Recently I've discovered the joy of CRPGs, having previously only dabbled in them without spending any significant time on the genre.
With Baldur's Gate 2 just around the corner, which I'm sure many of us are hyped for, I wanted to try a similar CRPG to get a feel for whether I'm going to want to play it. Enter DOS2; this game is made by Larian Studios, the same studio making BG2, and is an absolutely incredible game.
From the graphics, which are stunning even 6 years on from release, to the combat which makes you think about your moves in a manner similar to how you might do in a game like chess, and best of all stories which are for the most part genuinely interesting. I frequently found myself surprised at events / characters / quests I found throughout the world, even small things like hearing someone screaming nearby then discovering they had been torn to pieces by voidwoken.
I recently just finished Act I and just started Act II but wanted to share a bit of love for this game as it is an absolute masterpiece with a well deserved 95% positive rating with 144k reviews on steam.
Please share your experience with DOS2 and whether or not you have fully completed the game!
I'm one of those who doesn't get the praise.
It's probably just me, but I've always felt like if you're not going to hold the player's hand, then it's important to be intuitive. DOS2...is anything BUT intuitive; not only is the game open-ended, the way forward isn't always clear. Some early fights are difficult enough that you might assume it's a beef gate, when it's actually required to proceed and you just need to cheese it.
For me, it might be because the RPG mechanics aren't familiar to me. I picked up Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous and fuckin' loved both of those games, but Pathfinder is a game system I'm familiar with. Maybe since Baldur's Gate 3 uses a variant of 5th edition D&D, it'll click for me.
I share your opinion about DoS2 being not intuitive and also not holding hands. I also agree that the way "forward" is often unclear when relying on the built in dysfunktional quest journal. However I disagree with your statement that there would be fights that you have to cheese to win in DoS2. The game seems to promote cheesing but it does also not require it.
I feel the exact same way you do about DOS2. I switched to an easier difficulty soon enough. Baldur's Gate 3 feels like I finally get to be a player as a forever-DM, but also makes me feel like scolding the non-existent DM for some stupid encounter and quest design. I play with a full party of friends, so maybe it's because we fuck around too much.
That said, it is early access. Hopefully the final product has better intuition so that you don't have to save-reload all the damn time because you didn't mindread the devs.