The beauty of this game is in how complex and intuitive it is at the same time. It doesn't just do a good job of interpreting the rules of D&D, but also helps you understand them with their ingenious tool tips and encounter design. This is a D&D game that finally teaches you how to play Dungeons and Dragons.
The game does an excellent job of rewarding cleverness and is the first D&D to incorporate the creativity of the tabletop into gameplay. Need to break a character out of prison? Turn them invisible and waltz out the door. Need to make a silent assassination? Trap your prey in a bubble of Silence to finish the job. This has always been Larian's specialty - see the myriad of reality bending antics one can get up to in the Original Sin games - but it's been something that's always been missing from the Dungeons and Dragons games which have always focused solely on the most literal interpretation of combat.
The encounter design here is really ingenious and compelling. The game does a great job of balancing really complex encounters with more simple ones. The difficulty curve of this game is excellent. Even on Tactician the game threads the difficulty line so effortlessly that even when the fights are overwhelming you still get to feel powerful.
The plot in this game is also excellent. There's so many little details that you can get into and every quest feels filled out with characterization. There are some truly fantastic moments laid out across all three acts and it never felt like more than 10 minutes passed without something exciting or intriguing happening in the world.
My sole complaint with this game is its technical issues. Act 3 in particular was horrendously buggy for me with frequent crashes and bugs. At one point very close to the end my saves refused to load, and I went through about two hours of troubleshooting trying to fix this mysterious issue that almost led to me reinstalling my Windows OS. If this was a month after release maybe I'd be more forgiving, but I hit Act 3 almost 6 months after release and there are still people out there reporting issues.
But the most beautiful thing about this game is the reach that it's having. I've never seen such a diverse crowd of people getting into a computer RPG of this depth. It's a testament to how well designed this game is that it has such broad appeal between hardcore RPG fans, casual D&D observers, and the RPG curious. It also destroys the false myth that there is no market for games that are this complex. This feels like the kind of generation defining game that will hopefully change all games for the better.
The game does an excellent job of rewarding cleverness and is the first D&D to incorporate the creativity of the tabletop into gameplay. Need to break a character out of prison? Turn them invisible and waltz out the door. Need to make a silent assassination? Trap your prey in a bubble of Silence to finish the job. This has always been Larian's specialty - see the myriad of reality bending antics one can get up to in the Original Sin games - but it's been something that's always been missing from the Dungeons and Dragons games which have always focused solely on the most literal interpretation of combat.
The encounter design here is really ingenious and compelling. The game does a great job of balancing really complex encounters with more simple ones. The difficulty curve of this game is excellent. Even on Tactician the game threads the difficulty line so effortlessly that even when the fights are overwhelming you still get to feel powerful.
The plot in this game is also excellent. There's so many little details that you can get into and every quest feels filled out with characterization. There are some truly fantastic moments laid out across all three acts and it never felt like more than 10 minutes passed without something exciting or intriguing happening in the world.
My sole complaint with this game is its technical issues. Act 3 in particular was horrendously buggy for me with frequent crashes and bugs. At one point very close to the end my saves refused to load, and I went through about two hours of troubleshooting trying to fix this mysterious issue that almost led to me reinstalling my Windows OS. If this was a month after release maybe I'd be more forgiving, but I hit Act 3 almost 6 months after release and there are still people out there reporting issues.
But the most beautiful thing about this game is the reach that it's having. I've never seen such a diverse crowd of people getting into a computer RPG of this depth. It's a testament to how well designed this game is that it has such broad appeal between hardcore RPG fans, casual D&D observers, and the RPG curious. It also destroys the false myth that there is no market for games that are this complex. This feels like the kind of generation defining game that will hopefully change all games for the better.