I just finished the game and it's not that bad but the last area, Temple of Lathander, is super weak. And I have no idea what was the point of implementing 9th level mage spells if my elf mage was only level 16, and on level 18 he could memorize/cast only 1 spell and it's his final possible level (20th for human mage).

Anyway I did not use magic or cleric spells very much in all 3 games, but almost never in EoB 3, the last boss fight is a joke. Thief is needed only once and only if you misuse one particular potion and that area is optional anyway, he was not able to pick any locks AT ALL!!! There was one more door in that optional area with absolutely nothing in it. And there was 1 lever in quest important area where a thief might help but only if you blind and never happen to find the gauntlets or misuse 5 potions.

There are only 7 areas, 1 is optional, 6 areas have the same wall textures (Burieal Glen and Forest Trail, Warrior's Tomb and Temple of Lathander, Guildhall Quarter Ruins and Temple Quarter Ruins), only Mage's Guild can be called *unique*. That trap which takes away every item from inventory actually takes only the majority of them with metal in it and also spawns 4 shadows, there is another encounter where almost all items, metallic included, are *stolen* from the party and you have to fight with magic and bare hands to get them back, that was so stupid. Underwater area is not that bad, but there are 2 optional areas where you'll find no items at all, one area is empty with one dispel magic spot just because it's fun I guess, another area will have a few enemies, there was absolutely no point in placing those locked trapdoors just for that! The main problem is with underwater main area with huge square space of always dispel magic, insane pain in the @$$!

The story which was criticized by many is not that bad actually, and the new music is good, the problem is there is no level music and encounters music will play for only 5-10 seconds. Some cutscenes are too fast to read the text the normal way (reading at casual speed is not possible in such moments, only the fast read) and I hate when cutscenes change text lines that rapidly.

Level drain creatures is a bad design, yes, but they never level drained my party untill I saved and stopped there to check if they actually can do that (and they did). Monsters which eat your metal weapons is super stupid but you can kill it with 2-4 magic missiles or wooden weapons, and +5 enchanted weapons for some reason are immune and I had only 2 such weapons and 1 was taken way before in EoB 1 game, amazing design!
There is one puzzle which requires you to have a food ration, however no food rations can be found in that area, so I had to get back and find it. I think there are at least 3-4 ways to make your game unfinishable (e.g. consume all the real food there).

Never again will I play this game!