I liked the first one, despite the fact that it had some flaws. The biggest one, for me, was the combat system: they implemented a very good idea that was also its doom!
Let me explain: you can do a backstep to avoid being hit by your opponent. It's very nice because it adds to the tactical depth of the game.
The flaw of the system is that, the AI of the enemies is not very good, so if you get your timing well (and it's very easy to do), you're nearly untouchable, even from much higher-level opponents (I tried it). The only problem you can encounter is magic users and foes with ranged attacks. But if you're smart enough, you can avoid them.
Except that, it's a very nice open-world game, with all the pros and cons of an open-world game. Personnally I like it very much. I got to play just a part of it (bought it very late in the GOTY edition) before Mass Effect, then Dragon Age Origins, then Mass Effect 2 got released, so I had no chance to finish it.
Now that I know the 2 will be released and massively improved, I've just started playing it again, with the intention to finish it before the 2 get released. ^_^