Every CRPG ever based on D&D in the history of gaming including loosely based games like Drakkhen made in 1990-1 had day and night cycles, random encounters and everything else required to make the world feel lived in. The only exception being BG 3. Swen basically said "we cant be arsed it adds nothing to the game for the work required" NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!. Right before bragging about the 50,000 voiced coversations and pile of nonsense DOS origin crap.
If Larian put 50 interesting dungeons to explore with books, lore, monsters and loot we would be less inclined to care about the personal and extremely convoluted backstories created by someone else. People play D&D to create a role not to play one written by a blue haired social studies intern. JJ Abrhams isn't someone successful though talent. I would be happy with a BG 2 rehash at this point.
In its current iteration BG 3 will not be remembered in 20 years as a D&D classic, it will be forgotten....realms bum bum tash. The relationship drivel is cringey af imo and takes away from the atmosphere as it is so inorganic and ridiculous it leave you scratching your head. The characters are well voice acted but in all honestly I don't want a hear another whiney victim narrative. How about greed or power as a motive instead of McGuffin driven narratives? Mystery boxes and super tadpoles....I just don't care. The reason I don't care is the whole of act one is jumping though hoops to jump though hoops to eventually look forward to jump though hoops in act 2.
1) we need to find a healer, super important, super important we find a healer, find a healer, did I say we need to find a healer? 2) We find a healer but I cannot help please "jump though hoops for me" 3) We find another healer, goblin this time "What tadpole you are a mindflayer" Ugh!! 4) Find another healer in the swamp "cannot help you because super McGuffin tadpole blar blar netherese blar blar eyeball" 5) Find super healer!!! Sorry I cannot help you but if you jump though some more hoops I am sure the McGuffinpole blar blar blar. 6) Magic gith Mcguffin box protects group from AbSoLuTe....okay that's nice, now it makes sense? 7) Devil comes, I can cure you just like that!!! Ok cure me then, narrr i am not the mcguffin but blar blar blar.....Gretta Thumburg blar blar blar
Basically the story is driven by a "thing" that is the reason for everything that requires explanation. Vampire in sunlight? Tadpole, Drow in sunlight? tadpole. Why are we different than other "tRuE sOuLs"? Enter mcguffin box. Really bad writing, not an opinion.
Sooo in summary, no atmosphere, static dead world, no immersion, really bad story, even worse writing, weird homebrew mechanics, bad character pathing....50 more
It does have fun gameplay, good graphics and great vocie acting though. The only reason for the good part isn't ironically the parts that resemble D&D right? Like the spells, weapons and lore? Narrr that would be insane.
That is the harsh truth.
Larian has very interesting ideas, but it gets lost as they develop. Tadpole infection turns into supertadpole Absolute cliche. Vampire with dark background turns into Vampire jester. Wizard prodigy with personal tragedy has the dumbest dialogues and unrealistic positivity. Shar cleric turns into a feminine Joffrey Baratheon.
Other thing severely lacking is the worlbuilding. Like in the originals where the plot would intertwine with political intricacies of the Sword Coast. In BG3 everything exists for the main plot.
I love this. Even though the pc in bg series had a big plot overall id say the games were primarily about d&d and the sword coast and secondarily about the player. Bg3 (so far) is a game about a tadpole and secondarily about the player
