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It's been almost three years (just kidding, it has been) since I started playing this game. Yes, I dropped it several times, switching to other games, some of which I also put on pause. Eh, either games are like that these days, or I've just changed... 😔
So, my opinion of the game is mixed, and that's probably normal, considering you could say that about many games. I'd like to write it out more coherently and literarily, but that would require sitting for a long time and squeezing formulations out of myself like the last bits of ointment or ketchup from a packet, so better to go point by point. 

1. Character. Maybe this isn't exactly a plus, but as an exception, I did enjoy playing not another village bumpkin, but an educated (I took aristocratic origin) representative of legitimate (?) authority who keeps order and enforces laws, while also carrying out tasks from superiors. And the main thing is that practically no one can talk back to you, and if they dare, you can easily resolve it with a boot or a bottle. I think Nebka and Alex would have liked this aspect, as well as the ability in some cases to kill through choosing the right dialogue line (sometimes even without reason). Character creation here is fairly standard, except that choosing your own banner stands out from the rest and evokes associations with Mount&Blade, but that's where it ends. The presence of portraits was nice, so I didn't have to look at crooked 3D faces like in NWN2. There are few skills/specializations, as there is little of everything else (almost lol). Skill trees are mostly classic and generally fine, although almost all of them are combat-oriented, +there are buffs/debuffs and passive bonuses. +As the game progresses, skills appear that depend on your reputation and the loyalty of your companions, and artifacts also give decent abilities. But those are rather pleasant bonuses. What stands out most here is magic. It has a rather unusual mechanic, though calling it unique wouldn't be fair either. You're given the opportunity to create spells yourself by combining various sigils and enhancing their characteristics, or adding new effects. At first, this is quite entertaining and you add them to every character (yes, anyone can cast, but effectiveness will vary), but closer to the end of the game, you get tired of it. You grow weary of creating these spells, picking the best combinations, comparing them, plus you need to update them if you suddenly found a new sigil and decided to add it to an existing spell, or simply leveled up and can enhance it (also, for some reason, new spells stopped appearing on the bottom pop-up magic panel for me, even though I saved them and deleted old ones in the main window). In the end, I only bothered with this about three times. Still, it's a cool mechanic, as is the spire/edict mechanic that unlocks at the end of the game. I also enjoyed studying and crafting. 
-I leveled dual wielding, but by the end of the game I realized that not just any one-handed weapon suits this style lol +I leveled Barik with two-handers, though it would have been better to go down the shield path. +Only at the end did I learn that you can upgrade your gear at the forge. Poor Barik 😅

2. Story. Many people praise it above all else. Yes, the story setup differs from most games, though I don't rule out that some Japanese developers have something similar, or in other genres. Here you don't need to save the world from yet another demons, and that's probably already good, though I don't really stress over stories in general, so neutral. But I did like the ability at the start to choose events that happened immediately before the game itself began (I think I saw something like that in some Japanese game). These choices affect the availability of certain locations, characters, your reputation, and such things, so fans of full content might be disappointed, because you'll definitely miss something lol)  Though you'll miss stuff anyway, since there are four endings here, and consequently different paths of plot development and appearance/cutting off of certain options lol)) Sometimes certain dialogue options can cut off access to information, or terminate it entirely, though such outcomes weren't very obvious and I didn't particularly like that. But the variety is often good. Otherwise, there are interesting stories and mini-plots here and there. And most of it seems reasonably well written (some dialogues and such). But apparently nothing grabbed me too hard, since I can't recall anything specific from what was interesting. However, I can write about the amount of text))) At the beginning of the game (after the prologue?), when you arrive at the military camp and meet your first companions and other dudes, naturally the option arises to talk to them. And even though it was quite a while ago, and maybe I wasn't in the mood, those dialogues stuck in my memory well. Not the substance itself, but that I got fed up reading them (some religions forbid skipping dialogues). On one hand, it's kind of good that the characters are properly fleshed out and you can learn a lot about them and the world, but when a ton of text gets dumped on you at the start of the game, it can push you away. Many folks probably just skipped them, or didn't ask absolutely every question, but still, this was the devs' intention since such an option exists, and it's not very good — they could have done better and somehow split up those "sessions," especially since the reading material is mediocre. Yes, there are some games that consist mainly of text, but there it's probably more interesting, +those games themselves set you up for reading lol) Though later there's less text and that's pleasing, or it alternates well with battles and there's no such pile-up of letters.
-At the very end during the trial, I think I caught a glitch, because the skill-based replies weren't highlighted, but through trial and error I managed to achieve the desired result.. 

3. World. It's boring. Maybe I'm just a fan of the Forgotten Realms, and therefore all other worlds turn out significantly smaller in every sense and don't spark much interest in me, barring rare exceptions. First of all, what stands out here is that THERE ARE FEW RACES AND CLASSES (there are none at all), but that's a matter of taste. Although they didn't even bring in enemy varieties. There are humans, there are deathclaws  beastfolk, and there are ghost-elementals. There aren't even stupid wolves lol) To each their own, but for me such fullness matters too. Now let's talk about locations. Most of them are small or medium-sized. Sometimes that's a plus, sometimes a minus. Many are probably similar to each other, only the landscape and terrain type change. Although there are a few cool ones I liked (a couple in the desert and one in the rocks, maybe something else). But the saddest part is that across the entire game there are only two and a half villages, +camps and assorted farms, speaking of settlements. That is, there isn't even a proper city like in old RPGs. And throughout the game you read a lot about various cities and countries, but you can't really picture them, you don't even remember where exactly they are located, and only names remain in your head, let alone visiting them. Maybe it's my personal problem and they just didn't spark any interest in me. Either way, it's too little. This isn't just about scale/terrain, but also lore moments. Take the Archons, for instance. In the game you only encounter five of them, but they do tell you a bit about various others who were or exist somewhere else, but alas, they won't even show them to you (except for someone). In short, I'd have wanted to see more of what the game tells you about. Among the positives, I'd highlight random encounters. Those I definitely liked, because they're not just sudden annoying fights, but various kinds of events that can be entertaining in themselves (funny bits, lore reveals, another chance to use the boot, and even some hanky-panky) and that can also give you buffs/valuables/reputation. Some of them can of course be reduced to combat, but I usually avoided that and resolved them purely through text options. 

4. Companions. A fairly typical set of characters personality-wise, in my opinion. Although some were attempted to be distinguished through certain quirks. And while they aren't particularly interesting on their own, the banter overall was decent, plus there wasn't always the possibility to say/do what would please absolutely everyone, and that had its own appeal, +here you essentially can't build a party of goods or a party of evils like in BG. Also, there was no escaping discrimination, since there are only two men and as many as four women. By the way, one of the guys (Lantry) reminded me of Menth almost the whole game. And I think only three companions are well written, while the rest are lesser, as it seemed to me. Plus the former also have personal quests. Although I still liked Sirin the most, but sadly I never managed to get into her panties.

5. Combat. Not a mandatory point, but I still want to voice my thoughts. I love "active pause" in BG, NWN, and other games, maybe sometimes even more than turn-based, but here I didn't like it. Rather, I didn't like the combat itself, because everything happens quickly, clumsily, and unclear under what rules, rounds, and so forth. Yes, you pause, issue commands, and it still turns out badly. In those games you understand who hits when, whether you'll hit the enemy before he hits you, and so on. Here I had problems with that, especially early on when characters are weak and unleveled. In my opinion, there's too big a difference in weapon speed and everything else. By the end I was crushing everyone (even with a janky build), provided I carefully controlled the battle and healed in time. And I haven't even mentioned the fight with the Archon, whom I defeated with Lantry alone 😎

That's the game. At times it was interesting, but given several lengthy breaks, evidently it was also tiring/not engaging enough, so I certainly wouldn't play it again. unless paid lol)
PS not recommended for achievement hunters, since getting everything in one playthrough is impossible