I've played all of the classic "golden age" late 90s/early 2000s RPGs: BG1, BG2, Fallout 1 & 2, Arcanum, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale... And I think Baldur's Gate 3 is better than any of them. BG3 has all of things that made those games great, with a modern interface, a fantastic adaptation of a pen and paper ruleset, and a compelling and original adventure.

The game feels very Baldur's Gate and is definitely done by fans. This idea that you've assembled a motley crew to take on a world-breaking catastrophe tied directly to your existence is pretty true to the franchise. I think most of us who were fans of the original feared it would just be Divine Divinity III with little to do with the originals, but it has a ton of great connections.

What makes this possibly the greatest CRPG?:
+Almost every NPC in Acts 1 and 2 is voiced and has a unique look. It's not until you get to Act 3 that you start to see repeats and unnamed PCs. Even bad guys are named! This is extraordinary and I don't think has ever been done before. It really makes the world in Act 1 in particular feel alive and huge.
+Ability checks are fun and really well-implemented into the game. It definitely is satisfying to see the actual roll on screen so you know what's going on. I've always wondered why PC games felt they need to hide their "behind the screen" rolls. Integrating actual skill checks into the gameplay hasn't really been done effectively since Neverwinter Nights 2.
+Karmic rolls work. I know the game is cheating the rolls a bit higher, but it just feels better when playing the game. I never really felt infuriatingly cheated like I did when playing a game with honest dice rolling like the new X-Coms or Temple of Elemental Evil.
+The voice acting overall is exceptional. The DM's voice is particularly well-performed.
+The story is great, reminiscent of a modern 5E campaign.
+Initiative rules are improved from 5E.
+Very few Dragonborn in the world, one of them is even a redcap.
+Very satisfying fan service for players from BG1 and BG2.

All those pluses said, there are definitely some things that could have been better-implemented.
-The magic items are weak. I think this is due to the legacy Divine system this was built off of. But the magic items feel "Samey" have no lore associated with them and generally aren't very interesting. There's about a half dozen epic items that can be found that are pretty cool, but it's not enough for a world this large. Magic items are fantastic and weird in 5th Edition, and a huge motivation for playing, not so here.
-The goblins are disappointing. They're straight out of the player's handbook and aren't really as fun and wild as they could be.
-The game has *a lot* of script breaks. For a RPG of this size, there's surprisingly not a lot of showstoppers (a bug that breaks the game.) I haven't seen many reports of them in the forums, and I personally ran into none which is very rare for a game this big this close to release. However, the game breaks a lot when you do weird things, approach things "out of order" or play a chaotic character making wild dialogue choices. Generally these types of breaks mean you don't complete a minor quest, NPCs say inappropriate things (mention a dead character or assume something has happened that hasn't) or you don't get an item and the quest gets stuck on the map. Act 3 in particular has a lot of these breaks.
-The 5E rules overall are great, but there's some weird stuff like the removal of two important actions: Delay and Dodge. Both tactically are important to the tactics of D&D combat, and it's odd you can do neither. Additionally every NPC can see through magical invisibility for some reason (seems like an easy thing to just fix.) And finally, there's some legacy weird Divine Divinity stuff about Water/Fire/Lightning that is barely used at all in the game and doesn't exist in 5E.

Some quality of life concerns that could be addressed via patching:
-You should be able to move your party on the map screen.
-It can be VERY hard to click on small things.
-PCs tend to walk on discovered traps, fall off of cliffs and get hurt, which is very annoying.
-Traps/Perception checks should be done "behind the screen" so you don't know it's getting checked. It makes it too easy.

Overall, I loved the story, the characters, the good guys, and the bad guys. I'm really looking forward to replaying this with a good character after having conquered it with my neutral evil Cleric/Wizard Svirfneblin Renderak.

I've played all of the classic "golden age" late 90s/early 2000s RPGs: BG1, BG2, Fallout 1 & 2, Arcanum, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale... And I think Baldur's Gate 3 is better than any of them. BG3 has all of things that made those games great, with a modern interface, a fantastic adaptation of a pen and paper ruleset, and a compelling and original adventure. The game feels very Baldur's Gate and is definitely done by fans. This idea that you've assembled a motley crew to take on a world-breaking catastrophe tied directly to your existence is pretty true to the franchise. I think most of us who were fans of the original feared it would just be Divine Divinity III with little to do with the originals, but it has a ton of great connections. What makes this possibly the greatest CRPG?: +Almost every NPC in Acts 1 and 2 is voiced and has a unique look. It's not until you get to Act 3 that you start to see repeats and unnamed PCs. Even bad guys are named! This is extraordinary and I don't think has ever been done before. It really makes the world in Act 1 in particular feel alive and huge. +Ability checks are fun and really well-implemented into the game. It definitely is satisfying to see the actual roll on screen so you know what's going on. I've always wondered why PC games felt they need to hide their "behind the screen" rolls. Integrating actual skill checks into the gameplay hasn't really been done effectively since Neverwinter Nights 2. +Karmic rolls work. I know the game is cheating the rolls a bit higher, but it just feels better when playing the game. I never really felt infuriatingly cheated like I did when playing a game with honest dice rolling like the new X-Coms or Temple of Elemental Evil. +The voice acting overall is exceptional. The DM's voice is particularly well-performed. +The story is great, reminiscent of a modern 5E campaign. +Initiative rules are improved from 5E. +Very few Dragonborn in the world, one of them is even a redcap. +Very satisfying fan service for players from BG1 and BG2. All those pluses said, there are definitely some things that could have been better-implemented. -The magic items are weak. I think this is due to the legacy Divine system this was built off of. But the magic items feel "Samey" have no lore associated with them and generally aren't very interesting. There's about a half dozen epic items that can be found that are pretty cool, but it's not enough for a world this large. Magic items are fantastic and weird in 5th Edition, and a huge motivation for playing, not so here. -The goblins are disappointing. They're straight out of the player's handbook and aren't really as fun and wild as they could be. -The game has *a lot* of script breaks. For a RPG of this size, there's surprisingly not a lot of showstoppers (a bug that breaks the game.) I haven't seen many reports of them in the forums, and I personally ran into none which is very rare for a game this big this close to release. However, the game breaks a lot when you do weird things, approach things "out of order" or play a chaotic character making wild dialogue choices. Generally these types of breaks mean you don't complete a minor quest, NPCs say inappropriate things (mention a dead character or assume something has happened that hasn't) or you don't get an item and the quest gets stuck on the map. Act 3 in particular has a lot of these breaks. -The 5E rules overall are great, but there's some weird stuff like the removal of two important actions: Delay and Dodge. Both tactically are important to the tactics of D&D combat, and it's odd you can do neither. Additionally every NPC can see through magical invisibility for some reason (seems like an easy thing to just fix.) And finally, there's some legacy weird Divine Divinity stuff about Water/Fire/Lightning that is barely used at all in the game and doesn't exist in 5E. Some quality of life concerns that could be addressed via patching: -You should be able to move your party on the map screen. -It can be VERY hard to click on small things. -PCs tend to walk on discovered traps, fall off of cliffs and get hurt, which is very annoying. -Traps/Perception checks should be done "behind the screen" so you don't know it's getting checked. It makes it too easy. Overall, I loved the story, the characters, the good guys, and the bad guys. I'm really looking forward to replaying this with a good character after having conquered it with my neutral evil Cleric/Wizard Svirfneblin Renderak.