It has a certain charm, even with it's sometimes Byzantine and terrible rules, and wacky balance. I think the way I would describe would be that it was more "swingy". The rolls of the dice mattered more when determining success or failure. and more care was needed for the DM to keep the game running smoothly- you really didn't need to be a cruel DM to murder parties wholesale, a mediocre DM could do the trick.
