The very first part of the cycle is very different from the rest.
The character leveling system is close to classic RPGs - even taking into account the presence of class features, you can level up almost any available weapon.
Developing your weapons and armor is more like an MMORPG (personally, I think so) - towards the end everything gets cooler, except that, depending on the style of play, you can choose to focus on a bonus to damage or health. However, it is already possible to modify situational bonuses from elemental damage to reload speed. By the way, the weapon here does not have cartridges, but only overheats (although with proper pumping and a good weapon, you can assemble it so that you can shoot for 120 seconds without a break, interrupt the fire a moment before overheating, and shoot immediately after an instant cooling).
The dialogue system is unusual for conversational RPGs of the time - instead of clearly specifying the full phrase, the gist is chosen, and the phrases are divided into exploration and dialogue progression. Depending on how much good or aggression has been done by the player, later quests may unlock bonus options of the corresponding type. But this leads to the fact that some late quests cannot be fully completed, or you cannot get the desired option and are limited to something average or even the opposite.
The graphics were gorgeous for those times, and now they are quite up to par, although the animation of some dialogues is just limp.
Good for those who like to talk, shoot, and study psychology.
For those who don’t like to listen to chatter about heroism and wait until they let them kill a crowd of enemies, I don’t recommend going in - quit at the 3rd minute.