First impression, SoD

I'm mostly just making this post since this forum is kinda slow and so I have more room to fill it with my banter.

My first impression is that I am very pleasantly impressed with SoD. At first the whole refugee crisis thing kinda took me back, I was worried the game would be super political because a refugee crisis is all over the news atm. I was like "oh man if they work in too many other political hot-button topics like gun control I am just going to lose my s**t"...not because I care overmuch about politics or have a passionate stance on any of it but that would just be really weird. But fortunately, no this was not the case at all

I am very fresh off playing bg1 and so I am not remembering it with nostalgia glasses on, and the writing of SoD in my opinion has been good. The dialog options remind me of bg1's "style"...which can be a good or a bad thing. Many times in bg1 I didn't completely agree with any of the phrasing of mainchar's responses and was left saying "ah well I guess I dislike this one the least" and I find myself doing that sometimes in SoD too. But oh well, that's to be expected. If they had a dialog option for exactly what I was thinking word for word for every response I would probably freak out halfway through and check with a dr that I'm not hallucinating...

The characters both joinable and non don't have a lot of development (aside from corwin thus far) which was a flaw in bg1 as well. I like to use 2+ custom made chars in my party anyway since I cant settle on just one class, and any npc has more development than my silent lackey char that accompanies me and only speaks when he's tired or dying lol

Speaking of that, like I've read elsewhere, corwin is awesome. My good aligned party has just corwin and Glint and will probably stay that way. Corwin is amazing not just for attitude and backstory but also because her kit and gear is light-years above the other options (maybe save for that evil DE sorcerer, I'm itching to try him out in an evil aligned party next run). Devoting the bulk of my funds to make sure corwin never runs out of magical arrows has been a very wise decision when it comes to the combat....

....and about the combat, on insane mode, even with 2 arguably overpowered "main" chars, can still be challenging. This is where the game really differs from bg1. The fights are much, much bigger scale, which unfortunately makes my stealthers/backstabbers generally weaker while my Mage-variations much much more powerful and needed. AoE's were always helpful in bg1 but are borderline-required for SoD. It has made me appreciate my Mage-chars and even my priests for their aoe's more

I guess one thing I like and kinda dislike in a way is that the quests can be fairly simplistic. I am not a fan of puzzles so when I get to a part in a dungeon where I need a key or activator my first thought is usually "ugh". But then I discover "oh look at that it was right in the next room, that was easy"....then I almost think..."hmm almost TOO easy sometimes". But I'd much rather too easy than too hard, I tend to lean more towards hack n slash playstyles...

I am dreading getting to the ending, partly because the first experience in any book or game is usually the best, but also cause I've heard issues about the ending. But also just because I'm having so much fun in SoD

Edit: oh and as a footnote, I never played BG2, so I've been picking the "nice" dialog options to the mysterious robed guy, due to me thinking that he sounded a little like Gorion and that he might be a reincarnated version of Gorion. But it appears I might be a little off base on that one...