SPOILER WARNING. Do yourself a favor and go play it if you're able.
Baldur's Gate 3 was not my introduction to the CRPG genre. I have played games like this before earlier in life - in fact, I have tried Baldur's Gate 1 and played a solid chunk with my Orc Cleric before giving up - unfortunately, I only really "got it" years later. It was simply a matter of being too intimidated by the numbers. The moment I saw a level up screen and was faced with all those stats, perks and choices my head started to spin and my interest waned. I was more used to more casual-friendly experiences like Bethesda games or many of the action games with slight RPG elements.
However, this game is what opened up the genre for me. It got me to stop being so intimidated by the numbers. I distinctly remember having trouble wrapping my head around the dice notation like 1d20, 4d20+4, Armor Class and THAC0 when I tried Baldur's Gate 1. I was basically playing blind, hitting enemies with whatever weapon or spell looked cool and winging it.
The biggest realization that made it click for me was to stop trying to perfect a build and just roleplay. I know it's kind of weird that I had to realize that when I was playing a roleplaying game. But you have to remember that the RPGs I was used to didn't involve that much roleplaying. You just made a character and picked whatever was strongest. Doesn't really matter who they are, or what their motivations might have been. Just murderhobo your way through it. So for me, going "yeah, this isn't the most optimal choice I could make on level up, but it's cool and fits the character, so I'll do it" was a novel concept.
Eventually, I found that most of the RPGs I felt intimidated by weren't actually that hard to play. At its core, you just have to focus on your strengths. Most of the more "hardcore" RPGs don't actually require an optimal min-maxed build to beat. This is by design to allow for more player freedom. As long as you don't do anything obviously stupid like picking a mage, dumping intelligence and putting all points on strength, you should be fine.
One big criticism this game got was that it broke away from the real-time combat that was expected from a Baldur's Gate entry. I don't really mind. On those types of games, I mostly pause and micromanage as if it were turn-based anyway so it might as well be the real thing. I prefer the more tactical feel it has. Larian was also the right choice for this, because they really try to make the environment a factor in the battle. It doesn't feel like just dudes standing around slapping each other with swords and blasting spells. It's dynamic. Maybe there's a fire close by and you can throw some grease to make it blow up on your foe's face, or there's a pit near the enemy, so you teleport to them with Misty Step and blast them away. It makes every battle feel special and enables for "clutch" moments where you pull off some crazy move and win. Often the environment itself can help turn the tide, either for you or your enemies.
On the story side, the companions in your party feel very fleshed out and important to your journey. You can definitely tell they took some pages from BioWare's book. It reminded me a lot of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The whole camp thing where you get a moment to rest and chat with your companions, figuring out what makes them tick and increasing your "affection" meter" is straight out of Dragon Age Origins, which has the same mechanic. However, it's important to note that I have not played a lot of either of the Divinity games, so I don't know if this is new for Larian games.
It's just amazing. Really. This soundtrack is what makes the game "come to life" for me. Listening to it on Spotify really takes me back. It's a really big way that I connect with the games I play. It's right up there with Expedition 33 for me. Both the more calm "exploration" tracks that play in the background as you click around and hear Tav go "these boots have seen everything" for the 100th time and the more "important" (sorry, I don't know the industry term) tracks that play on key moments are amazing. I really like the one that plays when you find the Nightsong and Shart refrains from doing the thing.