This game is incredible and you should all play it.
Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.
If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.
Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.
Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.
Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.
If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier
