I don't feel it is over-rated and depending on what you like will probably depend on if you like the beginning or the later parts better vs the other. There are plenty of people that didn't like the big slow paced city to start the game off on, then when they got past that is was more battle & buy/sell, which they did enjoy. So a common thread was "does it get better" and the response to them was "yes the game becomes faster paced once outside the city". Others like some here, like another big city to visit and learn about its goings on.
So where some like the one thing, there is a group that likes the other. In my case I'm slightly more battle orientated, so I didn't see the game slip terribly. I'm sure though it was rushed from words Larian have used, we do know Cyseal was all we had in EA, but we didn't change the whole scope of Cyseal, we reported quest bugs, balancing thoughts, UI improvements etc. It wasn't like we asked for and got the murder mystery in town, the story was all planned and not addressed by EA players.
I would love the day and I hope it is their next project, where Larian can take all the reasonable time they ever need to make a game without being rushed and get it all nailed from start to finish. My guess is they would agree. Perhaps they'll never have that luxury.
