I think you owe it to yourself to suffer through BG3 as well, at some point
You know, for the mad science, if nothing else.
I mean I'm not saying you're going to necessarily enjoy it when all is said and done, but I think it might scratch some sort of itch.
Is it always good to scratch the itch? I don't know lol. Most times the Doc would say not to scratch, but in the moment and for the feels, the Scratch did the trick for me! BG1 and 2 felt pretty North American I would say. BG3 by contrast feels like the most Belgian thing I could possibly imaginable, but they cast a fairly wide net. To me the overall production feels very much like - British filmmaker makes a movie in Ireland, and then mints a whole bunch of new stars in the process. That would be my analogy I guess. If BG 1/2 is Star Wars OT and BG Enhanced is SW SE, then BG3 is way more like Excalibur 1981. Like kinda left field and not really the same thing at all, aside from the operatic callbacks lol. Lauded at the time and in retrospect, but also a total hot mess (isn't that what Ebert said? lol). But then it gave us Helen Mirren and the charm of making, and I love it, so it's basically the same sort of thing right? hehe
I have all sorts of gripes about the BG games, but usually it's the minor mechanical things that annoy me, as opposed to characterization or story incongruities or things of that sort. For me the best part in a BG game is rarely an encounter or a plot reveal or a character moment, and instead will be some zen out moment between rests, where I have entered the trance state and the dragon is just sorta everywhere all around. Ambient music and doing some sort of 100 yard stare leveling up with the sunrise and totally sleep deprived. Fantasy already seems like a bit of a knock off genre to me though, so I think I'm predisposed to allow more schlock into these things, like I know that's true for me. And then on top of that, BG FR is basically a pastiche or an inside joker's take on that, sorta squarely operating within the realm of hambones and cliches taken to their maximalist extreme hehe. Maybe if I'd received it at a different stage of life, or if I'd been armed with a more critical awareness or experience of other things to compare it against, but to me it felt enough like the generic D&D and other sword and sorcery things I enjoyed at the time. It seemed cool, probably in the way that smoking seemed cool to me when I was in highschool lol. These are mostly irrational things. I think it appealed to my sense of compulsion and repetition for sure. I'm not sure how I'd have felt about Icewind Dale or Planescape if I'd played those first, or before BG. To me they both felt like riffs on BG since they used the same game engine, so the later entries maybe seemed slightly less innovative or memorable to me on that count probably. I recall IWD feeling like a supped up version of the BG engine where they felt like FR siblings, whereas Planescape felt like a second cousin, just in terms of how things worked and the layouts, also the art direction.
I'd say what it does pretty well is the emergent gameplay, or just sorta capturing some sense of imminence for a 4 person crew. BG1/2 I could solo and that felt rewarding, but when playing BG3 it's more about all the little knockons and surprises that happen in the moment. The story is absolutely absurd, the haul is full Monty, like none of your complaints with the original will have been addressed, I can almost guarantee. You'll find the same funnels, and mad arborists hacking off branches before they have a chance to spread out. Some things in those departments probably nose dive even harder than the originals, and yet the game still pulled off something pretty special. I'd never seen a cRPG do what Larian did with BG3 or imagined that I'd get to see D&D done up in this way, and I was bitter and grumpy for like the entirety of the Early Access. I mean it's not just illusion, it's like use your illusion II or something hehe, but still worth checking out.
Here's an interesting snippet from Bob the builder the other day, sorta captures the Larian vibe I'd say, straight from the horse's nightmare mouth... lol. It's only just a quick couple second aside, but has that clip from the award ceremony.
I gotta say I was pretty stoked to see KCDII and then Clair Obscur sorta answering and throwing the lit torch into the next room. That latter also has like half the same cast as BG3, so that's kinda wild. I wonder if part of the positive reception there and early word of mouth came from fans of the BG3 mo cap stars, because Expedition 33 also had Lae'zel and Jaheira, and Shadowheart, just with like Andy Serkis added to the team now too!?
I need to swoop that one! Like talk about full circle and making it ring! lol
