Started playing through Ken Follet's The Pillars of Earth and I'm enjoying it quite a bit, so far. First thing about it is that it's absolutely gorgeous. All Daedalic games tend to have very high quality art, but the style and craft in Pillars of Earth is a cut above their norm, I think. Everything from the stylization, to the brushwork of the environments, down to the character designs is top notch imo. Even the use of post processing effects are tastefully done without overpowering any of the scenes, which I find rare. I think the lip-sync could've been better during some of the conversations, but that's really the only nitpick.
(Character designs walk a fine line of being distinct while not dipping into caricature.)
It's really nice to finally enjoy all this great art in a Daedalic game without running into the roadblock of the studio's writing. Which historically just doesn't connect with me, especially their sense of humor. Quite the contrary with Pillars of Earth, I've found myself fairly engrossed in it's slow moving character drama. Currently, the plot revolves around a political struggle for England's throne and how that impacts a Prior struggling to rebuild his crumbling cathedral, a Mason's family looking for work and an outlaw mother and son. I'm at the tail end of Book 1 (of 3) and the stage has been well set for all manner of back-stabbings, double crossings and general underhanded maneuvering. So I'm looking forward to seeing just how spectacularly all my choices will blow up in my face.
(Narrative choices come in a variety of forms.)
Pillars also does something I think TTG should have employed more often. Which is that, rather than having mostly all narrative choices come down to a freeze frame/slow down "this or that" moment, they more often emerge naturally from the object/environment interaction the player engages in. Both have their place but the latter allows for a more immersive experience that can make use of some puzzle solving. It also lets smaller moments build into bigger rewards. Like early on theirs a small puzzle to cure some venison, it's possible to miss the solution and continue with the game, but doing so successfully will help you ingratiate yourself with a character who initially dislikes you.
Seems like a fairly long game (for an adventure game, so I'm expecting like 10~15 hrs). I hope the quality keeps up throughout because this could be a real winner. Also, if you've been keeping up with the Epic Game Store giveaways then you probably have this claimed somewhere within the dark, untouched, recesses of your library tab. That's how I'm playing it and I almost feel guilty playing it for free. Well, not really, but I assume that's what someone with a conscience would say.