I'm surprised this thread has gone on so long without a negative opinion. Granted about 3/4s of the posts are Big ST3ph3n jocking this "fresh ass game", but still...
I guess I'll be the counterpoint. I put about 10 hours into the game and I think its pretty damn bad. I apologize since the following is long-winded, but I just want to be thorough so it doesn't seem like I'm complaining to complain, I'm also kinda ranting in anger at myself because I bought into the hype.
The general story is intriguing but none of the elements that need to support it succeed. The dialogue is awkward and poorly written, the voice acting is bad (get a load of main character "Clint Eastwood's Polish cousin Steve", or a few of the other VAs trying to cover their european accents), the names of characters/creatures/places sound like something Tim and Eric would make up if they were to write a fantasy novel, and the cutscenes are rather sloppy with some jarring cuts and stiff animations. Speaking of which, the in-game animations aren't a whole lot better... your character has the same handful of over-exaggerated hand motions during dialogue just to give one example. On the plus side, the music is really quite enjoyable, I think it can be a little too epic and grand at times when it really just needs to be ambient exploration music but it is still likable.
The game world looks pretty damn good, but the character models are rough and ugly, and every time the camera changes angles in a cutscene you get to watch all the background details jarringly pop back in. Whoever told someone in the deals section that the game "runs at 60 FPS" was a pretty bad source, the game does run pretty decently while playing but not nearly as smoothly as Arcania or Oblivion, and there is still more slowdown that I would like during combat. While on the topic of worlds and characters, there is a weird sorta divide going on in this game... on one hand the game world has all sorts of diverse and unique landscapes and creatures which really helps breaks up the monotony of forests and trolls, but on the other hand there is no real connection between any of it, its just like a fantasy grab bag. While I'm talking aesthetics, the box art is really crappy and the menus/interface aren't very attractive.
None of the criticisms above probably matter much to the more hardcore gamers who don't care about story or graphics and just want to grind away, but I don't think it even works in that regard. All of the crafting/armor/alchemy stuff is really deep and I can definitely see hardcore gamers enjoying all of the tweaking you can do, but in my opinion there's no point in going through all of that if the combat isn't any good, and it really isn't. The combat is superficial, there is a real lack of "oomph" or effect to your character's over-the-top spins and swordplay... a twirl of the sword does nothing but then a simple jab will deal the same amount of damage to the enemy (not that there's any real input difference: both the mundane and extravagant moves were done just by pressing the attack button). The lack of enemy reaction to your attacks and rather random hit detection tends to ruin any kind of strategy: it does no good to be a long distance magic user because even if you're playing to an enemy's weakness, they'll be un-staggered and up in your grill forcing melee combat soon enough.
I tried to like the first one (who wouldn't be interested in playing more elder scrolls-type games?), and I tried to get my hopes up for this one as well, but I really just cannot approve of it, and I can definitely not suggest it as a $60 purchase. Granted, there are some folks who enjoyed the first one so they'll probably enjoy this as well (though I'll be puzzled as to how), but I think your time is probably better spent replaying another RPG you know you enjoy.