I generally concur with what you wrote in the review. It is one of the most warhammery D&D adventures I've ever seen (and this is meant as high praise)
*** SPOILERS that are definitely not minor FOLLOW ****
However, I am worried the adventure isn't paying enough attention (providing enough support) to back up DMs with parties that dislike being told what to do, and instead will want to actively find out what's really happening.
The adventure simply assumes PCs will want to interact with the three factions and their leaders. But the initial promises to find out what's really going on are never followed up - by the module. As written the adventures assumes PCs will be content with day to day events, starting a crisis there, putting out a fire here.
The adventurers might not settle for this. Nobody is asking or answering the real questions: what is the history of these Bhaalspawn? What do the three leaders really know about the events that lead to the titular murder in Baldur's Gate?
What I am seeing here is that players will expect to unravel a murder mystery. But the module isn't about that.
The module knows (or at least, tells us) the mmurder mystery is essentially unsolvable, being the machinations of a major deity. But the players don't know this. I expect them to want to follow up on leads, visit historians and temple archives, etc. They will want to talk to the main NPCs, not about Today's Sabotage, but about the history of the Bhaalspawn.
How can the PCs find out more about, not the three main terrorist plans, but more about the influence Bhaal has over the trio? (This is D&D, so any "it can't be done" answer is essentially not going to fly)
The module isn't adressing the elephant in the room at all. Namely, the likely fact some players will catch onto the fact that they're being played, and that they will want to do something about it.
Specifically, how do the PCs stop Bhaal? Not stop one leader at the behest of another. But stop Bhaal so that none of the three end catastophes take place? (I am not saying this needs to succeed. I am saying there needs to be adventure material to let players work the case. Currently, us DMs are expected to just ignore the issue and have PCs do other stuff. But knowing my PCs, there will be deep dissatisfaction if they can't get anywhere with this. Specifically: there exists D&D spells that should be able to confirm the malign influence holding the three leaders. How do you break this influence? What if players to to involve major allies, such as classic FR NPCs. After all, the return of Bhaal (!!!) surely should not and can not be left up to a bunch of low level newbies to handle...?)
