Okay, I have made it pretty far into the game, so here are my thoughts for those of you on the fence, or just interested in the game. First some background.
From MMORPGs to CRPGs to JRPGS, I have played just about every kind of traditional RPG out there, and during that time I have developed a bias against turn based combat. That doesn't mean I wont play TB games, it just means that I enjoy Real Time, and Real Time with pause much more. So I started this game knowing I would have issues with the combat but hopeful that it would still be fun. Alright, with that out of the way lets get to the game.
Characters
If you are looking for interesting, or "new", character types then this game isn't for you. Just about every character currently in the game is a stereotype of something that has come before. Its almost blatantly done that way so maybe that was Larian's intention. That doesn't mean the characters are all bad though, just a little predictable and kinda boring. I am not going to elaborate much here as I don't want to spoil things.
The good:
Wyll, Astarion and Gale are all pretty good characters so far. I particularly like Gale as he is extremely well voice acted, and his facial expression and mannerism are pretty well done for an AA game. Wyll's backstory is compelling enough that I want to know more, even though the loading screens sorta give away his story (which I find dumb). Astarion is the most stereotypical of the bunch but he is entertaining to converse with and probably the best in combat (more about this later).
The bad:
Lae'zel and Shadowheart are just plain bad. Is there some rule out there that "Stronk-indipendent-Wymen" have to be so unlikable to be strong independent women? Why do writers always do this? Its so annoying. Lae'zel is the worst of the two as she is just a stereotypical "Barbarian" type character that doesn't give a shit about you and makes sure you know it. This female character trope is so done to death that its an instant turn off to me the moment she started to speak (I dig her design though). For those wondering about Shadowheart just imagine Morrigan from Dragon Age but with 0 charm and the bitchiness turned up to 11. Lae'zel does better in combat as Shadowheart just seems to get wrecked constantly (and I use her all the time).
Combat
Ohh boy Larian...This is a goddamned mess. Do you want to know how to beat this game with 200% less frustration? Cheese the shit out of it. If you don't you will want to punch your monitor at some point in the first 5 - 10 hours. There are a couple of encounters in this game where the only way for me to win was to cast invisible on my MC pre-fight and run solo up to mobs and repeatedly push them off ledges to kill them. The invisibility never drops, and the idiotic AI will just walk back to the spot and you can do it again.
Why cheese? Well that is because I couldn't progress due to the completely unbalanced combat system. Most of the time your character (if its not a rogue) will only get one attack per turn, but some of the monsters and bosses will get 3 or 4 attacks per turn. Which means a single monster can wipe out your entire party in one turn with good dice rolls. Get good right? Well I tried to get good. I tried every spell, every character combination, and every goddamned strategy I could think of and failed miserably every time. In the end the only way for me to win was to cheese the big fights, so I pushed things off ledges while invisible, and stacked up explosive/fire barrels (a completely ridiculous mechanic) on enemies before they could agro me so I could fuck them with aoe easily in my first turn.
So no, the combat isn't good, and its made worse by your characters' constantly missing (even when buffed). The dice must be waited in this game or something because a 70% chance to hit feels more like a 0% chance to hit, and all those fancy spell effects look pretty dumb when you miss. I have played A LOT of rpgs that had miss chances, and I don't think I have ever been as cursed as I am in this game. It fucking sucks. Adding to that is Larian's encounter design where most fights involve multiple characters above you, that have an advantage on you, and likely get to go first, and you have something that simply isn't that fun.
Also, you know what is infuriating? When half way through a big battle one of your characters just stops responding to input. Yeah, it has happened 4 or 5 times with me and each time I was already 10 minutes into an intense, long, fight. Add to that enemy turns that can last up to 10 minutes (yes you read that right) and this game has some MAJOR issues to address during early access. I had a fight against around 10 or so enemies and their system just couldn't handle it. Kept bugging out and I kept having to reload the save and try again. It.was.not.fun.
Lastly, the most powerful characters in this game are rogues and rangers. They fuck everything up. Mages pretty much suck, and melee fighters feel bad to play because they miss too much and their attacks with swords feel...not powerful at all (compared to the rogue, ranger and magic attacks). My MC is an Eldritch Fighter and while its cool to mix magic and Melee (my fav way to play fantasy), it feels massively gimped mostly due to magic being so weak compared to stealth/stabbing.
Progression
I hate the progression in this game. I don't know if its a DnD thing, or just this game, but leveling up is kind of uninteresting. Add a point into something, pick from a list of spells that are already weak, and grab a little more health...snooze. You never actually feel more powerful after it either. IDK, the fact that your character starts with its stats so high to begin with is something I dislike about DnD in general. I prefer games were you start as a scrub, and become a god, with levels that come more frequently. Maybe I am just more of a casual or something but I am not exited to level any of the characters in this game.
Equipment and loot
If you want cool armor and lots of neat loot this game is not for you. The best armors I have found in the game (design-wise) are the ones worn by Lae'Zel and Shadowheart. Everything else is boring, drab, overly realistic medieval crap. There is a cool looking druid armor that one of the NPCs wears, but I am not sure you can get it. The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age have better armor designs than this game, and both of them are pretty drab as well. Don't expect much armor progression either. You rarely loot anything worth a damn, and when you do its usually not as good as the starting armor the companion characters already have. Loot in general is pretty damn boring. Lots of books, plates, forks, and other garbage, and tons of basic bitch weapons. I have found a couple of neat epic weapons that have cool designs but for the most part you will be sifting through crap and selling everything for 30% of its actual worth (I HATE THIS SHIT).
Skill Checks
This gets its own section because I can't stand it. The constant DnD dice rolls in this game remind you that everything is fucking random and based on luck. If you have bad luck, like me, it doesn't matter if your intelligence is 18, or strength is 18 because you will still roll a 2 when all you need is a 3. This leads to constant save scuming and annoying sections of the game. You know what games do skill checks right? Fallout and Skyrim. If your Charisma is 18, and the dialogue option needs it to be 15, then yay you have succeeded! You don't need dice rolls for everything. Leave that shit to PnP.
There are also multiple skill checks in dialogues in this game where if you fail you die (either immediately, or due to the enemy being so overpowered you have no chance). Save constantly because sometimes these "just happen" out of the blue.
Story and World
The story seems kind of interesting and I like the Cthulu stuff but my god this is some of the most generic, bog standard, fantasy in existence. Yeah, I know its DnD but man, without the cthulu like stuff this game is identical to every other fantasy RPG ever made. The coolest thing about DnD is the Underdark and I was happy to see it is in the game. Unfortunately, the devs put some really annoying unfun, and completely unbalanced, enemies to fight down there though that ruin the experience.
Dialogue
This is probably the best part of the game. The conversations with the good characters, and other characters in the world, are actually pretty good. The dialogue system bugs out constantly though, and the mind flayers tentacles are a complete liability during cutscenes, so much so that their physics screw up breaking the immersion completely. Also, its really annoying that they don't use cloth physics in this game, in dialogues Lae'zels leather skirts stretch horribly and just look completely terrible for a 2020 game.
Graphics and Performance
Pretty good from the isometric view but the textures are really low res and its obvious and immersion breaking during dialogues. I get horrible performance with a 2080ti at 1440p maxed (vulcan). In "towns", or when lots of enemies are on the screen, it drops down to 30fps.
Bugs
The list is endless. The dialogue bugs are the most distracting as often times characters will invert, disappear, or pose in unnatural ways. Its early access though so I expected the bugs. The only game breaking ones currently are the massive enemy turn pauses and the characters that just completely leave combat in the middle of fights and don't respond to commands.
Overall
In its current state this game isn't worth $60 unless you love DnD (5e), or are just so bored out of your mind (like me) that you need and RPG to play. I will keep playing it, hoping that Larian fixes the bugs and balance issues but I don't have a lot of hope. I believe this games problems are due to the 5e DnD rules, and just the dated DnD system in general. The rules and systems of video game RPGs are just far superior to PnP and attempting to bring over PnP to video games in 2020 doesn't work as well as it did for BG1 and 2. This game needs a custom ruleset and progression system that matches what other modern RPGs do. It needs characters that feel powerful, and encounters that feel balanced. I just don't know if Larian can get it there when hamstrung by DnD.
