Biased review! Biased review!
A large group of my friends in undergrad started roleplaying with Rifts and absolutely loved Palladium games. I had cut my teeth on AD&D and had never been introduced to any Palladium products until I had met them.
So I hopped into their rifts game and from that and playing occasionally throughout the years I've come to two conclusions:
1) Palladium has great settings. A little cheesy at times, but anything that I disagree with can usually be easily removed. There's a lot of wiggle room and a good combination of broad descriptions mixed with good detail. I love the Rifts setting.
2) Palladium rules flat out suck. This is one of the clunkiest rule sets ever made. Combat looks like it would run great on paper, but it just takes forever...even with an experienced GM. It's sooooooooo slooooooooooooooooooow. And sure, there are a ton of character classes and combos to pick at the start, but thats pretty near the last choice you'll make as what you get when you go up in level is fairly fixed. And don't get me started on the ever increasing power levels in the supplements.There's a reason that Palladium games have a reputation of being a munchkin's dream.
The rules really need a drastic revision, but the Siembieda's are dead against it with a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude. And don't even think about putting rules conversion up on the web as their rule gestappo will shut you down.
Rifts setting with BESM rules would be awesome, though.
Still, I've never even looked at the fantasy setting. I don't plan on picking it up either, but I am keeping my mind open. If someone runs a good game of it for me then I will happily tell everyone I was wrong.