not as bad as everyone says, but not a masterpeice either
Well, 5 years and 6 patches later, the game is actually fun to play, despite the crash-to-desktop that occurs occasionally during combat and the production values.
Basically, this is Baldur's Gate on a budget. You lead around 4 heroes, plunder dungeons, level up as you see fit, make good or evil choices, and explore a rather large world via a world map and quest-givers. There are some innovations here - your weapon acts as an NPC that levels up and that you can customize and there are a wide variety of herbs to find and use. Character animations are low-budget but nice enough. Actually, that about sums up all the graphics. For its time, the spell animations were quite good.
Sound is fair, although I always turn in-game sound off.
The bugs still persist, however. You have to be pretty diligent about saving because the game crashes randomly during combat, usually on a click or when you hit the spacebar to pause. There are some interface quirks as well. However, none of the quests were broken. and I was able to play the game from start to finish with about 27 crashes to the desktop, and over 40 hours of play.
If you are looking for an RPG diversion with an immersive world and well-rounded story, and don't mind being patient with the bugs (SHAME ON YOU JOWOOD), I'd grab this from the bargain bin without a second thought.