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The further out we get from this game's original release, the more obvious it becomes that this may have been the peak of freedom in a First Person Roleplay game.

Without the mandate to voice act every line of dialogue the game is free to give long rambling speeches about lore. The dialogue system is dated and dumps heaps of information at you. The quest log is a nonsense mess and forces you to pay attention and keep notes. This also means playing for an hour every weekend will be the most punishing experience since you will be 100% lost all the time as you will never remember what you were doing when you last played.

The NPCs will LIE to you. Its one of the amazing parts of this game. The NPCs will give incorrect directions, vague descriptions or outright refuse to give you information unless you bother to use the speechcraft skill and sweet talk them into liking you. Its kind of amazing when you realize a lot of this. The odd interactions between certain systems means these NPCs also act irrationally and erratically like real people.

Spellcrafting is hillarious, broken and amazing. Yes you can game the system. They game even makes it obvious that other mages and spellcasters do the exact same thing. Telvani towers literally block your progression if you don't know how to beat their basic "fly up the mushroom tunnel like a wizard" puzzle.

Level and skill progression seem punishing but its intended to keep you from becoming a master of all trades without some serious time investment or a plan. You are encouraged to play a class with a specific playstyle from the beginning. Deviating means suffering until you're able to make more significant gains in those weak skills. Its meant to incentivize you to create a new character and experience the game from a different perspective.

When the world is very alien looking, the dated nature of the graphics becomes less of an issue.

When you realize you as a player running into an ancestral tomb and taking treasure inside of it aren't looting a forgotten dungeon but an actively used graveyard you suddenly realize why you're attacked by all manner of ghost and ghoul in those underground crypts. You don't belong there and you did it all for 12 gold and a cheap copper ring. Also the bonemeal you took from that jar is literally that guy's grandma.

If you're not at least a teensy bit racist by the end credits you're not playing it right.