Yeah, the pretty graphics and realtime combat are probably EOB’s best qualities. But EOB1’s design is annoying in several ways. I suspect this goes for EOB2 and 3 too, though I haven’t played them.
In the voice message I sent, I said I prefer Might and Magic 3: I now started playing World of Xeen and that game is much more fun than EOB. The combat is simpler, but improving your characters, finding treasure and solving quests feels so rewarding. I’m having a blast.
EOB almost seems to take pleasure in punishing you for playing it and not in a good way. Especially the hostile level design/traps and general lack of guidance and explanation suck away the fun. The only thing going for it is more freeform real-time combat, and arguably “smarter” puzzles. But even for those, I think Dungeon Master 2 just did all of that better.