Civ IV is indeed a sweet example. The game is not that easy on low-end cards, like Intel's, but looks pretty good. Terrain is very nicely crafted. What spoils the graphics in FE further is also the way maps are generated. For example, rivers look ridiculously bad and unrealistic, Quite often then start from nowhere, and end up in nowhere.
Dated? Much more important is that graphics are, hm, nice. :-) Take a look at Drakensang: River of Time. The graphics are nothing special technically-wise. However, with few simple effects, the game developers and artists achieved a splendid atmosphere and amazing immersion. The game looks just beautiful. When it comes to graphics, I think FE:LH looks simply unfinished, just rushed out of the corner.
No ships. It is ridiculous that sea is not accessible. No flying / cloudwalking (MOM). Only the Air elementals can fly, and that is all there is to flying in the game. Little variety of creatures. The list of monsters is very short, and boring. Little variety between races. As above, little variety of units. There are almost no interesting units available. No, the designer
A similar thing - the AI would send out armies of pioneers, unprotected by any real warrior. These are easy prey.
I can second all of these. I am especially disappointed with diplomacy and wild lands. Diplomacy is almost useless to me, except to declare war and make piece. Tech trading is far from intuitive - trading tech points is meaningless, and far from real. You exchange skills, not some abstract volume of knowledge. I mean, well, you can't give anyone half of the secret to making leather armor. You either teach one how it is done, or not.</p
I beg to disagree. I quite enjoy the micromanagement in FE. I would only agree to a small extend that default units could be better, and the UI needs further polishing. I am playing a few more games and I will write a detailed review of the game (from the position of a MOM, MOO x and Civ x veteran :-) ).
I just finished my first game on NORMAL, and won via Spell of Making. A few things in this regard... Spell of Making is dirt cheap - only 500 mana and 10 turns to cast. The prerequisites required for it do not compensate. Further, the AI made no attempt to stop me whatsoever. In the legendary MOM, the moment you started casting the Spell of Mastery, all the other players turned immediately against you, and focused all their strength to take you down. <