I'm not sure about the turnbased combat, I liked the real time with pause -system from previous games.
It is a very interesting, seemingly regressive decision in 2023 to go back to turn-based combat.
It makes sense when you look at how Larian approaches combat. Lots of interactivity, lots of reactive content. PCGamer had a cool article about how their difficulty scales beyond just Hit Points and Attack rolls.
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gat...a-dm-thats-trying-to-push-you-to-your-limits/
To demonstrate, the Panel From Hell presenters went through the same combat encounter once on "Balanced" (read: normal) difficulty, and once on Tactician. On Balanced, a duo of Monks was able to get the better of a gaggle of goblins strewn throughout the town. The player characters had one KO, but otherwise took care of the fight pretty handily.
On Tactician, those same goblins all had fire arrows, while the main entrance to the town was strewn with oil and explosive barrels
This is combined with their insane levels of spell interactivity.
One thing that I'll miss about RTwP is the control you have over how much time and investment you put into every encounter. This works for both player and the developers. Sometimes an encounter doesnt
need to take up much time, and turn based is always time consuming. But more than time saving, that time and space that Bioware created gave more ample opportunities to give you tidbits of background, story and lore layered through the encounters. The mines of Nashkel is a perfect example, since you're fighting Kobolds, which are some of the weakest, non-threatening enemies in the game. But the deeper you went, the more plentiful they became, and started using fire arrows, traps, etc. So now even the weakest enemy in the game has become an impending threat. Thats not gonna be possible with TBC since every encounter will be time consuming, and you cant pace out the enemies and combat in the same way, where a seemingly inconsequential threat is slowly snowballing into something much more concerning, and that feeling ties directly into the story and campaign discoveries you make in the mine. Combined with the tidbits of story they lay out ( the notes, lines from survivors, etc) it gives even a low level romp an epic feel as youre plunging further into the depths of a low level "dungeon" and the progression creates more tension.
The previews seem to be comparing BG3 to a a virtual sim, like Bioshock, Dishonored, etc. That sounds completely awesome. But it gonna be at the cost of that consistently epic cinematic buildup that Bioware were masterful in creating. Its gonna tickle a very different part of the brain. I think BG3 is going to be better at getting you to tinker, be creative, and have more varied playthroughs. But its not gonna layer out the cinematic feel in its story, environments, and lore that Bioware did so well.