I introduced my current roommate to the game, after he saw me playing Adventure mode, and he did at first just kind of sneer because of the graphics, but I went on to describe the level of detail in combat, and I saw his eyes light up when I mentioned how there is no standard "health" system like most games, instead it simulates tissue layers and organs and so on, and how that was kind of the payoff for the graphics, because there was no way in hell his PS3 could simulate that level of detail in real time with what he considered AAA graphics (I have no idea how accurate that statement is, but he bought it).
Got him playing, and not five minutes later, he looked up from his laptop at me and asks "Can you die from an arrow to the throat?"
I say "Yes, but if you can kill all the bandits or whatever before you bleed out, and are able to rest, you might survive."
"Well, doesn't matter, because the guy just shot me in the brain."
I look up from my screen, and he's grinning, and getting his next character ready. He still plays Adventure more than Fortress, but he's slowly getting into that, too.
Though, my own best reaction to the game actually came some time after I started playing it, when to anyone watching I would have appeared crazy, because a certain FB had me almost shouting at my monitor "You're made of salt! Stop swimming up my aquaduct!"