This is really all one needs to know, as the storyline takes a backseat to the game itself. At the time of it's release this game was considered to be a good graphic effort. You saw the 3-D world from a third person view, and the almost symetrical looking backgrounds didn't look quite so out of place as they do on the later releases in the series. The areas you explored each had their own look to them. All of this was rather nicely presented, with some decent effects.
Waterfalls come to mind right off, they did do quite a good job with running water.
While primative looking when compared to character models found in later games, I would say that the ones here were OK for the time. While blocky looking, they all seemed to have some interesting effect to them. As mentioned, the game had some real glitches that still haunt this series today. One is the see through wall. Another would be the ability to walk right through things like fallen enemies and some plants.