What are we thinking about this one KIA2?
After sometime with it. Regardless of if/if not you believe it's woke trash I will absolutely hand them credit for not having MTX and having a (mostly) complete game at launch.
Now on to the other shit...
Wokeness - Honestly? Sure there's a bit of it sprinkled on (Pronouns) but I can confidently say at this point that it never felt like it was forced down my throat or that woke topics were an inherently "positive" thing to witness. Even the flamboyant gay characters like Astarion seem to be there for comedic release and "playersexual" has been a thing since Dragon Age: Origins.
It appears to me that the dev's cared a little less about pushing a message and more of: "I'm going to just throw my hands up, do what you want!" All of the interactions in the game seem less set to follow "ThE MeSsAgE" and more to allow the player to "Have at it!". I mean hell, if I see some faggots or some niggers I can straight up delete em cause Paladin go brrrrrr.
All in all, I've been enjoying it. More than Armored Core and Starfield thus far.
(Armored Core VI fucking blows donkey dick also. Not a bad game, but sure as fuck isn't AC.)
The level design annoys me. You crash into this random patch of woods and encounter:
-Druid civil war
-Goblin army
-Gnoll raiders
-Flaming fist escorting the duke
-Githyanki strike team
-Swamp hag and minions
-Fake paladins
-Zhentarim outpost
They're all standing 20 feet away from each other. Every time I try to follow a quest I encounter another quest hook. It's like trying to complete 10 quests simultaneously.
I liked BG2 more where once you found a quest thread you headed out and completed that dungeon/adventure and it was pretty self contained. Cramming so many ridiculous things into such a tiny map makes the game feel super artificial and myopic.
The goblins can't find the druids in an incredible small area and they are not exactly inconspicuous.
This is the main reason that it does not feel like a BG and it feels more like a DOS game.
Great point on the level design, it did seem lackluster overall. Completely agree.
One of my favourite parts of BG is when you stumbled into a quest, you actually felt like you stumbled into something. Whether you were exploring or just trying to go from A to B, it felt like an actual adventure. Not everywhere was important; some places were just there for the sake of being there.