One of the great great classics of cRPGs. Serpent Isle in particular featured a lot of weird gamebreaking bugs, so save often. Combat isn't the main thrust of this game and it quickly becomes no more than a slight speedbump, but the story, the party dynamics, and the world are fantastic. This was the game that made me love RPGs as a kid and the main game still holds up well. It is 3 decades old though so a lot of QOL techniques that are basic in modern games are not there, if that's the sort of thing you can't stomach - then don't buy this game.
The quests are well made and interesting, the female V has great voice acting. It had a few bugs for me on launch but they were mostly amusing rather than annoying. the 1.5 patch has smoothed out a lot, especially when driving around fast and textures that would previously have trouble loading in time now do. The one thing is that quickhacking is overpowered, not well balanced because the AI can't counter it, and can quickly make the game far too simple and unchallenging. You can either limit yourself from overusing it, avoid it as a combat option, or try the lifepaths mod on nexus which puts some constraints on quickhacking.
1st off: the game is not nearly as long as reviews made it out to be on a single playthrough. It can be done in about 20 hours if you really read fast and rip through it, but probably more like 30ish hours. That said the game really invites multiple playthroughs, not because your decisions have a huge impact on the plot, but because your decisions have a huge impact on YOU. How you apply points, how you act in conversations, changes everything about you and how people react to you. The main mystery of the game isn't the murder the game starts with but who you are as a character, and the game's mechanics are consistent and support that, it has ludonarrative consonance. The traits, attributes, and thoughts system can be overwhelming but don't fall into the trap of trying to min/max or find the most efficient or most meta character. Focus on your character and the story of them. I played a drug-obsessed, maniacally optimistic believer in the supernatural with delusions of grandeur who was in constant danger of a heart attack, and the game gave me many ways that let me get through its puzzles and stories using those skills. In my second playthrough the skeleton of the plot is the same but now I'm a laconic gruff cop who seeks self-inflicted pain and is desperately trying to conceal just how much of his mind is missing, and that's changed my path trhough the story. last tip: don't click every single conversation option, like in life what you DON'T do/say can be just as meaningful and altering as what you DO do/say.
