Baldur's Gate 3 is an exceptional game, with a couple of issues.

I'd like to start off this review by telling you that BG3 has replaced my favourite game of all time, due to its engaging stories, complex companions, challenging gameplay and Larian's excellent practices.

Baldur's Gate 3 offers a mostly faithful adaptation of 5e DnD and the changes that have been made (as a table-top player) work great for the game itself and its balance. 5e DnD turns out, is an excellent base for a CRPG and it shows in every facet. I hope Larian and other studios continue to make games based upon the 5e ruleset.

Story-wise it's mostly excellent from start to finish. Act one and two take the cake, they're near perfect and offer the most during your play-through. Especially the set pieces (environments) in Act 2 are breathtaking. I'm not sure how they were able to create such a wonderful world in a CRPG but it's here for you to explore and live in. Throughout the story I had the feeling I was making a difference and my character was inside of this world. In my play-through, I was hooked from start to finish over 13 days, playing 110 hours (whenever I could) to the finish line. Act 3 is to me a mixed bag. It has excellent parts, near perfect. But it also has game-breaking bugs (Iron Throne) which are by now well documented. And a whole list of cut content, some breaking the epilogue. Baldur's Gate 3, in datamined files was supposed to have an epilogue revisiting the characters some months after the story ended, audio can be found on YouTube. Not having this, makes the game fall flat on its face at the end. Major content cuts include Karlach's story, Raphael as a provider of artifacts through soul coins, the entire upper city, more extensive Halsin story, Minsc as a companion from Act 1 (why Larian, why), more comprehensive Jaheira plotline including romance etc. And actual consequences for using your Tadpole (see down by the river with Daisy) All of this makes it so this game can't be the perfect game. I hope, and many others with me, that Larian will include this cut content in a Definitive Edition like DOS2, or through DLC expansions giving Karlach, Minsc, Jaheira, Halsin and Astarion the send-off they deserve .

Gameplay is fun and engaging, the turn-based combat allows for really tactical engagements and Tactician mode (which I am now enjoying on my 2nd playthrough) makes this even more fun. There are countless ways to complete combat, and often side-stepping it by diplomatic means is also an option.

Companions come off strong at the start, but most of them have story-archs running through the entire game and it really pays off in most cases. Lae'zel and Shadowheart have the best story overall. Gale's story is interesting, but doesn't lead to much. Karlach has a really interesting story, but this goes nowhere, see the spoiler above. I hope this is remedied in a Definitive Edition of Avernus DLC. Halsin is nice in Act 2, but has no Act 3 content. Astarion is pretty good throughout the game and has a good pay-off in act 3, but a lot of content seems to be missing due to the upper city being cut from the game. Minsc comes in way too late. Jaheira is especially enjoyable but I wish she had more story to explore. Wyll has a good interactive story throughout the game.

Overall this game isn't perfect and I'm not sure how game reviewers can score this a 10/10, because it isn't. Act 3 has a lot of bugs that need to be fixed. Some companions need love and some cut content needs to be reintroduced. Depending on what Larian does with the game in the coming year, it really has a shot at the 10 / 10 crown though.