In all fairness, the Lithtech engine is not stunning. It does the job and does it fairly well, but compared to something like the Unreal engine that was released way before Lith, it doesn't look anything like as good.
However... that didn't matter with NOLF because - and I realise this is about the millionth time the NOLF haters have been told this - it fucking ruled. As that guy said, it would still be good in black and white with crap textures and such like, for all the reasons I listed earlier.