Holy shit.
When Gale wants to show you a magic trick at the camp, be careful with the final choice
The way they handled romance in general is one of the few things I don't like about the game.
It's not enjoyable to feel like you are traveling with a group of sex pests who keep hitting on you and taking any attempt to be kind toward them as an endorsement to flirting.
What's worse, is that they are also rather pushy about it and they generally don't take rejection well.
I feel like except for out-of-the ordinary story-relevant reasons the relationship with companions should always default into friendship/camaraderie/trust unless the player is actively chasing romantic involvement.
Not to mention I think something must be bugged, because at some point for instance I had Gale (which I never had any flirty interaction whatsoever, not even the notorious "magic lesson" others talked so much about) coming out of nowhere with what was basically a "Stop two-timing. It's time for you to decide: it's going to be me or Shadowheart??" to which I wish I had the option to answer "WHAT IN THE FLYING FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?", but what I was offered instead were just two options to keep him around ("I love you" or "I love you both and I can't choose") and something like "It's over between us".
After the rejection, at some point I found myself invited to meet him under a starry sky. I suspected where this was going, but I complied.
He lured me in some sort of picnic spot, where my character sit on his side (with some of the most effeminate body language I've seen in a while, in a way that was unintentionally funny for a barbarian half-orc, incidentally) and when it came to the point I was left basically with the options of making out with him (sorry, not my cup of tea even as a videogame fantasy, REALLY) or telling him the equivalent of "Fuck off, Gale, I'm outta here"... To which he responded with extreme disappointment (and Approval loss,of course... -5, I checked) and the scene ended abruptly.
It's not really tasteful.
AAAANYWAY, romance-related rants aside the game is EXCEPTIONAL. Even as someone who played this thing in EA for three years and had all the time in the world to grow tired of it I'm constantly in awe with every bit of new content I'm seeing. I just entered Act 3 (which seems to be in for a great start) but Act 2 blew the first out of the water.
The abandoned temple/Githyanki creche in particular may be some of the best content I've ever witnessed in the genre.
