So I got the game and played it. No matter the reasons, I bought it in EA couple of days before the release, to see what will change between EA and final version. I also happened to play it at the beggining of EA 3 years ago, but then I "found" the copy, so you know.
I didn't have any expectations about the game, nor good nor bad. Obviously, I heard about bear sex and made some jokes here about it, but I came to conclusion that if I want to have opinion about the game, I should play it. So I bought it (yeah
Swen you got my hard earned potato money in the end, you can feast).
Anyway, to meritum: I still don't know what to do with this game. I have 170h played (of which 40 is EA) and it took me ca. two weeks to go there. I quit just after the penultimate fight in Upper City (more on this later) and didn't finish the game in result. Is the game good? Yes, very. I had rock solid fun during the first act, which is my favourite. Second act was also very good, and final showdown with Ketheric was climatic and felt good. Up to that point it was solid 8/10 game, and I was honestly surprised with the quality - map itself, levels, encounters, variety of enemies, different approaches available to the player and so on. Even writing up to this point was serviceable, and sometimes even good. As of writing - it bothers me not that much in Larian games, I know where and what I came for. Also, original BG1 and BG2 didn't have stellar writing and were uneven in quality in this.
I do like structure of the game. Act 1 is very good in this - you can go to various places and do whatever you like in whatever order you want. Of course it helped me immensely that I did know what I'm doing b/c of EA in my "proper" playthrough, but fucking around in EA blindly was still very much fun. I wanted to hate that map and compare it to D:OS1 Cyseal, but in the end I had to admit it was very good. Cramped a little, yes, but apart from that I had places packed with action and others, where I could breathe a little. I checked every nook and cranny, and felt rewarded for that (how many of you found kuo-toa village in the Underdark?). Act 1 took me 35-40 hours to complete and it was joy. Act 2 was also very decent in that - we have proper villain, who's got whole act to establish. We've seen consequences of his action, we have reasons to be here and by exploration we can learn and feel why we have to fight with this villain. It's also my main grip with third act and Gortash and Orin, but more about that later.
I liked "new" Jaheira, I liked having a base from which I can operate and explore, I liked ruins of town beside Moonrise Towers and miniboses there. I liked the ambience and complete change of mood. I also liked Moonrise Towers as a place and mini dungeon - this game has many of them, in act 1 and 2 for the most. I'm not a big fun of dungeons myself, especially big ones, but here I had a feeling that designers did great their jobs. Dungeons like Arcane Tower, Moonrise, Temple of Shar or event starting abandoned temple on the beach in act 1 are spot on in size - they ended just about the moment I was getting the feeling I might be tired of them. Only the gith creche was a little bit larger, and a little bit too large too, but I was tired not by the size or wrong design, but by constant fighting with camera (more on that later).
After the act 2 ended, I expected that two other villains would have the same treatment: lower city for Orin, and upper city for Gortash, with coresponding entourage - base, cultist, and so on. Unfortunatelly, things took south from then. Rivinton was still quite good, but I felt tired with the same refugee-saving thing by now. Meeting tieflings again (and again having to help them) really overstayed its welcome by then. Main story, serviceable at that point, also took a deep dive. I got invitation from Gortash for his coronation event, which took place in some guarding tower (WTF? why here and not in the great hall in the upper city? now I know), but still had to fight my way inside or sneak in through the prison (why? he wanted me to be there and he wanted to side with me). Now I know that it was very heavily rewritten in last weeks before the release after cutting Upper City and changing in the guardian story line, who happend now to be another rogue mindflayer (and also Balduran himself). From here everything went sideways. We got one district of the city proper with some quests, but still many things seemed barely polished and often unfinished. Many NPCs had things to say and probably quest to give, which were cut. Some related to the areas that were off-limits (Upper City) and even the Emperor himself nad companions mentioned many times content no longer in the game or changed (ie. Gale mentioned Sorcerous Soundries being in Upper City, not the Lower). That is also why I haven't stumble upon Cazador's place up to the point of looking for entrance to it on wikia, to be buffled that entrance now through the city fortification and not through, you know, proper gate like any other place and mansion in the city - it was haphazardly changed after Upper City was cut. Still, there was much to see and do, but I feel now that maybe act 3 should be second, and act 2 third, with the Netherbrain residing in Moonrise.
All this leads us to the endgame, which is of Mass Effect 3 quality. I should have know it by then, having been cut from earlier areas at the start of act 3 - troubles were in a way. All my choices from before were meaningless - it didn't matter if I chose to side with druids or goblins or if I went through the Underdark or Mountain Pass (or both). It didn't matter what I chose in gith creche and if I ever got there. The latter was to have impact though, but it was cut and in reality it never mattered if I went there or not. Hell, it even didn't matter if I chose to kill Gortash or side with him - he convenientely died anyway and the start of the endgame. And don't even start me on mindflayer nonsense - I had son of the very Gith herself of all people and now he's only able to fight the elder brain only if he's mindflayer himself? Or I have to be one, even if I never ever used any illithid power myself and for all this 170 hours avoided using them? Oh, I can also trust another mindflayer, The Emperor, whose storyline doesn't have any sense or semblance (original Balduran vanished 300 years before BG1, Moonrise Towers and elder brain beneath happened 100 years before BG3, we even read about it in journal of mason who build them - and yet he, as still an adventurer, wanted to explore them and only then became mindflayer himself, but retained his own personality - HOW???) - the same guy, who if I mistrust him, turns 180 degrees and goes to hell, to help the Netherbrain? Bonus nonsense - the game states that if you want to control Crown of Karsus, you have to be a mindflayer. Did Karsus know of it?
That it the place, where I quit, b/c I lost all interest. For roleplaying reasons, as a good person, I couldn't do anything else than turn mindflayer myself. I didn't want my companions die (Gale or Karlach), or Orpheus be a mindflayer. So for me that was the end.
This is all about story, but what about the mechanics? I don't like 5ed DnD much, I am more into ADnD 2nd edition and DnD 3,5 ed, but here it was... fine. It's leagues better than DOS mechanics, and server Larian well, giving them enough tools to have fun, but still reigning them in line if they have the urge to go too far. As I said before, I liked variety of enemies and variety of aproaches one can have in dealing with them. I liked design of most of these encounters, some of them brutal if I was surprised. Two fights in shadow cursed land come to think, which could obliterate me in one turn. What I didn't like, was the party limit and UI. I hated, really hated inventory and sorting things. I hated many little things, like bartering being the default option that I had to toggle every time, but the main offender was the camera. I loved verticality in this game, and hated it for the camera only. I lost track of keeping the right amount of times, when I had to struggle with camera showing me rooftops or even wrong floors, when I was trying to do something stealthy in goblin camp, gith creche or any other many storied building. I wanted to love these moments, but I hated them instead - only because of camera. The only other game I can reacall with that bad camera is infamous NWN2, but I won't dare to play it again to see which one is worse.
Side note about difficulty - the game is easy on normal, and quite easy on tacticians, with occasional spikes. I gimped myself never ever touching tadpole powers, but evened it out by playing with more companions mod. Resting was a non-mechanic - there was so much food, that I never used camping rations, and the value of 80 "food units" to rest was nothing to care about - at the end of act 1 I had about 2500 "food units" and could spam rest after every five minutes if I wanted to.
Oh, and the companions. I chose to leave them at the end, b/c there is not much to write about them. The only moment I felt the writing of any of them was more than good was conclusion of Astarion's story. I may not like the guy, but he was the best written and best voice acted (voice acting is mostly good, but why everyone and their dog sounds like they were from different parts of London, apart from Jaheira, who sounds like an east european). I was surprised that I quite liked Lae'zeal and I was fond of Shadowheart. I liked that her romance was very timid - she was the only one who didn't want to jump into my bedroll after 15 minutes and it took me obout 80 hours of proper playthrough to finally have sex scene with her. It felt earned by that moment.
As I said before, I liked "new" Jaheira. Minsc was also very ok - the writer caught the essence of that character and landed it spot on. I'm still not a fan of him, but I enjoyed the ride. I still don't know why Halsin (the bear guy) was with us, he doesn't have any reason to be after act 2. He and Wyll were very meh tier. As of Wyll - I think I liked the EA version of him more. He was more shady, and now he is the goodest of good - and the blandest of them.
So, I still don't know what to think about this game. There is very solid RPG beneath and I had more than 100 hours of fun with it, which is more than with most games nowadays. And yet I couldn't force myself to end it, knowing I am two fights away from the end. BG3 reminds me in it's structure and character of Dragon Age Origins and I think this is the game, what a paradox!, that BG3 is the spiritual successor of. In it's backbone BG3 is a very Bioware game, which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. And that's how I feel about it - it's super good and super bad at the same times, it has very high highs and very low lows. I don't think I will return to the game, maybe after inevitable definitive edition, who know. But now it's closed chapter for me - but still for most time very enjoyable one.
