Each to their own, Pex, and I mean that. Your opinion is as right as mine, since these are opinions, and not facts.
That said, I will note this:
The early game is slow, as your party builds a rep, but I expect that. I like games similar to the Ultimas, and the Magic Candles, where it takes quite a long time to make an impression on people. The sense of accomplishment, to me, is a lot more when my party carves out a regional rep. I've never been a fan of the idea that your newbie party, with cardboard weapons and armor, can be given plenty of quests right out of the character generator.
But yeah, the bandit killing can get damn redundant. I wish there had been one or two regular alternatives that offered more of the same, but under slightly different conditions, and with slightly different rewards. This was actually something the development team was working on at one point, according to Arnold Hendrick, when I spoke with him back in 1992. They did add in that spider quest on the bulletin board, but just ran out of time.
Right about no typical leveling up. It's a matter of taste. I've always liked games that buck the modern trend towards leveling systems in this respect. It's also one of the reasons I much preferred Betrayal at Krondor to Return to Krondor: the latter uses a traditional leveling method, while in the former, you improve your skills, find and buy better items. I'm not saying I want this for every game--I don't. But in Darklands, it just seems to make more sense to me that it's what you do through dealing with the environment that improves your party. You improve by fighting, praying, making potions, etc. They don't gain experience and level up. It feels more...interactive. Much as I love Planescape: Torment, for example (and it's my favorite RPG), it just doesn't have this.
The way I always took the quests was as if someone was saying, "This is what I have available right now. Interested?" If you weren't, you moved on and found others. What I don't like is the short, repetitive list of quest types. It makes perfect sense to me to have 6 different merchants in 3 cities complain about a single raubritter nearby, but none for 3 merchants to each want a different artifact that sounds identical, and is described in identical terms.
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Don't get me wrong, I really like the game and I played it for long - with breaks (even killed a dragon once), it's just that it could've been much better.
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Agreed. And I do wish they'd had the chance to do a second version. But back in those days of Meier and "Wild Bill," Microprose never seemed to get the idea that putting out followups could make money. And Darklands, it has to be said, sold slowly, largely on account of all the bugs in the early releases. The PR rep I dealt with at the time actually didn't like the title at all, and was surprised when I did. But then, she never really was into the history or beliefs of the early Renaissance period in Europe, and I was. Spent quite a long, enjoyable time discussing these with Hendrick.
A shame the current license holders have no interest in letting a remake be made unless they have complete control of the product and a huge barrel of cash. They don't seem to realize that a followup is found money: they're not doing a cent for it. Ah, well.