I do acknolidge Xoron's point that Entombed has it's inequities, though I don't see lack of nvda support as one of them (hay I've been using sapi with it for a long time). However I don't think those problems ultimately make for a game that is not worth the price, not with so much that does! work extremely well, indeed I'd rather say that entombed has some rough edges than that it has unaddressed bugs, eg, you will have a problem playing as a werrat due to the reset of statistics upon changing form, but you will be %100 fine with all the other races (and werrat is quite a hard race to unlock anyway).
In the end though the best way is just to download the demo, try for yourself and make up your own mind.
Btw, as regards hardmode, hitting shift enter when you start a new game will start you in hardmode. It's the same as easy mode, accept that as Chris said, if you die, you can't restart from your last save and it's curtains.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)