This is quite subjective, but I think that the best answer I can give you OP is to find out by yourself, it's the only way to know what you've "missed", if anything (I.E. to play it yourself). Additionally I disagree with AdamK47, in that in my book there's no "time period" to try out a game you haven't played "until present day", even if it was released a decade ago.
The standards change, the hardware change, but the game-play can potentially still be enjoyable, or it may not be. It's always a matter of personal preferences, regardless of nostalgia or curiosity. The thing is you have to play it yourself to make up your mind about it being boring, or fun after all (or to find out about what you "actually missed"), even if it only takes you ten minutes of play to find out.
The "problem" I guess, to me anyway, isn't related at all about the game's age, or not even related to the fact that you might have "missed it" for so many years only to find it interesting now. The actual problem might be the fact that you'll have to buy it to play it. Now of course if it bores you after 15 minutes you might then think "well that was it then? this game is boring!" and there goes your couple of bucks down the drain thanks to your curiosity about "what you've missed".
So, here is what I suggest:
1) Buy it, "try it" (I.E. play it 'x' amount of time) until you find out if you like it or not.
2) If not, then go on YouTube and watch one out of the numerous individual game-play videos of the game, ranging from its intro to its ending, and from them determine if you think it might be for you, or not.
3) Try to find some actual reviews ("professional" ones or not, user ones or not, that's up to you) instead of potentially watching major spoilers in a video such as on YouTube.
Ultimately though, I'd like to reiterate that, to me, there's no "right time" to play a game. There's of course "a time" during witch a game will become popular and have its impact on the market, the industry, or will ater have a cult following or whatever (which is usually at or a short time after the game's release, obviously). And you might argue that playing such games "during their height" is the "best time" to play them though. But I think that's a useless debate. I've often read about gamers whom, for example, have played Half-Life in the mid 2000's even though it was released in 1999. What about anybody ending up buying some game on Steam or wherever because its on sales even though it was released four, five or six years ago? I really don't end up questioning myself with "didn't buy it then so why buy it now", there's too many reasons for such a scenario to occur (be it you'd consider them "good" or "bad" reasons is of no importance).
When comes the time to try a game I think I might like (even though of course I could be disappointed, which is always possible) the only thing I'm thinking about, if anything, is money (for me anyway). It's really the only obstacle, certainly not the game's age. So if I hadn't played System Shock 2 back then, but would like to find out about it nowadays then I wouldn't exactly pay too much money for that. But I guess that's just me.
Another example I can use is GoG.com, how many games I have bought there recently but never bothered playing back in the days even though I did hear of them (and very often so in some cases) is rather ridiculous... but I've done it. Be it Beyond Good & Evil, Giants: Citizen Kabuto or Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 (and more) are all games I never bought then but ended up buying now, and for the most part enjoyed them (except for the controls in some of them, ugh... but that's another story).
There's still gamers out there keeping their older consoles who occasionally try to buy games they only heard of but never played even though they were released a decade ago, or more. The reason(s) as to why people do that are ultimately irrelevant, be it curiosity, nostalgia, building your own collection or "just because you can" ultimately doesn't matter, in my opinion. What's important is that you probably satisfy your curiosity since otherwise you'll always keep wondering about it (or maybe not and will forget in a week if you never bothered to find out about it in the end).
So anyway I made my points, ultimately OP I think you should buy it, but you have other options such as watching videos/reviews, at least, to avoid potentially wasting your money (and potentially watching spoilers too).
Facebook
Twitter