Don't listen to the haters, Doesn't take long until you realise they make points that make literally 0 sense, complaining about the lack of cooking, crafting and potion making when this game literally has all of these, is it KCD2 in terms of in-depth...no, but its there
magic is not locked behind grimoires or wands? does it help and accent your mage build to use these tools? yes, but its not needed to use it, so similar to Skyrim you can create a range/mage or a battlemage, wielding one weapon with magic in the other hand
The game takes time to tell the stories of the people who exist in the world and the world is well written, if you like open world RPG's I don't see why you wouldn't like this, its great