Sights & Sounds
- You won't find super high quality textures or mind-blowing light & water effects here. The game is just too big. However, it still looks absolutely amazing, with rich detail and an impressive amount of set dressing. The little touches really bring Faerûn to life
- The music is excellent. I still have the Act I battle theme stuck in my head weeks after completing the game. It's like a Nick Cave song had a baby with a Dwarven military march. Raphael's battle theme was another standout
- The sound effects are merely fine, but the voice acting is outstanding. Sure, some of the random unimportant civilians have somewhat phoned-in voice acting. It's still amazing that those characters are voiced at all. The primary performances by the main companions' VAs were the standouts, of course

Story & Vibes
- I feel like I completed a full trilogy of games instead of a single title. Each act has a neat, straightforward, and (most importantly) interesting plotline to follow, but you'll spend most of your time chasing down sidequests, lore, and loot
- Really, that's where this game shines. Of course the overall plot is good; you can tell this was put together by people who've spent a lot of time immersed in tabletop gaming. TTRPGs are all about collective storytelling, and the writers clearly understand what makes for a good narrative throughline. But the most fun you'll have will come from finding a random note, having a conversation, or looting an item that leads down a 4-hour rabbit hole that may or may not have a meaningful payoff. I came away from every play session feeling like I just experienced a really good fantasy movie. I frankly don't know how they packed so much stuff into the game
- Your companions are interesting, well-developed characters with great personalities and compelling backstories. It's definitely worth seeing those quests through to their conclusions
- Like any good TTRPG, you bring your own vibes to the table. Want to be a paragon of virtue, spreading good will and hope among the people? Go for it. Would you rather follow the chaotic evil murder hobo path? You can do that too (if you're willing to accept the consequences)

Playability & Replayability
- There's too much depth to really get into in a Steam review. I'll highlight a few systems that stood out
- Building a character is way easier if you have passing familiarity with D&D systems, particularly 5e. In fact, I'd say that min/maxing builds for higher difficulties almost requires a good understanding of 5e specific mechanics. You'll find a reduced (but still robust) set of races, classes, and subclasses to mix and match into the mindflayer-slaying death merchant of your dreams
- Combat will be immediately familiar if you've played other Larian titles, particularly the Divinity series. That means turn-based combat from an isometric perspective with menus containing more icons than you could ever possibly memorize. Don't let that intimidate you; there's plenty of helpful tooltips at your disposal
- It's not all just build crafting and combat, though. There's lots and lots of entertaining roleplaying to do as well. In fact, you'll often find that you can talk your way out of trouble in tons of situations, usually to very amusing effect. The quality of the roleplaying motivated me to talk to virtually every NPC I encountered, and my experience was better for doing so
- This is absolutely the sort of game that I want to return to someday. There's so many game-altering decisions that I wouldn't expect another playthrough to be the same. I'd like to spend some time with playing other classes and adventuring with different companions next time

Overall Impressions & Performance
- For an RPG fan of any caliber, this is an absolute, once-in-a-decade, must-play game. There's just no point in missing something this good unless you hate the genre or can't afford it. Rest assured, it's worth every penny you spend on it
- Even after the highly publicized performance fixes, I still ran into some pretty noticeable framerate drops in Act 3 on High settings. I'm running a 2080 with more RAM than I really need (48GB), so I suspect that my graphics card was the limiting factor. If you've got something beefier, you'll probably experience smoother sledding and be able to really max out your settings
- Thanks to my sister for the wonderful gift. It was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise!

Final Verdict
- 10/10. Just play it already. It's definitely GOTY, and may wind up being the game of the decade. Any and all hype is warranted

Sights & Sounds
- Being that this is my first playthrough of the game (over a decade after release), I'm really appreciative of the artistic choices made in the game. The visuals look nice and timeless in a way that some other games of the era don't
- The soundtrack is amazing. Sometimes, lyrical tracks in games come off as cheesy or cringey, but all the music here is fantastic. Western vibes with occasional riffing
- The narration is also great. I swore I was listening to Sam Elliot until I looked it up

Story & Vibes
- I love that the world comes together as the story unfolds. Nice little thematic unity there
- Other than that, the plot is a little thin. I won't spoil anything, but it wouldn't really matter if I did

Playability & Replayability
- The controls are excellent. It actually feels "fair" when you get hit
- The weapon diversity and upgrade system are are a similar high quality. Because of this, I kinda want to try different builds and maybe do an NG+ someday
- I didn't get into the challenge idol system, but it's there for people who want the challenge/achievements

Overall Impressions & Performance
- Overall, the game ran well. Also, it doesn't NEED a 4k update, but I'd be really happy if it did
- It's been fun to play through some of the older titles that I just missed out on due to being young and having no money when they were released. Bastion was one that I really wanted to try back then, and I'm happy to have finally experienced it

Final Verdict
- 8.5/10. For me, the only thing this was missing was a deep enough story. The combat is excellent, the gear system is nice, and I always appreciate a game that gives you a reason to replay it