To start this review, many of the first negative reviews, and highest rated ones, are both much too critical and based off of a low amount of hours.

This game is marvelous, but it would be ignorant to write this review and say there are no issues. Of course, there are some glaring issues. But many of them are no where near as detrimental as some of the high rated negative reviews make them seem.

The worst issue in my opinion is the lackluster AI. Many of the enemies, simply won't attack you, if you don't start attacking them. And you get warmed up to that very fast. However, there are some AI, who are very aggressive, and being warmed up to AI not generally attacking you, it makes it feel like... a normal game. However, if you're playing with a team, I have not yet encountered an enemy who will actively attack you whilst reviving a teammate.

THAT BEING SAID, the monsters are VERY fun to fight against, when they actually fight back. Except for some. Namely, Verbeeg, Stygian Riders, and Trolls. They're simply bullet sponges. But, their attacks make it feel like an actual dungeon brawler. You have to actively dodge and evade and make use of it being stunned, to get hits in. There are some very enjoyable fights with enemies in this game. And it feels very satisfying to get off a long combo and kill an enemy.

To go over the pros and cons;

PROS:
- World building and design. It's breathtaking. It's exceptional. Every map has some winding paths to follow that reward you with more loot and optional quests, or you can stay on the main objective and fight fun enemies, and reach the end goal. The design of maps, the look, being able to look out into inaccessible areas and see, for example, the bones of a dragon. It's great.
-The music and audio. It's DND. What did we expect? The music is FULL. It's an entire orchestra, giving off the energetic highs and the scary lows of a battle. It makes the music fun to listen to while running a dungeon... for the 7th time. Trying to get your gearset.
-The story! It's enthralling. Fighting giant monster after giant monster trying to reach the end, where your met with Icewind, the ice dragon trying to make good on her vows to destroy the party that killed her partner, Icingdeath. Fighting Ice Trolls, flaming verbeeg, goblin emporers, and finding yourself trapped in this magical world where you just want to keep going.
-The endgame loop, it's just like any other arpg and hack and slash looter. You grind x dungeon for x hours to get x gearset to raise your overall "gear score" by a small margin. but its fun! The dungeons have some good repeatability that actually make you want to play the game after beating the 15-20 hours of story.
-The promise of MORE. two free dlcs over the summer, a paid expansion with a new character in the fall, the fact that they actually ACKNOWLEDGE the community and have responded to known issues and are constantly looking to fix bugs. It's great and it makes me feel like there will always be more to the game.

CONS.
-Finicky AI. As I said in the first few lines. It is sometimes good, and sometimes it won't notice you.
-The scaling for FIRST TIME PLAYERS, from CR1 - CR2, can be difficult, but also, its because the CR1 enemies fight back less, compared to CR2-6. I've tested it, and in my experience, the enemies are actually easier to face in CR1, not considering the lack of health compared to others.
-Lack of content, kind of. It's no secret that for this game and many others like this, there is not as much BASE CONTENT as people would prefer, and some people who get these games don't have the mindset to max every character, get everyone good gear, etc. So if you're looking for something with 100s of hours of story, this, notably, isn't the game for you.
-The community. The subreddit discord for this game is horrendous. People complaining about every single little aspect, saying how this is the worst game they've ever played and then going on to say that they only have 2 hours. Saying the game is insanely laggy and then mentioning they barely meet the minimum requirement for specs. Sure, it's not as good as Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance 1-2, yet. But it can be. And it is good to know the Devs are hard at work trying to make it the best game it can be.

TL;DR

The negative reviews are much too critical, but the game is far from perfect. High potential, but also very good right now. Definitely could be better, but I would 100% buy on sale, and if you have the money, buy it now. Very good game with a good endgame loop. World is great, music is great. Ai could get some work, and some more base story would be nice. It's good to know the devs care about the game. Good amount of planned content for the next 1-2 years.

Buy the game. It's great. :)