First things first, no one piece of home equipment will replace a full array of Nautilus Machines, ergo, if your goal is to look like Arnie, you will likely not find this adequate. However, if you are like me, 55, overweight and flabby from a sedentary job, type 2 diabetic from no exercise, then this is not only adequate but a brilliant piece of exercise equipment.
My wife bought this for me on Black Friday special for under $700 or about the cost of a family membership at my local YMCA. The Amazon experience was smooth as usual, and shipping by truck was smooth as well with the shipping company calling to confirm delivery place and time. The first workout came with carrying the components up my stairs as my exercise room is in the oldest son's abandoned bed room upstairs. This is a great advantage as carrying in the 200+ lbs upstairs is much better than carrying the 400-500 lbs of a weight stack machine up stairs and then have all that weight bumping and banging upstairs. The entire machine is firm and stable even on my padded carpet floor. Assembly was simple, straightforward, and manageable by one person. I was at home sick that day, and even with taking my time and several breaks, it only took me about 2 and a half hours. You will need some padding for your hands as you assemble the components with the included hex wrenches.
The cable system is simple and straight forward as well and, after a short time, you can learn how to structure your work out to cut down the number of times that you change cable stations. The cables are hanging or lying right there, out of the way, but where you need them when you change. I do about 20 different exercises per session at 12 reps each in about 30 minutes. Include an exercise bike warm up and cool down, and I have about an hour in a full body session minus the 30 minutes to drive to and from the gym.
The power rods are a source of much confusion, I believe. It is true that the force to bend the rods increases through the movement of the exercise, but there are many home gym advantages to this. Since I'm usually alone, the full weight of hanging dead weights are not on my joints while getting into the position to do the exercise or between reps. This helps reduce the likelyhood of injury. Also, since the movement of the exercise gets harder as you go, the key is to make the movement SLOWLY. A slow rep with a rod weight low enough to complete the full range of motion, and pausing at the apex, is very efficient for a great workout. No doubt you have been to the gym and observed the weight guys pumping though free weights; however, that technique with the Bowflex will not utilize the advantage of the rods tightening at the apex of the movement because your only there for a split second before relaxing. Because of the SLOW technique, I still have the original 210 lb rod pack as it is completely adequate. I don't do squats or leg presses due to bad knees and 12 reps are hard to do with big weights on the other exercises. Bottom line: I don't care how much weight you can lift, nor do I care if you are impressed with what I can lift, I'm doing this for my life, and for that, this machine with power rods is more that adequate.
If you are type 2 diabetic, resisted movement training is the best exercise for lowering your A1C and this is an excellent machine to accomplish that goal. It is quality made, easy to use, and smooth and comfortable. It saves time devoted to travel to the gym and allows you to get a workout in between your busy day. Along with a good piece of aerobic equipment, this is all you need to change your life.

I used a Bowflex Ultimate Xtreme (circa 2000) and I loved that machine. I put it together at the time and I can say the Blaze was much easier to assemble. They've improved in that sense.
And I do like the Blaze, but there are some ways it differs from the Ultimate (at least the model back then) that I was disappointed in.
First, there is only one incline position on the Blaze, while the Ultimate had holes up and down the seat rail so you could pick the position that best fit your height and arm length, particularly for reaching back to grab the handles, but also just for the general position of incline exercises. Luckily this was a fairly painless fix, as I just drilled two additional holes in the seat rail for the positions that suited me. (The position it comes with leaves me too far away from the mast to reach back and grab the handles with any ease.) WARNING: For anyone who might want to do this, assume it will void your warranty.
I also wish it had a leg press, which I used regularly on the Ultimate. But it does have rows which is nice, and it has the lat bar, and really most of the other exercises the Ultimate had.
Another subjective con is also one of its pros – which is that it can be folded up. The fact it can be folded up is nice, and also makes it easier to move if you need to wiggle it into a better position in the space it's in (I also tie a belt around the mast /seat rail if I am going to move it just for extra insurance). But this feature comes with a big fat knob that screws down through the brace at the foot of the mast, into the seat rail, when the machine is in its usual configuration. What this means is that the flat seat position does not allow the head of the seat to be at the usual spot at the foot of the mast… you are laying further down the seat rail, again making it difficult to reach back and grab the rear handles, should you want to use those. So this was the second drill hole I made, to allow the head of the seat to lay at the foot of the mast. And I either remove the knob (temporarily) or put a piece of foam over it when I use that position.
And while the Ultimate had pulleys in the same approximate position as the Blaze (by your feet while sitting), for some reason I find it awkward stepping around the Blaze while using it, because of the position of those pullies which seem to be exactly in the way of where I want to step when maneuvering around the machine, sitting back down on it after racking up, etc. An awkwardness I didn't have on the Ultimate.
To be fair, the Blaze was thousands cheaper than the Ultimate though they have all dropped dramatically in price since those early days.
A final small thing is that the exercise placard attaches to the mast in the space where the head of the seat rests with my newly drilled positions, so the placard can't go on the machine. Which doesn't matter except that while the Ultimate came with a video or CD (forget which) to show you how to workout and various exercises, the Blaze only has the placard, and I can't remember the exercises I used to do. So I set up a TV in my gym room and watch YT videos that Bowflex users have put together to take you through workouts… something I will do until I build a new routine of my own. And the placard is sitting nearby, though it's not much use anyway.
It would have been nice if Bowflex made workouts available for each of their machines on their site as a download. Could have placed that on a memory stick to put in a TV and watch. Cheaper than supplying CDs with every machine, and probably cheaper than making the placards.
Overall though, I'm happy to have a Bowflex again and I like working out on these to get toned and generally fit, and stay there… and the Blaze does do most of the exercises. But I wasn't as happy as I expected to be, having had that past experience with a different model, and having to modify this still-expensive machine to suit my needs.