I played the full early access last year, and I've played it again now. I've enjoyed Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and I'm a Divinity: Original Sin fanatic, combine that with my love of RPGs and DnD, and I’m selling my soul to Larian.

It is undeniable the care and love that Larian is putting into this game. You only need to check their Panel from Hell and how they are interacting with the community in order to receive first hand feedback from the early access (but without losing the essence of BG). This game has an absurdly immense amount of details and connections, the freedom of the Divinity games plus the madness of a good Dungeon Master who knows how to take care of every thread that weaves the story.

Also, with a year between playthroughs (100% complete each), I've seen the evolution with quite a few patches in between... and it's not just the things they add, it's the level of wanting to polish everything until it shines, and still wanting to make it even better. Both in exploration and combat they offer a range of possibilities that allow you to have as much lateral thinking as possible, characters with layers and layers of depth (both in the companions and in your social relationships with them), and NPCs that enrich the world.

Finally, the few little things that are still missing in terms of character and class customisation, with early access I imagine they are more restricted so we don't get spoiled 😜 However, considering the trend set by Divinity (specially the well polished DOS:2), I have no doubt that this aspect will too be well taken care of.

In general, early access allows you to experience certain things, which they then use to check their work with the community. But, it doesn't offer the full experience (Act 1, in this case) as they're saving things for once the full game comes out (and even then its current state is insane!).
For those complaining that it's taking too long: hello? world pandemic? workers needing rest and such?

TL;DR: I don't think I will feel the same way about another RPG game after this one ❤️

I'm not sure that there's ever been an open world more enthralling, more immersive, more COMPLETE than what The Witcher 3 provides. The storytelling chops on display, the way the sidequests blow the walls off of the place, I mean hell even Gwent is a good time. I beat everyone in the world at that stupid game! The combat left a little bit to be desired, but for its time this game was really everything that fans of the genre could ask for, and then some. I anxiously await CDProjekt's next foray into this Universe.