Hello,
I have just finished the game and I realy realy loved this game.
I would say that BGII is more “epic”. I mean, the places you go to in BGII are more epic (Thieves' Guild, the island Prison, the underdark, the drow city…). POE does not make you travel that much. Besides, Defiance bay is smaller than athkatla, there are much more things to do in athkatla. And, there are more group interactions in BGII…
But I really feel the devs did not want POE to be an epic story by doing something less stereotypical. For instance, In POE, you have to make choices that are neither good nor bad. There never is an optimum choice (even at the end of the game) which is really cool.
I also really liked Durance and his background (best companion ever). I thought something really crazy was going to happen with him… Too bad that did not happen…
I really loved speaking to the gods…
I really loved the end of Aloth who, I presume, is going to be the next villain in POE2!
Sorry for the language, English is not my native language