Combat is fun but woefully imbalanced. X-Com was much more difficult and better balanced, as much as I hated a few aspects of it.
TB combat in XCOM is different and no, it wasn't better balanced. It was just plain unfair in certain moments. That's in no way the same as being better balanced. Both XCOM and D:OS have their issues with balance. I don't know any tactical party game without balance issues. Also the combat in D:OS offers a lot "more" than the combat in XCOM (in which you could only choose to fight your primary and second weapon and grenades). Honestly, XCOM is pretty much but from a purely tactical side it's nothing compared to D:OS.
The dialogue has its entertaining moments but it's shallow especially when it comes to inter-party dialogue. The game has nothing on Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect 2/3, even Baldur's Gate 2 which was similarly on the comical side - except better writing.
True but the game was never made to focus on a deep party interaction - it was made as a co-op experience where much of the story evolves between the human players...
You're also overrating the interactive environment. Putting barrels of "shoot me to AoE" all over the place is not particularly remarkable. The elements were done fairly well but it's nothing we haven't seen before in games like Bioshock or Magicka.
Bioshock? Really? Don't make me laugh, please. D:OS is a ton better in terms of iinteractivity than both Magicka and Bioshock. I guess you just haven't tried many things in the game...
