I'm not sure I can put into words how amazing this game is.
The story is so compelling and well written that it leaves a sense of emptiness when you're not playing; like when you read a really good book and the real world just feels hollow when you finish it. I usually do not care much about the story-line in most games and will skip through quest dialogue but in this I find myself reading every single book and letter, talking to every character I come across and sometimes repeating conversations to choose different answers just to gather more little tidbits of the lore that builds this world.
Your choices make such an impact on how the game plays out as well, which is so unlike most other choice-based games where what you decide doesn't really change much aside from how characters might feel about you and maybe a couple scenes.
It also appeals to players like myself who love DnD, have watched critical role for hours and want to play it without *really* playing by giving us dice and passive skill checks and a DM to narrate. Finding out that the great dungeon master Matt Mercer has a voice role in the game was just the icing on top. Baldur's Gate is an an absolute pleasure to play and I am so thankful to Larian for creating it.
This game deserves every award that possibly exists and then we should make up a few more to give it.

Update after finishing - the ending is one of the biggest let downs I have experienced in a game. So many times in act 3 I would finish a quest and say "that's it?" Companions had little to nothing to say in the final act and the scenes after the finale were essentially non-existent. Hundreds of hours of playing for the conclusions to be so shallow and the touted "17,000 endings" to be whittled down to a paltry 4 that really matter. I deeply hope that future updates give us a definitive edition, cut content and epilogues because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ what a heartbreak that was.

I'm not sure I can put into words how amazing this game is. The story is so compelling and well written that it leaves a sense of emptiness when you're not playing; like when you read a really good book and the real world just feels hollow when you finish it. I usually do not care much about the story-line in most games and will skip through quest dialogue but in this I find myself reading every single book and letter, talking to every character I come across and sometimes repeating conversations to choose different answers just to gather more little tidbits of the lore that builds this world. Your choices make such an impact on how the game plays out as well, which is so unlike most other choice-based games where what you decide doesn't really change much aside from how characters might feel about you and maybe a couple scenes. It also appeals to players like myself who love DnD, have watched critical role for hours and want to play it without *really* playing by giving us dice and passive skill checks and a DM to narrate. Finding out that the great dungeon master Matt Mercer has a voice role in the game was just the icing on top. Baldur's Gate is an an absolute pleasure to play and I am so thankful to Larian for creating it. This game deserves every award that possibly exists and then we should make up a few more to give it. Update after finishing - the ending is one of the biggest let downs I have experienced in a game. So many times in act 3 I would finish a quest and say "that's it?" Companions had little to nothing to say in the final act and the scenes after the finale were essentially non-existent. Hundreds of hours of playing for the conclusions to be so shallow and the touted "17,000 endings" to be whittled down to a paltry 4 that really matter. I deeply hope that future updates give us a definitive edition, cut content and epilogues because goddamn what a heartbreak that was.