Just finished game yesterday, read on...
As for bugs, yes there are some but FAR less than G3 without community patch and not that much more than in previous ones. For me, game never crashed once and I didnt experienced stopper bug, but am not saying there are none. Am saying there are just very few you may not even trigger and when you know about them then you can avoid them. I did read on gamefaqs forum before and found 1-2 potential stoppers for me. I avoided, but of course it is not excuse. For some people there comes "bug" that character is angry and wont speak to you. I had several times this and was able to solve it by looting to get money and buying/finding "Joke" spell. But again, maybe there will be situation where you cant help it - you shall be careful when you STEAL and there is quicksave possibility too...
For graphics, yes engine is older and doesnt have much of fancy effects(although it does have nice sunlight effects), but if you know Gothic you know how Artistic-Kickass-Open-Level-Design in these games is and I choose it over better engine/effects any day. I have yet to see 3PS Action RPG on PC that have better level design and look soooo fantasy. Authors in Germany clearly must got inspired from their Alps mountains and countryside. Yeah this is tropic island but if you exchange palm trees for standard ones you get same Gothic image.
Music is ok, its non-intrusive which is good. It fit into game too and it have similar tones than Gothic. But I found it unremarkable and forgettable - more than previous games. First Gothic had great refren in its song and G3 had also beautiful song - it just repeated it all over. But this is just so... to exist.
Now, how interesting game/story is? I found myself as survivor on the island, got recruited into monastery, found some friends and enemies there, lived some life there before I could even go out again.. yeah I did like it most of time but there are some dialogs and non-logical things that can make weaker characters turn off + uninstall. For example, in beginning of game they can force-recruit you into monastery if they catch you somewhere on island, which means not by loosing fight but simply to come close enough and dialog start which almost literally say: "Nobody is allowed to walk free on the island, we must ARREST you so you will be RECRUITED in monastery - to work for us". You got it? No prison for you, they force you to work for them, as if they trust enough you wouldnt turn your back on them. There is lot more like this. Also, some dialogs really hurt this game for me, they can feel bland(often also because voice-acting), sometimes trying to be "funny" against itself(like comments of your character on situation etc..), and plot feels weaker thanks to it. Voice acting was especially in first half of game often WEAK. But, later game did pick up. Things start to happen, voices and dialogues got better and some feel of urgency came too. For other people, first half was better because they say it was just battle after battle later. For me it JUST finally started something to happen(other and bigger than solving personal problems of people).
Dungeons are never too big, but there is lot of gameplay there. You will need to use spells like telekinesis, nautilus and levitation, there are traps and switches, tombs and all stuff. When you finally get to its end and find that "special item" you looked for, it really feels like you solved puzzle box and progressed somewhere - feel of satisfaction. There is one problem with equipment. Its general lack of helms. In whole game I got 2 in last few minutes of gameplay.
I may have missed something of course.
As for combat, its quite strategic and much better than before, but enemies locking mechanism is bad. I played as mage so I didnt had problem, but I thing it could piss me few times if as melee fighter. Problem is that locking is automatic, as you focus you view on enemy. To unlock, you need to move mouse to sides quite a lot pixels. Because in this game last thing you need is to get surrounded, you usually make enemies to come at you in row. Often game will lock on enemy more far away while you want to lock on closest comming. But because you need turn quite distance with mouse to unlock, or force-swing mouse a bit to the sides, often you will lock to another unwanted enemy or turn to other direction - then upon returning view on them you can start your luck again. Its not that bad as it looks now but often it really got irritating. They should skip locking mechanism altogether.
Overall, this is STILL great RPG game nonetheless. Sometimes weaker dialogs, few bugs and inconsistencies are made up with satisfying dungeons, cool fantasy level design(map), good feel of character leveling and overall progress.
So, do I recommend? Especially if you loved Gothics, for sure but remember since then some years passed and depending on your expectation MAYBE it wont be enough anymore. But then again, how many open 3PS Action RPG's and with such epic level design are there, on PC... In beginning, I felt like 8-9/10, bit later it drab a bit into 6-7/10 but came interesting again and dungeons got even better. so 8/10 from me. G1 was best, but its still great game in the end.
And small hint: If you open quest book and dont see any text there, change your fonts dpi in Windows back to 96dpi - from 120dpi. This solved it for me.