At first, I was extremely put off by the first-person perspective; my one biggest pet peeve for first-person is the lack of peripheral vision. There is a view that is a few feet back and a few feet above, looking forward and down on your character which I tend to use a lot, but it does not do the trick wholly.
But then I got into the game. Wow, it is amazing! The graphics are gorgeous, and the game is so open-ended that you could easily just hike trails to see the amazing views; spectacular sun sets, towns that sprawl beneath a realistically snow crowned mountain, forests that hum with the life of the occasional breeze and flitting butterflies. The amount of detail is.... outstanding! There are hundreds of side quests apart from the main story-line; in fact, I often found myself forgetting what the main story line was, just to pursue my interest of the day. This is by far the most immersive and mesmerizing game I have ever played.
There are some draw backs, of course, as no game is perfect. While the leveling system is quite unique (in a good, breathe-of-fresh air way), one can easily find oneself poorly equipped to handle subsequent fights due to the fact that everything in the game levels along with you. I think this can be especially disappointing if you are a warrior class and have accidentally gimped yourself by the choice of major and minor skills, and how you use them. Fortunately, I decided early on to read about character creations and to focus my attention on having an extremely well-balanced character, even to the point where I spend 15 minutes of wall-clock time shooting arrows to increase Marksman, or running willy-nilly and jumping off cliffs to increase Athletics and Acrobatics.
Another downside is that after a while, even though there are vast quantities of NPCs, each with a different role in life and a real schedule that they can follow (including eating and sleeping), they start to aggregate into a small set. You start to recognize voices from one NPC to the next, the bodytypes start to blur together, and they all seem to get the same rumors from the same source. I have to admit that the game attempts to address by introducing new topics as you progress (folks rumor about things you have done) and that the NPCs talk to each other just like real people would.
I am also a big believer in that if you are a master or expert at something, it should really stand out. When meeting other characters, the fighters, thieves and assassins stand out. For instance, the Morag Tong Assassin; you probably don't see much of him, right? =) And the Imperial soldiers seem quite adequate to handle threats on the road from bandits and highwaymen. But the mages and wizards all seem vastly underpowered. I have a hard time finding a game where magic users can stand on their own. I liked "Dawn of Magic" because it is all about using spells to progress, and you can actually take down enemies with that alone. I laughed when, in Oblivion, I was fighting in the Arena and my "coach" warns me about a high elf I am facing. When I fought this supposed wizard, he pulled out a dagger and tried to run me through. What's up with that?!? My character has a strong focus on using magic (currently, all my magic attributes and skills are maxed), but I still find that I go through mana like crazy when casting big spells. It would be nice if you could hotkey a mana potion or a Welkynd stone. Unfortunately, I find the eye-candy in spellcasting a bit wanting, and the group affect spells never seem to do enough damage. Yes, you can soften them up with weakness spells, but dang it, I am the Arch-Mage for crying out loud. *grin* Additionally, I would love to see a blademaster and other expert fighters actually look like they have practiced for hours and hours on end; I want to see more moves, more technique and more style. The 3 or 4 "moves" that one attains when progressing through the various levels are quite unflattering, and not always effective; the side-step power attack when you become a journeyman is useless when you get it, and takes a long time to get right.
The game is great! I have already put a lot of time into it, and I can tell I still have a long way to go. This is mostly because of the myriad quests that one can uncover by talking to various folks and doing various actions; one will find that a particular action may open up a line of discussion with a previously "unknown" character, which may lead to a quest which takes you across the country and back, meeting new people... and it grows. The creativity and ingenuity behind the numerous quests are both extremely satisfying and quite successful of breaking the tedium of a hack-n-slash focus.
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