I think the best only genre descriptor for Baldur's Gate is probably "pastiche." Or at least, if you want a ready film analog for what the earlier games represented, the best fit would probably be Star Wars (the Motion Picture I mean, not the subsequent Franchise or what Star Wars came to mean post TESB.) Like it was just pulling from everywhere, and sort of a big giant blender. Held together as something coherent and pretty genius, mainly thanks to the brilliant work of Williams and McQuarrie and the contributions of many others beyond the Director (like mainly the Editors, and Acting troupe and the various teams.) An unlikely win there, and hard to replicate the next time around. Or pretty fraught at that point, once expectations are all high and it begins going more Gravity than Levity. BG is a bit like that, well more than a bit, it's practically the only serviceable analogy I can think of hehe.
Like I can understand the basic criticism that it's a game in search of consistent tone. Tone is a pretty good word too, since it has the etymological association from the Greek with the stretching and pulling, trying to get the strings just taught enough to produce the right sound.
I think in terms of story it pretty much delivers in the way that BG did. Half Excalibur, Half Monty Python and the Holy Grail basically. Leaning harder one direction or the other at various points. If we time warped to blockbuster genre sections of old, it would fit squarely in that row called "Adventure" or perhaps "Epic" where they'd toss all the old double VHS sets lol. Adventure was a bit of a catch all. Certainly not like action or horror or comedy etc, but a bit of a mixed bag. BG humor always felt pretty referential in that way, like it might not carry or stand on its own two legs and needs a bit of support. A lot of Adventure films were like that. Conan and Willow and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves all come to mind, as indulging the camp element pretty hard, while still not totally giving up the Epic ghost.
What BG had I think, more than anything was, just a sense of scale, and overall sweep. Like it was large enough and sprawling enough to juggle a lot of different mirrors. I think as the games become more and more cinematic these days that sensibility gets rather harder to maintain without hiccups. We can have Epic like Homer when the meter is just right, or sort of camp and bawdy at times while still being beautiful like Euripides and Apuleius, but hard to do everything at once at the same time. It's a really tall order.
That's story though, which is my primary interest in this game. The mechanics of the gameplay are rather less impressive to me and sort of something I'm suffering through right now just to get at the story elements I enjoy. I wish the gameplay was a bit less cartoonish sometimes or just more streamlined for my sense of comfort, just so it would hold together a bit better as a complete experience. I thought BG1/2 were mechanically pretty rad for the times and able to make use of the best in show staying pretty current for what was on offer in the late 90s. The gameplay here feels sort of more like a console throwback to me. Like the systems in use for that don't exactly rival the best of the best I've seen elsewhere for a cinematic presentation style of gameplay according to the latest and greatest in gameplay innovation. I wish I could just switch to a driving cam or something more traditional and less offbeat, just so I wouldn't have to deal with those gameplay frustrations quite as much here. I think they have a pretty good hook in with the intro. Whether its a perfect fit for what follows immediately after is harder to say. There are definitely some non sequiturs, no doubt hehe. But I still hope they can pull it off somehow by the time all's said and done.
