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I like the game overall.
Story
I feel like the story ended about as perfectly as a video game can. Baldur's Gate 3 is not cannon in my book, unneeded and unwanted.
Gameplay
It feels glorious to be able to start off killing rats and become the Lord of Murder if you so chose by the end of it all. I will say that the Underdark is a slog, but I'd say power through it. If you can make it through the Underdark, the rest of the game is fairly easy to complete. Throne of Bhaal is very quick to complete, I feel like it goes into the story very well.
Wish list
If anything could be changed I wish modders would somehow make it possible for humans to dual class more than once. I realize the name is dual class, meaning only two classes. That said, people can change. It would be interesting if a human could dual class as many times as desired. Also, dual classing with classes like Paladin or Ranger and kits. E.g. Start off as a Kensai kit for the Fighter Class, and dual class into the Assassin kit for the thief class. Add on remove XP cap and you could take the game to absurd levels eventually in enough time. Especially if a way could be figured out a way to ensure each class could use epic level abilities. If a character could dual class in the same character class with different kits that could be interesting.
Would that be entirely broken? Sure. Why not do it though?
I guess I write this review the way I did because I've sunk 500ish hours into the game on Steam. Lord knows how many hours before Steam existed when it came out. The game is a good companion while walking around in the real world. I've noticed that the birds in real life sound a lot like the birds in Baldur's Gate, whoever designed these Hunger Games birds we have around here in Nebraska is a genius. Kidding. I would say that the value the game has to me is far less about the time I spend at a keyboard playing it (or on Nintendo Switch, which is an interesting Inception experience. Play a wilderness stage in a wilderness area in real life), and far more about how I can think about it later. Trying to come up with my own ideas for how to beat an archmage on my own without Googling it as much as possible. Thinking about what I'd do if I were in CHARNAME's shoes. This game has been a good companion for over half my life at this point, and I'd highly recommend it.
Final note on THAC0
It's really not that hard. A few ways to view it.
1. In regular D&D your DM tells you if you hit or not. The computer is the DM. Don't even think about it. Try and eventually you'll succeed.
2. If you're actually that worried about it, play the game on Story mode. You cannot help but win. You can basically roll your forehead on the keyboard incoherently and you'll still somehow win. Do it this way to enjoy the storyline if you care about accessibility.
3. Import and export to cheat like crazy. Or Command Line Prompt if you prefer.
4. Figure out how to cheese the game. Snares plus skull trap spell equals absurd levels of cheesiness.
5. Ask yourself has anyone ever consulted a THAC0 chart and a Monstrous Manual for 2nd Edition D&D to play the game? No. I didn't think so either. Has anyone ever consulted a walk through to check a monster's AC vs. your THAC0? No? Yeah I didn't figure so.
6. If you kind of want to think about it, consider that as you gain levels you get better gear and spells in your party. In short, as you gain levels the odds of you hitting increases and the odds of you getting hit decreases while the odds of you surviving tends to increase. In other words, just enjoy the game. It's the same basic idea in any edition of D&D or RPG when you boil it all down to brass tacks.
7. It's a game. You're not meant to think about a game mechanic like THAC0 extensively any more than you are supposed to boycott a movie theater because you don't understand how the debit card reader works. You don't need to understand the physics of how to shoot a basketball or the algebra of how a parabola works in shooting the ball to like the game of basketball. If you enjoy digging into the mechanics do it because you enjoy it, don't let other people talking about this be a point to steer clear from an outstanding story.
8. It's your game. Play it how you want. Don't be worried about what other people think about it. Don't listen to people tell you how to play your game, especially if you're playing solo. This is a different argument than if you're playing WoW where everyone is raiding together as a group effort and you aren't paying their subscription.
8b. If you're concerned about what purists say about how you should play your video game, just ask them if they drive around in a horse and buggy. Call them a hypocrite if they say no. If they refuse to answer shame them with a look and shaking your fist angrily.
9. At not point in the playing of this game should you feed your dog chocolate.