Well, topic, but here's the specific nuances i need to take into account.

The first is technical, in that my PC set up should be able to run the game but I'm concerned the performance might be less than ideal. My specs are -

AMD Phenom II x651
Nvidia Geforce GTX 550ti
8GB RAM

If anyone has the expertise to or experience to know how well the game would perform on my set up I'd be grateful to know.

Second thing is, I love Baldur's Gate. But I love it for various reasons not all connected with just gameplay. Nostalgia, aesthetic, writing sensibilities and my views on game design are all factors. If I say my impression of Pillars is that it looks quite bland on basically all fronts, am I completely off or might those feelings be true?

Thanks for any help anyways.

1st your system is old... if you have windows 8.1 then the game should run fine but windows 10 will not have a solid driver for that g-card and the game won't run as well.

2nd as a bg player pillars is about the same rules + play style,,, the story lacks and the stat system is counter to what you would expect. imo you should pick one stat and max it out

3rd get the game or don't... thats up to you mate. I own and like playing it but I've not finish the game myself

I'm actually still on Windows 7.

I've read some pretty scathing reviews of the game in regards to how it handles itemisation and the combat encounters being dull, and the story seems to draw very mixed views.

I think I might as well pass, at least for now.

As a big Infinity Engine fan (Baldur's Gate 2 is still my favorite CRPG) I was skeptical too, but I took the plunge and after 15 + hours I can safely say that if you're craving a deep, tactical RPG, Pillars should hit the spot. While I'm still too early in the game to comment on the central story, I feel like your immersion will depend on how much you invest in the lore-of which there is a lot to chew on. The side missions are surprisingly non-standard so far (ones that start out as fetch quests usually twist into something more interesting). So far it's excellent.