Before you all start to judge me and grab pitchforks and torches, I'd like to mention that it is my third playthrough, the gameplay is really fun and game in general has a lot of good aspects, like NPCs, the majority of quests and exploration. All of it really deserves praise. And I can't stress how much hope I have for a definitive edition.
First of all reactivity. It is almost absent beyond Act 1. The most prime example in my opinion is Shadowheart-Nightsong scene, where you can force Shadowheart to continue ritual, stop it (via checks) or just don't care and give her the right to choose on her own. You could think that last option would rely on a decisions made during game till this point, but no. It doesn't matter if you were a shiny paladin or the bloodiest Durge, Shadowheart WILL choose to spare Nightsong. And only player's intervention can change this.
This is not reactivity, it's just a "player-driven story", when you as a player decide where story goes and who your companions are. Character decisions made during the game are not taken into account at all.
As I mentioned earlier, you can choose to persuade Shadowheart to spare Nightsong, but this option is just a trap. It's similar to the situation with the injured mind flayer in the first act. With Shadowheart's first check does nothing in case of failing it, but the second one is easier and if passed leads to the same outcome as doing nothing.
So the reactivity Larian talked about seems to me like false advertising.
The second point that kills "reactivity" term for this game is the transition between Act 2 and Act 3. In my case, I have played as murderhobo Dark Urge that slaughtered the Grove, goblins, duergars, sided with Nere, reduced to ashes List Light Inn, Isobel and turned Shadowheart into a dark justiciar. And after all of these I'm being told that my character is "very sad because the shadow-curse is plaguing this land". What?
All the narrative of the game is centered on a good-aligned characters, but even here it is not reactive, it is railroading you. Any bad action (except Act 1, which is pretty packed with reactivity, companion interactions and grand decisions (which won't have any impact on further game)) feels like it breaks the game, shattering last pieces of coherency.
The last nail in the coffin is the new illithid powers system, lack of consequences for using these powers (again, reactivity) and silent camp with meat-puppet companions (90% of Act 2 and 3 all you can ask them is to wait for you in the camp, and rare short "observations" of last events your character can't even argue or agree with). And let's not forget broken railroaded story ending and tons of cut content.
gummygunk
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turnnoffyourmind
stormborns