Former Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age dev Mark Darrah says that Baldur's Gate 3 is a great sequel mostly because it's so different to the original games.
Speaking to FRVR, Darrah, who was a programmer on Baldur's Gate and its sequel, says that one of the biggest strengths that Larian has when it came to Baldur's Gate 3 was that the game isn't "super literal in terms of what a sequel should look like." However, there have been plenty of games in the time since Baldur's Gate 2 that have been a bit more spiritual successor in their approach. For example he explains, "Pillars of Eternity feels like an Infinity Engine game. It's not. I played it and I'm like, 'wow, this feels very much like a spiritual successor to a Baldur's Gate or an Icewind Dale or something like that.'"
