I just did this within the last couple weeks --
yeah, it's a shock at first, but the game is worth it!
I found the pacing was good, I would explore to my limits, and when I was getting burned out I would always come across something interesting enough to engage me again
The map is bigger than it seems, I thought - always an alternate path, and the individual areas 'felt' right
I'll leave character creation to someone with more experience, Ive only played through once, as a Shaper - it was a blast, totally different combat experience for me having diposable minions
EDIT: the only issue I still had with the 'interface' (engine) at the end of the game was the path-finding:
if I let my creations clump up, they would have trouble moving, and several times I had issues because I had to move them in a specific order to get them unstuck, causing me to effectively lose valuable turns; also, sometimes a creation/ my char would inexplicably take the long way around and get where I wanted them, but with 1 or 2 less AP than they should have had. Fairly minor problem, but if you have a major fight in close quarters try to position your team well before engaging!