What is up with Baldur's Gate 3?

My understanding is that it is a complete game with no microtransactions to shove along with it. After that I believe it is because it is really really good and not a common genre to get the spot light. Mainly the first part.

I think its based on timing with the state of the game industry being fascinated with various versions of P2W and how to squeeze more out of gamers through monetization of both 'nice to have' and 'need to have.' Larian and BG3 are a breath of fresh air when all the others are prioritizing greed over quality.
If we could just overcome our addictions and vote with our wallet, EA, Blizzard, Activision, M$, etc. would eventually learn, but we can't, and this is the true sad part of the story.
- It's just a really good game. It's complete, unlike the majority of things being released these days. The lack of monetization is really nice, but ultimately the fact that it's basically an automatic dungeon master for 5e with compatibility for up to four cooperative players makes it the easiest entry point into Dungeons and Dragons in general. You can enjoy it by yourself solo and have a wild campaign that's totally different than the group campaign you play with your friends.
  I've always hesitated stepping into the dungeon master role because I've always wanted to help tell a story, but this negates the need for me to lead anything and I can bring friends with little to no experience and we have a blast. I can focus on helping people with the mechanics rather than having to focus on running the campaign.
- See I've been seeing this take in the headlines, but this doesn't seem like enough to me. Folks have been sick of microtransaction-heavy games in the same way for at least 2 years now, and most studios (outside of the ones you listed) have been releasing games that are light on microtransactions. The System Shock Remake is a good comparison point - it was a modern release in a traditionally niche PC genre, it reviewed very well, and to my knowledge it has no DLC. I guess it didn't release on console yet, so maybe that's a key difference?
- Vote with your wallet anyway. McDonalds sells a lot of burgers but few would say they are the best.
There's also the reaction from other developers claiming that the game "sets an unrealistic standard for what to expect out of a game" despite it being exactly what people want from a triple A studio. Just a complete, well made, functional game with no microtransactions

It's a perfect digitization of D&D 5th edition - it's like having an automatic dungeon master using the rules and regulations we've been playing with on paper for ages.

It has a massive plot that can vary wildly on playthroughs depending on how rolls go, just like the real version.

It's four-player co-op with PVE in an age where cooperation is increasingly rare outside of competitive team games.

It's a well designed, properly built, finished product that can be expanded on with DLC, rather than using them to address core gameplay issues. (looking at you Paradox)

Can you imagine what the mod scene for this game will look like in a year or so? It's going to be amazing.
- @ivanafterall @theangriestbird @canismajoris Did they announce mod support?
- Mmmm good point! I'm imagine some of the bigger 5e 3rd parties straight porting their magic items, spells and monsters into the game (monsters would be for custom campaign eventually).
Sure, but people were really mad earlier this year because Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns D&D tried to pull some licencing related shenanigans that would have massively fucked over the community. People were boycotting the movie a couple of months ago over that. It's interesting, that Baldurs Gate seems to not be affected by this at all.
- Yeah because Twitter is not a real place. The actual D&D community spoke with their wallets and they said "we like a good, finished product without stupid terms of use" and all bought BG3. People who don't even play D&D bought BS3 to play with folks who do play D&D.
- Well, I had already bought BG3 in Early Access before the OGL debacle, and before Hasbro (WotC's parent company) sent the Pinkertons to intimidate some small time Youtuber into giving back some unreleased Magic: the Gathering cards that he had been erroneously sold early by a distributor. So I couldn't very well boycott it when I had already purchased it and played like 30 hours of it.
  I'm still not buying new D&D books or MtG cards.

It's just a quality Western RPG, the like of which we haven't seen since Bioware was bought.

Good products create buzz; I really think is is simply that.

That and it's a tire-screeching exit from the abusive road we thought gaming was going down. Microtransactions, lootboxes etc. Baldur's Gate 3 is refreshing from that perspective and, like me, I think many are amazed that it's actually working.
- I see nothing revolutionary about a game not having things like microtransactions and loot boxes. Those are mostly restricted to multiplayer games, and the industry never stopped making good single-player games without that bullshit.
DOS 1 and 2 were almost on par with BG3 imo.
Pillars of Eternity was also really good.
- How about those Pathfinder games? How do they stack up?

Game is good. People like to talk about stuff they like.

Most great games never get anywhere near this much buzz.
I think it's a product of the genre. BG3 is in the CRPG category, which had a bit of a resurgence lately between Pillars 1+2, Pathfinder 1+2, and (perhaps most relevantly) DOS 1+2. Good games in an existing category of game helps build up buzz in that category and more players. More players creates more demand... but there hasn't been that much being made in the CRPG bucket lately.
Then, on comes BG3. It fits in that bucket. It has much higher production values than the other recent games in that bucket. It's got one of the most valuable CRPG IPs attached to it with Baldur's Gate. And it's reportedly amazing as a game on top. The last part wouldn't get it anywhere near this much attention on its own, but in conjunction with the others it's gotten lots of buzz.
I also feel like Larian handled the early access part really well for keeping the game in discussion without making the game oversaturated in gaming circles. They got a lot of "free" (not actually free, but you know what I mean) marketing out of that.
It's that simple.

No in-game store

The game isn't shit

People are beyond bored of 95% of the absolute trash that's being pumped out by the asinine asshole accountants. (AAA Studios)

It's nice seeing something that isn't even close to trash be released.

Hey, leave the accountants out of this! We count things, we don't set policy.

It's not perfect or anything, but it feels like a release with very pure intentions and people seem to resonate with that. No micro transactions, no lootboxes, no DRM (not even Steam's is implemented), no release day DLC, fast hotfixing, and maybe with the promise of classic expansion packs. The sort of practices that people want to encourage, packaged with a formidable and generally well put together game.

When bigger, more corporate dev studios come out and give it free marketing by saying how unrealistic it is to make games like it... that's free, excellent publicity.

It's also bright and colourful and slightly cartoonish in a way that, say, Pillars of Eternity wasn't. I wonder if this makes it feel slightly more mainstream, slightly more 'fun', and a bit less like a stodgy old CRPG from yesterday (and to be clear, I loved PoE the way I loved BG and BG2).
It's also got enough wild shit in it to grab a few headlines that way.
- Yeah, it feels a bit less grimy doom and gloom, despite the narrative and themes. Being fully voice acted, and well, helps to no end with what can otherwise turn in to a wall of text reading slog.

I don't think I have a lot to add to what was already said here.

But I will say that the Baldurs Gate series already had a pretty big following. It had an established fan-base, like Fallout. But unlike Fallout, Larian chose to stick with what people liked about the originals and expand upon that.

So there's another tiny reason to add to the collective.

I think what isn't being discussed enough is how many fans of games like Dragon Age Origins this game is pulling in.

What this game does is straddles the difference between classic CRPGs like the original Baldurs Gate and modern, cinematic RPGs like Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect, whose games began to veer into very action-oriented cinematic style as opposed to classic three-quarter-overhead-view turn-based style. It also brings the cinematic aspect to romancing companions as well, something that was also pioneered in DAO and ME. Other games had ability to romance as well, but not deeply like DAO and ME made it, with their cinematic style allusion-to-sex scenes.

This game does both and so it is grabbing the attention of people who loved classic CRPGs like Baldurs Gate, Fallout and Neverwinter Nights, but it's also grabbing the attention of more "normie(?)" players who cut their teeth on Dragon Age Origins through Inquisition.

It's a "best of both worlds" approach that has solidified success because it appeals to the people who loved classic CRPGs as well as the people who wanted the cinematic beauty as well as ability to cinematically romance companions. It has beautiful cinematic detail as well as a fully fleshed out CRPG system and non-linear CRPG story. It's giving players of all types what they wanted out of an RPG.

Also, excellent console controls directly help this. Old CRPGs required a mouse and keyboard, but I can play this game split-screen with my SO who only ever played the Dragon Age games and who I struggled to get into D&D previously.

My SO fucking loves this game, and she wouldn't have ever been opened up to such a style of game without the excellent cinematic graphics alongside the top tier classic CRPG gameplay. There is no way in hell I could get her to play a strictly top-down no-cinematics classic CRPG. This game opened her up to the genre. It's essentially the perfect modernization of a classic CRPG.

This is it right here, at least for me personally. I’m a huge Dragon Age fan (played through DAO and DA2 before Inquisition’s release) who has always been vaguely interested in Larian’s Divinity Original Sin games but never made them a priority in my backlog. Seeing the cinematic cutscenes and the 3rd-person voice acted dialog for BG3 made me immediately interested and now I’m 10-ish hours deep into Baldur’s Gate and loving it!
Also slowly resigning myself to DA4 not even coming close to matching BG3 in quality given the circumstances of its development.

I’m a crpg fan, and a D&D/PF fan. For me, the thing that makes this game so fun is it feels like a streamlined D&D session. Sure, you can’t do as much as you would like in a D&D session, but you can do 99% of what you would typically want to do.

The other thing is the game is extremely polished. So many recent games have been underproduced, unpolished garbage with DLC/MTX shoved in and a $70 price tag. BG3 is a breath of fresh air. It’s not perfect, but the care and dedication that went into it clearly shows.

I feel what makes this game so popular is the fact that the game is just really well made. The story is great, the classes are much better balanced than 5e, and the amount of interesting solutions you can use to solve any problem is just fun. Add co-op, and the game becomes a blast to play with friends.

Considering the recent rise in trrpg popularity and fans of older titles in the franchise, Larian’s existing fans, and an early access that showed off the game as being fun and promising, I’m not surprised it ended up attracting a lot of players. If you have a large enough player base at launch, and an amazing game, I don’t think it is a surprise the game is lighting the world on fire.

Are you aware of what a big deal Baldurs Gate series, especially 2, were when they launched back at the millennium?

Okay don't fall off your rocker grandpa
No, I'm not OP but I'm on the same bandwagon and for me this is the first BG game I hear about.

It’s a combination of good timing, a perfect product and going against the direction of most AAA-studios.

Though BG2 is more than two decades old, a lot of us still considers it one of the best games ever. I think quite a few of us have been eager to return to forgotten realms. That’s one group.

Then there’s a group of Divinity fans (some overlapping the old BG group) waiting for Larians next RPG.

Those two groups would be the critical mass for creating hype. Would the game live up to the old games? Would it be as good as Divinty?

Then comes the first reviews and people get to play the beta, and though the first few months were rough, once we got close to release it was clear, that BG3 would not only live up to its expectations, it would smash through the roof.

Now you have your core fan base talking about how good this game is, how do you sell this to people who normally don’t play this type of game?

Well, talk to them in a language they understand. This game is complete from day 1. No DLC. No ingame shop. Just a complete game that you can play over and over again with new ways of completing it… oh, and you can co-op with your friends. Even on the couch in split screen.

There are simply not anything of major significance to criticize about this game. You may not like it, or the genre is not for you, but as a complete product it’s simply perfect.

As a player you get the feeling that Larian focus on the game first where others focus on money first. That may not be the whole truth, but it’s the feeling this is creating, and hopefully other studios will acknowledge that there are other ways to do things.

I was in my early 20s when BG1, BG2, NWN, and Icewind Dale came out. The hype was real, and it was a spectacular time in gaming.
- I feel like there might be room for an old school PC gaming community here on Lemmy. There is usually a console/arcade game focus on the retro gaming communities, but it would be great to have a place to discuss releases from that 1990-2009 or so era.
- Same. And I grew up on Champions of Krynn and Eye of the Beholder and Pools of Radiance, so Baldur's Gate was mind blowing when it came out. BG2 was even better!
  I haven't played a CRPG in a while. Never got into DoS series, etc. But there's no way I was missing BG3 after the rave reviews it was getting, considering my history with the series.
- yeah, nostalgia for me.
  the other larian games didn't register with me.
"a perfect product"
I don't think anyone at Larian thinks that they have created the perfect product. It's pretty buggy still, and lacks depth in areas, but its intentions are pure and that buys a lot of credibility in and of itself.

On top of some of the commentary here, I'd like to add that I think there's a real chance that WoTC's put some money behind getting it heavily reviewed/boosted, and so more articles about it and wider attention. That is not to undercut its quality, just that I think its layers of support. (I'll admit there's more than a little bit of my distrust of WoTC in that. Like after all their other scandals they need a win to try and suck newbies into the game after so much messing up. And I don't even mean in the last year or something, their release quality for 5e has been abysmal for a long time.)

Additionally Larian played the early access thing very well. Not only did they listen to their ongoing players, and even netted some "tried it didn't like it" people back, it gave time for everyone who was perhaps too into the older isometric BG1&2 titles (like me) to realize the game didn't seem quite like it was for them and not pick it up. So you get clear, mostly good(if outdated) information out there for people to use in researching if they wanted to buy it, helping to avoid a lot of the knee-jerk hate that stuff like Fallout 4 and 76 got from misplaced expectations that could dull the release.

As I see it, it's a confluence of things which have captured the zeitgeist:

Larian D:OS games have been very well received.
Baldur's Gate and the Infinity Engine games are beloved.
Final Fantasy XVI, the big JRPG for the year, is squarely an action game and some view that as off-kilter. Baldur's Gate 3, the big CRPG for the year, is squarely an RPG.
D&D is a big property and new D&D games often gain a fair bit of attention.
People seem to appreciate having no in-game purchases.

These five things, in my opinion, have pushed Baldur's Gate 3 to the front of media outlets and, in turn, to the forefront of conversations.

Larian D:OS games have been very well received.
This is a big part to me, in addition to your other points. D:OS2 didn't have the same hype going into launch because (at least to me) D:OD was good, but not amazing. Given how well received D:OS2 was, I think the media was primed both to give it attention and praise.
- D:OS2 was better? As you might tell if you dive into my comments history, I absolutely did not like D:OS.
D&D itself is close to the highest popularity it's ever been at (I suppose with this game now it is at the peak), what with the movie having brought mainstream attention to it and Critical Role and other actual play shows bringing buckets of attention to the game/TTRPG hobby over the last 8ish years.

I think there are three vectors going on:

It's apparently a super good game. I'm just basing it on reviews, I won't be playing it until the PS5 version launches.
It has nudity and is being described as "super horny", so, you know, clickbait.

https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-the-horniest-rpg-ive-ever-played-and-i-love-it/

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-a-relentlessly-horny-video-game

They are having problems getting it running on the Xbox Series S, and that's blocking it from being released on the fully capable Xbox Series X. So nerdrage/console war clickbait.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-a-relentlessly-horny-video-game

You've also missed all the hype about the lack of microtransactions. That one is pretty big.
And the bear sex. Although you'd think a sub bullet of point 2, I think its less horniness and more absurdity and "you can do anything".
It's the modern equivalent of "see that mountain? You can go there."
"See that bear? You can fuck it"
- It's not REALLY bear sex though, it's a druid who SHAPESHIFTS into a bear...
I was a bit taken aback that, at a certain point in the game during a celebration, neutrality with most companions meant that they all wanted to fuck my brains out. O.o

The Baldur's Gate IP has a solid fanbase, D&D is really popular now, and also Larian knocked this one out of the park.

It's also refreshingly consumer-friendly, like others have said.

This hits all the points pretty succinctly. Nice.

I played but did not get very far into Divinity: Original Sin, mostly because I tried twice to play them co-op, and coordinating adults' schedules is hard. I love how systemic those games are, but the presentation is limited to what you'd expect from an old-school CRPG. Shortly before release, I saw that this game retains all of that creativity while upping the presentation to the level of something like a Mass Effect, which makes it much more appealing. I hear that Ralph of SkillUp had exactly the same reaction to BG3. So, deep systems + finally catching up in production value and presentation.

I've played the Divinity games, which are very good CRPGs, but in my opinion, Baldur's Gate 3 is in another league compared to those. The amount of choices and possibilities the game offers and its sheer vastness are amazing. Add to that the many fully voiced and well directed cutscenes and you have an awesome game that manages to appeal not only to hardcore CRPG fans.

It's a great game, but so was Divinity: Original Sin 2. The main difference, besides the rules swap, is the cutscenes and dialogue animations.

I think BG3 is riding on the D&D brand and marketing campaign. In my mind there isn't a massive difference between BG3 and D:OS2 (or other titles they've done) from a pure gameplay perspective.

Regardless, I'm for it. Hopefully we'll see more innovative and high budget CRPGs.

I think BG3 is riding on the D&D brand and marketing campaign
With how much they adapted 5e's rules for a video game (thankfully, 5e can be jank) I'd wager it's more to do with them riding on the Forgotten Realms setting. It's hugely popular (see: BG 1-2, dozens of books, most popular D&D setting through the last few editions) so it helps drive interest that there's a competent game that is both faithful to the lore and excels at storytelling.
For instance I really liked a tiny scrap of paper dealing with the Mines of Phandelver hundreds of years ago. That's a bit of flavor from the 5e Red Box. Tons of stuff like that calling back to adventures and books in the series.
- Exactly. I should have expanded further, but I was including Forgotten Realms as part of the D&D brand.
@usrtrv @theangriestbird And with the debacle Hasbro has made this year, creating something in the universe of DnD that actually pleases the fans means so much to them.

Michael Bell from Bellular Studios just did a video about it if you want something to listen to. It is pretty much all of it that was said here.
How Baldur's Gate 3 Humbled AAA

That seems like a good question.

I guess the marketing team did a really good job?

Yes, that too.
And dungeons & dragons is incredible popular at the moment.
And Larian did a very good job with the last games and gained a big fanbase.
And the original Baldurs Gate Games are considered cult among older pc gamers.
No micro-transaction bullshit.
And last but not least: It’s an incredible game.

well, it's a damn good game

It's good.

It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well).

Legendary brand name which the game actually lives up to.

Yeesh, I'm a "Baldurs Gate Oldhead" XD man I'm getting old.

I could just cry at the fact that BG3 is download only. If they never release it hardcopy I will never be able to play it. Being out in the boonies. Even if they could just put what they can on a disc ya know?

Been looking for a good split screen to play with my gal, and yet what I'm sure is a masterpiece is out of reach.

There's also the Dark Alliance Oldheads, they don't need to be quite as old as me to have played those. Just replayed Dark Alliance II with my gal and it was well worth the heavy price tag for such an old title. Unlike the new Dark Alliance garbage. Which I bought to play split screen and it is not.

Buy it on gog, head into town and download the installer to a usb stick.
- What's gog? I was hoping for it on PS5, don't have a powerful enough computer I imagine. Just a 10 year old laptop.
- Gonna need a fast connection in town or plenty of time. The GOG install is 108GB.
Yeesh, I'm a "Baldurs Gate Oldhead" XD man I'm getting old.
Sorry pal 😂 for what it's worth, I'm old enough that I played part of BG2 on PC as a kid. But I was too young to understand THAC0 back then. Lol
I could just cry at the fact that BG3 is download only. If they never release it hardcopy I will never be able to play it. Being out in the boonies. Even if they could just put what they can on a disc ya know?
This is my first hearing this. Damn this seems like a big deal for a game of this scale?
- Yeah I was teenager playing Baldurs Gate and 2 on PC. I only knew THAC0 because I was a D&D enthusiast and read my uncle's old books.
  I'm still new to Beehaw not sure how y'all are clipping pieces of the conversation, and replying.
  It seems like a big deal to me, but everyone has been saying the industry is moving to online only anyways. Like the new Diablo.
  
  I read that BG3 is upwards of 150gigs and plenty of reasons and excuses for digital only. They can't fit it on one disc is the main one but still.

It's hype.

I hate tabletop RPGs, so I know no matter how good everyone says it is, I know it's not for me.

My nephew whom is mainly an FPS player and said that BG3 was not for him has recently picked it up and is loving multiplayer with his friends.
As a previous player of the BG series and others like it, BG3 is a far cry from any of its predecessors. I'm not stating your opinion isn't fair, but wanted to also give another account of players that don't consider this their type of game and are surprised to like it.
- That's fine and fair.
  I know I'm just getting downvoted by people emotionally hurt by me stating I dislike tabletop RPGs. But my opinion is also being informed by my past experience with Larian's other celebrated game, Divinity Original Sin 2. No matter how hyped it was, or how clearly polished it was, I didn't think that game was fun either.
Why is it "hype" when it's not made for you?
- I mean, the snarky side of me wants to say "tell me you completely misunderstood my comment without telling me you completely misunderstood my comment."
  Though in case you are asking in good faith, I already wrote above "Just because I'm calling it "hype" doesn't mean I'm bashing the game, I'm making an observation where I give OP a concise response."
  To elaborate further: it seems like people are assuming "hype" has negative connotations where I'm actually delivering some underhanded criticism of the game, or Larian, or themselves as fans of the game, or themselves as fans of the movement of a non AAA game studio experiencing runaway critical success. I am doing none of these things. OP was wondering "what is up with Baldur's Gate 3?" and I answered. It's hype.
  There are other comments from people explaining the fine details of why BG3 is getting hyped up so much and those comments are rightly upvoted to the top, as they should be. However, for someone who doesn't have any skin in the game and is only passively interested in this whole thing (me, for example), this entire situation can be described as excitement, exuberance, noise, or... hype.
  Holy fuck I miss the days when words actually had meaning.

All of nonDD people, love the studio who made a great game without any of the bullshit we get fucked over in other genres... it shows it can be done, it can be great, and it can respect the player...

People throwing money at Dev as fuck you to EAs, Bethesdas etc

It's Minsc obviously

it fills a lot of inches to the point where it's unique but also approachable. reminds me a lot of dungeon and dragons mixed with dragon age/mass effect mixed with fire emblem

I'm being peer-pressured into playing it with friends, it's an ok game. The quality is there, it's full of content, though I wouldn't say my lack of hype was misplaced - I'd still rather play some other niche games in my library.

What rubs me the wrong way is it's GPU load even with lower graphical settings, and the hundred gigabytes of mandatory high-res textures and whatnot;
I find the UX clunky and infuriating at times, which is not ideal but acceptable for the genre.

What I really respect BG3 (and Larian) for is that its overall a very solid game and it's making the AAA industry seethe, apparently.
It's also DRM-free, but I would definitely buy it rather than Steam-Familying it if I were into its subgenre (and if it wasn't a GPU hog).

Side question:

Is it worth playing if you're not into dnd? I saw lots of replies mention how it perfectly implements dnd 5e but that has 0 value for me. Is the game itself good not counting the dnd association, lack of anti features, release anticipation etc?

You'll be fine. It'd be different if you were familiar with and disliked D&D.
- What of I'm of the unpopular but firm belief that 3.5 was the pinnacle of D&D and therefore am heavily boased against 5e?
tldr: This is a great game if you enjoy rich storytelling, compelling character arcs, and actual consequences. This is also a great game if you enjoy turn-based, environment-aware combat of the likes of Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. Overall, it's a well-oiled machine, with polish in all the right places to make it very welcoming to dnd newcomers and veterans alike. If you have played Larian's older Divinity: Original Sin games (which was not based on the dnd ruleset), there's a lot of quality of life updates that fix a lot of the gripes that I had with those games.
My wife and I are loving it (individual saves, although co-op is supported in this game). We are not dnd tabletop players; the extent of my experience is the recent dnd movie that came out. I don't know the difference between 5e and 3e, but I do know I'm having an (eldritch) blast playing this game. I bought it on a strong recommendation from my friends (although, these friends do have dnd experience), and I can confidently say it's a fun game.
The most overwhelming experience you might have as a newcomer is during character creation, where a healthy amount of reading is involved to understand what classes, races, subraces, spells, and cantrips are (among other things). They provide very neat tooltips that provide the information you need, when you need it, without getting in your way - there is no pause-every-5-seconds-for-a-tutorial-notification deal here. You can get involved as much (or as little) as you wish. If you've ever made a character in a game like Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, or Dragon Age: Origins, and messed around with the relevant skill trees, it's around that level of involved.
If you do get overwhelmed with character creators, fret not - you can choose one of the pre-built characters that come packaged with their own personalities, builds, and stories. Speaking of stories: I personally feel like the writing is compelling and is leagues better than previous Larian titles, if that means anything to you. Make no mistake, this is a fantasy story and you'll have your fantasy tropes in this game, but I've yet to encounter a moment or twist in the story that feels cheap or unearned. It depends on how much you like this sort of genre. There are times when it takes itself seriously and times when it doesn't, but it has never felt out of place.
Besides the narrative, the other major part of the game is combat, and I think it shines there too. From a non-dnd perspective, it's a turn-based, environment-aware tactics game. It doesn't feel exactly like any one type of system I've played before, but I feel a lot of different aspects that get utilized in ways that mesh well. Unit placement on the field matters. Typically your party's makeup plays a role in how you approach encounters. I've never felt like my party couldn't figure out their own way to solve a situation, and it never felt like it was just handed to me. The encounters are flexible enough to allow multiple approaches without depriving them of the depth each approach needs to remain engaging.
Just so you can gauge how well my suggestions will apply, I love playing tactics games but don't always have a lot of time, so I typically adjust the difficulty when possible to emphasize story progression over tactical difficulty. I'm not a maddening-difficulty Fire Emblem: Three Houses player (more power to y'all out there); I just casually enjoy combat puzzles. I think games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, Tactics Ogre, Brigadine, Battle for Wesnoth, etc., are fun to play, and I don't necessarily need to "win" every combat encounter to feel like I had a good time either. I really enjoy is a story that presents fresh ideas, even if it means remixing some old tropes here and there; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. - any game that gives you characters who mesh well (or "contrast" well) with one another usually can maintain my attention.
- Still has the shitty locked camera though and lots of the same little issues DOS2 had. They are great games, so the small problems stick out a lot more.
- Thanks for the in depth response! It's probably too early to answer this, but does making your own character instead of choosing from the pre-built ones result in a more generic storyline? Are there stuff that are exclusive to those characters that you know of?
I have no exposure to dnd but am loving the game. I like turn based games in general though.
If you like RPGs in general, I think it's worth playing. No need be a fan of DnD.

The game is really, really good.

Genuinely, it’s just a really fucking good game and I think thats most of it.

Part of the hype train is that the game is reviewing incredibly well. And Larian is well-known for making high-quality games in the vein of those old crpgs. I know they worked very hard to faithfully adapt 5th edition, so if you're a fan of the old games, this seems like a good one to get!
I've never been much for crpgs (I do play DND though) and haven't gotten very far into the game because it's hot as balls right now in the PNW, but from the bit I have played it is very fun.

Marketing. It generally being a good game and part of a beloved series, set in a beloved franchise (D&D). WOTC has been marketing and growing the Hells out of D&D lately. The recent movie and this game are part of that.