Baldur’s Gate 3 has blown away expectations and redefined what an RPG can be, and that may put Bethesda’s upcoming Starfield in a rough spot.
I was replaying DOS2 while I waited for BG3. It is a great game. The only thing I think it was missing was cinematics. The voice acting is great but it plays out with you looking down at your characters. I believe Larian knew this was a weak spot of their games and fixed it with BG3. Now their cinematics are fun to watch. It is now very entertaining to interact with these interesting NPCs.
I was playing DOS2 dwarven Beast as a fighter with a shield.
I felt the exact same way – I played ~20hrs of DOS2 over the past few years, about 1/4 of that in the lead up to BG3’s release, and wasn’t sure if I would bounce off of BG3 like I did DOS2. I’m about 25hrs in BG3, and having an absolute blast. It really does feel like a more refined, and friendlier experience than DOS2, and the in engine cinematics for dialogue are a huge part of that.
I wish BG3 had interaction between player characters in coop, I seem to remember DOS2 having that but it’s been a while and I never finished it.