I remember this game. I downloaded it several years ago, tried to play it for an half an hour. I think (and this is just my opinion) that the game is too punishing for beginner. My characters died a dozen times in that half hour. Challenge is okay, frustration is not. Gaming is my entertainment, not my job (thank goodness for that). Needless to say I did not buy the game and uninstalled the demo. I also noticed the inconsistencies in the avatars used in the game. Not that it affects the gameplay, but it makes the game look less good.

Again, this is just my opinion. No intent to bash the game whatsoever.

I think it's supposed to be a lot like Bard's Tale , which did involve a lot of dieing at first until you could build up. I might try the demo first.

This. Easy Medium Hard options should be standard on almost all games.

So its hard at the beginning and get’s better the more you play?

The level of difficulty in the Devil Whiskey can be increased or decreased in the game options settings. Or alternatively you could open up the .cfg files and modify the random monster encounter rate to your liking.

The game was designed to be similar to the old Bard's Tale games so yes it is combat heavy. If you liked the old Bard's Tale trilogy, then you will probably also like the Devil Whiskey.

If you didn't like the Bard's Tale trilogy, then you might want to look elsewhere, or try the demo first like you said.

Unfortunately Decklin (the guy now has the rights to the game), hasn't kept up with the website so there are allot of dead links on the Devil Whiskey site.
http://www.devilwhiskey.com/

You can obtain the most recent demo version and the mods+patches here

The game is still being sold at Decklin's Domain

Hopefully one day he will release the source code as was promised ages ago, but I doubt that will ever happen.