people could actually build their party, and interact with it, for better or worse.The first time a computer game conveyed a proper sense of RPG.
...
My advice?
Focus on the story, and most important of all, on the characters.
Mechanics-wise, keep it simple. Maybe play a bit of BG1 and BG2 to get the hang of it. But remember: the more intuitive the mechanics, the more immersive your game will be. And to deserve a Baldur's Gate name, that's what you need.
Put all your complex DOS mechanics in a drawer, keep them for DOS3 someday. I am sure there is a vast audience for it, and it would be successful.
But it just doesn't belong in a BG game.
However, it's a bit more "far out" an opening for a Baldur's Gate game, and I get why new players might find ich jarring.