I played it on day one and my Gothic fanboyism was so strong it allowed me disregard the poor technical state, empty parts of too large world and other clear signs of unfinished product.
Gothic 1 & 2 were largely panned by the American online and print press (and when I say online press, what I mean is college dropouts with poor writing skills and an inability to focus on anything for more than a few minutes).
Remembering back, I too was put off by the first Gothic game because of the wonky keyboard controls. My first son was born at this time, my patience and energy were constantly taxed.
Right around the time G2 came out, I decided to give G1 a real chance. Within a few hours I discovered two things. First, the keyboard controls for G1 though counter intuitive, are quite brilliant actually. Second, I reaffirmed that the American online press is to be considered dubious at best.
If I had to compress my thoughts into a few pithy sentences as to why I believe those two games are so good it would be these: The game is hard. The game rewards exploration. Getting good gear and becoming powerful isn't quick, but as you grow in power, it is very satisfying. Many quest objectives aren't clear when you get them, they make you think, explore, and talk to a lot of NPCs before you understand what exactly it is you are to do.
Yep, the graphics aren't great. The controls aren't great (well, they are but you have to be the type of person to stick with something for more than a few minutes before passing judgement), the game is hard and slow to reward. On the other hand, there have been plenty of AAA games with huge teams spending 10s of millions with incredible graphics and animation that essentially make cRPGs which auto-play themselves and declare you "super-awesome-unstoppable-hero" within the first 3 minutes.