Game: What game are you currently playing??

[Ryllharu]

But here's the important question: Does the game punish me, if I'm being racist and/or evil. That's usually the issue with morality systems, that the developers set what is good and what is evil and usually the consequences are that being evil means getting punished in some way. See Mass Effect where being evil most of the time means a quest ends way early and you miss out on a ton story. What's it like in BG3.

The super evil path (indulging The Dark Urge)? I think it does, because killing certain NPCs may be out of your control, but also gives you unique questlines as well. That's kind of the whole point of that Origin storyline, and not really recommended for first playthrough.

Normal evil with a custom character or the other Origin ones? No. You get different rewards. Easier fights, different fights, more difficult fights, different loot you wouldn't get otherwise, etc. D&D doesn't do morality scales the way other games do, and BG3 especially doesn't. From the start of Early Access, being evil was very much a viable path. They still know that most people won't play evil (it's about 34% of players), but Larian fully kitted-out experiences for those who do or will on a replay.

Anyway, since you seem to be playing the game: Can you tell me what makes this game so special that EVERYONE is hyping it right now. I watched some review videos and yes, it looks good. like a good crpg. But nothing outstandingly new, like, if you like crpgs, this will be an awesome game, but if one doesn't like crpgs, this doesnt look like a game-changer. What makes it standout. Is the story THAT good or what.

Everyone is hyping it because it really is that good. It is a complete experience. "A single player game that doesn't have microtransactions, DLC, or Season Passes," you might hear people gleefully state. I'm at 63 hours, and I'm maybe halfway through the game, doing absolutely everything I can. And it is a lot. There's quite a few different ways to resolve any questline: Search for ways to 'break' the encounter, sneak around, do research (talk to people, find evidence elsewhere), snoop, steal items, assassinate people first, etc. There's puzzle bosses, there's many ways to completely avoid combat (and you still get EXP for it), there's entire environments that are hostile to you. It's consistently a challenge that will require you to think.
Companions feel like actual people. They'll disagree with you. You have to earn their trust, which you can also lose again. They have goals that don't automatically align with your own. They can leave. You can kill them (not recommended). They can be respec'd if you don't like their class or build. The story, the lore, they adventure, they're not just good, they're great.

Failing rolls and checks? Actually worth it. They'll give you something interesting behind that fail, rather than blocking you out of content most of the time. Failing certain combat situations will change the game on you.

Your posting has me on the cusp of buying it, even though I really didn't plan to. I played some crpgs in the past, I always loved the atmosphere, but the gameplay gets so frustrating at some point (healing is always cumbersome, with all my party having some sort of "wounded" status for hours, lol) that I quit. Crpgs I played: Icewind Dale, Drakensang, Pillars of Eternity (very little of it, like, beginning hours), and then, if it even counts, Dragon Age Origins.

Running around wounded is D&D to me though. I play it pushing the boundaries of how far I can go between Long Rests (full heals and restored spell slots). But you don't have to. You can long-rest after every other encounter if you want, the game is balanced toward it. There's a handful of quests that are time-sensitive, though, so keep that in mind, but they're not main quest ones. If you know D&D 5E as a system well, the balance on normal difficulty is perfect. You can play non-optimized characters extremely well. There's an easier mode if you just want to experience the story and find it too challenging. There's plenty of beginner guides on youtube to get you over the skill/system hurdles if you need them (fextralife/wolfheartfps both good choices for those).

You can quick save anywhere. In the middle of dialogue if you want.

And Pillars of Eternity was overhyped garbage. It got ruined by min-maxer players in Early Access that Obsidian listened to too closely. Their system that's not D&D expects you to play a very particular way. I regret backing its kickstarter given the way it turned out.