Hey Mom can we have Baldur's Gate?

No we have Baldur's Gate at home

The Baldur's Gate at home

the combat, which is the real selling point (aside from the dungeon creator and user created campaigns), is pretty awesome if you like the 5th edition D&D rule set. more strict implementation than BG3

TL;DR: only buy it if you're starved for tactical RPG content and adherence to the d20 SRD is a selling point for you.

It's exceedingly difficult to judge this game fairly right after playing 220+ hours of Baldur's Gate 3. They are not trying to be the same, but a comparison is unavoidable and Solasta isn't the prettiest dancer on stage. So that's your grain of salt.

The good:
* Cross-platform, relatively low system requirements. Runs perfectly on my Macbook Pro M1.
* They provide tools for the community to generate our own content, so the sky is the limit in that sense. I haven't looked yet to see what the community has done with the tools.
* Lots of time-saving shortcuts, for example to skip unnecessary dialog with vendors entirely.
* The map system is fully rotatable 3d which helps a lot with understanding the relationships between things on the map and things I can see. Stuff just doesn't look the same from overhead.

The bad:
* It's just not a AAA game. If you don't need big-budget models, sounds, voice acting and scripts, this won't bother you. It bothers me a little because...
* Relatively few customization options: no makeup, only one hair color at a time (no highlights, no sliders), etc. There may be more customization options that I'm not aware of since I've only created one character so far, but it doesn't matter much anyway because...
* Fourth-wall breaking poses and idle animations. PCs and NPCs stand around with their arms a little away from their sides, or crossed way high on their chests. It's easy to remember I'm playing a game. I might not judge this so harshly if Fallout/Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate didn't exist, but they do. But also...
* Stiff voice acting. If it turns out it's automatically generated I'll change my opinion, but it sounds amateur (sorry voice actors!) and I think it would be better off with just text.

The ugly:
So far, nothing. Steam says I'm 6 hours in. Maybe I'll update this review after I've experienced more of what the game has to offer, such as its DLCs.