Easily one of the greatest RPG's ever made
Eventually I got bored and began playing the second one (didn't even play the 1st despite having it) and started to enjoy it. I instantly noticed MANY of the the features that Dragon age later revived. The plot is amazing, and the villians, such as Irenicus, are very good. The companion side quests and dialogue reminded me of later bioware games, and many of the additional side quests were not boring fetch quests i find these days.
The one thing that really shocked me was the sheer depth of the game. This game is MASSIVE. It took me 40 hrs to beat shadows of amn at what i think was 100%, versus Kotor in 10 hrs and Dragon Age in 14 hrs. Many of the areas reminded me of Dragon age areas, and despite the games status as a 10yr + old game the graphics are quite good.
I believe that the main downside this game has is the spell system. It has once per day spellcasting, which is quite frustrating, as i like the manabar/stamina bar system more. Also despite the number of powers (over a hundred i think) many of them are useless, and i found it would have been better to simply remove them. I played as a kensai/mage (as i like to wiki the best classes before starting) and didn't quite like the constant casting of self-powers, and resting. I would have preferred that spells like haste were sustainable powers, as they are in DA, and use upkeep instead of having a short duration.
Along with the frustrating powers was what i consider overpowered/spammy monsters that can use cheap powers to rape your party. I disliked the banishing/disintegration effects that some monsters could use that would make it impossible to revive a companion, hence a load. Notably liches (KANGAXX!!!) eybeasts, and mindflayers. Death hexes don't belong in RPG's and promote a luck factor in a game that is designed to promote tactics.
The other crucial age factor is the completed demented AI. They often stand around like idiots in combat, all six of them if i do nothing, no matter what tactics i set their AI to. Mages like to stand there and get raped by melee monsters, and i often found that with my kensai/mage that i would prefer bringing 4 warriors and Aerie as the only mage.
Well that's my consensus, as always i made it sound negative, but this game is simply the best game i've played in that time range. I just hope Bioware remembers their grassroots, and makes games like this instead of promoting EA crap like they did with ME2 DLC, DA:O DLC, and DA:2. For goodness sake bioware, use the d-pad to satisfy console players, I have console friends say that all the time. I couldn't help throwing that rant in there.