It really does live up to the hype, at the very least. I think part of what it captures about the old Black Isle games is just in things like dialogue, for example, where the choices aren’t just “evil/good.” They’re frequently “good/snarky/evil/absurd/jackass” or something like that. Unless you’re a barbarian, in which case you get a lot of opportunities to just roar at people in normal conversation to get them to do what you want.
The other thing is, make sure you have Speak with Animals up at all times. The animals are pretty much all hilarious.
His Majesty
