Well, I'd read all the criticism of BD, but thought I should play it through and make up my own mind about it. Fair to say, a lot of the criticism comes in comparing the 2 games, if you've played DD first. It wouldn't be half bad if you've never played DD, but the problem is that many of the tried and true strategies from DD are worthless in BD; you simply never need to do any of the following w/ your limited skill pts upon leveling up:

Learn Lockpick (not enough truly locked things to make this worthwhile); Identify (merchants do this cheaply); Repair (after the beginning of the game, literally not a problem); or even Healing. It's not automatic, like a potion, and thus not helpful in battle. You'll gain so much $ and find so many potions by doing the "optional" battlefield dungeons (boring and tedious grinds), you simply don't need to waste skill pts beyond maybe 1 in Healing. I found a bedroll, but you can forget about sleeping to restore hp & mana; they slowly regenerate anyway. So forget about food too. You can forget about the various charms; never needed them. [You should NOT forget about the resistance crystals, though; they're quite helpful! Always strive to get the best you can.]

There's an overabundance of skill sets, but really, you can ignore 99% of them. Just focus everything on 1 skill set and do it well. For example: my PC was specialized in 2-h slashing weapons. That's it. Your goal in the game is to get the best weapon for your skill set. I started the DK as a Mage, until I realized how magic was nerfed, at least in the beginning of the game. I quickly made him an Archer and never looked back; he had fewer hp as a Mage build but he did pretty well. All his skill pts into Ranged weapons, and got him the best bow I could at any given moment. I did get 4 skill pts into Alchemy/Combine, b/c in the rare event a battleground merchant has a Holy Water, you can make a large permanent potion; unless you want it for a Mage, use it for Vitality (hp); forget about stat increases. I got about 4 of these total for the whole game, but at about 100 hp a pop, I found it worthwhile (sank them all into my otherwise weak hp DK).

Stamina: beyond using it for running, worthless. You can probably sell any non-healing potion (keep mana potions if you're a mage, obviously).

Unless it was a bug, the teleport stones you get earlier in the game vanish in the 4th and final Act. Annoying.

Voice acting...uneven. I found the DK comic relief, unintended or not. Some of the voice work was good, mostly mediocre, some outright bad.

There are pluses to this game. Lots of puzzles and mental challenges; maybe too much so. I had to consult a walkthrough on some occasions (Gamefaqs & Gamebanshee for 1 odd quirk/bug), but I appreciated the occasional challenge. The beginning is pretty tough, but hang in there. The rest of the game, at least for me, was then arguably too easy. Nice plot twist at the end.

Some bugs that forced me to go back to an earlier save. You'll have up to 5 quick save slots + whatever else you want. At near the end, none of my recent saves would load, an annoyance, but I only lost about 20 minutes going back to an earlier master save.

Oh yeah: another valid criticism. You'll get "unique" items as well as items from "sets". I never used a single one; they were inferior to what I already had (and you don't get bonuses for having the whole set). Just being diligent in visiting battleground merchants got me the best gear...Just dump them near the merchants; you can't even sell them, and they'll disappear by the next Act. (I think 1 might have been a quest item...)

Final bug: after beating the BBEG at the end, my PC vanishes but the defeated enemies just stand around. Nothing else happens, so whatever final cut scene there might have been, I'll never see it. [I'm playing the Mac version; possible the bug is w/ Wine...]

Other smaller criticisms I could list, but I don't want to savage the game too much. It's got its charms, to go along w/ its warts.

I learned Identify Equipment, because I prefer to see what loot is right away, rather than having to wait until I can visit a merchant. I also learned Repair, since it is handy, and I had lots of skill points. I put 2 skill points into healing for both characters, but 1 probably would have been good enough.

I skipped the BF quests and dungeons entirely, and only visited for the merchants.

There are more effective, and more mana efficient, spells available starting in act 2 (especially shaman magic). I started off with a warrior/warrior combo (one using slashing damage, the other crushing), and had one switch to a bow/crossbow near the end of act 1 (occasionally using a bow before then).
I got some holy water in the BF at almost the end of the game, and made some permanent agility potions for my hero archer (playing again I'd make the DK a bow archer, since he wouldn't need much strength for equipment requirements, his armour class increasing with level).
I maxed Reload Time for bow/crossbow expertise, but other than that only put a couple points into the damage and accuracy subskills of weapon expertise.

The teleporter stones are only available in acts 2 and 3. I guess with the puzzles and places you get teleported to in act 4 they would have made it too easy to break stuff.

Set and unique items don't disappear when you change acts, just loose their unique names (and they can then also be sold).

At the end of the game, the bad guy has a speech, your PC is teleported away, and he should walk off screen and then the final cutscene plays. After that, in the main menu the 'Enter Battlefields' option should be enabled.
You should be able to view the outro.mpg video from the game package (see the DD topic Changing Resolution on Mac version and browse to the ..\Beyond Divinity\Static folder).
Or you could just watch it on Youtube: start and end of the fight, cutscene).

Thanks for your perspective, Raze, and the links to what I missed at the end. If I were to play it again, I'd try and do what you did: skip the BF quests/dungeons, and just check in w/ the merchants from time to time. And play the DK or PC as a Mage, w/ a companion melee fighter. That would likely keep the fights challenging throughout, as I'd be "under leveled" by the end of the game. The spell effects were pretty cool.